Source: Sharecast
STOCKS TO WATCH
Trainline said it has been selected by the Rail Delivery Group as a technology supplier to support one of four digital pay-as-you-go trials. The trials will run across the Northern Rail and East Midlands Railway networks, starting between September and November, with each running for nine months from their respective start date.
Healthcare property investment and management firm Assura has confirmed that due diligence in relation to a takeover proposal from Primary Health Properties is still ongoing. After formally adjourning a court meeting and general meeting required to implement an earlier takeover offer from KKR and Stonepeak, Assura said that the due diligence process with PHP – which on 16 May sweetened its proposal to outbid KKR/Stonepeak – is "mov[ing] ahead in a timely manner".
Drugmaker AstraZeneca said on Friday that it had received approval from the European Commission for fixed-duration regimens of its chronic lymphocytic leukaemia candidate Calquence in a first-line setting. The approval follows the positive opinion of the Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use.
NEWSPAPER ROUND-UP
Bonuses for 10 water company executives in England, including the boss of Thames Water, will be banned with immediate effect over serious sewage pollution, as part of new powers brought in by the Labour government. The top executives of six water companies who have overseen the most serious pollution events will not receive performance rewards this year. – Guardian
Amazon has promised to do a better job policing fake reviews and to crack down on sellers using them to boost product ratings after an investigation by the UK competition watchdog. Ending the scourge of fake reviews is a priority for the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) due to the influence they have over consumers. About 90% of UK shoppers rely on reviews, with an estimated £23.0bn a year of spending influenced by crowd-sourced information. Since April, fake reviews have been explicitly banned. – Guardian
Nearly one in 10 cars sold in Britain are now Chinese-made as drivers turn away from Tesla and embrace newer manufacturers such as BYD. Chinese-owned brands had a 9.4% share of Britain's new car market last month, according to the Society for Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT), up from 7.7% in April. The surge saw BYD's sales alone quintuple to 3,025 cars – about 1,000 more than US rival Tesla sold. – Telegraph
Sir Richard Branson faces a fight to fulfil his dream of operating trains through the Channel Tunnel after the rail regulator concluded there was room for just one new entrant. The ruling means Sir Richard must convince the Office of Rail and Road (ORR) that he is better placed to provide competition to Eurostar than three rival bidders. – Telegraph
The net worth of Elon Musk, the Tesla chief executive, fell by nearly $34.0bn on Thursday as the feud with President Trump led to the electric carmaker's shares experiencing their biggest drop in four years. The fortune of the world's richest man fell to $335.0bn, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. Since the start of the year, Musk's net worth has declined by $97.9bn. – The Times
The owner of British Gas has agreed to a ten-year deal worth more than £20.0bn with a Norwegian energy giant to secure gas supplies, in a demonstration of the UK's continued reliance on fossil fuels as North Sea production winds down. Centrica said the agreement with Equinor, which is due to begin in October, will deliver five billion cubic metres of gas annually until 2035, representing about 10% of UK gas demand and enough to supply approximately five million homes. – The Times
US CLOSE
US stocks finished in the red on Thursday as investors turned cautious ahead of the non-farm payrolls report, while shares in Tesla plunged after the breakdown in Donald Trump and Elon Musk's relationship turned very ugly, very quickly.
At the close, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 0.25% at 42,319.74, while the S&P 500 lost 0.53% to 5,939.30 and the Nasdaq Composite saw out the session 0.83% lower at 19,298.45