Closing post
Time for a recap:
Harland & Wolff, the owner of the Belfast shipyard that built the Titanic, will enter into administration this week after failing to find new funding, in a blow to UK government hopes of shipbuilding in the city.
The company said on Monday said that it was insolvent and would appoint administrators from Teneo this week.
It said an unspecified number of redundancies at the listed holding company, Harland & Wolff Group, were inevitable, but added that it was hopeful the companies operating its shipyards would be bought. Those core operations would “continue to trade as usual” for now, it added.
The administration raises serious questions for the UK government, which had promised to build three warships at the Belfast yard in an attempt to spread work beyond the two dominant British shipbuilders, BAE Systems and Babcock International.
Unions have urged the government to help.
In other news today…
A group of leading economists have warned Rachel Reeves that cutting public investment in the UK would damage the “foundations of the economy”, as she prepares next month’s budget.
Next budget is crucial. I hope this report and Lords’ Economic affairs committee one will persuade HMT that we need more investment .Markets will not be scared by dropping nonsensical rule that debt ratio must fall in year 5 irrespective of what happens in years 1-4. https://t.co/0Zk1CVrKFM
— Gus O'Donnell (@Gus_ODonnell) September 16, 2024
Accountancy group Deloitte UK is to equalise its maternity and paternity leave allowance
Righmove has reported that the asking prices of UK homes jumped by more than usual this month.
UK car parts maker TI Fluid Systems has rejected a takeover approach from Canadian rival ABC Technologies, a move which has pushed its share price up by 13%.
Over on Wall Street, the Dow Jones industrial average share index has hit a new alltime high.
The Dow, which contains 30 large US companies, is up 173 points or 0.4% at 41,567 points today.
Chipmaker Intel is leading the risers, up 2.2%, following reports that it will win up to$3.5bn of federal grants to manufacture semiconductors for the US government.
Hopes that the US Federal Reserve might announce a steep cut to US interest rates on Wednesday is also cheering traders in New York.
