Closing post
Time to wrap up:
Donald Trump’s increasingly erratic trade war has triggered a slump in shipments to the US’s most important ports, amid the growing risk of a recession in the world’s largest economy.
In the latest sign of the US president’s tariff policies rattling the economy, figures show the number of vessels scheduled to arrive at the Port of Los Angeles next week is down by almost a third on the same period a year earlier.
According to the data compiled from ocean carrier manifest records by Port Optimizer, the number of arrivals this week is on track to be down by about 11% on the same week last year. Separate figures reported by the Financial Times from Vizion, a data provider, show container bookings from China to the US fell 45% by mid-April compared with a year earlier.
Asset manager Apollo Global warned that the US trade with China was weakening, as America suffers a ‘stagflation shock’.
Marks & Spencer has told hundreds of workers at its main online distribution centre in Leicestershire to stay at home as website orders remain on hold for the fourth day in a row.
The retailer, which is battling the consequences of a cyber-attack that began a week ago and has affected stores as well as its online business, told 200 agency staff at the Castle Donington site they were not currently required.
The move, first reported by Sky News, came after it halted all orders through its website and apps on Friday. The company has apologised to shoppers for “this inconvenience”, which will hit its online clothing and homeware sales, which amount to almost £3.8m a day on average.
Shares in M&S fell over 2% at one stage, and have closed down 0.6%.
The UK economy is set to slow sharply for the next two years as Donald Trump’s global tariff war weighs on consumer spending and business investment, a study by a leading forecaster has predicted.
Manufacturing businesses in Texas have reported a slump in activity this month, as Trump’s tariffs caused economic disruption.
Shares in Deliveroo have risen by 17% as investors reacted to a $3.6bn (£2.7bn) takeover offer by the rival food delivery app DoorDash that could net its founder more than £170m.
The EU’s strategy to secure its own supply of microchips is “deeply disconnected from reality”, a damning report by the official European court of auditors (ECA) has found.
Updated
FTSE 100 posts 11th daily rise in a row
Britain’s blue-chip share index had matched its best run of daily gains in eight years – just!
The FTSE 100 ebbed in late trading, perhaps hurt by that weak economic data from the US. But it ended the day in positive territory, up 2 points or 0.02% at 8417 points.
That means the FTSE 100 has risen for the last 11 days trading, matching the 11-day run recorded in December 2019. It hasn’t had a longer stretch since January 2017, when the index posted a 14-day rally.
The FTSE 100 hasn’t recovered all its trade war losses, though – it had been trading over 8,600 points before Donald Trump announced his new tariffs on US trading partners at the start of April.
Stocks have been rising as Trump backed away from a trade war, by pausing most of those tariffs for 90 days.
Neil Wilson, UK investor strategist at Saxo Markets, points out that the FTSE 100 has “defensive characteristics” – many of its members are decent dividend payers.
But, he adds:
Markets appear way too complacent at this stage – tariffs are on pause, not cancelled. Markets are behaving like the latter. Certainly the direction of travel can be ascertained ‘at the moment’, but we don’t what happens next. Because this is not a game of chicken that Trump is losing right now.
