Stocks climb as market is buoyed by Trump's decision not to fire Powell
Meanwhile, also in the US, preliminary data from the University of Michigan showed that consumer sentiment improved marginally in July. However, overall confidence remains well below recent highs and historical norms.
The FTSE 100 index closed up 19.48 points, 0.2%, at 8,992.12. The FTSE 250 ended up 131.83 points, 0.6%, at 21,898.26, and the AIM All-Share closed up 3.85 points, 0.5%, at 772.78.
On AIM, Metals One closed up 3.3%.
The mineral developer with projects in Norway and Finland has completed the acquisition of a 10% interest in NovaCore Exploration Inc, which is advancing the Red Basin uranium project in New Mexico.
Metals One has acquired the stake with a share subscription worth 300,000 US dollars (£223,000), and said it has also been granted warrants to increase its ownership to 30%.
PHSC fell 9.3%.
The provider of health, safety, hygiene and environmental consultancy and security solutions reported a pretax loss of £127,419 for the year to the end of March, swinging from a profit of £332,317 in the prior year. Sales revenue fell 15% to £3.2 million from £3.8 million.
PHSC also declared no dividend, down from a total dividend of 2p last year.
Small-cap Sure Ventures closed 3.0% higher.
The venture capital fund, backing early-stage AI, AR and VR, and IoT companies, said net asset value per share at March 31 was 175.79 pence, more than doubled from 82.53p a year earlier. NAV total return was 113% against a negative 31.25% a year prior.
Also, Sure swung to pretax profit of £7.4 million from a £2.5 million loss the year before, as total net income increased to £8.0 million from a £2.1 million loss. It said this was primarily driven by 'two key exits' from the Fund I portfolio.
In European equities on Friday, the CAC 40 in Paris closed up 0.1%, while the DAX 40 in Frankfurt ended down 0.4%.
The eurozone's current account surplus grew by less than anticipated in May, data from the European Central Bank showed.
The single-currency area's surplus grew to 32.31 billion euros (£28 billion) in May from 18.64 billion euros (£16.16 billion) in April, less than the increase to 34.8 billion euros (£30.2 billion) expected by market consensus cited by FXStreet.
In the 12 months to the end of May, the current account surplus fell to 333 billion euros (£288.7 billion), or 2.1% of eurozone GDP, from 364 billion euros (£315.6 billion) and 2.5% of GDP a year prior. The decline was mostly driven by a shift from a surplus of 34 billion euros (£29.5 billion) to a deficit of 5.0 billion euros (£4.33 billion) for primary income.
Separately, Eurostat reported that annual growth in construction output slowed to 2.9% in May from 4.7% in April.
On a monthly basis, eurozone construction output declined by 1.7% in May, after 4.3% growth in April from March.
The pound was quoted higher at 1.3444 dollars at the time of the London equities close on Friday, compared to 1.3414 dollars on Thursday. The euro stood at 1.1656 dollars, higher against 1.1594 dollars. Against the Japanese yen, the dollar was trading slightly lower at 148.44 yen compared to 148.48 yen.
Stocks in New York were mixed. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 0.3%, the S&P 500 index up marginally, and the Nasdaq Composite up 0.1%.
The yield on the US 10-year Treasury was quoted at 4.42%, narrowing from 4.45%. The yield on the US 30-year Treasury was quoted unchanged at 4.99%.
The University of Michigan's index of US consumer sentiment rose to 61.8 in July from 60.7 in June, up 1.8% on the month but still 6.9% lower than the level recorded in July 2024. The reading marked a five-month high but remained 16% below December 2024.
The current economic conditions index climbed to 66.8 from 64.8 in June, a 3.1% monthly gain and a 6.5% increase from a year earlier. However, the index of consumer expectations edged up just 0.9% to 58.6, down 15% on the year.
' Consumers are unlikely to regain their confidence in the economy unless they feel assured that inflation is unlikely to worsen,' said Joanne Hsu, director of the survey. She noted that the recent tax and spending bill had little impact on sentiment, while concerns over trade policy continue to weigh on consumer confidence.
Also, US housing starts rose modestly in June, rebounding from the previous month, but completions slumped to their lowest level since early 2023, according to data released on Friday by the US Census Bureau and the Department of Housing & Urban Development.
Privately-owned housing starts increased to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.32 million in June, up 4.6% from May's revised figure of 1.26 million. However, the total remained slightly below the June 2024 rate of 1.33 million.
Housing completions tumbled 14.7% from May to 1.31 million, down 24.1% compared to a year earlier. Single-family completions dropped 12.5% to 908,000, and multifamily completions fell to 383,000.
The sharp decline in completions signals continued supply constraints in the housing market, despite a slight pickup in new starts.
Brent oil was quoted at 69.41 dollars (£60.17) a barrel at the time of the London equities close on Friday, up from 68.94 dollars (£59.77) late Thursday.
Gold was quoted higher at 3,352.48 dollars (£2,496.36) an ounce against 3,338.20 dollars (£2485.72).
The biggest risers on the FTSE 100 were: Rentokil, up 10.3p at 357.3p; Antofagasta, up 47p at 1,868.5p; Intermediate Capital, up 50p at 2,156p; 3i, up 96p at 4,340p; and Whitbread, up 61p at 3,182p.
The biggest fallers on the FTSE 100 were: GSK, down 65p at 1,348p; Mondi, down 23.3p at 1,144.2p; ConvaTec, down 3.6p at 238p; Informa, down 9.2p at 836.6p; and Croda International, down 31p at 2,846p.
On Monday's economic calendar, there is an interest rate call from China, consumer inflation from Hong Kong, and Canada's producer inflation.
Japanese markets will be closed for Marine Day.
On Monday's UK corporate calendar, Mony Group releases half-year results and Ryanair has its first-quarter report.
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The Guardian
a minute ago
- The Guardian
The quiet, matter of fact takeover of women holding senior economist roles
Rachel Reeves is rightly proud of being the first woman chancellor of the exchequer, but she is far from alone: the commanding heights of economic policymaking in the UK are becoming much less male. At a Westminster thinktank event last week about whether Labour is still a 'mission-led government', one of the most striking things was not the panel's answer, which you can probably guess, but the fact that it was made up of three women, and one token man. The Institute for Government's director, Hannah White, was joined by its chief economist, Gemma Tetlow, and the no-nonsense new director of the Institute for Fiscal Studies, Helen Miller – as well as the FT's Stephen Bush. Elsewhere, the Resolution Foundation is now run by Ruth Curtice, a former Treasury economist. Rain Newton-Smith, another economist, has the task of repairing the CBI's scandal-rocked reputation as its director general. Two of the four deputy governors of the Bank of England are women, too – as are the leaders of a string of powerful trades unions. This female takeover has been a quiet and matter of fact one – but it marks a significant change, very noticeable upon returning to covering the field, after a few years away. It has not yet been reflected in the gender balance of students picking economics at GCSE, A-level or as a degree, unfortunately. Research commissioned by the Bank of England showed earlier this year that economics classes at all levels remain about 70% male. But if anything, that makes it all the more striking that many of the most authoritative voices we will hear, in the run-up to Reeves's autumn budget, will be female. Aside from straightforward fairness, there are at least three potential benefits of this feminisation of the economic debate. The first, which Reeves herself has talked about directly, is the simple power of example: giving girls and young women the perception they could do jobs such as these. And while it must have been shattering, shedding a few tears at the dispatch box was a powerful part of that: many women of every age will have identified with her. Women just do cry more than men (a YouGov poll in 2015 found that 45% of women had cried at least once a month in the past year; for men, it was 11%). This has zero bearing on their ability to do their job – and if anything, may point to sincerity, rather than insouciance. Whatever you think of their policies, Theresa May's tears as she resigned, surely reflected better on her character than David Cameron's jaunty little hum. A second potential benefit of having women at the top of economic policymaking should be better decision-making. Jill Rutter, a former Treasury official and now senior research fellow at thinktank UK in a Changing Europe, recalls that back in the 1980s, 'there were virtually no women around the table making tax policy decisions, and it was very interesting, because almost all the senior people there had non-working wives'. She recalls being stared at if, as the junior official present, she piped up to ask how a particular policy might go down with women. Four decades later, Boris Johnson's bloke-heavy government was apparently capable of similar myopia. When senior Cabinet Office official Helen MacNamara testified at the Covid Inquiry, she argued that senior women's voices were all but absent from decision-making in the pandemic. 'Decisions were being taken where the impact on women was either lost or ignored,' she said in her written evidence. Sign up to Business Today Get set for the working day – we'll point you to all the business news and analysis you need every morning after newsletter promotion MacNamara pointed to a lack of consideration about the demands that school closures would place on families; the potential impact of lockdown on domestic violence victims; and the rules around pregnancy and birth. By contrast, she said, time was found to discuss the implications for, 'hunting, shooting and fishing'. Across today's economic landscape, there are plenty of pressing issues women may feel particularly moved to pursue – not least the gender pay gap (13%), which Reeves has pledged to narrow, and its less-noticed sister, the gender pensions gap (standing at a shocking 35% for private pension savings), which the work and pensions secretary, Liz Kendall, is expected to highlight in a speech on Monday. The third and more speculative potential upside of having more female economic policymakers, is a shift in the tone of debate. Not all women are moderate, or reasonable, or ground their arguments in the everyday – Liz Truss is certainly a counterexample – but I would gently suggest that on average, they tend to be a bit less prone to bluster, bravado, and what the kids call 'main character syndrome'. That was why it was depressing last week to see Reeves at the Mansion House, describing regulation as the 'boot on the neck' of British enterprise, in danger of 'choking off' innovation. No doubt the violent language was aimed at grabbing headlines (which it did) and communicating a clear message to her City audience. But it was jarring to read such a brute phrase in a public speech by the UK's most powerful woman. There is no shortage of tedious macho language around Keir Starmer – with anonymous briefers proudly telling columnists the prime minister's politics are 'hard Labour', and accusing MPs of 'knobheadery'. Perhaps as her crunch autumn budget approaches, Reeves can help the government to find a different, more relatable vocabulary. Judging by the comments of that mainly-female panel about Labour's first year in power last week, the debate in the coming months will be every bit as robust as ever. But it will be fascinating to see if it can be conducted in a different, calmer way: and perhaps more closely anchored to what MacNamara argued was missing from that shameful Johnson period: people, and families, and how people actually live their lives.
Telegraph
4 minutes ago
- Telegraph
British Gas boss warns Miliband against ‘outrageous' energy bill divide
Forcing households with gas boilers to pay higher green taxes than those with heat pumps would be an 'abomination', the boss of British Gas has warned. In a stark warning to Ed Miliband, Chris O'Shea said that removing net zero levies from electricity bills would punish the poor and amount to a 'terrible distortion of the market'. It comes amid reports that the Energy Secretary is considering stripping green levies from electricity in a bid to encourage the adoption of heat pumps. Instead, the costs would be moved on to gas, making a boiler more expensive to run. Mr O'Shea, the chief executive of British Gas owner Centrica, warned Mr Miliband to resist such an 'outrageous' overhaul and instead focus on protecting billpayers from the soaring cost of net zero. 'It's a preposterous idea,' Mr O'Shea told The Telegraph. 'The idea you'd put the levies on gas bills will mean those better-off people with heat pumps will be subsidised by those poorer people with gas boilers. That's nonsense. 'I think those of us with the broadest shoulders should help those of us who have the most need. 'To put them on gas bills would be an abomination, outrageous and a terrible distortion of the market. It would also be unfair because the people [who have] gas boilers the longest will also be those who can least afford to pay higher bills. 'I have heard the argument that it will encourage more people to use electricity. But encouraging people to use subsidised electricity by forcing gas users to pay just doesn't make any sense.' Mr O'Shea said the Government should shift the cost of green levies on to general taxation rather than creating an energy bill divide between households. 'Hostage to fortune' The Climate Change Committee, a Government quango, has urged Mr Miliband to remove the taxes from electricity bills to encourage more people to buy heat pumps and electric cars. However, experts have warned such a move risks increasing the average gas bill by £120 a year. Mr Miliband is considering the reforms as part of a radical rethink on clean power, as he fights to defend Britain's goal of reaching net zero by 2050. An announcement is expected this autumn. Mr O'Shea's plea to protect households with gas boilers came as he warned that Mr Miliband's net zero targets would be challenging. 'I don't think they are a work of fiction, and it's good that we have stretching targets,' he said. 'But even if you were to speak to those who helped to set them, then even they would say it will be difficult. But I don't think it's impossible.' The Centrica boss also cast doubt over Mr Miliband's pledge to cut household energy bills by 2030, supposedly aided by Britain's move to a greener economy. Mr O'Shea said he was sceptical that the Energy Secretary's promise to lower bills by £300 this parliament was 'achievable'. 'The energy transition is not cheap and it is not simple,' said Mr O'Shea. 'If it were, then we would have done it already. He urged the Government to take a more honest approach when it came to net zero. 'What renewables will do is give you more price stability,' he said. 'You will get fewer highs and fewer lows. Home-grown renewables give you more security than imported gas. 'But I wouldn't have made the £300 statement because it makes you a hostage to fortune.' As Britain's second-largest energy supplier behind rival Octopus, Centrica takes an 'agnostic' view when it comes to net zero, according to Mr O'Shea. That means the company is as comfortable building gas-fired power stations as it is investing in heat pumps. However, he said the business has abandoned wind and solar investments in the UK because they do not make enough money. Instead, Centrica is exploring wind investments in Ireland. Mr O'Shea was also critical of Mr Miliband's pledge to ban all new drilling in the North Sea, even though Centrica no longer conducts any exploration activity in the basin. 'I don't agree with the decision,' he said. 'If you take it from an environmental point of view, we import LNG [liquefied natural gas]. 'If you produce gas domestically, then it will have a lower carbon content than the LNG that we import. And the reason is the cost of shipping and the cost of turning the gas into a liquid.' Zonal pricing row By taking a less fiercely aggressive approach on net zero, Mr O'Shea has set himself apart from Greg Jackson, his counterpart at Octopus, who has made a virtue of being a clean-energy champion. This distinction came to the fore in recent months amid the fierce debate over zonal pricing. Unlike British Gas, Mr Jackson was a vocal supporter of plans to divide up the country into different energy pricing zones in an effort to incentivise developers to build wind and solar farms where demand – and prices – are highest. However, the proposals were highly controversial because they would have in practice meant higher bills in the South for electricity than in the North. 'It has been a very divisive debate,' said Mr O'Shea. 'We did not want a postcode lottery.' Mr Miliband recently abandoned the proposal, which British Gas believes was the right decision. Octopus disagrees and claims the Energy Secretary missed a vital opportunity to lower bills by billions of pounds. Mr O'Shea said: 'There was one very, very vocal proponent of it, and I think the benefits were all quite theoretical. 'For a company that purports to put the customer first, I don't know why they would want a system that would be more complex. I think they missed the point. 'I don't know why they went so hard on it and why they were so vicious about the Government's decision. One of their guys made a post on social media saying 'good game, well played'. This is not a game. People are struggling to pay their energy bills. 'I think that a lot of things have become too polarised. And energy is no different.' Rough decisions Now that the battle over zonal pricing is over, Centrica is turning its attention to Rough, the gas storage facility it runs 18 miles off the coast of East Yorkshire. It accounts for about half of the capacity the UK has to store gas. However, Mr O'Shea has warned that Rough risks closure by the end of the year unless ministers agree to help fund the site's redevelopment. 'Rough is going to lose about £100m this year and we can't sustain that,' he said. 'I think we have probably got to see something by the end of this year. 'If we get towards the end of the year and we've got a situation whereby we've got no prospect of making a profit, then we're just throwing good money after bad. It would be like a charitable donation, and that's not our business.' Rather than securing a handout, Centrica has asked ministers for a so-called cap and floor mechanism to help transform the 40-year-old site to store hydrogen as well as natural gas. This would provide a guaranteed minimum revenue level for the project - the floor – as well as limited excessive profits – the cap. Centrica has already stopped filling the facility amid mounting losses. Mr O'Shea said a full closure would involve the loss of hundreds of jobs. As well as impacting the local community, such a move threatens to deal a hammer blow to Britain's energy security, just years after the country recovered from one of its worst-ever energy crises following Russia's invasion of Ukraine, Worse still, it also sends the wrong message to our allies in Europe, according to Mr O'Shea. 'If Rough closes, then the UK has just six days of gas storage available, compared to 100 in France, Netherlands and Germany. 'If we get into a crisis and the UK hasn't invested in gas storage, then I am not sure it will flow from the Continent. 'Politically, if you're the prime minister of France or Germany and you look at a country that hasn't invested in gas storage, then I am not sure that will work. There is a need for us to recognise the risk that no one likes a freeloader.'
BBC News
4 minutes ago
- BBC News
Plymouth City Council to join scheme to improve services
Plymouth City Council has been selected by the government to pilot a new scheme aimed at improving public Test, Learn, Grow initiative aims to make services more responsive and resilient by "trying new ideas and learning quickly", the government of the pilot includes electing "learning stewards" who will listen to feedback, share stories and adapt Mary Aspinall said the initiative was about "putting people first and moving away from tick box targets and towards listening, learning, and adapting". The council said it viewed the scheme as a chance to "rethink how we support residents facing complex challenges and inequalities".Aspinall said: "We want to build services that work for the real world - messy, complicated, and full of human stories."This is about building trust, empowering communities, and making sure our services reflect the lives of the people who use them." The council said Wellbeing and Family Hubs, charities and community groups would play a key role."The goal is to build a system that's more responsive, more resilient, and more rooted in the communities it serves," it said. "It's a shift from top-down decision-making to something more collaborative and human."
