Category

Finance

The latest published reporting in this category.

Finance

Brickmaker’s woes deepen the UK housebuilding gloom

Ibstock has issued a thumping profits warning, with sales 22% below expectations in the third quarter With John Healey’s Your First Home scheme on the way, is the mood improving in the housebuilding sector? A couple of the builders have results later this week, so can speak for themselves. In the meantime, though, here’s a thumping profits warning from Ibstock, the country’s biggest brickmaker, to spread a little more gloom. Demand hit a brick wall in the summer, as the company could have put it. Industry data, said Ibstock, show UK brick market volumes down 17% year-on-year in July and August

The Guardian
Read more
Finance

Oil price falls amid hope of a breakthrough to end Iran war

Brent crude drops by more than 6% to $105.55 a barrel, the lowest level in more than two weeks The oil price has fallen to its lowest level in more two weeks amid new hopes of a breakthrough to end the Iran war. Brent crude, the international benchmark, dropped by more than 6.5% to as low as $105.55 a barrel on Monday, the lowest since 16 October, sending shares in airline companies higher and pushing down government borrowing costs. Continue reading...

The Guardian
Read more
Finance

Shop fridges and freezers across Europe hit by fresh suspected cyber-attack

Chains in seven countries say cooling unit temperatures rose overnight in incident similar to hack of French shops Who is hacking Europe’s supermarket fridges and freezers, and why? Supermarket chains in at least seven European countries have said the temperatures of refrigerators and freezers in some of their shops soared overnight to as high as 50C (122F), echoing a cyber-attack last month that caused millions of euros of damage in France. Retailers in Belgium, Estonia, Ireland, Finland, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and Sweden reported problems with their refrigeration systems on Monday, and

The Guardian
Read more
Finance

Tomb Raider’s creators on how the game changed their lives: ‘Skint staff were suddenly pulling up in sports cars’

‘Giving Lara Croft pistols meant we could show off her acrobatics. And when she goes to Peru, we threw in a T rex!’ I joined Core Design in the summer of 1994 and met Toby Gard, who showed me his concept sketches for Tomb Raider. He’d already come up with the title and drawn a mock-up box cover with a woman holding two pistols. Continue reading...

The Guardian
Read more
Finance

Ryanair faces clash with unions as it mulls pay freezes amid soaring fuel costs

Airline also weighs up reducing crew on flights and increasing use of AI as part of cost-cutting measures Business live – latest updates Ryanair has said it is considering implementing pay freezes, setting the scene for a confrontation with unions as the airline tries to offset soaring fuel costs driven by the Middle East conflict. The airline is also considering reducing crew numbers on flights and increasing the use of AI, in a cost-cutting drive. Continue reading...

The Guardian
Read more
Finance

Snowball fight: Cadbury owner in trademark row over festive chocolate treat

Mini Snow Balls’ maker Mondelēz is demanding vegan brand Moo Free remove its White Choccy Snowballs from shelves Toblerone owner sues British vegan chocolate brand over chunky shape The owner of Cadbury and Toblerone has demanded that a small vegan chocolate brand remove its products from shelves in a trademark dispute over the use of the word snowball. Mondelēz International has written a legal letter to Moo Free accusing it of trademark infringement by selling its White Choccy Snowballs – gluten-free biscuit-flavoured rice balls covered in dairy-free white chocolate. Continue reading...

The Guardian
Read more
Finance

Sales slump at UK’s largest brickmaker as housebuilding downturn deepens

Ibstock, which has cut production by a fifth, criticises government for delay in help for housing sector Sales at the UK’s largest brickmaker plunged by more than a fifth over the summer, as it criticised the government for not introducing fresh help for the housing sector faster. Leicestershire-based Ibstock said on Monday that sales slumped by 22% below its expectations in the three months to the end of September, prompting it to slash production levels by a fifth. Continue reading...

The Guardian
Read more
Finance

I’m a wealthy Californian. The billionaire tax is a win for everyone | George Zimmer

The measure would ease inequality and bolster healthcare – without draining our coffers or triggering a billionaire exodus On Tuesday, California voters will decide whether to enact Proposition 40, a one-time, 5% tax on the net worth of about 250 California billionaires. In recent months, a number of California billionaires and their apologists in the media and in government have come out swinging against the ballot measure. I’m not a billionaire, but I’m a Californian wealthy enough to know that they have no valid reason to fight the proposition. For multimillionaires like me, paying a 5% tax

The Guardian
Read more
Finance

Prediction market bettors are the new political pundits. Why are we listening to them? | Judith Levine

Sites like Kalshi and Polymarket offer faux populism as elites reap the benefits – and voters risk being misled Online betting is a bit like Donald Trump. The prediction markets – platforms where users bet on whether events will occur – pretend to be populist, pushing the nabobs aside and representing the “wisdom of the crowd”. “This data is bottom-up, not elites-driven,” a Kalshi ​spokesperson told Reuters. But in fact, the markets are controlled by a few, skillful traders. Continue reading...

The Guardian
Read more
Finance

It’s time to block reckless AI IPOs and tax billionaires | Naomi Klein and Ilana Glazer

We cannot let the billionaire class take unprecedented risks with our future America is a divided country in crisis. Despite the sunny economic forecast coming from the Trump administration, millions of Americans are struggling to find and keep jobs, getting crushed under the rising cost of living, and losing health insurance when they need it the most. Meanwhile, via corporate consolidation and political corruption, the billionaire class is getting richer faster than ever before: a 40% increase in wealth in just the last two years. Today, the combined wealth of nearly 3,000 global billionaire

The Guardian
Read more
Finance

Nine big oil firms on track to share more than $95bn profit two quarters in a row

Windfall for oil corporations such Saudi Aramco and BP comes on back of soaring fuel prices driven by Iran war The world’s biggest oil companies are on track to amass profits of more than $95bn (£71bn) in the third quarter as the war in the Middle East drives up the price of fossil fuels. The windfall war profits have sparked calls for oil corporations such as Saudi Aramco and BP to pay for environmental damage and help the world transition towards renewable energy. Continue reading...

The Guardian
Read more