Morning refresh: What you need to know to start the day
Good morning from the City desk of the Evening Standard.
UK house prices fell again in July, according to mortgage lender Halifax. But those falls came in at a slower pace than in the month before, in signs the market has shown resilience amid the surge in interest rates.
In the wider economy though, there were signs businesses were pushing the pause button.
Business brokerage Christie Group issued a profit warning after it complained that business owners were dithering on signing off deals amid wider uncertainty (its shares sunk 24%), while recruitment firm Page Group said it had cut hundreds of staff from its workforce as it bemoaned “lower levels of both candidate and client confidence resulting in delays in decision making,” with employers opting for temporary instead of permanent hires.
Whatever the cause of firms pushing pause, it’s hard to see how the sluggish UK economy will get some wind in its sales without a resumption in decision-making confidence.
Overnight in the US, shares in Peter Thiel-founded Palantir fell as much as 10% in after-market trading on Wall Street, as the firm said its full-year revenue would fall nearer the bottom end of previous guidance. Nonetheless, the tech giant was bullish on its prospects for capturing a surge in demand for AI products.
“The scale of the opportunity that lies ahead has increased significantly in recent months. And we intend to capture it,” CEO Alexander Karp said.
Here’s a look at some of our other headlines from yesterday:
This morning we’re expecting results from global hotels chain IHG, asset manager Abrdn and mining giant Glencore.
Annual house price growth turned negative for the first time since 2012 in May, according to Halifax (Gareth Fuller/PA)
/ PA Archive