UK close to Australian trade deal Louise Moon, Simon Foy
Government borrowing hit £303.1bn in year ending March
Retail sales jumped 5.4pc compared with February
FTSE 100 falls flat, stays shy of 7,000
US market edge higher after a rise in factory activity
05:03 PM
Sterling has a strong day
Sterling has had a strong day today, rebounding from a sharp fall on Thursday after strong retail sales and PMI figures were a positive sign for Britain s economic recovery.
It rose 0.07pc against the US dollar to $1.384, as the weak greenback continued a disappointing week ahead of the Fed s latest rates decision. The pound was down 0.4pc against the euro at €1.147.
Extinction Rebellion s vandalism betrays its hollow message
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22 April 2021 • 2:00pm
First they came with colour co-ordinated hammers, now they’ve brought stickers and scuba masks too. Extinction Rebellion aims to terrify us all back to the stone age with its apocalyptic message, yet turns up with a toy box. What next, banana bread for the police and a knitting class in the back of a riot van?
Still, at least there was a bit of token vandalism to even things out as the protesters turned their ire on HSBC, smashing 19 windows at the bank’s Canary Wharf headquarters. Having recently graffitied the Bank of England and put a few windows through at Barclays, as a symbol of western finance HSBC was the obvious name to go for next.
If content is king, Netflix’s crown is slipping
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21 April 2021 • 2:15pm
Tech stocks have been on a roller coaster ride in recent months but even by Silicon Valley’s recent topsy-turvy standards, the $20bn (£14.4bn) that traders wiped off the value of Netflix in after-hours trading on Tuesday is pretty wild.
The company should probably be used to this by now. Expectations are so high when it comes to the world’s number one streaming service that even the tiniest stumble can cause panic on Wall Street.
Darktrace float could be a bigger flop than Deliveroo
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19 April 2021 • 2:00pm
After Deliveroo’s float floperoo, cyber security firm Darktrace should be the sort of company that investors scramble for a piece of.
Deliveroo is desperate to be seen as a technology pioneer but the reality is it’s not much more than a takeaway business with a phone app and a legion of poorly paid bike couriers.
The gap between hope and reality is just one of many reasons why Deliveroo’s stock market listing has been a crushing disaster, with the shares down more than a third from a 390p float price.