BUSINESS LIVE: Wage development slows; Metro Bank fined £16.7m; AstraZeneca upgrades steerage

Direct Line is cutting 550 jobs as its boss embarks on a £100million cost-saving programme to turn around its fortunes.

The cuts, representing 5 per cent of the beleaguered insurance firm’s workforce, were announced as the group revealed that it had lost 71,000 own-brand motor insurance customers in the latest quarter.

As the holiday season looms into view, Royal Mail is joining M&S, Sainsbury’s, Aldi et al in the advertising battle for Christmas revenues.

Britain’s postal delivery service is involved in an existential fight.

A rival to the London Stock Exchange is about to be snapped up by a Swiss competitor in a multi-million-pound deal.

Aquis Exchange, a competitor to the LSE’s junior Alternative Investment Market (AIM), which targets smaller companies, has backed a £207million takeover offer from Zurich-based SIX.

Adam Vettese, market analyst at eToro, comments on AstraZeneca’s performance:

‘AstraZeneca shareholders will have been sick of the sight of shares tumbling over the last 2 months, some 30% in fact, but this morning they’ve been given some much-needed relief with the second forecast hike in four months.

“Amid litigation in China and some lacklustre trial results, cancer and rare disease medicines have propelled the firms earnings beyond what analysts expected and as such EPS is expected to grow by a high-teens percentage.

Interestingly, the update also included an intention to invest $3.5 billion in the US, creating over 1000 jobs, which amid an uncertain position for big pharma post-election, could well curry favour with the new Trump administration.

British holidaymakers will get more bang for their buck on the Continent this winter as the pound soars against the euro.

In a boost for families planning skiing trips and other breaks in Europe, sterling topped €1.21 for the first time since March 2022.

Luke Bartholomew, Deputy Chief Economist at Abrdn, comments on the latest ONS unemployment figures:

“Despite the headline catching jump in unemployment, it is probably the ongoing slowdown in wage growth that will be most interesting to policymakers.

The unemployment data has been plagued by methodological issues for some time, and so has been playing a much smaller role than normal in policy decisions.

Meanwhile, the ongoing slowing in wage growth will give the Bank of England confidence that inflation pressures are broadly as expected.

Of course, the fiscal stimulus announced in the Budget and the likelihood of a material policy shift in the US does mean that all data might feel a little dated as we await the impact of these shifts.

But for now, there is nothing to shift the Bank away from its plan of gradual rate reductions, which will likely see the next 25bps cut occur early next year.”

Wage growth has fallen to its lowest level in more than two years while Britain’s jobless rate jumped by more than expected, according to official figures.

The Office for National Statistics said average regular earnings growth eased back to 4.8 per cent in the three months to September, down from 4.9 per cent in the previous three months.

Bitcoin could be worth $100,000 by January as crypto investors pile in on the back of Donald Trump’s thumping election victory.

The digital currency hit a record high yesterday, rising above $89,000 for the first time, as a wave of ‘Trump trades’ erupted on global markets.

Metro Bank has been fined almost £16.7million after a City watchdog probe found historic failures in the lender’s money laundering checks.

Between June 2016 and December 2020, Metro ‘failed to have the right systems and controls’ to adequately monitor over 60 million transactions worth more than £51billion, the Financial Conduct Authority said.