STV Group appoints new CEO, Wall Street closes in mixed state

Stocks to watch

STV Group announced the appointment of Rufus Radcliffe as its new chief executive officer on Friday, effective 1 November, succeeding Simon Pitts. The London-listed broadcaster said Radcliffe was joining from ITV, where he played a large role in digital transformation and was instrumental in launching the ITVX streaming service. His career included more than 13 years at ITV and prior experience at Channel 4, where he contributed to the launch of E4 and the 4OD streaming platform.

Newspaper round-up

A series of weekend strikes by train drivers on LNER from Saturday has been called off, their trade union Aslef has announced. Passengers travelling between London and Edinburgh had faced the prospect of months of disruption after LNER drivers earlier this month announced 22 days of industrial action from the start of September until early November. On Thursday, Aslef said drivers had reached a resolution with LNER regarding the breaking of agreements. – Guardian

Britain’s biggest mortgage provider is increasing the maximum sums it is willing to lend first-time buyers in a £2bn move that experts say will bring home ownership within the reach of more people but could further increase house prices. Lloyds Banking Group’s decision to let people borrow more means those who meet the criteria may be able to buy a property they might have assumed was well out of their price range. – Guardian

A British plane engine company – dubbed the heir to Concorde – has seen more than £200m wiped off its value by a major investor as it struggles to raise funding. Schroders cut the value of its stake in Reaction Engines by 87pc, the fund manager said. It suggested that slow revenue growth meant the Oxfordshire company would need more time to break even. Reaction Engines has secured investment from Rolls-Royce, BAE Systems and the Government. – Telegraph

A mission to return two astronauts trapped on the International Space Station (ISS) to Earth is at risk of further delay after SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rockets were grounded. Upcoming missions using the rockets, developed by Elon Musk’s launch company, were put on hold by US regulators after a booster crashed and exploded on Wednesday. The Federal Aviation Authority (FAA) confirmed it had grounded the rockets pending an investigation. – Telegraph

A British driverless car company has received a significant vote of confidence in the form of an investment by Uber. Wayve, one of London’s leading artificial intelligence start-ups, announced the funding, which is understood to be less than $100 million, alongside a “partnership” with the American ride-hailing company that aims to get their technology taken on by car manufacturers. – The Times

Confidence among British businesses held steady at an eight-year high this month, led by construction companies that have been boosted by the Labour government’s ambition to increase housebuilding. The latest Lloyds Bank business barometer, a monthly survey of business sentiment, maintained its 50 per cent reading in August, keeping confidence at the highest level since November 2015. The index is well above the long-term average of 29 per cent. – The Times

US close

US stock markets finished in mixed fashion on Thursday, with sharp falls for Nvidia weighing on both the S&P 500 and Nasdaq, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average managed to eke out another record.

The Dow closed up 0.6% at a new high of 41,335.05, but a 6% drop in the share price of Nvidia kept the S&P 500 to a flat finish and pushed the tech-heavy Nasdaq down 0.2%.

Investors were having to deal with a barrage of economic data on Thursday – including upgrades to GDP estimates, stable jobless claims and an unexpected plunge in pending home sales to a record low – along with a wave of corporate earnings which led to some dramatic swings in the retail sector.

The headline-grabbing data of the day was the revision to GDP figures for the second quarter, which showed that the annual rate of economic growth in the US more than doubled from the first three months of the year.

The secondary reading of GDP data showed that economic expansion accelerated to 3.0%, up from 1.4% growth in the first quarter and ahead of the 2.8% advance estimate due to higher consumer spending than previously thought.