NPR News reports the first known case of the Omicron COVID-19 variant has been found in the United States
ROME (Reuters) -Italy approved a set of new measures on Friday designed to curb surging energy bills and help companies cope with the latest wave of coronavirus infections. The scheme, funded by a series of compensatory measures, will not weigh on the public deficit which the Treasury is keen to reduce to 5.6% of growth this year from 9.4% in 2021. Soaring energy prices, triggered by heavy demand for gas as economies look to emerge from the health pandemic, have prompted governments across Europe to introduce measures to try to shield consumers.
Shares in wind turbine maker Siemens Gamesa tumbled on Friday after it cut its financial outlook for the third time in nine months, dragging down the market value of its rivals as well as German parent Siemens Energy. Siemens Gamesa shares slumped as much as 16.2% to their lowest since July 2020, while Siemens Energy fell as much 17.4%, its biggest intraday loss ever, wiping out 4.6 billion euros ($5.2 billion) in market value between them. Profit margins at wind turbine makers have been squeezed by a surge in costs for vital materials such as steel, forcing companies such as Siemens Gamesa and Danish rival Vestas to increase their prices.
LONDON (Reuters) -Associated British Foods said on Thursday the lifting of COVID-19 restrictions in England had boosted prospects for its Primark clothing business after December sales were dented by the rapid spread of the Omicron coronavirus variant. The group said Omicron had interrupted an improving trend in Primark's customer numbers but it was now seeing a recovery in UK and Ireland footfall. "In the UK and Ireland I think we're looking at an improving consumer outlook," John Bason, AB Foods' finance chief, told Reuters, pointing to falling COVID-19 infection rates and the end of restrictions in England.
Serbian authorities have abandoned plans to build a controversial lithium mine, the prime minister said Thursday, following weeks of protests against the project set to be built by Rio Tinto.
Domestic politics did not hurt sentiment, although Prime Minister Boris Johnson was fighting to save his premiership amid a deepening revolt inside his party over a series of lockdown parties in Downing Street. "If anything, there is a risk of the BoE disappointing the market by acting less decisively" at its February meeting, Commerzbank analysts said, adding “a lot has already been priced in” in terms of future rate rises. “Unsurprisingly, political risk has not damaged GBP, where the focus remains squarely on whether the BoE hikes 25bp on February 3,” ING analysts said, adding they “continue to favour EUR/GBP drifting to the 0.8270/80 area.”
Most will end up paying an extra £3.50 a month – or £42 annually – on average for phone and broadband bills.
Electric vehicle (EV) battery startup Britishvolt has secured UK government backing for a battery plant in northern England, enabling 1.7 billion pounds ($2.31 billion) in private funding and boosting national efforts to build zero-emission cars. Logistics real estate investor Tritax and investment firm abrdn plc will provide the private funding for a 30 gigawatt-hour (GWh) plant in Blyth, Britishvolt said on Friday. The government will deliver its finances through its Automotive Transformation Fund.
Influential British fund manager Terry Smith attacked Unilever's failed 50 billion pound ($68.2 billion) bid for GSK's Consumer Health assets as a "near death experience" and urged Unilever management to focus on strengthening performance. In a letter to investors of his Fundsmith vehicle, now the 13th biggest Unilever shareholder, Smith criticized Unilever for failing to openly communicate the benefits of the deal and its "penchant for corporate gobbledegook as substitute for effective action."
UK shoppers are less confident about their personal finances than they were last year
Tigo Business - Courtesy picture Tigo Business - Courtesy picture Tigo Business announces its Cloud Center of Excellence (CCoE) in collaboration with Microsoft to accelerate cloud adoption With a trained team of expert engineers with more than 1,200 Cloud and Cybersecurity certifications, the Cloud Center of Excellence will provide support and advice in the development of solutions based on the Microsoft Azure cloud and will guide Guatemalan companies towards a model digital acceleration. Luxemb
The food delivery giant's share price rose 2.4% as it reported as 36% rise in gross value of Q4 orders.
It comes after fierce criticism from fund manager Terry Smith and a negative reaction from investors to efforts to buy GSK’s consumer arm.
In the last two years Deliveroo has grown its active customer base from 3.6 million to eight million.
The European Parliament on Thursday signed off on a proposal for new rules aimed at U.S. tech giants, paving the way for talks on the plan with member countries and the European Commission. The Digital Services Act, a proposal from EU antitrust chief Margrethe Vestager, would force Amazon, Apple, Alphabet unit Google and Facebook owner Meta to do more to tackle illegal content on their platforms or risk fines up to 6% of global turnover. Vestager's proposal still needs to be ironed out with EU countries and lawmakers before it can become law, the first of its kind in the world.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said earlier this month she would try to unblock legislation for a quota of women on EU company boards, which has been stuck since 2012. The proposal calls for listed companies in the bloc to fill at least 40% of non-executive board seats with women. Female representation at board level rose by one percentage point to 35% in 2021 after a similar rise a year earlier, according to the study by Brussels-based association European Women on Boards (EWOB), which analysed 668 top European listed companies, included in the STOXX 600 index and national benchmarks.
BERLIN (Reuters) -The German government will cut its economic growth forecast for this year to 3.6% from its October estimate of 4.1%, according to a draft of the annual economic report seen by Reuters on Friday. The coalition government of Social Democrats, Greens and Liberals, in power since December, expects the pandemic to further strain businesses and supply bottlenecks for products such as semiconductors to persist, further limiting companies' growth, according to the draft. Most economists expect Europe's largest economy to shrink again in the first three months of 2022 after a fourth-quarter contraction, driving it into another technical recession, defined as two consecutive quarters of declining output.
The BT share price has been soaring recently, up around 40% since October. Can it continue such a strong run in 2022 or will it fall? The post Up 40%, can the BT share price continue to soar? appeared first on The Motley Fool UK.
LONDON (Reuters) -London Metal Exchange (LME) Chief Executive Matt Chamberlain will step down in April, the exchange said on Friday, in a surprise move after five years at the helm of the world's largest market for industrial metals. Chamberlain, a former banker who has been at the LME for nine years, has taken the top job at digital asset custody services provider Komainu, his new employer said. Komainu, launched in 2020, is a joint venture between Japanese bank Nomura Holdings, digital asset security firm Ledger and digital asset investment house CoinShares.
Euro zone consumer prices jumped at a record high pace in December, the EU's statistics agency confirmed on Thursday, boosted by a surge in energy prices and supply chain bottlenecks as the economy recovers from pandemic lockdowns. The European Union's statistics office Eurostat said consumer prices in the 19 countries sharing the euro rose 0.4% month-on-moth in December for a 5.0% year-on-year jump, the same as the initial estimate published on Jan 7. Without the volatile energy and food prices, or what the European Central Bank calls core inflation, prices went up 0.4% month-on-month and 2.7% year-on-year.
Schlumberger beat expectations with a rise in fourth-quarter profit on Friday as higher crude and natural gas prices drove demand for the world's largest oilfield services company. The global rig count was 1,563 at the end of the fourth quarter, up around 42% from a year ago, Baker Hughes data shows. "Absent any further COVID-related disruption, oil demand is expected to exceed pre-pandemic levels before the end of the year and to further strengthen in 2023," Schlumberger Chief Executive Olivier Le Peuch said.
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