Closing post
Time to wrap up!
Hiring held firm in the US last month, official data showed, amid uncertainty over the strength and direction of the world’s largest economy.
Employers added 50,000 jobs to the US labor force last month, capping the weakest year of growth since the pandemic, according to data released from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics on Friday.
The closely watched reading was slightly shy of the approximately 73,000 jobs economists expected to be added in the US economy in December.
Previous readings for October and November were also revised lower, with the BLS now estimating that the US added 76,000 fewer jobs during those two months. In October, during the longest US government shutdown in history, the US economy shed 173,000 jobs.
The unemployment rate, which rose to a four-year high of 4.6% in November, fell back to 4.4% in December.
Economists predicted that a cut to US interest rates this month was very unlikely, given the drop in the unemployment rate.
In other news…
Rio Tinto and Glencore have restarted talks over a merger that would create the world’s largest mining company.
The talks come almost a year after previous discussions between the two mining companies collapsed. If a deal is agreed, it would create a global mining business with an enterprise value of more than $260bn (£193bn).
Sainsbury’s has blamed “significant headwinds” from weak consumer confidence, heavy online competition and widespread discounting for a fall in sales at its Argos chain over the all-important Christmas quarter.
The Charity Commission has opened a statutory inquiry into City & Guilds’ sale of its qualification awards business to a private company last year.
The announcement has been made after the Guardian revealed last month how City & Guilds bosses were handed million-pound bonuses after the charity privatised its business arm.
The London stock market has ended the week at a new closing high.
The FTSE 100 share index has closed at 10,124 points, up 0.8%, slightly higher than its previous closing high set on Tuesday.
Mining company Glencore (+9.6%) was the top riser, following the news that it could be taken over by Rio Tinto (-3%).
