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Jet2 has reported a sharp rise in the number of seats it had available this summer, with 17.2 million seats on sale over July and August.

The figure is 12.4% higher than last year, and comes amid a trend towards late bookings as customers hunt for last-minute deals.

Airlines have increased ticket prices in the wake of the pandemic, when flights were grounded and few people went on foreign holidays.

Worldwide inflation, high jet fuel costs and a drive for the aviation industry to decarbonise has also pushed up the price of air fares.

Jet2 said average load factor – the percentage of seats sold on flights, which helps measure an airline’s profitability – was behind summer 2023 by 1.2 percentage points.

While load factor fell slightly, the large increase in seats available means the overall seats sold still rose year-on-year.

The company said package holiday bookings were up 8%, representing 70.2% of its total passengers.

BMW is looking to start selling its first hydrogen-powered cars in four years as it seeks to create a battery electric vehicle alternate.

The German carmaker hailed a “milestone in automotive history” as it announced its first fuel cell powertrain vehicles would go to the public in 2028.

The cars will use technology developed by Toyota with a hydrogen variant of an existing BMW model available that year.

No pricing details or the scale of production were announced on Thursday.

BMW chairman Oliver Zipse said:

The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA )has opened an investigation into Ticketmaster to see if the company broke consumer protection laws when it sold Oasis concert tickets.

The competition regulator said it will look into the ‘dynamic pricing’ which meant Oasis fans spent hours queuing, and were then presented with much higher ticket prices than advertised.

Fans complained about surge pricing that left many paying about £500 to see the reunion gigs.

It will examine whether:

• Ticketmaster has engaged in unfair commercial practices which are prohibited under the Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations 2008

• People were given clear and timely information to explain that the tickets could be subject to so-called ‘dynamic pricing’ with prices changing depending on demand, and how this would operate, including the price they would pay for any tickets purchased

• People were put under pressure to buy tickets within a short period of time – at a higher price than they understood they would have to pay, potentially impacting their purchasing decisions.

The CMA said it should not be assumed that Ticketmaster had broken consumer protection law.

US firms added fewer new jobs than expected last month at 99,000, the smallest monthly rise since 2021. Economists had expected a rise of around 145,000.

It was the fifth month running that ADP has reported a slowdown in job creation among private employers.

The previous month’s figure was also revised lower from 122,000 to 111,000

ADP chief economist Nela Richardson said:

Large companies, with at least 500 staff, added 42,000 workers last month, while medium-sized, with between 50 and 499 staff, added a total of 68,000.

Firms with between 1 and 19 employees added 3,000 staff, but those with to 49 employees laid off 12,000.

Manchester Airport's Terminal 3 finished bottom of the annual airport survey by consumer group Which? for the third consecutive year, as neighbouring Liverpool John Lennon Airport was crowned best airport in the UK.

With a customer score of just 37%, Manchester's Terminal 3 received just one star for seating, staff, queues at security, range of shops and prices in shops, and managed no higher than two stars in any of the remaining categories, including for toilets.

With some of its moving walkways out of action since 2021, and repair works still ongoing, as well as widespread complaints about queues and lack of seating, many people who were reliant on Manchester Airport for its range of international connections reported unhappy experiences.

One disappointed traveller summed up their time at the terminal as: “Queuing, queuing, queuing. Not enough staff, poorly trained, surly bordering on rude.” Another said: “Manchester T3 sums up everything that is bad about UK airports. Too many flights mean too many people crowded into a space not designed to take that many.”

Another said: “It’s just awful — the worst advert for anyone flying to the UK. It’s the worst airport I have ever used (and by quite a long way) compared to other UK and especially overseas airports.”

Which? surveyed almost 5,000 Brits about their experiences at UK airports in the last 12 months. Respondents were invited to rate the airports across 11 categories, including seating, staff, toilets and queues at check in, bag drop, passport control and security. A customer score was calculated based on a combination of overall satisfaction and likeliness to recommend.

Read the full article here

There was a surge in the number of layoffs at US companies in August, with firms announcing 75,891, roughly triple the number in July.

This is according to outplacement firm Challenger, Gray and Christmas.

More than half the layoffs were led by the technology sector, where companies have been cutting their workforce as the pandemic boom in demand for IT services faded.

Challenger vice president Andrew Challenger said:

Here are the market movers at midday today...

• Housebuilder Vistry gained as it announced a further £130m share buyback as it posted a 7% increase in first-half pre-tax profit. In the half year to 30 June, pre-tax profit rose to £186.2m from £174m in the same period a year earlier, with total completions up 9.1% to 7,792. Vistry hailed "good demand" across its Partner Funded markets.

• Premier Inn owner Whitbread was also higher after an upgrade to 'neutral' at Redburn, while RS Group was boosted by an upgrade to 'buy' at Citi.

• On the downside, Admiral, Antofagasta, DS Smith, Aviva, Croda, IAG and Prudential were all weaker as they traded without entitlement to the dividend.

• Associated British Foods fell as it said like-for-like sales at Primark were expected to fall by around 0.5% in the second half of the financial year, with a projected decline of 0.9% in the fourth quarter due to wet weather in the UK and Ireland which hit footfall and seasonal sales in womenswear and footwear. Primark revenue growth is expected to be around 4% for the period, driven by a strong contribution from its continued store expansion programme.

• Currys was in the red even as the electricals retailer posted a jump in sales for the 17 weeks to 24 August as it took a nearly 50% share of the UK laptop market.

• https://pnr.ouryahoo.com/story/yahoo_finance_uk/89319a4f-2ce2-4414-a0f7-294d5cd90c7fwas hit by a downgrade to 'equalweight' at Morgan Stanley.

The average price of petrol dropped to 139.5p a litre yesterday, the lowest since October 2021, while diesel fell to 144.2p a litre.

The AA said the 5p fuel duty cut made in the March 2022 budget helped push price down.

Edmund King, AA president, said;

Bitcoin (BTC-USD) has struggled to maintain a foothold above the $57,000 (£43,350) level, while spot bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) experienced their largest single-day outflows in four months this week, as investors withdrew funds in response to a broader market decline.

Bitcoin was trading relatively flat on Thursday with a modest gain of 0.4% to $57,154, according to Coingecko data.

Meanwhile, Ethereum (ETH-USD) edged up by 0.7% to $2,412, and Cardano (ADA-USD) rose 0.8% to $0.32 during the same period.

Read more here

The UK housebuilding sector hit its highest growth rate since the mini-budget almost two years ago.

S&P Global said on Thursday that UK residential construction work “gained momentum” in August, with growth accelerating to its fastest since September 2022.

The increase in housebuilding was due to “improving market conditions” and lower borrowing costs. However, civil engineering growth slowed, bringing the overall construction PMI down to 53.6 in August, from July’s 26-month high of 55.3.

Tim Moore, economics director at S&P Global Market Intelligence, said:

BP (BP.L) and Legal & General (LGEN.L) were the favourite stocks among Fidelity investors in August as they sought to move away from technology funds.

The past two months have been particularly challenging for AI-related stocks, with concerns over the sustainability of their growth story leading to a rotation out of the highly valued "Magnificent Seven" stocks.

Nvidia (NVDA) lost $278.9bn (£211.9bn) on Tuesday in the biggest loss of value ever for a US stock as it plunged over 9.5%.

Amid fears over a potential US recession, Fidelity investors are diversifying their investments away from technology funds and into defensive strategies in August, the data showed.

When it came to ISA and SIPP investors, shares in BP and Legal & General showed to be the most popular in August. In third place, ISA investors went with Aviva (AV.L) and SIPP clients favoured miner Glencore (GLEN.L).

In the move away from tech, AlphaWave IP (AWE.L) the only technology stock on the list.

Read the full article here

Shares in Associated British Foods (ABF.L) have fallen almost 5% in London amid a drop in sales at its UK Primark stores this summer.

Like‐for‐like sales are expected to decrease by around 0.5% in the second half of 2024, with a projected decline of around 0.9% in the final three months of the year, it said.

It expects sales at the clothing retailer to dip in the second half of the year after poor summer weather dampened consumer spending. According to provisional Met Office statistics, last summer was the coolest since 2015.

Associated British Foods said:

Primark’s market share decreased slightly to 6.5% in the 24 weeks to 21 July as a result of the lower high street footfall.

Asos has announced a deal to sell a majority of its stake in Topshop and Topman, the brands it acquired in 2021. The agreement is with a new joint venture formed with Danish family office Heartland, which would own 75% of the new entity.

ASOS expects to get around £118m from the sale, and will hold the remaining 25% of the joint venture.

It comes as it revealed adjusted profits for the current financial year are expected to hit the top of analyst estimates, while sales will be “slightly below guidance”.

UK car sales fell in August, new figures from the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) revealed on Thursday. New car registrations dipped by 1.3% last month to 84,575 units, ending a 24-month run of growth.

Fleet purchases dropped by 1.2% while sales to private buyers were 0.2% higher, meanwhile business registrations sank by nearly a third to just 1,136 units.

It comes as August is traditionally a quiet month for car dealers with many buyers preferring to wait for September’s new number plate.

Registrations of electric cars jumped by 10.8%, lifting the BEV (battery electric vehicles) market share to 22.6%, the highest for a month since December 2022.

This was due to “heavy discounting by manufacturers over the summer and a raft of new models attracting buyers.”

Petrol sales fell 10.1%, while diesel dropped by 7.3% – but together made up 56.8% of all new registrations in August. Plug-in hybrid (PHEV) registrations declined by 12.3%, but hybrid electric vehicle (HEV) uptake increased by 36.1%.

James Hosking, managing director of AA Cars, said:

Fears that capital gains tax may be increased in the autumn budget could be driving more landlords to sell up, data from property portal Rightmove (RMV.L) suggests, as the proportion of former rental homes going up for sale has reached a record high.

The data showed that nearly a fifth (18%) of homes were previously available to rent, up from 14% a year earlier, and 8% in 2010.

Rightmove said that one potential driver is a mooted increase in capital gains tax in the government's budget on 30 October. The tax is levied on profits made from the sale of assets, such as a second home.

There is currently a £3,000 tax-free allowance on capital gains, after which there is an 18% capital gains tax applied on residential property sales for basic rate taxpayers and 24% for those in the higher rate tax band. The Treasury has reportedly drawn up plans to align capital gains rates with income tax.

The trend was most prominent in London, where nearly a third (29%) of all homes for sale were previously available on the rental market. That was followed by Scotland, where 19% of former rental homes were going up for sale.

Read more here

Asian markets were mostly lower following a global sell-off a day earlier, as Wall Street declined in the technology, energy and other sectors.

The Nikkei (^N225) declined 1% on the day in Japan, as data showed wage growth remains strong, while the Hang Seng (^HSI) fell 0.1% in Hong Kong.

Average cash earnings in July grew 3.6% year-on-year, beating market expectations, while real earnings unexpectedly increased by 0.4% in July, increasing the likelihood of another rate hike. The US. dollar was trading at 143.81 Japanese yen.

The Shanghai Composite (000001.SS) was 0.1% up by the end of the session.

In South Korea, the Kospi (^KS11) was 0.2% lower as the country’s economy contracted by 0.2% in the second quarter, in line with estimates.

Wall Street finished slightly lower in choppy trading on Wednesday. The broad-based S&P 500 (^GSPC) dipped 0.2% to 5,520.07, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite index (^IXIC) shed 0.3% to 17,084.30.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average (^DJI) finished up 0.1% at 40,974.97.

In the bond market, the yield on 10-year US Treasury notes fell to 3.76% from 3.83% late on Tuesday.

Good morning! Welcome back to our markets live blog. Be sure to follow along for all the latest news of what's moving markets, and happening across the global economy.

Here's a quick look at what's on the agenda for today...

• 7am: Trading updates: Currys, Ashmore, Safestay, Vistry Group

• 9am: UK new car sales

• 9.30am: UK construction PMI for August

• 9.30am: Bank of England Monthly Decision Maker Panel data for August

• 11am: Irish Q2 GDP and GNP

• 1.15pm: ADP private US payrolls

• 1.30pm: US weekly jobless claims