Source: Sharecast
Stocks to watch
Asia-focused bank Standard Chartered said it would hand back $1.5bn to shareholders after a rise in annual earnings. Pre-tax profits for 2024 came in at $6bn, up from $5.1bn a year earlier and slightly below average estimates of $6.2bn.
Lloyds Banking Group kicked off a share buyback programme worth up to £1.7bn on Friday, set to finish by 31 December, with the sole purpose of reducing its ordinary share capital. The FTSE 100 bank said Morgan Stanley would conduct the buyback independently, purchasing shares as principal before selling them on to Lloyds for cancellation.
Newspaper round-up
UK lenders paid “advance commissions” to car dealers that may have encouraged them to push costlier loans on to consumers, legal filings linked to the motor finance scandal reveal. Court documents seen by the Guardian show that lenders, including Lloyds Banking Group, have paid commission to individual dealerships in lump sums upfront, which campaigners say total millions of pounds. – Guardian
The number of independent breweries in Britain declined at its fastest rate in 2024, figures from the “indie beer” trade body suggest. The UK had 1,715 breweries at the end of 2024, 100 fewer than at the start of the year, according to the data released by Siba, which represents independent brewing companies. The overall fall the previous year was just eight. – Guardian
Printer and PC company HP has been deliberately adding a 15 minute wait time to its customer service line in an attempt to force people to fix their own problems, it has been claimed. The US consumer electronics giant has added the compulsory waiting time for customers who call its helplines to force them to pursue a “digital self-solve” instead. – Telegraph
The Ministry of Defence (MoD) is hiring a diversity tsar with a “spiritual edge” even as Sir Keir Starmer faces pressure to increase military spending amid looming threats posed by Russia. The role, advertised on the government website, states that the suitable candidate will be required to “constructively challenge and critique current practice” within diversity and inclusion and will be eligible for an annual salary of up to £38,790. - Telegraph
A former analyst at one of the City’s biggest fund managers used confidential information on companies including Daimler, Jet2 and THG to make nearly £1 million with his sister and others, prosecutors told a London court on Thursday. Redinel Korfuzi, 37, is accused of using information he accessed through his job as a research analyst at Janus Henderson, which has more than £300 billion of assets under management, to trade using accounts held by his three co-defendants. – The Times
US close
Wall Street stocks closed sharply lower Thursday, knocking the S&P 500 from its record close.
At the close, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 1.01% at 44,176.65, while the S&P 500 lost 0.43% to 6,117.52 and the Nasdaq Composite saw out the session 0.47% weaker at 19,962.36.
The Dow closed 450.94 points lower on Thursday, easily reversing gains recorded in the previous session as traders got stuck into minutes from the FOMC's latest monetary policy meeting, which revealed that central bank officials agreed they would need to see inflation come down more before lowering interest rates further and expressed fears around Donald Trump's tariffs.
On the macro front, Americans lined up for unemployment benefits at an accelerated pace in the week ended 15 February, according to the Labor Department.
Initial jobless claims rose by 5,000 to 219,000 last week, ahead of expectations for a reading of 215,000, while continuing claims were broadly in line with expectations at 1.869m.
The four-week moving average, which aims to smooth out week-to-week volatility, decreased by 1,000 week-on-week to 215,250.