Closing post
Time to wrap up, with a quick recap….
Oil has hit a two-week high today, after the United States vowed to keep attacking Yemen’s Houthis until the Iran-aligned group ends its assaults on shipping.
The crude price was also lifted by. China’s ambitious plans to “vigorously boost consumption” by putting up pay and reducing financial burdens, in its latest attempt to increase consumer confidence and lift its struggling economy.
The hedge fund manager Crispin Odey will be banned from the City and hit with a £1.8m fine by the UK’s financial watchdog for deliberately attempting to “frustrate” a disciplinary process into sexual harassment allegations.
Donald Trump’s trade wars continue to ripple though the global economy, with the president insisting that reciprical and sectoral tariffs will be imposed on 2 April, as he has previously indicated.
The flurry of tariffs since Trump returned to the White House has also hit confidence among US builders, who face higher costs.
The OECD has cut its growth forecast, with Mexico and Canada suffering sharp downgrades due to the threat of tariffs on their exports to the US.
Rachel Reeves has told UK regulators that “too much bureaucracy” is making it “too slow to get things done” across the UK, in a clampdown on red tape.
The former Bank of England deputy governor Charlie Bean has warned the chancellor against making kneejerk cuts in next week’s spring statement to try to hit fiscal targets that are five years away.
More than £3.5bn has been wiped off the value of Tesco, Sainsbury’s and Marks & Spencer’s stock since Friday amid fears that rival Asda will step up the grocery price war.
The court of appeal has upheld Thames Water’s £3bn emergency bailout loan.
Updated
The former Bank of England deputy governor Charlie Bean has warned the chancellor against making kneejerk cuts in next week’s spring statement to try to hit fiscal targets that are five years away.
Rachel Reeves is preparing to slash spending, including on disability benefits, in response to weaker forecasts from the independent Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) – prompting a backlash from within her own party.
But Bean – who is also a former member of the OBR’s budget responsibility committee, which agrees the forecasts – warned the chancellor against “fine-tuning”.
“We’ve got ourselves into a frankly pretty ridiculous position where we’re doing fiscal fine-tuning to control the OBR forecast five years ahead,” Bean told an event hosted by the Resolution Foundation thinktank on Monday.
