Afternoon summary
A quick recap:
The oil price has hit $90 per barrel for the first time this year, as Saudi Arabia and Russia announce they will extend their voluntary production cuts until December.
The move risks pushing up fuel prices, undermining efforts to cool inflation….
….at a time when petrol prices have hit their highest level of the year.
Britain’s private sector economy shrank in August, for the first time since January, as firms were hit by higher interest rates and weak demand.
But car sales have risen for the 13th month running, with electric vehicles taking 20% of the market in August.
Fears about the health of the global economy have intensified following downbeat news about service sector activity in China and the eurozone, as well as the UK.
The discount chain B&M has struck a deal to buy 51 Wilko stores for up to £13m as the stricken retailer’s administrators rush to seal last-minute deals with the fate of thousands of jobs hanging in the balance.
But…. the GMB union has said that administrators for Wilko have confirmed they will make 1,332 workers redundant and close 52 stores, with workers being informed at the latest by 10am on Wednesday.
Birmingham city council, the largest local authority in the country, has in effect declared itself bankrupt after issuing a section 114 notice, signalling that it does not have the resources to balance its budget.
More than half of shoppers fear that they have fallen victim to “skimpflation”, the practice in which basic items are reduced in quality but not in price.
UK chip designer Arm will be valued at up to $52bn when it floats on the US stock market, a new regulatory filing shows.
The success of the weightloss drug Wegovy has helped its Danish manufacturer to overtake the French luxury group LVMH as Europe’s most valuable company.
Companies with a smaller market cap than Novo Nordisk...
— Morning Brew ☕️ (@MorningBrew) September 5, 2023
• JPMorgan Chase
• LVMH
• Tencent
• Mastercard
• J&J
• Samsung
• Oracle
• Chevron
• Nestlé
• Coca-Cola
Updated
PA: Administrators have confirmed 1,332 further redundancies at Wilko, says GMB
The GMB Union has said that administrators for Wilko have confirmed they will make 1,332 workers redundant and close 52 stores, with workers being informed at the latest by 10am on Wednesday, PA Media reports.
It said that 24 of these sites will close on Tuesday September 12, and the remaining 28 will be closed two days later. This will lead to 1,016 redundancies, GMB said.
The job losses also include 299 at the company’s two warehouses. These workers will be invited to a meeting on Wednesday after which they will be allowed to go home, GMB said.
There will be a further 17 redundancies among the company’s digital team at its support centre.
The GMB also said that PwC is still working with a bidder for Wilko “who has made an offer for a significant part of business”.
It added:
“Whilst there remains a possibility that this fails to deliver, we are working extremely hard and doing everything we can to help it over the line.”
Updated
