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VW is mulling a decision to axe as many as 30,000 jobs as it looks to save billions of euros amid a slowdown in the car industry.

The carmaker recently announced it could close some of its German factories for the first time in history.

Analysts at Jefferies said VW is considering closing two to three facilities, with as many as five German sites under threat, putting 15,000 jobs at risk.

According to German publication Manager Magazin, job losses are feared to have doubled to 30,000.

A VW spokesman said:

Gold prices rebounded on Thursday after slipping late on Wednesday while Brent oil prices rose following the Federal Reserve's rate cut and escalating conflict in the Middle East.

It comes as tensions heightened after a second consecutive attack on members of a Lebanese militia backed by Iran, raising the risk of a broader conflict in the region that could disrupt global oil supplies.

Ricardo Evangelista, Senior Analyst at ActivTrades, said:

The S&P 500 share index has jumped by 1.5% after opening in New York, gaining up to 88 points to 5705.96 points and hitting a fresh record high.

It comes after Wednesday's interest rate cut from the US Federal Reserve.

Fawad Razaqzada, market analyst at City Index and FOREX.com, said:

Here's a quick look at what's moving in the markets today...

• Next (NXT.L) jumped after the clothing retailer once again upgraded annual earnings guidance as full price sales in the first six weeks of the second half of the year "materially exceeded" expectations, rising 6.9%. It lifted 2024/25 pre-tax profits forecasts £15m to £995m, up 8.4% on last year, after interim profits for the six months to July surged 7.1% to £452m.

• Retailers in general were higher, with JD Sports (JD.L), Primark owner AB Foods (ABF.L) and Burberry (BRBY.L) also up sharply.

• Heavily-weighted miners rallied, with Anglo American (AAL.L), Antofagasta (ANTO.L), Rio Tinto (RIO.L) and Glencore (GLEN.L) among the top performers as copper prices hit a two-month high.

• Equipment rental firm Ashtead (AHT.L) was also a high riser after an initiation at 'buy' by Berenberg.

• Online grocer and logistics group Ocado (OCDO.L) surged after it upgraded its revenue guidance for Ocado Retail - its joint venture with Marks & Spencer - following a strong third-quarter performance which saw retail revenues jump 15.5%. The company is now targeting low double-digit percentage growth in sales over the year to 3 December, from the £2.8bn generated last year. That's up from earlier guidance for mid-high single-digit growth given in July. Marks & Spencer (MKS.L) also gained on the news.

• Bytes Technology (BYIT.L) advanced as it said trading has remained strong since it updated the market at its annual meeting in July.

• IG Group (IGG.L) and Drax (DRX.L) were both lower as they traded without entitlement to the dividend.

• Close Brothers (CBG.L) reversed earlier gains to trade down after saying it had agreed to sell its wealth management arm for up to £200m to funds managed by Oaktree Capital Management and as it released in-line full-year results.

Boeing (BA) said on Wednesday that it will temporarily furlough tens of thousands of employees after around 30,000 machinists went on strike on Friday.

This halted the production of its best-selling 737 MAX and other airplanes.

Ortberg also said he and other Boeing leaders "will take a commensurate pay reduction for the duration of the strike."

The pound has jumped to its highest level against the US dollar in two and a half years after the Bank of England left interest rates unchanged.

Sterling jumped by almost a cent to $1.331, its highest level since March 2022.

Bank of England governor Andrew Bailey has said:

Investors predict two cuts will happen before the end of the year, with the first expected to take place in November.

Read our full report here

Victor Trokoudes, chief executive and founder at smart money app Plum, said:

As expected, the Bank of England has left interest rates unchanged at 5%.

Policymakers were split on the decision, voting 8–1 to maintain Bank Rate. Swati Dhingra, the most dovish member of the committee, voted against the move and wanted to cut rates to 4.75%.

The other eight members (Andrew Bailey, Sarah Breeden, Megan Greene, Clare Lombardelli, Catherine L Mann, Huw Pill, Dave Ramsden and Alan Taylor) all voted to keep rates steady.

The Office for National Statistics has reported that the direct debit failure rate has increased 12% in the last year.

On a monthly basis, it rose by 1% in August to 2.23% of direct debits.

Year-on-year, the failure rate for “Electricity and Gas” increased by 43%, while “Loans”, “Mortgages”, and “Water” increased by 11%, 11%, and 20% respectively.

Ocado (OCDO.L) shares climbed more than 6% in London after it raised its revenue outlook for the year, now expecting double-digit percentage growth. This was following a significant rise in third-quarter turnover.

he London-listed online grocer reported a 15.5% increase in revenue year-on-year, reaching £658m for the quarter ending 1 September. Weekly average orders also climbed 14.7% to 437,000.

Despite a slight decline in average selling prices, down 0.4%, Ocado benefited from a growing customer base.

The retailer saw 1.06 million customers over the period, up from 961,000 in the same quarter last year. This rise comes in contrast to the broader UK grocery sector, where inflation hovered around 2% during the period.

Ocado has managed to maintain a broadly flat average basket value of £120.97.

Hannah Gibson, chief executive of Ocado Retail, credited the company's strategy for its recent success.

The upbeat performance and customer growth have bolstered Ocado's confidence in its full-year revenue guidance.

Richard Hunter, head of markets at Interactive Investor, said:

High street retailer Next (NXT.L) has once again raised its full-year profit outlook, driven by robust overseas sales and a recent recovery in UK trading.

The group announced a 7.1% increase in underlying pre-tax profits, reaching £452m ($599m) for the six months ending 27 July, as overall group sales rose by 8%.

Next’s shares surged 5.5% to a new all-time high of £109.10.

While UK sales showed modest growth of 1%, the company's flagship Next brand experienced a slight dip, with full-price sales down 0.9%. The decline was attributed to weaker demand for seasonal collections, as an unseasonably cool early summer affected consumer behaviour. However, overseas markets delivered strong results, with sales surging by 23%.

Next also reported a stronger-than-expected rebound in UK trading in August, as warmer weather helped lift consumer demand. Full-price sales for the first six weeks of the second half increased by 6.9%, reinforcing the company’s optimism.

The retailer has raised its full-year profit forecast by £15m to £995m, and now expects overall sales to rise by 4%.

A total of 32,050 deals (mergers & acquisitions, private equity and venture financing) were announced globally during January-August 2024.

This represents a 15% year-on-year decline in deal volume compared to the 37,724 deals announced during the first eight months of 2023, according to GlobalData.

Its analysis revealed that all the deal types under coverage witnessed decline in volume during January-August 2024 compared to January-August 2023.

M&A deals volume registered a year-on-year decline of 9.5% during January to August while the number of private equity deals and venture financing deals YoY fell by 13.4% and 23.9%, respectively.

Aurojyoti Bose, lead analyst at GlobalData, said:

North America registered a 18.9% YoY decline in deal volume, while Europe, Asia-Pacific, Middle East and Africa, and South and Central America experienced respective deals volume YoY fall by 16.2%, 8.1%, 10.4%, and 27.3%.

Similarly, the US, the UK, China, Canada, Germany, France, Italy, and the Netherlands witnessed YoY decline in deal volume by 18.3%, 9.1%, 22.4%, 24.4%, 19.4%, 34%, 14.4%, and 18.4%, respectively. Meanwhile, India and Japan were the notable exceptions to register improvement in deal activity during the review period.

Norway’s central bank has left interest rates on hold at 4.5% this morning.

Although the move was widely expected, policymakers signalled a first cut could come in the first three months of next year, having projected in August that there would be no change “for some time ahead”.

Rates have been on hold since last December.

Governor Ida Wolden Bache said:

Bitcoin rose as much as 4.5% to a three-week high on Thursday as the 50bps Federal Reserve interest-rate cut rippled across markets.

Caroline Mauron, co-founder of Orbit Markets, said:

"An aggressive start to the easing cycle is excellent news for risky assets including bitcoin. The market needed a few hours to see the big picture and start reflecting the improved outlook."

The cryptocurrency was trading at $61,920 at the time of writing.

Germany saw a “spectacular drop” in electric car sales last month with a fall of 68.8% in Europe’s largest economy compared to the previous year.

Figures from Industry body ACEA also showed that France, Europe’s second biggest car market, recorded a 33.1% drop in sales.

Overall, registrations of battery-electric cars declined 43.9% across Europe to 92,627 in August, down from 165,204 last year.

From January to August, 902,011 new battery-electric cars were registered, representing 12.6% of the market.

Plug-in hybrid car registrations also saw a 22.3% decrease last month, with declines recorded in all their major markets.

Sales of petrol cars dropped by 17.1% across Europe, but the sector still represents 32.6% of the market, the latest figures show.

The Bank of England (BoE) is all but certain to hold rates at 5% this Thursday, having cut in August for the first time in four years, but investors expect rate setters will set the stage for a November cut.

Inflation remained stubbornly above the Bank of England’s 2% target last month, official figures show. The consumer prices index was unchanged at 2.2% in August, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS).

Deutsche Bank sees a 7-2 vote tally, with risks skewed to a 6-3 vote count for a hold.

Economists at Nomura said the BoE's close 5-4 vote in August and healthy business surveys pointed to a hold this Thursday.

"We see the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) skipping this month's meeting and cutting interest rates again only in November," they said, adding that dovish MPC member Swati Dhingra was likely to be the sole voice for a cut this time.

The Federal Reserve slashed interest rates by a half percentage point Wednesday and charted a course for two additional cuts this year followed by four more in 2025.

The action marks the Fed’s first easing of monetary policy since 2020 and the termination of its most aggressive inflation-fighting campaign since the 1980s.

The decision came in a split vote at the conclusion of the Fed’s two-day policy meeting as officials cut the central bank’s benchmark rate by 50 basis points to a new range of 4.75%-5.0%.

Rates had previously been held at a 23-year high since July 2023.

There was some division on the final decision, with Fed governor Michelle Bowman dissenting. She preferred to cut rates by 25 basis points instead of 50.

Read the full article here

Stocks in Asia were mostly higher overnight with the Nikkei (^N225) rising 2.1% on the day in Japan, while the Hang Seng (^HSI) climbed 2% in Hong Kong, where the country's central bank lowered its rates owing to the city’s currency peg to the dollar.

The Shanghai Composite (000001.SS) was 0.7% up by the end of the session.

It came as the Japanese yen hit almost 144 per dollar, hitting a two-week high.

Meanwhile, New Zealand’s economy shrank in the second quarter, according to official data released on Thursday morning, pushing the country close to recession.

The 0.2% contraction in the three months to June followed weak growth of 0.1% in the previous three months.

Across the pond Wall Street stocks were lower after the US Federal Reserve announced a half percentage point cut to interest rates.

The benchmark S&P 500 (^GSPC) rose as much as 1% after the Fed’s interest rate cut. However, it then retreated to close down 0.3%, ending at 5,618.26.

The Dow Jones (^DJI) closed down 0.3% to 41,503.10, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite (^IXIC) shed a similar amount to end at 17,573.30.

The yield on benchmark 10-year US Treasury notes rose to 3.71%, from 3.64% late on Tuesday.

Good morning, and welcome back to our markets live blog. As usual we will be taking a look into what's moving markets and happening across the global economy.

Here's a quick look at what's on the agenda for today:

• 7am: Trading updates: Galliford Try, Next, S4 Capital, Ocado

• 9am: Norway’s Norges Bank sets interest rates

• 12pm: Bank of England sets interest rates

• 1.30pm: US weekly jobless claims report

• 2pm: South Africa’s central bank sets interest rates

• 3pm: US Existing Home Sales