Business news

• UK's easyJet signals it may need more government support - Sky News

  07-10-2020 23:44 via uk.finance.yahoo.com
  
  In recent talks with the UK government, the company said its balance sheet could require a state loan or other form of financing from the government, the report added.In April, the airline took a 600 million pound ($775 million) loan under a UK government scheme."easyJet continues to review its liquidity position on a regular basis and will continue to assess further funding opportunities, should the need arise," the airline's spokeswoman said in a statement, without giving any details on the Sk
  
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• US fines Citibank $400 mn for poor risk management practices

  07-10-2020 23:39 via uk.finance.yahoo.com
  
  US authorities fined Citibank $400 million over deficiencies in risk management practices and required an overhaul of internal controls at the global financial powerhouse, officials announced Wednesday.
  
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• Johnson, Ukraine's Zelenskiy to sign partnership agreement

  07-10-2020 23:37 via uk.finance.yahoo.com
  
  British Prime Minister Boris Johnson meets Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy on Thursday to sign a partnership agreement that includes a free trade deal covering goods, services, and tariffs and quotas.Since leaving the European Union earlier this year, Britain is seeking bilateral agreements with other countries, underlining Johnson's resolve to go it alone once a transition arrangement with the bloc concludes at the end of this year.Britain threw its support behind Ukraine after Russia s
  
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• Market report: Codemasters races ahead as sales rise

  07-10-2020 23:35 via uk.finance.yahoo.com
  
  Lockdown drove many sofa speedsters to discover their inner Lewis Hamilton, sending sales zooming upwards at racing game developer Codemasters. The firm – which makes titles including the F1 racing series – rose 17.5p to 375p after saying its trading was “strong” during the six months to the end of September. The Warwickshire-based group anticipates revenues of approximately £80.5m for the period, compared with £39.8m for the first half of 2019. Video games ha
  
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• Norway strike could shut giant Sverdrup oilfield on Oct 14

  07-10-2020 23:06 via uk.finance.yahoo.com
  
  Norway's Johan Sverdrup oilfield, the North Sea's largest with an output capacity of up to 470,000 barrels of oil per day, will have to close down production unless a strike among workers ends by Oct. 14, operator Equinorsaid on Wednesday.Four smaller oil and gas fields will likely also shut as a result of the strike as early as Oct. 10, on top of six fields that closed earlier this week, an Equinor spokesman told Reuters.A shutdown at Sverdrup and the other fields would almost triple the existi
  
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• US indicts 6 more chicken executives for rigging market

  07-10-2020 22:36 via uk.finance.yahoo.com
  
  US authorities announced indictments Wednesday against the former chief executive of Pilgrim's Pride and five other meat industry officials in an ongoing antitrust probe of the broiler chicken market.
  
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• Fed's Williams says moderate inflation overshoot acts as guardrail

  07-10-2020 22:14 via uk.finance.yahoo.com
  
  "Moderate isn't a number...it's a guardrail" against expectations that the Fed would tolerate very high or persistently high inflation, New York Fed President John Williams said at a virtual conference held by the Hoover Institution."It's also about proportionality; if we are undershooting the target by a few tenths... then you are obviously thinking that that's the proportionality that you are thinking about in terms of trying to get that balance of 2%, but it is specific to the circumstances,"
  
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• Arm exec says 'firewalls' will protect customer info after Nvidia deal

  07-10-2020 21:53 via uk.finance.yahoo.com
  
  The $40 billion deal announced last month would reshape the global semiconductor sector because Arm has long acted as a neutral player, supplying intellectual property to Apple Inc , Qualcomm Incand many others that goes into chips for most of the world's smart phones and many other kinds of chips.Nvidia has displaced Intel Corpas the biggest U.S. chip company by market capitalization on the strength of its data center chips for artificial intelligence.
  
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• 2021 Davos summit shifted to Lucerne in May

  07-10-2020 21:44 via uk.finance.yahoo.com
  
  The World Economic Forum announced Wednesday that its postponed 2021 Davos summit, themed as "The Great Reset" in the coronavirus crisis, will take place in Lucerne, Switzerland from May 18 to 21.
  
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• UK university staff prepare for industrial action over Covid

  07-10-2020 21:30
  Unions vote for disputes or strike ballots as more face-to-face teaching suspended
  
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• Ex Autonomy CFO denied reduction in prison sentence

  07-10-2020 21:29 via uk.finance.yahoo.com
  
  The former finance chief of the scandal-hit software company Autonomy will report to US prison for a five-year sentence later this month, nine years after the company’s $11.7bn (£9.1bn) sale to Hewlett Packard. A judge in San Francisco denied Sushovan Hussain’s attempt to have his sentence for fraud reduced, and said he must report to a low-security facility in Pennsylvania by October 28. Mr Hussain, 56, was sentenced to 60 months in prison last year after being found guilty on
  
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• Europe hits 6m cases as Scotland, Brussels shut bars

  07-10-2020 21:28 via uk.finance.yahoo.com
  
  With Europe topping six million coronavirus cases, Scotland and Brussels became the latest to introduce curbs on alcohol consumption Wednesday, while experts detailed the hugely divergent consequences of the pandemic for the world's richest and poorest.
  
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• BDO may have to bail out sister firm in Spain after €126.8m penalty

  07-10-2020 21:19 via uk.finance.yahoo.com
  
  BDO may have to bail out sister firm in Spain after €126.8m penaltySpain’s highest civil court found BDO, among others, guilty of falsifying accounts of fishing firm Pescanova
  
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• UK risks creating lost ‘Covid generation’ without extra support for young people, report warns

  07-10-2020 21:10 via uk.finance.yahoo.com
  
  Young and pension-age workers most at risk during the next phase of the crisis, asunemployment rises, says Resolution Foundation
  
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• Microsoft takes action to resolve 365 services accessibility issues

  07-10-2020 21:07 via uk.finance.yahoo.com
  
  Earlier in the day, Microsoft tweeted that users may see impact to Microsoft Teams, Outlook, SharePoint Online, OneDrive for Business, and Outlook.com.Outage tracking website Downdetector.com on Wednesday showed more than 19,000 users were facing issues with Office 365 and over 18,000 incidents were reported involving Outlook.
  
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• Tesco's £315m dividend must look indecent to Covid-hit hospitality firms

  07-10-2020 20:58 via uk.finance.yahoo.com
  
  Tesco's £315m dividend must look indecent to Covid-hit hospitality firms. Rishi Sunak could have designed better pandemic policies but Tesco could have refused freebie
  
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• UK recovery on hold owing to Covid second wave, says OBR official

  07-10-2020 20:52 via uk.finance.yahoo.com
  
  UK recovery on hold owing to Covid second wave, says OBR officialMPs also hear that national debt is now more sensitive to movements in interest rates* Coronavirus – latest updates* See all our coronavirus coverage
  
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• Staff at UK universities prepare for industrial action over Covid

  07-10-2020 20:36
  Unions members at several institutions vote in favour of starting formal disputes or strike ballots
  
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• Google nears copyright deal with French newspapers

  07-10-2020 20:23 via uk.finance.yahoo.com
  
  Google said on Wednesday it was close to a digital copyright deal with French newspapers, which would be the first under EU rules aimed at ensuring news publishers are paid for content displayed in search results.
  
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• Johnson weighs tougher measures after local lockdown failures

  07-10-2020 20:18
  Labour highlights how coronavirus cases have increased in many areas with restrictions
  
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• Johnson weighs tougher measures after England lockdown failures

  07-10-2020 20:18
  Labour highlights how coronavirus cases have increased in many areas with restrictions
  
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• Liam Fox knocked out of race to lead World Trade Organisation

  07-10-2020 20:14 via uk.finance.yahoo.com
  
  Liam Fox is out of the running to lead the World Trade Organisation. The former international trade secretary was eliminated before the last of three rounds to replace Roberto Azevedo, who stepped down a year earlier than expected at the end of August. He lost out to Nigeria’s Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala and South Korea’s Yoo Myung-hee as the pool of candidates was whittled down from five to two, sources said. That means, if the Geneva-based trade body’s 164 members can agree a candida
  
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• Scathing congressional report suggests big trouble for Big Tech if Biden wins

  07-10-2020 19:57 via uk.finance.yahoo.com
  
  A scathing report detailing abuses of market power by four top technology companies suggests a tough road ahead of new rules and stricter enforcement for Big Tech should Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden win the White House.Antitrust experts and congressional aides said the 449-page report from the antitrust panel of the House Judiciary Committee, released on Tuesday, lays out a road map for the Democratic Party to put the brakes on the dominance of Alphabet Inc'sGoogle, Apple Inc , Am
  
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• Barnier and Frost hint at space for compromises in Brexit trade talks

  07-10-2020 19:54
  Optimistic comments come as new round of intensified negotiations start in London
  
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• Amid outcry, Trump pushes for limited aid ahead of election

  07-10-2020 19:54 via uk.finance.yahoo.com
  
  Facing an outcry from all sides over the prospect of further delay in pandemic aid for families and businesses, and trailing badly less than a month before the election, US President Donald Trump has shifted gears and called for limited stimulus measures.
  
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• Scientists develop sleep tracker that manipulates people's dreams

  07-10-2020 19:49 via uk.finance.yahoo.com
  
  When participants were told to dream of a tree, one participant described following a tree’s roots, while another remembered a tree from their childhood
  
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• AstraZeneca could profit from COVID-19 vaccine as early as July - FT

  07-10-2020 19:49 via uk.finance.yahoo.com
  
  The London-listed firm previously said it would not profit from the vaccine "during the pandemic", and the report attributes the development to a memorandum of understanding signed this year between AstraZeneca and Brazilian public health organization, Fiocruz.AstraZeneca, which developed the vaccine with Oxford University, signed multiple supply-and-manufacture deals for more than 3 billion doses globally, although details on the terms have been scant.According to FT, the "Pandemic Period" coul
  
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• NATO chief calls for new strategy on cyber, China

  07-10-2020 19:48 via uk.finance.yahoo.com
  
  NATO needs a new strategic concept adjusted to the global rise of new technologies, terrorism and China to replace a plan developed a decade ago, the head of the alliance said on Wednesday.
  
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• Covid test delay threat due to supply chain issue

  07-10-2020 19:46 via uk.finance.yahoo.com
  
  The supply of Covid-19 test swabs could be affected due to Roche’s move to a new warehouse in the UK. The Swiss pharmaceutical giant said the move to the new facility had led to a "very significant drop" in its processing capacity.
  
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• Failed U.S. stimulus talks could threaten economic recovery

  07-10-2020 19:34 via uk.finance.yahoo.com
  
  The White House's sudden exit from fiscal stimulus talks with Democrats in Congress has added another level of doubt to a U.S. economic recovery that already seemed to be weakening, choking off perhaps $1.5 trillion or more in future income and spending.Without it, the United States faces another roughly 5% hole in annual economic output.
  
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• Apple brings 'Health Records' feature to the UK, letting users see personal hospital information on their iPhone

  07-10-2020 19:31 via uk.finance.yahoo.com
  
  Apple has released its “Health Records” feature in the UK, allowing people to see personal information from their hospital on their iPhone.The feature is intended to allow people to easily pull up their health information, and give them a view of everything from their immunisations to lab results within their iPhone’s Health app.The feature was introduced in the US in 2018, though the work to build the Health features into the iPhone began in 2013, as Apple prepared for the int
  
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• UK airport group to cut up to 900 jobs as furlough nears end

  07-10-2020 19:25 via uk.finance.yahoo.com
  
  UK airport group to cut up to 900 jobs as furlough nears endJobs set to go at Manchester, Stansted and East Midlands airports after fall in demand
  
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• Activist investor Dan Loeb urges Disney to stop dividend to fund content

  07-10-2020 19:22 via uk.finance.yahoo.com
  
  Loeb, whose hedge fund Third Point bought into Disney during the second quarter, said the company should prioritize its streaming business, and be more aggressive in moving theatrical films into Disney+."We believe the company should permanently suspend its $3 billion annual dividend, redirect capital entirely into content production and acquisition for Disney’s DTC business, centered around Disney+," Loeb wrote in a letter to Disney Chief Executive Robert Chapek on Wednesday.
  
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• Storm-weary U.S. offshore energy firms prep for massive hurricane

  07-10-2020 19:21 via uk.finance.yahoo.com
  
  Oil and gas workers withdrew en masse from U.S. offshore production facilities and onshore refineries began preparations on Wednesday as Hurricane Delta was forecast to grow into a powerful storm over the Caribbean on its way to the Gulf of Mexico.Delta's winds declined to 105 miles per hour (169 kph) as it tore across Mexico's Yucatan peninsula early Wednesday.It is expected to enter the Gulf of Mexico and reintensify into a Category 3 storm, the National Hurricane Center said.
  
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• Bicester Village warns on VAT rules

  07-10-2020 19:16 via uk.finance.yahoo.com
  
  The owner of Bicester Village has dismissed mandarins’ efforts to defend a Treasury crackdown on duty-free shopping and warned it risks trashing tourism after Brexit. James Lambert, boss of the destination’s owner Value Retail, hit out at a new rule which will stop overseas visitors from reclaiming VAT on luxury purchases in the UK. At present, buyers can apply for the money back in airports before flying away. However, once the rules have changed next year, this will no longer be po
  
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• How offshore wind became such a good bet

  07-10-2020 19:14 via uk.finance.yahoo.com
  
  Plans to offer offshore wind developers guaranteed prices of more than £100 per MWh to try to encourage the industry were met with derision less than a decade ago. Among the sceptics was Boris Johnson, London mayor at the time, who insisted wind farms couldn’t “pull the skin off a rice pudding” – as he wryly reminded observers this week. How times have changed. The electricity price guaranteed to UK offshore wind developers has fallen by 70pc and Johnson, now Prime
  
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• The Royal Family's Love of Horses

  07-10-2020 19:09 via uk.finance.yahoo.com
  
  The Royal Family is known for loving anything to do with horses, whether it's attending Royal Ascot, playing polo or owning thoroughbreds. So what's behind the passion?
  
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• French cenbank head urges financial firms to speed up Brexit relocation to EU

  07-10-2020 19:09 via uk.finance.yahoo.com
  
  UK-based financial firms need to quickly wrap up their relocation to the European Union to be able to keep operating in the bloc, France's central bank head said on Wednesday.The EU and Britain are in the thick of tough negotiations over Britain's post-Brexit trade relationship with the bloc after a transition period closes at the end the year.Many UK-based financial firms have opened subsidiaries in the EU to retain unfettered market access known as "passporting", but some still need to make pr
  
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• Del Vecchio rules out push for control of Mediobanca after raising stake

  07-10-2020 19:05 via uk.finance.yahoo.com
  
  Eyewear tycoon Leonardo Del Vecchio has no plans to take control of Mediobanca , he said on Wednesday after raising his stake in Italy's top investment bank to just above 10%.Mediobanca, which in turn is the single biggest investor in insurer Generali , had not had a single non-banking shareholder owning more than 10% since it was founded in 1946.A regulatory filing on Wednesday showed Del Vecchio held 10.162% of Mediobanca at Oct. 5, up from 9.89% previously, through his holding company Delfin.
  
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• EU governments, parliament edge closer to deal on recovery plan

  07-10-2020 19:03 via uk.finance.yahoo.com
  
  The European Union edged closer on Wednesday to a deal over the bloc's budget and recovery package of 1.8 trillion euros after national governments offered concessions, but key differences remained.After six weeks of talks, EU governments represented by current chair Germany and the European Parliament have narrowed down their differences to a binding timetable for introducing new EU taxes, more money for certain projects and conditions attached to disbursements."I am convinced that we both agre
  
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• Tesla has a shot at producing 500,000 cars this year, Musk says in memo

  07-10-2020 19:00 via uk.finance.yahoo.com
  
  Tesla said in January that 2020 vehicle deliveries should comfortably exceed 500,000 units, a forecast the company has left unchanged despite the COVID-19 pandemic.Last week, Tesla said it delivered 139,300 vehicles in the third quarter, an all-time record for the electric-car maker.Tesla's delivery push has been supported by its new Shanghai factory, the only plant currently producing vehicles outside California.
  
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• North of England to follow Scotland’s lead on pub curbs

  07-10-2020 18:51
  Treasury draws up plans to support hospitality sector amid tough new restrictions
  
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• Covid restrictions tightened on Scotland’s hospitality sector

  07-10-2020 18:51
  Pubs and restaurants in region including Glasgow and Edinburgh to close for 16 days from Friday
  
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• Traders struggle to predict next Trump stimulus move

  07-10-2020 18:46 via uk.finance.yahoo.com
  
  The FTSE 100 closed the day down 3.69 points at 5946.25 as talks of stimulus packages left investors uncertain.
  
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• UK economic recovery ‘on hold for a while’, says OBR

  07-10-2020 18:33 via uk.finance.yahoo.com
  
  The fiscal watchdog also said that some signs of growth from after the lockdown was first eased had now 'flattened off'.
  
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• Manchester Airport owner could cut over 800 jobs on virus hit

  07-10-2020 18:33 via uk.finance.yahoo.com
  
  Privately held Manchester Airports Group (MAG), which also owns the London Stansted and East Midlands airports, said its current monthly demand was 75% below normal levels, adding that the end of the government's furlough scheme would also hurt its finances.MAG said 465 roles at Manchester Airport, 376 at Stansted and 51 roles at East Midlands could be reduced, and warned that overall passenger demand was not expected to recover fully before 2023-24.Separately on Wednesday, Britain's transport m
  
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• Just 10% of new infrastructure funding in Australian budget to be delivered this year

  07-10-2020 18:30 via uk.finance.yahoo.com
  
  Just 10% of new infrastructure funding in Australian budget to be delivered this yearLabor questions if Morrison government is getting stimulus out the door quick enough
  
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• Massive debt raises risk of interest rate shock, OBR warns

  07-10-2020 18:28 via uk.finance.yahoo.com
  
  Ballooning government debt meant the UK was increasingly exposed to the risk of interest rates rising in the coming years and decades, the new Office for Budget Responsibility chief has warned. Richard Hughes told MPs that the Government should not rely on borrowing costs staying at record lows forever when drawing up tax and spending plans. “We are clearly in exceptional times at the moment, with very low interest rates,” said Mr Hughes. “It is a big question how long that wil
  
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• UK sees 'landing zone' for Brexit trade deal but tells EU to hurry up

  07-10-2020 18:16 via uk.finance.yahoo.com
  
  Britain's chief Brexit negotiator said on Wednesday he saw a landing zone for a trade deal with the European Union but sought to use Prime Minister Boris Johnson's deadline of Oct. 15 to hurry the bloc's negotiators towards an agreement."The landing zone and the nature of the agreement is pretty clear if not exactly pinned down yet," David Frost, the UK's chief Brexit negotiator, told a House of Lords committee.The EU is due to asses progress on a deal at an Oct. 15-16 summit.
  
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• Tesco defends £315m dividend plan despite business rates holiday

  07-10-2020 18:12 via uk.finance.yahoo.com
  
  Tesco defends £315m dividend plan despite business rates holiday. Booming food sales and £249m tax breaks helps supermarket post £1.2bn in half-year profits
  
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