Closing summary
A senior Bank of England policymaker has warned that financial markets are expecting too many interest rate cuts this year and that the UK central bank is unlikely to move before the US Federal Reserve.
Catherine Mann, an external member of the Bank’s rate-setting monetary policy committee (MPC), said there were risks that UK inflation could persist at higher levels than in the US or the eurozone.
City traders are pricing in three quarter-point interest rate cuts this year, with a possible first downward shift from as early as May or June. Money markets give a 20% chance of a cut in May, before the Fed or the European Central Bank.
The Co-operative Bank has unveiled plans to cut 400 jobs as part of the lender’s largest cost-cutting and restructuring programme since it was bailed out by hedge funds in 2017.
The job cuts aim to reduce the size of its 3,000-strong workforce by about 12% Redundancies will affect staff across the business, including at its 50 branches.
A spokesperson said the decision was unrelated to ongoing takeover talks with Coventry Building Society, which is considering buying the Co-operative Bank from its hedge fund owners and has been locked in talks over a potential deal since November.
Grocery price inflation in Great Britain has slowed to 4.5%, its lowest level since February 2022, but one in four households are still struggling financially, retail researchers have found.
However, the figures also suggest a change in sentiment with upmarket retailers Waitrose and Ocado the only grocers to win new shoppers in the past three months, according to the latest monthly figures from the analysts Kantar, as growth in more expensive branded groceries outstripped supermarket own-label.
Adam Neumann, the ousted co-founder of WeWork, has tabled a bid worth more than $500m (£395m) in an attempt to regain control of the long troubled shared office space rental company that he launched in 2010.
Flow, Neumann’s property company, said on Monday that it had submitted a potential bid for WeWork with a “coalition of half a dozen financing partners”. The Wall Street Journal, which first reported Neumann’s offer, said it was tabled at more than $500m.
That’s it for today, folks. Thank you for reading. We’ll be back tomorrow. Take care! – JK
Bellway optimistic as sales rate improves
Bellway, one of the UK’s biggest housebuilders, has reported a near-60% slump in full-year profits, but its sales rate has improved in recent weeks and its boss said the market was “on the road to recovery”.
The company’s profit before tax fell 58.8 to £483m in the year to 31 July, as the number of homes completed was down 2.3% to 10,945. Bellway took a near-£50m charge for safety repair works to older buildings.
However, its rate of sales to private buyers rose 21% in the six weeks since the start of February compared with a year earlier, improving to 0.67 homes reserved per site each week. Bellway’s share price rose 2% on the news.
Chief executive Jason Honeyman said the market was beginning to improve because of a combination of rising wages, falling inflation and more competitive mortgage rates. He told the Financial Times:
The housing market seems a lot brighter. It is on the road to recovery. It is happening a little quicker than we thought.
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