Closing summary
Strong US jobs figures have dented hopes for early interest rate cuts. Employers added 199,000 jobs last month, more than expected and up from October’s increase of 150,000 jobs. Stocks on Wall Street fell after the data was released.
However, employment growth has been fading this year after the Federal Reserve launched an aggressive campaign to pull back inflation from its highest levels in a generation. Official data has bolstered hopes that the central bank will manage to guide the US economy to a so-called “soft landing”, where price growth normalises and recession is avoided.
Over here, the average cost of a two-year fixed-rate mortgage in the UK has fallen below 6% for the first time in almost six months, figures showed on Friday.
In news that will be welcome to homebuyers and remortgagors, data from Moneyfacts showed that the cost of borrowing is still falling from the peaks reached in the summer.
Our other main stories:
The UK’s competition watchdog has paved the way for a formal investigation into the partnership between Microsoft and ChatGPT developer OpenAI by asking for comments on the arrangement.
The Competition and Markets Authority made the announcement on Friday after a bout of leadership and boardroom turmoil at OpenAI, which is based in San Francisco.
The company was established as a non-profit entity whose board controls a commercial unit, in which Microsoft is the biggest investor.
Nationwide Building Society has told nearly 500 staff they are at risk of redundancy, just weeks before the Christmas holidays.
The cuts are part of a sweeping restructuring programme, launched under its chief executive, the former TSB boss Debbie Crosbie, which is meant to “streamline” head office operations by changing reporting lines or slashing jobs. The exercise will ultimately affect 1,000 staff.
Britain’s largest recruiters have warned the Bank of England that demand for permanent hiring among UK businesses has plunged at the second fastest rate since the pandemic, amid worsening headwinds for the UK economy.
In more bad news for UK workers, ministers are cutting holiday allocations and pay for irregular and part-time workers, at a cost to staff of up to £248m a year.
The government is changing how holiday days and pay are calculated for people who do not work full-time throughout the year, such as shift-workers, school employees and those on zero-hours contracts.
EU countries may soon be able to halt their last remaining Russian gas imports under plans to ban Russian energy companies from their pipelines and terminals. Brussels is reportedly on the cusp of drafting new rules which could empower the EU’s member states to crack down on companies from Russia and Belarus that have continued to import Russian gas into Europe since Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine by buying import capacity at key EU import terminals and pipelines.
Spotify has announced that the chief financial officer, Paul Vogel, is to leave, days after cashing in $9.3m (£7.4m) in shares in the wake of the music streaming service announcing it is to cut almost a fifth of its global workforce.
The betting firm Flutter has said it is working towards 29 January as the date for its listing on the New York stock exchange, but it will keep its premium listing in London.
The company, formerly known as Paddy Power Betfair, is proceeding with a secondary listing in the US but it may “pursue a primary listing in the US in due course”.
Elon Musk has said the Disney chief executive, Bob Iger, should be “fired immediately” after the world’s biggest entertainment company joined an advertising boycott of his X platform.
Updated
Elon Musk says Disney boss should be ‘fired immediately’ amid X ad boycott
Elon Musk has said the Disney chief executive, Bob Iger, should be “fired immediately” after the world’s biggest entertainment company joined an advertising boycott of his X platform.
Musk, the world’s richest man, has embarked on a series of outbursts against companies halting their ad campaigns on the site, formerly known as Twitter, after he endorsed an antisemitic tweet last month.
“Walt Disney is turning in his grave over what Bob has done to his company,” Musk said in a series of tweets. “He should be fired immediately.”
