Closing post
Time to wrap up….
The tech billionaire Larry Ellison has agreed to provide a personal guarantee of more than $40bn for Paramount Skydance’s fight to gain control of Warner Bros Discovery, amid an extraordinary corporate battle over the entertainment giant.
In a bid to address concerns about its $108.4bn hostile takeover bid, Paramount said on Monday morning that Larry Ellison, the co-founder of tech giant Oracle, had agreed to personally backstop $40.4bn in equity financing for the proposed deal.
Paramount said it was attempting to tackle WBD’s “amorphous need” for financial flexibility, and bluntly denied the rival Netflix offer was superior.
Shares in Warner Brothers are up 3% at $28.61 in early Wall Street trading.
In other news…
The UK economy grew more slowly than thought earlier this year, with growth in April-June downgraded to just 0.2%
The next official forecast for the UK economy will be delivered on 3 March next year
Gold and silver have hit record highs, as investors seek out safe-haven assets and anticipate cuts to US interest rates.
China has announced new tariffs against Europe’s dairy industry.
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UK's OBR to prepare economic and fiscal forecast on 3 March 2026
A date for the diary for UK readers: the Spring Forecast – an update on the country’s economy and public finances – will be delivered on 3 March.
However, it isn’t expected to be as dramatic as last month’s budget, as the UK’s fiscal watchdog won’t be measuring performance against the government’s fiscal targets (so there won’t be pressure for tax rises or spending cuts to avoid breaching them).
Hopefully the OBR will avoid leaking its report early again too.
The government says:
The Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves has asked the Office for Budget Responsibility to prepare an economic and fiscal forecast for publication on 3 March 2026.
As set out at the Budget, the Spring forecast will not make an assessment of the government’s performance against the fiscal mandate and will instead provide an interim update on the economy and public finances.
The government will respond to the March forecast through a statement to Parliament, in line with the government’s commitment to deliver one major fiscal event a year at the Budget.
This approach gives families and businesses the stability and certainty they need and supports the government’s growth mission.
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