Good morning from London and happy Friday - the FTSE 100 continued its losing streak this morning as the ONS blamed poor weather for a 0.9% fall in retail sales during March.
Consumer confidence has risen this month though, according to GfK, which pointed to the highest reading from its survey since before the war in Ukraine kicked off.
Turning to equities now, Mining giant Glencore has reiterated guidance of between US$2.2bn to US$3.2bn in pre-tax earnings.
Payments firm Network International shares are up 11% after it received a 400p a share cash bid from Canada's Brookfield Asset Management (TSX:BAM.A), trumping previous offers.
Elsewhere, Elon Musk’s Twitter has begun removing blue tick verification stamps from non-paying accounts, including the likes of Cristiano Ronaldo, Beyonce and the Pope.
And with the small caps, tech firm Bango announced this morning that it had received the King’s Award for Enterprise in light of its strong international trading performance.