Retail chiefs warn perfect storm of taxes hitting jobs CITY AM says a heavyweight group of retailers has warned the Treasury that hundreds of thousands of jobs are at risk in the retail sector due to unsustainable cost hikes this year. It’s the latest in a long string of warnings from the retail sector, which has been vocal about the coming damage to jobs and investment on the British high street.
Job losses will restrain price pressures, says BoE rate-setter The FT says companies will struggle to raise prices this year as consumers are hit by job losses and spending softens, according to a Bank of England rate-setter who argues the central bank should have cut interest rates more aggressively last week.
This week’s The Economist reports on “pig-butchering”, the most lucrative scam in a global industry that steals over $500bn a year from victims all around the world.
The FT leads with China’s retaliatory tariffs on the US, which the paper says could set off a “trade war” between the two nations.
The Economist says IN HIS OWN inimitable style, President Donald Trump has identified something he dislikes and approached it with a wrecking ball. Deprived of American funding by an executive order, aid programmes around the world are on the brink of collapse. But for the intervention of a judge at the 11th hour on January 28th, large parts of America’s federal government might have suffered a similar fate.
The Financial Times says the Bank of England has halved its growth forecast, with a cut to rates powering the FTSE 100. The bank is expecting the economy to grow by just 0.75% this year in what the paper describes as a blow to Chancellor Rachel Reeves.
Trump’s takeover proposal for Gaza condemned by US allies across the world The FT says Donald Trump has outdone himself. After a tumultuous return to the White House, the mercurial US president has unveiled arguably his most reckless plan to date. Having threatened to seize Greenland and the Panama Canal, Trump now has Gaza, the war-shattered Palestinian territory, in his sights. His proposal to move Gaza’s 2.2mn population elsewhere, with the US taking over the strip in a “long-term ownership position”, is as morally reprehensible as it is dangerous.
Brits braced for tax hikes in the future City AM reports since coming into power, Labour has repeatedly attempted to position itself as the energetic party for economic growth, capable of shocking a lagging system to reach new heights. But last week, the Chancellor of the Exchequer’s announcement was far from the electric economic thinking needed to revive a faltering system. Rather, it exposed the new government’s fundamental weaknesses: a lack of coherence, credibility and crucially, urgency.
Growth? Voters aren’t buying it A majority of Brits now have little confidence in Rachel Reeves’ plan to generate economic growth despite a renewed push from the Chancellor to kickstart Britain’s ailing economy, exclusive polling for City AM has found. The front page also reports questions are swirling over a major contract at HS2 Euston after a failed bidder alleged foul play during the procurement process.
As anticipated, the Financial Times highlights the aftermath of President Donald Trump’s decision to halt sweeping tariffs on Mexico just hours before they were set to take effect. The move left markets in turmoil, with investors and businesses scrambling to make sense of the flurry of policy announcements coming from the White House. The paper describes the situation as a “whipsaw” effect, underscoring the uncertainty gripping global markets.
US President Donald Trump said Monday that Chinese AI startup DeepSeek’s dark-horse entry into the AI race should serve as a “wake-up call” for American companies developing artificial intelligence. “Hopefully, the release of DeepSeek AI from a Chinese company should be a wake-up call for our industries that we need to be laser-focused on competing to win,” Trump told a Republican congressional retreat in Florida. Trump’s comments came after the AI model powering DeepSeek’s chatbot began outperforming top US models, with the Chinese company saying they were made at a fraction of the cost. By Monday, DeepSeek’s chatbot was the number…
Nvidia sinks as Chinese AI startup Deepseek spooks global markets Nvidia shares and other US tech giants tumbled on Monday as Chinese artificial intelligence (AI) startup Deepseek disrupted global markets. Nvidia, a key driver of the AI stock boom due to its advanced chips, saw its shares plummet over 11 per cent on Germany’s Tradegate on Monday. The $3.49 trillion (£2.79 trillion) worth chip maker is trading at $142.62 (£114.09), nearly ten per cent down in pre-market from Friday’s close. Meanwhile, Nasdaq 100 futures fell 3.2 per cent, with the S&P 500 also dropping 1.9 per cent early Monday. https://www.cityam.com/nvidia-sinks-as-chinese-ai-startup-deepseek-spooks-global-markets/
UK economy: Firms prepare to cut staff as they brace for slowdown, CBI says A persistent slowdown in activity among private sector firms could weigh on economic growth over the coming months, with businesses set to cut staff and raise prices, according to a survey. The upcoming increase to national insurance contributions has prompted firms to assess their budgets urgently, the Confederation of British Industry (CBI) said. Output across the private sector is expected to drop over the next three months, having fallen over the previous three-month period, the survey found. Activity has been flat or falling since the middle…
Billionaire Sir Leonard Blavatnik injects £630m to prop up Netflix-rival DAZN as losses mount Billionaire Sir Leonard Blavatnik has injected a further $827m (£630m) into streaming giant DAZN in a bid to become a major rival to Netflix. The businessman has now invested more than $6.7bn (£5.3bn) in the London-based sports streaming service, according to newly-filed accounts with Companies House. DAZN is owned by Access Industries, a New York-based private holding company founded by Ukrainian-born Sir Leonard in 1986. The company was created in 2007 following the merger of Premium TV Limited and Inform Group. https://www.cityam.com/billionaire-sir-leonard-blavatnik-injects-630m-to-prop-up-netflix-rival-dazn-as-losses-mount/
Project 1897 – The imperial presidency The Economist says What will Donald Trump do next? A decade after he became the Republican front-runner, it is still the urgent question. In a distracted era Mr Trump has an unmatched genius for grabbing attention. And for reimagining presidential power. His second inauguration took place in the Capitol’s Rotunda, the same spot where four years earlier his supporters had punched police officers in the face.
Watchdog swings behind growth plan Business & Money reports After his predecessor was ousted by the chancellor, former Amazon chief Doug Gurr acknowledges regulator’s responsibility to ‘play a leading role in the ambitions for growth and prosperity’
Trump sparks Gaza outrage The FT says Donald Trump has urged Egypt and Jordan to take in most of the population of Gaza, saying it was time to “clean out” the territory in comments that are likely to outrage Palestinians and Arabs across the region.
Donald Trump has called on oil producers’ group Opec to bring down global prices in order to put pressure on Russia to end the war in Ukraine, the Financial Times reports.
The Bank of Japan (BOJ) has raised its short-term policy rate to “around 0.5%,” marking its highest level in 17 years. This decision follows December’s inflation surge, with core consumer prices rising 3% year-on-year, the fastest pace in 16 months.
Bank of England: Goldman Sachs expects deep interest rate cuts Markets are significantly underestimating the chance that the Bank of England will have to step up the pace of cutting interest rates, Goldman Sachs has argued. Traders anticipate just two interest rate cuts this year with one more cut priced in for 2026, which would leave the benchmark Bank Rate at 4.0 per cent. It currently stands at 4.75 per cent. Investors are concerned by signs of stubborn inflationary pressures in the UK economy, with many economists predicting that the headline rate will increase to over three per cent in…
UK economy: Consumers catch ‘January blues’ as confidence slumps Consumer confidence in the health of the UK economy slumped in January, pointing to further headwinds in the coming months. A net -34 of respondents to the British Retail Consortium’s (BRC) latest sentiment monitor said that the economy would get worse over the next three months, down from -27 in December. This put confidence in the health of the economy at its lowest level since the BRC started collecting data on the topic in March 2024. The survey comes after a succession of disappointing data releases, which indicate that the economy slowed…
Rachel Reeves’ tax hikes pose ‘major threat’ to UK labour market resilience The government’s tax hikes pose a “major threat” to the health of the labour market, a leading economist has warned, as markets prepare for the latest jobs market figures. The labour market has been a key source of strength for the UK economy, with continued high employment helping to sustain strong levels of wage growth over the past couple of years. Many forecasts for 2025 assume that the continued resilience of the labour market will ensure that economic growth accelerates compared to last year. But economists are worried…
The FT reports that President Donald Trump’s return to the White House has “put more than £300bn of potential federal infrastructure funding at risk”.
CITY AM says Further tax rises or spending cuts look increasingly likely after the latest borrowing figures, but there were a few silver linings for the Chancellor.
Trump widens ‘economic war’ to tax The FT says Donald Trump has threatened to double tax rates for foreign nationals and companies in the US to hit back at “discriminatory” levies on American multinationals, in a move that threatens to trigger a global confrontation over tax regimes. In a memo outlining his “America First” trade policy on Monday, the US president referred to an obscure 90-year-old provision of the US tax code — Section 891 — that empowers him to retaliate against foreign countries by imposing punitive taxes on their citizens and businesses in America.
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