Closing summary
Time for a recap.
Bank of England chief economist Huw Pill has said he thinks the bank is still “some way off” cutting interest rates.
In a speech to Cardiff University Business School, Pill said:
In my baseline scenario the time for cutting Bank Rate remains some way off.
Pill said he wanted to see “more compelling evidence” that the persistent factors pushing up inflation were being squeezed, and cautioned against “being lulled into a false sense of security” from lower headline inflation in the coming months.
A survey of UK factories found that costs are being driven by up Red Sea disruption, which may hamper the battle to bring down inflation.
UK manufacturing production fell for the twelfth month running in February, according to S&P Global’s monthly poll of UK purchasing managers, with new orders, output, employment levels and stocks of purchases all dropping.
Hopes of looming interest rate cuts have helped to boost activity in the housing market, where prices rose on an annual basis in February for the first time in over a year.
Marks & Spencer has claimed victory after Michael Gove’s decision to block a controversial plan to raze and redevelop its main store on London’s Oxford Street was ruled to be unlawful.
ITV has sold its 50% stake in BritBox International, the streaming service that offers programmes such as Line of Duty outside the UK, to BBC Studios for £255m in cash.
Low taxation on petrol SUVs in the UK compared with much of Europe is inviting a glut of large, polluting luxury cars, according to an analysis by a green thinktank.
Elon Musk has filed a lawsuit accusing OpenAI and its chief executive, Sam Altman, of breaching its foundational mission by putting the pursuit of profit ahead of the benefit of humanity.
The cost of first and second-class stamps is to go up again next month, after Royal Mail announced price rises of 10p a letter.
Bosses at the UK haulage company Wincanton have thrown their support behind a £762m takeover offer from the US logistics business GXO and dropped their backing for a rival bid.
The annual pay package of the boss of GlaxoSmithKline, Emma Walmsley, has jumped by 50% to £12.7m, mainly because of a higher share bonus payout reflecting the British drugmaker’s improved performance.
Updated
US consumer sentiment weakens
Over in the US, consumer sentiment has dipped as people grew gloomier about current economic conditions, and the prospects for the future.
The University of Michigan’s consumer sentiment index has slipped to 76.9 for February, down from January’s reading of 79.0, and also worse than the preliminary reading of 79.6 taken duting last month.
The Current Economic Conditions index fell by 3.1%, to 79.4 from 81.9.
The Index of Consumer Expectations lost 2.5%, to 75.2 from 77.1.
*US FEB. ISM MANUFACTURING INDEX FALLS TO 47.8; EST. 49.5
— Christian Fromhertz 🇺🇸 (@cfromhertz) March 1, 2024
*MICHIGAN FINAL FEB. CONSUMER SENTIMENT AT 76.9; EST. 79.6 pic.twitter.com/xvFQcIKyuQ
Surveys of Consumers director Joanne Hsu says:
Consumer sentiment moved sideways this month, slipping just two index points below January and holding the gains in sentiment seen over the past three months.
Expected business conditions remained substantially higher than last autumn, with short-run expectations now 63% above and long-run expectations 46% above November 2023 readings. For all but one index component, readings this month were higher than all values between mid-2021 and the end of 2023.
Consumers perceived few changes in the state of the economy since the start of the new year, and they appear to be assured that inflation will continue on a favorable trajectory. Sentiment is currently 8 points shy of the historical average since 1978.
The year-ahead inflation expectations in the United States edged up to 3% in February 2024, from a three-year low of 2.9% in the prior month, matching the preliminary estimate from the University of Michigan Consumer Survey. pic.twitter.com/c8PE93Uezs
— PFO Inc (@PfoInc) March 1, 2024
