Market Buzz
Tuesday newspaper round-up: M&S, Boohoo, commercial landlords
The pay package of Marks & Spencer’s chief executive jumped to more than £7m just weeks before the cyber-attack that rocked the retailer. Stuart Machin received £7. 1m for last financial year, up nearly 40% on the £5. 1m he took home a year earlier, according to its annual report. He received the bump thanks to a sharp rise in performance-linked bonuses. – Guardian.
Vodafone UK and Three UK merger completed, Me Group delivers record profitability in H1
LONDON OPEN The FTSE 100 was expected to open 4. 9 points lower on Monday, having closed 0. 64% firmer on Friday at 8,772. 38.
Monday newspaper round-up: Starling Bank, US debt, airline tickets
The UK government is being pressed to wipe billions from the energy costs facing households and heavy industry by reforming the high taxes levied on electricity bills. These policy levies mean the UK pays some of the highest energy bills in the world, and are simultaneously disadvantaging British industry and stifling the efforts of households to transition to lower-carbon heating systems, according to industry trade groups. – Guardian.
Sunday newspaper round-up: Steel tariffs, IAG, NatWest
UK trade secretary Jonathan Reynolds will meet with his opposite number in the US during the coming week to negotiate a timeline for exempting the UK from America's steel and aluminium tariffs. Last Friday, Donald Trump said that they would be doubled from 25% to 50% starting from 4 June. Hopes on this side of the Pond are that the deal will be in place within weeks. - Guardian .
Friday newspaper round-up: Andrew Bailey, The Telegraph, pensions, Michael O’Leary
The UK is on the brink of signing a £1. 6bn trade agreement with Gulf states, amid warnings from rights groups that the deal makes no concrete provisions on human rights, modern slavery or the environment. The deal with the Gulf Cooperation Council – which includes the countries Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates – is within touching distance, making it a fourth trading agreement by Keir Starmer after pacts were struck with the US, India and the EU.
Friday newspaper round-up: Baby formula, electric vehicles, Fresnillo
Baby formula prices remain close to historic highs more than 18 months after the UK competition watchdog began an investigation into the market, with the government a week late in responding to its proposed remedies. The cost of infant formula fell only 50p on average last year, to £11. 99 a tin, compared with £11. 10 in 2021, with the most expensive priced at £18. – Guardian.
Wednesday newspaper round-up: House prices, Starlink, John Lewis
Donald Trump’s global tariff trade war is “nonsense and stupid” and will damage every country in the world, including the US, the boss of one of Britain’s most powerful property companies has said. Mark Preston, chief executive of the 348-year-old Grosvenor Group, controlled by the Duke of Westminster, said he was “convinced” that the president’s sweeping tariff policies would ultimately be removed. – Guardian.
Wednesday newspaper round-up: House prices, Starlink, John Lewis
Donald Trump’s global tariff trade war is “nonsense and stupid” and will damage every country in the world, including the US, the boss of one of Britain’s most powerful property companies has said. Mark Preston, chief executive of the 348-year-old Grosvenor Group, controlled by the Duke of Westminster, said he was “convinced” that the president’s sweeping tariff policies would ultimately be removed. – Guardian.
Tuesday newspaper round-up: Liberty Steel, food inflation, Volvo, IPOs
Liberty Steel’s operations in South Yorkshire lost £340m in four years, according to figures that shine a light on the difficulties facing a business on the brink of liquidation that employs 1,450 people. The company, owned by the metals magnate Sanjeev Gupta, is desperately searching for investors or lenders before a 16 July deadline, after London’s high court granted it extra time last week. – Guardian.
Sunday newspaper round-up: EasyJet, Thames Water, EU tariffs
EasyJet is set to restart its long-running feud with arch-rival Ryanair with the substitution of 80 of its smallest jets, A319s, for larger and more efficient models. Ryanair is also renewing its fleet, but the move is being hampered by a production crisis at Boeing, among other considerations. According to EasyJet chief executive officer Kenton Jarvis the upgrade of its fleet as a key driver of its bid to raise its annual pre-tax profits to more than £1bn. - The Sunday Telegraph.
Friday newspaper round-up: FTC windfall tax, BYD
The bank holiday getaway is likely to be a tricky one, with transport analysts predicting congested roads and the year’s busiest day so far for departing airports, while long-distance rail passengers dodge the start of more engineering work. Motoring organisations forecast traffic to be at its worst on Friday, with many drivers surveyed apparently taking an extra day off before the long weekend and half-term break for most schools in England and Wales. – Guardian.
Thursday newspaper round-up: Liberty Steel, HSBC, NMC
Liberty Steel has produced nothing at two of its key UK plants since July, in a sign of the deep financial difficulties for Britain’s third-biggest steelmaker as it looks for rescue funding. The plants at Rotherham in South Yorkshire and Motherwell in Scotland have not produced any steel for about nine months because of a lack of funds to buy vital materials, with staff on furlough on 85% of their salaries for the duration, according to workers who spoke to the Guardian.
Wednesday newspaper round-up: Thames Water, Anglian Water, Telegraph, Greenergy
Two of Britain’s biggest water companies, Thames Water and Anglian Water, face more than 50 criminal investigations between them as part of a crackdown on sewage dumping, the government has said. The utilities were subject to the bulk of a record 81 investigations into water companies between last July’s general election and March 2025, according to new data. – Guardian.
Tuesday newspaper round-up: Post Office, factories, ISAs
Hundreds of former sub-postmasters will reportedly be compensated by the Post Office after it accidentally leaked their names and addresses in June 2024. According to the BBC, the Post Office has confirmed that individual payouts will be capped at £5,000 although higher claims may still be pursued. It comes almost a year after 555 victims of the Horizon IT scandal had their personal details published on a website. – Guardian.
Monday newspaper round-up: Santander UK, Thames Water, Oxford Quantum Circuits
Santander UK is freezing salaries, slashing bonuses and cutting jobs across its commercial banking arm as part of a wider shake-up that could help make the bank more attractive to potential buyers. The bank began unexpectedly changing bankers’ job titles and shuffling staff into new teams earlier this month amid a larger review of the Spanish lender’s UK business, where there is mounting frustration over regulations and costs. – Guardian.
Sunday newspaper round-up: Ireland, US credit rating, Trump
Should Brussels fail to clinch a trade deal with the US, then Ireland's economy could either lose - or fail to create - 25,000 jobs as the White House looks to prompt US tech and pharma companies back home. The warning followed Dublin's decision to cut its growth forecasts for 2025 and 2026. A prolonged trade war meanwhile could see growth slow by a third in 2026 relative to previous expectations and fall below 2%. - The Sunday Telegraph.
Friday newspaper round-up: Thames Water, Wireless Logic, United Health
Ministers plan to use new powers to block bosses from Thames Water taking bonuses worth hundreds of thousands of pounds as the company fights for survival, the Guardian can reveal. Britain’s biggest water company admitted this week that senior managers are in line for “substantial” bonuses linked to an emergency £3bn loan. – Guardian.
Thursday newspaper round-up: Bank of London, Telefonica, Boeing
The post-pandemic shift to greater home working among highly skilled professionals has failed to level up Britain’s economy and help struggling regions as many had predicted it would, according to academic research. Hybrid working – where workers split their time between the workplace and another remote location such as home – has surged since the height of the Covid pandemic, yet is mostly available to older, high-skilled professionals based in London and other major cities.
Wednesday newspaper round-up: Channel 4, Jaguar Land Rover, Thames Water
European companies are increasingly lobbying for strong climate action, research has found, in a “profound shift” that analysts say challenges the narrative that businesses see green rules as a threat to profits. The share of companies whose corporate lobbying is “aligned” with pathways to meet global climate goals rose from 3% in 2019 to 23% in 2025, according to an analysis of 200 of the largest European companies by InfluenceMap, while the share of companies who were deemed “misaligned” fell from 34% to 14%.
Tuesday newspaper round-up: Pension funds, Lloyds Bank, Thames Water
Keir Starmer’s blueprint for curbing immigration could exacerbate skills shortages in sectors that would “fall over” without immigrant labour, the prime minister has been told. Starmer said that businesses in particular had become “almost addicted to importing cheap labour” rather than investing in UK talent. Trade bodies and businesses retorted on Monday by saying that new restrictions could only work if accompanied by urgent measures to help businesses recruit and train UK residents.