Closing summary
Stock markets are still drifting lower, with the FTSE 100 in London down 23 points, or 0.3%, at 7,575. Germany’s Dax has shed nearly 1% to 14,418 while France’s CAC is trading 1.1% lower at 6,428 and Italy’s FTSE MiB has lost 0.7% to 24,202.
On Wall Street, the Dow Jones has slipped 0.3% to 33,089 while the tech-heavy Nasdaq is little changed at 12,168 and the S&P 500 has lost 0.4 to 4,142.
Oil prices are pushing higher as Chinese Covid lockdowns are eased and despite a likely rise in US inventories. A potential strike by Norwegian oil workers is also boosting prices. Brent crude, the global benchmark is 0.7% higher at $121.49 a barrel. US light crude has gained 0.6% to $120 a barrel.
UK petrol prices posted their biggest daily jump in 17 years, rising 2.23p a litre and taking the cost of a full tank closer to £100 yesterday.
Growth in the UK construction industry slowed further in May, amid a “considerable loss of momentum” for housebuilders, according to a monthly survey.
The pound has fallen against the dollar and the euro, trading at $1.2558, down 0.2%, and at €1.1685, down 0.6%.
The boss of Wizz Air said air fares would go up by almost 10% in coming months, while the chief executive of Heathrow airport warned of more travel chaos this summer and beyond.
Here’s a round-up of our other main stories:
Britain’s economy is forecast to slow to a standstill next year as it suffers more than any other major industrial country from the effects of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, according to the OECD, a respected Paris-based thinktank.
The average UK house price hit a fresh high in May, rising for the 11th month in a row, according to Halifax data, but the annual growth rate slowed in a sign that the cost of living crisis is cooling the market.
House prices increased by 1% between April and May, or £2,857, taking the average price of a home to a record of £289,099.
More talks will be held this week between unions and rail industry leaders in an attempt to avoid a week of national strikes that will shut down much of Britain’s rail network in late June.
Passengers whose journeys were affected would receive refunds for tickets they had bought, the Rail Delivery Group, which represents train companies, pledged.
Inditex, the owner of Zara, has revealed a 36% jump in sales this spring as shoppers flooded back to its high street outlets after the easing of Covid-19 restrictions.
The failure by governments and businesses to accelerate energy efficiency efforts is “inexplicable”, according to the head of the International Energy Agency.
Countries around the world are pouring funds into new natural gas facilities that could destroy the chances of limiting global heating, in response to soaring energy prices and the war in Ukraine.
More than two in five recent buy now, pay later (BNPL) shoppers relied on credit cards or other forms of borrowing to pay off what they owed, the charity Citizens Advice has said. It said the figures showed that shoppers are “piling borrowing on top of borrowing” and underlined the urgent need for BNPL to be regulated.
“A confederacy of dunces,” sighed Crispin Odey, delivering his verdict on the MPs vying to dethrone Boris Johnson and lead the Tory party.
The hedge fund kingpin, once one of Johnson’s biggest backers, had just finished a long lunch with an old contact and was in devastating form.
“Who would you really want to run the Tory party?” said Odey. “Each of them has blown it. It’s come too early for some of them. I have no regard for Boris. He has never followed through on any policy. He was my friend until Brexit was done and then he just cut me dead.”
Thank you for reading. We’ll be back tomorrow. Bye! - JK
Londoners are working from home mainly to avoid the time and cost of travelling to the office, according to a study that shows most believe they are unlikely to return to five days in the office again, reports my colleague Phillip Inman.
Cuts to public transport and the high cost of fares act as a major deterrent to workers making daily trips to the office, while traffic jams and the soaring cost of petrol and diesel, which hit a fresh peak this week, make commuting by car unattractive, the survey found.
Only 10% of the workers said they thought they would return to the office full-time compared with 73% who told researchers from King’s College London that working from home at least one day a week would be a permanent feature of modern life.
