
Business live: Trump to send out tariff letters at noon
The company said it has 'held constructive discussions with Corpay, which are advancing, and believes that it is in the best interests of shareholders to continue this engagement'.
The Takeover Panel has consented to moving the deadline from today until July 24.
Corpay is a S&P 500 company. It has been in discussion with Alpha about a possible cash deal since May.
PHP: The healthcare real estate investment trust has reported 'improving rental growth and stabilisation in yields', which it claimed underpinned valuation growth and was further evidence of an inflexion point in the cycle.
Last month, the board of PHP recommended that shareholders accept a cash and share takeover bid from rival Assura, which then valued the business at £1.79 billion, dropping its previous recommendation for a rival bid from KKR and Stonepeak, the American private equity firms.
Shell: In a brief trading update before publishing second-quarter results at the end of the month, the oil company said that 'trading and optimisation' revenues are expected to be significantly lower than in the first three months of the year.
Plus500: The online trading group has reported a 4 per cent rise in revenue to $415.1 million in the six months to the end of June. The FTSE 250 group said it would announce new shareholder returns, comprising dividends and share buybacks, alongside interim results in August.
The UK housing market was steady in June, with house price growth flat compared to a dip of 0.3 per cent in May, figures from mortgage lender Halifax showed.
The average property price is now £296,665 compared to £296,782 last month. The annual rate of growth edged down to 2.5 per cent from 2.6 per cent in May.
Amanda Bryden, Halifax's head of mortgages, said: 'The market's resilience continues to stand out and, after a brief slowdown following the spring stamp duty changes, mortgage approvals and property transactions have both picked up, with more buyers returning to the market
Halifax said first-time buyer numbers have returned to pre-stamp duty change levels.
Last week, rival mortgage lender Nationwide reported that house prices fell by the most in more than two years in June as an increase in stamp duty costs dampened demand. Property prices fell by 0.8 per cent month-on-month to £271,619. The annual rate of house price growth slowed to 2.1 per cent in June, from 3.5 per cent a month earlier.
US President Donald Trump has announced that tariff letters or deals with multiple countries will be delivered later today.He said on his social media platform Truth Social: 'I am pleased to announce that the UNITED STATES TARIFF Letters, and/or Deals, with various Countries from around the World, will be delivered starting 12:00 P.M. (Eastern), Monday, July 7th. Thank you for your attention to this matter! DONALD J. TRUMP, President of The United States of America.'Stock markets slipped in Asia amid concerns about the lack of detail. The dollar weakened against a basket of currencies.
US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told CNN yesterday that Trump was going to be sending letters to some trading partners saying that 'if you don't move things along, then on August 1 you will boomerang back to your April 2 tariff level'.
The president announced a 10 per cent base tariff rate on most countries in April and higher 'reciprocal' rates ranging up to 50 per cent, with an original deadline of this Wednesday.
However, he also said levies could range in value from 'maybe 60 per cent or 70 per cent', and threatened an extra 10 per cent on countries aligning themselves with the 'anti-American policies' of the BRICS group of Brazil, Russia, India and China.
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Sky News
11 minutes ago
- Sky News
Trade war: Trump reveals first nations to pay delayed 'liberation day' tariffs
Donald Trump has warned that all goods from Japan and South Korea will face tariffs of 25% from 1 August. The announcement, via his Truth Social platform, marks the restart of the threatened "liberation day" escalation that was paused in April, for 90 days, to allow for negotiations to take place with all US trading partners. The US president included copies of letters to the leaders of both Japan and South Korea informing them of the tariff rates. Those duties will come on top of sector-specific tariffs - such as 50% rates covering steel - which are already in force. He warned the rates could be adjusted "upward or downward, depending on our relationship with your country". Country-specific tariffs had been due to take effect from Wednesday this week but Mr Trump had earlier revealed that nations would start to get letters instead, setting out the US position. Duties would take effect from 1 August, without any subsequent deal being agreed, it was announced. The letters sent to Japan and South Korea cited persistent trade imbalances for the rates and included the sentence: "We invite you to participate in the extraordinary Economy of the United States, the Number One Market in the World, by far." He ended both letters by saying, "Thank you for your attention to this matter!" The European Union - the biggest single US trading partner - is among those set to get a letter in the coming days. Mr Trump has also threatened an additional 10% tariff on any country aligning itself with the "anti-American policies" of BRICS nations - those are Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa and whose members also include Egypt, Ethiopia, Indonesia, Iran and the United Arab Emirates. The UK, bar a massive shock U-turn, should be exempt. 2:49 The country was the first to be granted a trade deal, of sorts, in May and the Trump administration has claimed many others had been offering concessions since the clock ticked down to 9 July. The UK is not expected to face any changes to its current 10% rate due to the trade truce, which came into effect last week. While UK-made cars aerospace products face no duties under a new quota arrangement, it still remains to be seen whether 25% tariffs on UK-produced steel and aluminium will be cancelled. 5:08 They could, conceivably, even be raised to 50%, as is currently the case for America's other trading partners, because no agreement on eliminating the rate was reached when the government struck its deal in May. It all amounts to more uncertainty for the UK steel sector. A No 10 spokesman said on Monday: "Our work with the US continues to get this deal implemented as soon as possible. "That will remove the 25% tariff on UK steel and aluminium, making us the only country in the world to have tariffs removed on these products. "The US agreed to remove tariffs on these products as part of our agreement on 8 May. It reiterated that again at the G7 last month. The discussions continue, and will continue to do so." China and Vietnam have also secured some US concessions. The dollar strengthened but US stock markets lost ground in the wake of the letters to Japan and South Korea being made public, with the broad-based S&P 500 down by 1%. Stock markets in both Japan and South Korea were closed for the day but US-traded shares of SK Telecom and LG Display were down 7.5% and 5.8% respectively.


Sky News
23 minutes ago
- Sky News
Trade war: Trump reveals first two nations to pay delayed 'liberation day' tariffs
Donald Trump has warned that all goods from Japan and South Korea will face tariffs of 25% from 1 August. The announcement, via his Truth Social platform, marks the restart of the threatened "liberation day" escalation that was paused in April, for 90 days, to allow for negotiations to take place with all US trading partners. The president showed off copies of letters to the leaders of both Japan and South Korea informing them of the tariff rates. Those duties will come on top of sector-specific tariffs - such as 50% rates covering steel - already in force. He warned the rates could be adjusted "upward or downward, depending on our relationship with your country". Country-specific tariffs had been due to take effect from Wednesday this week but Mr Trump had earlier revealed that nations would start to get letters instead, setting out the US position. Duties would take effect from 1 August, without any subsequent deal being agreed, it was announced. The letters sent to Japan and South Korea cited persistent trade imbalances for the rates and included the sentence: "We invite you to participate in the extraordinary Economy of the United States, the Number One Market in the World, by far." He ended both letters by saying, "Thank you for your attention to this matter!" The European Union - the biggest single US trading partner - is among those set to get a letter in the coming days. Mr Trump has also threatened an additional 10% tariff on any country aligning itself with the "anti-American policies" of BRICS nations - those are Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa and whose members also include Egypt, Ethiopia, Indonesia, Iran and the United Arab Emirates. The UK, bar a massive shock U-turn, should be exempt. 2:49 The country was the first to be granted a trade deal, of sorts, in May and the Trump administration has claimed many others had been offering concessions since the clock ticked down to 9 July. The UK is not expected to face any changes to its current 10% rate due to the trade truce, which came into effect last week. While UK-made cars aerospace products face no duties under a new quota arrangement, it still remains to be seen whether 25% tariffs on UK-produced steel and aluminium will be cancelled. 5:08 They could, conceivably, even be raised to 50%, as is currently the case for America's other trading partners, because no agreement on eliminating the rate was reached when the government struck its deal in May. It all amounts to more uncertainty for the UK steel sector. A No 10 spokesman said on Monday: "Our work with the US continues to get this deal implemented as soon as possible. "That will remove the 25% tariff on UK steel and aluminium, making us the only country in the world to have tariffs removed on these products. "The US agreed to remove tariffs on these products as part of our agreement on 8 May. It reiterated that again at the G7 last month. The discussions continue, and will continue to do so." China and Vietnam have also secured some US concessions. The dollar strengthened but US stock markets lost ground in the wake of the letters to Japan and South Korea being made public, with the broad-based S&P 500 down by 1%. Stock markets in both Japan and South Korea were closed for the day but US-traded shares of SK Telecom and LG Display were down 7.5% and 5.8% respectively.


The Guardian
33 minutes ago
- The Guardian
George Osborne was on No 10 list to be UK ambassador to US, Keir Starmer's biographer says
George Osborne was on Downing Street's shortlist to be the next UK ambassador to Washington, it has been claimed, despite the former Conservative chancellor being reviled by many in the Labour party and wider political left. In the new edition of his biography on Keir Starmer, the writer Tom Baldwin suggests the prime minister's senior aides 'invested considerable effort' in unsuccessfully pushing Osborne's application. Sources confirmed to the Guardian that the former Tory politician was approached about the role. However, Peter Mandelson was announced as the new UK ambassador last December after Starmer decided the Labour peer and former EU trade commissioner was the best candidate for what was going to be a delicate diplomatic role, with Donald Trump returning the White House. However, the revelation that senior No 10 figures felt that Osborne, the architect of the Tory austerity that brought Britain's public services to their knees, was a suitable candidate is likely to cast further doubt on their judgment among Labour backbenchers. There are already concerns over Downing Street's handling of the welfare cuts rebellion last week, which led to the bill being ultimately hollowed out with changes to disability payments dropped and the chancellor, Rachel Reeves, left to plug a £5bn hole in the country's finance. At the time of the appointment, sources said Downing Street felt that a former politician might be the best option given how much Trump was opposed to bureaucrats. Lord Mandelson was an architect of New Labour and served as a cabinet minister under both Tony Blair and Gordon Brown. However, Osborne also had a reputation as a deft political strategist who had links to Washington neoconservatives. He is now an investment banker and podcast host. In an article for the New World newspaper, Baldwin, a close ally of Starmer, argued that the prime minister should trust his own political instincts and values to find a way through the daunting domestic challenges ahead – just as he had done while navigating difficult global issues. 'Another illustration of Starmer's straight-forward approach on foreign policy was over the appointment of Peter Mandelson as Britain's ambassador to the US in December. He has generally been regarded as a success with his political skills and swagger adapting well to the narcissistic Maga-land of Washington,' Baldwin wrote. 'The new edition of my biography reveals that this was despite, just days beforehand, the name of George Osborne being added to the final shortlist presented to the prime minister by Downing Street advisers. Sign up to First Edition Our morning email breaks down the key stories of the day, telling you what's happening and why it matters after newsletter promotion 'They are understood to have invested considerable effort in unsuccessfully pushing the former Tory chancellor's application, even though that perhaps unnecessarily complicated what Starmer would ultimately regard as a relatively simple decision.' Downing Street has been approached for comment.