The FTSE 100 has plummeted to two month lows in early trading, as shares in London-listed banks followed their US counterparts in falling heavily. Barclays, Natwest, Lloyds and HSBC are all down by around 5%.
Fresh data from the ONS this morning suggests that long-awaited recession is failing to materialise – data for January says the UK economy grew by 0.3% in January having fallen by 0.5% in December.
WhatsApp says it would rather be blocked in the UK than remove its end-to-end encryption in response to the online safety bill which will return to parliament this summer.
Housebuilder Berkeley Group’s sales are still down by around a quarter, though prices are holding up. And among the small caps, IXICO says its won a £700,000 contract to provide MRI imaging services for a dementia trial.
That’s it so far this morning, today’s report was written by Jai Singh and presented by me, Thomsa Warner. Have a great weekend.