Closing post
Time to wrap up... here’s today’s main stories:
US jobless claims has risen to a three-month high, after the Omicron variant hit the US economy.
A majority of UK firms have reported that turnover dropped in December as Plan B restrictions kept customers away...
...while households have reported that the cost of living has pushed up, led by pricier food, energy and fuel.
The government has been urged to provide “helicopter money” to support households hit by escalating energy bills, as inflation hits the economy.
Expectations of higher UK interest rates have pushed the pound to a 23-month high against the euro.
Companies, such as Citi, have started calling staff back to the office now that pandemic restrictions are being lifted, leading to busier public transport.
And there could be a rush of delayed Christmas parties in the next few months, after corporate clients rebook events cancelled in December.
European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen has warned the World Economic Forum that Russia will face massive economic and financial sanctions if it attacks Ukraine.
Grocery, retail and food ingredients business Associated British Foods said inflationary pressures are intensifying. The firm is facing higher raw material costs, supply chain challenges and steeper energy bills, which will be passed onto customers.
ABF is also cutting hundreds of jobs at Primark, where the Omicron variant disturbed its recovery.
Aldi is ditching grocery deliveries via Deliveroo to focus on its own home shopping service as consumers return to stores in greater numbers.... while Deliveroo reported sales growth again in the last quarter.
Almost £1.2bn worth of fruit, veg and bread is binned in the UK every year, with one in five consumers stating the reason they waste so much is they “don’t know what to cook”.
Unilever continued to face criticism over its £50bn attempt to buy GSK’s consumer healthcare arm, with a top shareholder calling it a “near-death experience”.
China cut mortgage rates in a new effort to prop up its economy, and bolster the property sector.....
... while a group of international bondholders in the embattled Chinese property developer Evergrande have hired an offshore law firm and warned of legal action if the company continues to refuse “substantive engagement” over its finances and restructuring plans.
Goodnight. GW
The billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk’s brain chip startup is preparing to launch clinical trials in humans.
Musk, who co-founded Neuralink in 2016, has promised that the technology “will enable someone with paralysis to use a smartphone with their mind faster than someone using thumbs”.
The Silicon Valley company, which has already successfully implanted artificial intelligence microchips in the brains of a macaque monkey named Pager and a pig named Gertrude, is now recruiting for a “clinical trial director” to run tests of the technology in humans.
