FTSE 100: Wall Street struggles after hot inflation print as London closes in red

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Drinks firm AG Barr is to cut almost 200 jobs as part of an overhaul of its operations.

The Irn-Bru maker said the roles will be cut through the closure of direct sales operations at three sites across the UK and the closure of the Leeds office for its energy drink brand, Boost.

AG Barr said on Thursday it is changing how it sells its products to independent retailers and convenience stores following a review.

It will shift from its current telesales-supported model of delivering directly to store, towards a field sales operation through its existing wholesale channels.

As a result, it plans to close Barr Soft Drinks direct sales operations at its sites in Moston, Greater Manchester; Wednesbury near Birmingham; and Dagenham, Greater London.

The move will hit up to 160 jobs, and is expected to be completed by the end of June.

Steven Mnuchin, the former US Treasury Secretary under Donald Trump, is pulling together a consortium of investors with the aim of buying TikTok.

The House of Representatives on Wednesday passed a bipartisan bill that if signed into law would force ByteDance to either divest its flagship global app or face an effective ban on TikTok within the US

“I think the legislation should pass and I think it should be sold,” Mnuchin, who leads Liberty Strategic Capital, told CNBC’s “Squawk Box”. “It’s a great business and I’m going to put together a group to buy TikTok.”

Computer scientist Craig Wright is not Satoshi Nakamoto, the pseudonym attributed to the person widely credited with creating Bitcoin, a High Court judge has ruled.

Wright has claimed he is Satoshi, and was sued by the Crypto Open Patent Alliance (Copa), a non-profit group including cryptocurrency firms.

During a trial at the High Court, Copa claimed Wright had created an “elaborate false narrative” and forged documents to suggest he was Satoshi and had “terrorised” those who questioned him.

The Australian computer scientist, who attended the start of the five-week trial over whether he was the pseudonymised inventor, has denied the allegations.

At the end of the trial on Thursday, Justice Mellor gave a short ruling thatWright was not behind the pseudonym.

Our US team has the latest across the pond:

US stocks quickly rolled over on Thursday despite opening higher. A hotter-than-expected wholesale inflation print served as one of the last pieces of data that could sway the Federal Reserve at its policy meeting next week.

The S&P 500 (^GSPC) slid 0.2%, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average (^DJI) fell 0.2% or roughly 100 points. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite (^IXIC) also fell 0.2% with Nvidia (NVDA) and Tesla (TSLA) dragging on the index following a slide in the prior session.

February's US producer price index rose 0.6%, higher than an expected increase of 0.3%. My colleague Karen Friar writes:

Tesla (TSLA)

Tesla shares were lower in aftermarket trading after Wells Fargo downgraded the car maker from Equal Weight to Underweight, setting a price target of $125 (£97.57), down from $200.

Apple (AAPL)

It might be one of the Magnificent Seven but Apple has had a rough start to 2024 with shares down by around 7% amid weaker iPhone sales and App Store lawsuits all while being behind the curve on AI.

Shell (SHEL.L)

The boss of Shell was paid nearly £8m last year as the oil major has watered down one of its climate pledges.

Deliveroo (ROO.L)

Deliveroo has reported narrowing losses and an increase in revenue in what the group described as a “resilient year of growth” as consumers paid more money for fewer orders.

Read the full story here

There are more sellers putting their homes on the market but the outlook remains cautious because of ongoing uncertainty around interest rate cuts, surveyors have warned.

Over a fifth, 21%, of property professionals reported new selling instructions are rising rather than falling, marking the strongest reading since October 2020, the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) said.

On average, estate agents’ branches had 42 properties, the highest number recorded by RICS since February 2021, with those surveyed noting an increase in market appraisals during the month, compared with the same period last year.

Read the full story here

Bitcoin has hit a fresh all-time high in past 24 hours, rising to $73,737 (£57,563) during early morning trading in UK time.

The largest digital asset by market capitalisation has held above the $73,000 mark since the beginning of the week, bolstered by increased inflows from fund managers such as BlackRock (BLK) and Franklin Templeton (BEN), via the recently approved spot bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs).

Read the full article here

Trainline has revealed a surge in ticket sales as it was boosted by reduced strike action in the UK and strong demand overseas.

Shares in the company jumped over a tenth in early trading to their highest level since 2022, after it said sales were at the top of market expectations.

The online ticketing platform told investors that group net ticket sales increased by 22% to £5.3bn over the year to February 29.

Trainline had previously forecast it would see growth of between 17% and 22% for the period.

Group revenues rose by 21% year-on-year to £397m as a result, it said.

It said UK consumer revenues rose by 21% after the division saw £3.5bn in ticket sales amid a continued recovery in rail travel following the pandemic.

Shareholder activists are calling on Nestlé to reduce its reliance on selling unhealthy food products containing high levels of salt, sugar and fats.

A coalition of shareholders has filed a resolution challenging the food giant to improve its impact on consumers’ health, which will be put to a vote at the annual general meeting on April 18.

It comes as more than 50% of Nestlé’s sales in 2023 were products with a Health Star Rating (HSR) – a nutrient profiling system used in some countries – below the healthier threshold of 3.5 out of five, according to the firm’s own figures.

The coalition, led by responsible investment charity ShareAction, said they are concerned over regulatory, reputational and legal risks as well as public health impacts.

Richard Hunter, head of markets at Interactive Investor, explained how global markets were mixed, with some investors in the US taking profits following the previous day’s solid gains.

Energy giant Shell has watered down one of its climate pledges because of a change to its strategy in the electricity sector.

Shell said that it now plans to reduce the “net carbon intensity” of the energy it sells by 15-20% by 2030 compared to 2016. Its previous target had been to reduce the measure by 20%.

It also dropped a plan to reduce net carbon intensity by 45% by 2035 due to “uncertainty in the pace of change in the energy transition”, although it still intends a 100% reduction by 2050.

Net carbon intensity measures the emissions produced by each unit of energy that Shell sells.

Oil has climbed again after Ukraine struck refineries in Russia, underlining risks to production.

West Texas Intermediate (CL=F) rose 0.3% and was trading at $80 per barrel. Brent (BZ=F) crude gained 0.4% to $84 per barrel.

US stocks were a mixed bag on Wednesday, my colleague Karen Friar writes, with the S&P 500's (^GSPC) record-setting run hitting pause as several tech giants saw their stocks retreat.

The S&P 500 was off about 0.2%, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average (^DJI) rose 0.1%. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite (^IXIC) led the losses, falling more than 0.5% after tech led Tuesday's rally. High-flying Nvidia (NVDA) fell more than 1%, while Tesla (TSLA) fell over 4.5% after a Wells Fargo downgrade and sales warning.

In Asia, the Hang Seng (^HSI) in Hong Kong tumbled 0.7% to 16,961 while the Shanghai Composite (000001.SS) lost 0.2% to 3,038 points. Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 (^N225) finished higher, climbing 0.3% to 38,807 points.

The boss of Shell was paid nearly £8m last year, new figures from the oil giant showed on Thursday.

Wael Sawan was handed a total pay packet worth £7.94m during the period, Shell said, a reduction from the £9.7m that his predecessor Ben van Beurden earned in 2022, although higher than van Beurden’s pay package for 2021.

Sawan’s package included a base salary of £1.4m, an annual bonus of £2.7m and a £2.6m long-term incentive payment.

Retail giant the John Lewis Partnership has revealed a return to annual profit, but said it would not hand out a staff bonus once again.

The group – which owns the John Lewis department stores and Waitrose supermarket chain – reported pre-tax profits of £56m for the year to January 27 against losses of £234m in the previous year.

It said that after “careful consideration” it would not pay its workers an annual bonus for the second year running, but said it would increase overall pay for employees by a record £116m this year.

This marks only the third time since 1953 that the group has not paid out an annual staff bonus.

The group said it cut costs by £88m in the past financial year, with changes to staff hours and “simplified ways of working” across shops and central teams.

It said it would look to increase investment in 2024-25 by 70% to £542m, which will focus on modernising technology, refreshing its shops and simplifying the group.

The group is reportedly mulling a 10% cut in its workforce, accounting for around 11,000 staff jobs, which would be axed over the next five years as part of aims to save £900m by 2027-28.