Source: Sharecast
STOCKS TO WATCH
Online ticket platform Trainline held guidance and launched a new £100m share buyback after delivering flat sales and revenue for the half year. Group net ticket sales came in at £3.3bn for the six months to August 31 and group underlying revenue was £233m, 1% lower year-on-year.
Housebuilder Berkeley said housing market activity has been further impacted by the ongoing conflict in the Middle East and political uncertainty in the UK, with buyers "more cautious to commit". The firm said it was mindful that prospective purchasers may defer transactions until after the Autumn Budget statement at the end of October.
NEWSPAPER ROUND-UP
Consumers will pay higher energy bills unless the UK government speeds up work on a vast programme of upgrades to the electricity grid to enable the switch to renewables, the public spending watchdog has warned. The National Audit Office (NAO) said that without faster action the extra costs associated with managing the ageing power network, which are ultimately passed on to the public, could reach £7.8bn a year by 2030. – Guardian
No 10 has announced the construction of a new fleet of battery-powered trains that will “bring faster, more reliable journeys to the north”. The 29 new trains, which will be run by TransPennine Express, are set to be built in Alstom’s Litchurch Lane works in Derby from 2028, which the government says will support 350 local jobs, as well as nearly 6,000 across the UK. The new fleet will be made up of Adessia Stream trains, a battery-powered model that will be the first of its kind to be used for long-distance mainline journeys in the UK when it enters service in 2034. – Guardian
A Tory MP has said Kemi Badenoch should pledge to scrap the triple lock to restore the party’s economic credibility. The politician, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said the Conservatives must “slaughter some sacred cows” if they are to regain power and stabilise the public finances. The abolition of the triple lock, which increases the state pension by the highest of either inflation, wage growth or 2.5pc, would be integral to this, the MP said. – Telegraph
Michael O’Leary, the Ryanair boss, has called on the Transport Secretary to sack the UK’s “incompetent” air traffic control boss. Mr O’Leary has written to Heidi Alexander urging her to dismiss Martin Rolfe, the chief executive of the air traffic control body National Air Traffic Services (Nats), after a computer meltdown led to more than 2,000 flights being cancelled this week. It is the third time in as many years that a computer malfunction at Nats has grounded flights. – Telegraph
A “toxic culture” and an environment in which senior officials “resented” being challenged led to a crisis in the data collected by the Office for National Statistics, a cross-party committee of MPs has claimed. In a report deeply critical of the ONS and its governing body the UK Statistics Authority (UKSA), members of the Commons public administration and constitutional affairs committee castigated the agencies for not tackling the deterioration in data standards “until they reached crisis point”. – The Times
US CLOSE
US stocks fell to a six-week low on Thursday as bond yields climbed and oil prices continued to rise amid fears that the Middle East conflict could turn into a protracted war following comments from Donald Trump.
According to The Wall Street Journal, White House aides have told the president that the Iran war could drag on until the end of Trump's term in early 2029. Trump had said earlier this week that the conflict could end "immediately" after the midterm elections in November.
Brent crude surged over 6% to $107.63 a barrel, hitting its highest level since mid-May, while 10-year US Treasury yields jumped 12.3 basis points to a three-year high of 4.967%.
The Dow and S&P 500 both fell 0.6% each, while the Nasdaq slipped 0.6%. The S&P 500 and Nasdaq both finished at their lowest levels since late-July.