Britain's largest car maker, Jaguar Land Rover, will shut down its four UK factories for a week starting from 4 November in anticipation of Brexit disruption.
JLR, which produces around 1.5 million vehicles a year in the UK said it needed 20 million parts a day and had to act now in order to mitigate immediate problems stemming from a disorderly departure from the EU
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Shares in tobacco giant Imperial Brands have been hammered this morning. The maker of cigarette brands including Lambert & Butler and Rizla has been hit by a crackdown on vaping in the US.
British Airways owner IAG is down 2 per cent after warning that widespread disruption resulting from a pilots' strike would dent profits.
UK car firms have reported their an increase in production after 25 straight months of decline. The industry's trade body warned that the 3.3 per cent rise was a one-off bounce after a number of plants brought forward their summer shutdowns to April in anticipation of the original Brexit deadline on 29 March.
Vaping backlash wipes billions off big tobacco
Revelations that e-cigarettes may not be as safe as some advocates have hinted are taking billions of pounds off of the value of tobacco firms.
Imperial Brands' stock market valuation has plunged by about £2bn this morning on the back of a crackdown in the US.
Yesterday the market leader in the US, Juul, halted all advertising and lobbying following scrutiny over a number of deaths that have been linked to vaping products.
E-cigarettes and smoke-free tobacco had been billed as the sources of future growth for tobacco firms, particularly in developed markets where the number of smokers is dwindling.
Google competition probe
Reuters reports that US investigators have asked Oracle for information about Google as part of an antitrust probe.
Oracle is one of dozens of companies said to have been asked to provide information to the House Judiciary Committee which is looking into allegations that Google has abused its dominance of the online advertising business.
Tech giants like Google, Amazon and Facebook are now facing criticism from across the political spectrum in the US over competition concerns.
The pound is sliding again today.
It's down 0.2 per cent against the dollar to $1.233 and 0.1 per cent against the euro to €1.127.
That comes after steep falls yesterday as increasingly angry and divisive rhetoric in the House of Commons signalled that there is little chance of a swift end to the political turmoil around Brexit.
ABN Amro investigation adds to growing wave of European scandals
Europe’s widening money laundering scandals took a new turn Thursday as Dutch lender ABN Amro Bank disclosed a criminal probe over alleged failures to check on clients and report suspicious transactions.
Shares of the bank slumped the most in more than three years and its bonds fell as investors assessed the financial impact on a lender that’s still trying to exit government ownership after a bailout. ABN Amro’s Dutch rival ING paid a record fine last year and acknowledged “serious shortcomings” in its efforts to prevent financial crime.
The Dutch probe adds to a series of money laundering cases that have engulfed lenders particularly in northern Europe, and highlighted weaknesses in the region’s efforts to fight the flow of illicit funds.
Only this week, the former head of Danske Bank in Estonia, the unit at the centre of a €200bn (£177bn) money-laundering scandal, was found dead after disappearing from his home on Monday. On Tuesday, Germany’s Deutsche Bank received a visit from law enforcement officials over its role in the scandal.
Money laundering: ABN Amro investigation adds to growing wave of European scandals
China hits back at new US sanctions
Beijing has accused the US of "bullying" tactics for placing new sanctions on Chinese firms and individuals suspected of transferring oil from Iran.
Yesterday, the US Treasury Department announced new measures against five Chinese citizens and six companies, including Cosco Shipping.
“We always oppose the so-called long arm jurisdiction and unilateral sanctions,” Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Geng Shuang said. “We also oppose the bullying practice of the US.”
The latest wranglings could dampen renewed hopes of a detente between the world's two largest economies.
Stock markets have posted strong gains today following positive comments coming from the White House about the potential for a US-China trade deal.
The FTSE is up more than 1 per cent so far this morning, while major markets in France and Germany are also up.
Royal Mail couriers to go on strike to demand employment rights
Couriers working for Royal Mail's same-day delivery subsidiary have voted overwhelmingly to strike, demanding a living wage and badic employment rights.
More than 90 per cent of ballots cast were in favour of industrial action, with walkouts planned of 10 and 11 October, the Independent Workers' Union of Great Britain (IWGB) said.
The couriers make deliveries to clients such as NHS London hospitals, private healthcare provider HCA and corporate clients Goldman Sachs, Deloitte and British American Tobacco.
IWGB claims that for years, eCourier has been unlawfully classifying pushbike, motorbike and van couriers as independent contractors, denying them employment rights, including the right to a guaranteed minimum wage and holiday pay.
IWGB Vice President and eCourier courier Max Dewhurst said:
“eCourier management know that we are all entitled to basic workers' rights, but refuse to abide by the law, and instead, treat us with absolute contempt.
Couriers are often dismissed without cause, pressured by controllers and forced to pay absurd charges. This has to stop and if managers don't agree to come to the negotiating table voluntarily, we will be forced to drag them there through industrial action.”
Anger at Thomas Cook's grinning executives
Thomas Cook's chief airlines officer has apologised after a video of the bankrupt airlines senior executives smiling and celebrating with German pilots was shared on social media.
Thomas Cook's German subsidiary, Condor, was saved from liquidation after the German government stepped in with a €380m loan.
These scenes understandably did not go down well with thousands of Thomas Cook staff who have lost their jobs as a reult of the company going bust:
It should be noted that Condor was profitable whereas Thomas Cook made hefty losses last year. Still, not a wise move from the senior staff involved.
Chief airlines officer Chris Debus has offered his apology:
Ryanair has doubled down on a veiled threat to cut jobs, by bringing in bankrupt Thomas Cook into an internal spat. The airline is urging its pilots to go on unpaid leave or transfer to other bases to avoid redundancies of the kind that have resulted from the travel firm’s collapse.
Ryanair – at loggerheads with its pilots over pay and benefits – wrote to pilots in a number of airports across Europe including Stansted, Manchester and Dublin on Tuesday, encouraging them to take unpaid leave lasting up to 12 months, or to apply for a job in a base with vacancies.
“With yesterday’s collapse of Thomas Cook with the loss of 9,000 jobs in the UK and potentially a further 13,000 jobs across Europe, we hope that there will be sufficient applications for unpaid leave/part-time, so we do not have to resort to job losses,” state the memos seen by The Independent.
Liverpool Football Club can't copyright 'Liverpool'
US GDP has come in unrevised at 2 per cent while jobless claims were up slightly from 210,000 to 213,000
Jaguar to halt production at UK plants because of Brexit
Jaguar Land Rover will shut down its four UK factories on 1 November for a week in anticipation of disruption to imports due to Brexit.
Chief executive Ralf Speth said JLR had to make plans now for the UK's impending departure from the EU on 31 October.
“We cannot think about it, we just have to do it," he told reporters at an event to mark the opening of a new research centre.
"I need 20 million parts a day and that means I have to make commitments to my suppliers, I have to have every and each part available and I have to have it just in time."
