Closing summary
Time for a recap.
Elon Musk has taken a 9.2% stake in Twitter that appears to make him its biggest shareholder.
Regulatory filings show that Musk hit the mark on 14th March, days before he criticised Twitter’s online moderation for not protecting free speech, saying that he was “giving serious thought” to building a new platform.
Shares in Twitter surged 20%, with analysts predicting that Musk could become an acticist investor pushing for change, or even launch a buyout.
Elon Musk’s $TWTR stake is sparking speculation he could take more action to shake up the company
— Yun Li (@YunLi626) April 4, 2022
"Musk isn’t here to make $500m or $1bn or $2bn. Nor does he figure to remain passive. Musk is a threat to do almost anything at TWTR so use your imagination”https://t.co/62TULTDuqv
Walid Koudmani, chief market analyst at financial brokerage XTB, says:
“While Elon Musk has been critical of the social media platform, this could be a key development for the company as its share price had been struggling for some time.”
Here’s the full story:
UK consumer confidence has slumped, as rising inflation forces families to cut back on disposable spending as they struggle to meet food and energy bills.
Bank of England deputy governor Sir Jon Cunliffe has predicted that the Ukraine crisis will intensify and prolong the surge in inflation and tighten the squeeze on household incomes.
Grim chart from @bankofengland Deputy Governor Jon Cunliffe that underlines why 2022 is going to be a dreadful year for least well-off. 👇 pic.twitter.com/M4V4Na1pRY
— Andy Bruce (@BruceReuters) April 4, 2022
Supermarket chain Morrisons warned its profits are likely to take a significant hit this year as the cost of living crisis and disruption due to the war in Ukraine weigh on the grocery market.
Inflation is roaring away in Turkey too, where consumer prices jumping by over 60% in the last year due to the tumbling lira, and rising food and energy costs.
Berlin has taken temporary control of Gazprom’s German operations, in an attempt to ensure security of energy supplies.
The move came as top bankers warned that Germany will face a steep recession if imports of Russian gas and oil stopped.
Orders at US factories dropped for the first time in 10 months in February, in a sign that the global economy is slowing.
The slowdown continued in March, with global manufacturing growth hitting an 18-month low as the Russia-Ukraine war and the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic hit the sector.
German trade picked up in February, but imports and exports with Russia dropped in an early sign of the economic consequences of the Ukraine war.
JP Morgan chief executive, Jamie Dimon, has warned that the US bank could lose up to $1bn (£763m) from its exposure to Russia. Dimon also urged the US government to deploy more troops, restructure supply chains and launch a new “Marshall plan” to ensure energy supply in response to the war in Ukraine.
Chancellor Rishi Sunak has asked the Royal Mint to create a non-fungible token (NFT) to be issued by this summer. The move will hardly help the cost of living crisis, but will (apparently) show the UK’s ‘forward-looking approach’ to crypto.
Bank of England chief Andrew Bailey has a more critical approach - warning today that cryptocurrencies are the new “front line” in criminal scams.
Mauricio Magaldi, global strategy director for crypto at fintech consultancy 11:FS, says:
“The news that the Treasury will be launching NFTs later this year seems to be nothing more than a strategic PR-play. However, talk of the UK becoming a ‘crypto hub’ seems to hold much more promise and is a welcome change from their previously limited stance.
“The next steps will paint the bigger picture and determine whether we see actual investment in creating dialogue for a regulatory framework that fosters the crypto economy in the UK.”
There has been chaos at some airports, as EasyJet and British Airways were forced to cancel flights because of high levels of Covid-19 infections among staff.
The disruption follows rising UK case numbers after the removal of almost all pandemic restrictions.
A train breakdown in the Eurotunnel has added to the misery for passengers.
The bus network has also been undermined, with more than one in four bus services in England have been cut in the last decade.
More than 3,000 workers at 60 companies across Britain will trial a four-day working week, in what is thought to be the biggest pilot scheme to take place anywhere in the world.
The UK’s financial regulators are investigating the London Metal Exchange’s handling of a week-long suspension of trading in nickel amid chaotic conditions at the start of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Spanish police and US FBI agents have searched a £70m superyacht in Mallorca linked to Viktor Vekselberg, a sanctioned Russian billionaire the US government says is a close ally of Vladimir Putin...
... while Roman Abramovich’s $600m (£458m) superyacht Solaris has left a port in Turkey after the London-based company that operates the terminal which had been harbouring the oligarch’s yacht was pressed to act.
Goodnight. GW
Updated
Morrisons has warned its profits are likely to take a significant hit this year as the cost of living crisis and disruption due to the war in Ukraine weigh on the grocery market.
The UK’s fourth largest supermarket chain said “developments in the geopolitical environment” and “ongoing and increasing inflationary pressure” since the beginning of February were hitting consumer sentiment and spending.
It said it was difficult to predict how long the problems would last, and that unless conditions improved, it could face a “material adverse effect” on sales and earnings for the year.
Food and drink businesses have been particularly hit by the energy crisis, and rising raw material costs, according to new data from the ONS this morning:
60% of food and beverage businesses reported being affected by rising energy prices in March, compared with 38% across all sectors.
— Office for National Statistics (ONS) (@ONS) April 4, 2022
They were also more likely to cite concerns on inflation and energy prices compared with businesses across all sectors https://t.co/hiSnkhKEk3 pic.twitter.com/OS94aut4Qk
