Reeves eyes Gulf trade pact as ‘next deal,’ Bank of England’s Pill says pace of interest rate cuts ‘too rapid’ – as it happened

China and Australia cut interest rates; Shell faces protests calling for clean-up in Niger Delta

Here’s our full story on Greggs.

Sales at Greggs have picked up after the UK’s biggest bakery chain branched out into iced drinks, pizza boxes and a macaroni cheese that has gone viral on social media.

These are important issues and we respect the right of people to express their view. But for many years the vast majority of spills in the Niger Delta have been caused by third parties acting unlawfully, such as oil thieves who drill holes in pipelines, or saboteurs.

These challenges are managed by a joint venture which Shell’s former Nigerian subsidiary, SPDC, operated, cleaning up every spill from the joint venture’s facilities.

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China’s service sector hit by trade war; Ford predicts $1.5bn profit hit from Trump tariffs – business live

Rolling coverage of the latest economic and financial news


The takeover of UK food-delivery platform Deliveroo by US rival DoorDash has been agreed.

The two sides have reached agreement on DoorDash’s offer of 180p in case for each Deliveroo share, made last month.

Like DoorDash, Deliveroo is obsessively focused on their customers - consumers, merchants, and riders. They work day in and day out to improve their consumer value proposition, bring new services to local businesses, and offer flexibility and support to riders.

These efforts and attention to detail from Will and the team have had a tremendous positive impact in the communities where Deliveroo operates.

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US media stocks slide on Wall Street after Trump threatens movie tariffs

Netflix, Amazon, Warner Bros Discovery and Paramount shares fall as studios reel from announcement

Shares in US streamers and production companies fell on Monday, after Donald Trump said he would introduce 100% tariffs on films made abroad, a move that couldsharply raise costs for Hollywood studios.

Trump’s announcement on his Truth Social platform, revived worries about the US president’s trade policy and its impact on the world economy.

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Green groups decry plan to list world’s biggest meatpacking company on NYSE

Critics fear decision to list Brazil-based firm JBS, long linked to Amazon’s deforestation, will add to the climate crisis

Environmental groups are outraged that the world’s biggest meatpacking company, JBS, which has long been linked to Amazon’s deforestation, has received approval from US authorities to list on the New York Stock Exchange.

The decision, announced on Tuesday by the Securities Exchange Commission, follows reports that JBS subsidiary Pilgrim’s was the biggest donor to the inauguration committee of Donald Trump. Since taking power, Trump has reduced the independence of the SEC and other agencies, demanding their work be “controlled” by the president.

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Gold climbs above $3,500 for first time as Wall Street rallies after slide

Dollar also recovers after Monday’s sell-off prompted by Donald Trump’s attack on Federal Reserve chair

Gold has climbed above $3,500 an ounce for the first time while stocks on Wall Street and the dollar rose following Monday’s sell-off prompted by Donald Trump’s blistering attack on the Federal Reserve chair, Jerome Powell.

Spot gold reached the record price of $3,500.01 (£2,620) on Tuesday, extending a rally that has pushed bullion up from $2,623 an ounce at the start of this year.

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US stock markets fall again as Trump calls Fed chair ‘a major loser’

President amps up attacks against Jerome Powell, pushing him to lower interest rates to offset impact of tariffs

US stock markets fell again on Monday as Donald Trump continued attacks against the Federal Reserve chair, Jerome Powell, who the US president called “a major loser” for not lowering interest rates.

“There can be a slowing of the economy unless Mr. Too Late, a major loser, lowers interest rates, NOW,” Trump wrote on social media.

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Boeing investors brace for fallout from Trump tariffs

Jets intended for Chinese airline returned to US, raising fears for planemaker as results near

Investors in Boeing are braced to learn the full impact of Donald Trump’s trade war, amid fears the US planemaker could be hit harder than first expected after jets intended for a Chinese airline were returned to the US.

A Boeing 737 Max 8 plane intended for use by a Chinese airline returned to the US on Monday from Boeing’s China finishing centre, according to flight data cited by Reuters. It followed the arrival in the US on Sunday of another 737 Max painted in the livery of China’s Xiamen Airlines at Boeing’s US production hub in Seattle.

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US stock markets expected to recover after Trump drops tariffs on mobiles

Exemption, seen as a climbdown, includes laptops and chips, and is likely to help firms such as Apple and Nvidia

US stock markets were expected to stage a recovery on Monday after Donald Trump excluded imports of smartphones and laptops from his tariff regime late on Friday night.

Shares in Apple and chip maker Nvidia were on course to soar after tariffs on their products imported into the US were lifted for 90 days.

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China raises US tariffs to 125% as Xi invites EU to team up against Trump ‘bullying’

Chinese leader canvasses Spain and other trading partners on how to tackle economic fallout as market turmoil continues

China has raised its tariffs on US products to 125% in the latest salvo of the trade dispute with Washington, just hours after Xi Jinping said there were “no winners in a tariff war”.

Xi made the comments during a meeting with the Spanish prime minister in which he invited the EU to work with China to resist “bullying”, part of an apparent campaign to shore up other trading partners.

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Trump’s economic adviser dampens Starmer’s hopes of tariffs relief

It would take an ‘extraordinary deal’ for any country to improve on 10% rate, says Kevin Hassett

A senior economic adviser to Donald Trump has said it would take “an extraordinary deal” for any country, including the UK, to improve on the 10% tariff rate the US has imposed almost worldwide, pouring cold water on Downing Street’s hopes for a breakthrough.

Trump succumbed to pressure from plunging financial markets on Wednesday and temporarily reduced “retaliatory” tariffs on all countries’ goods to 10%, except those from China, which face a rate of 145%.

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Australian stock market slumps amid fears of worsening US-China trade war

Benchmark S&P/ASX 200 falls 2.4% after another sell-off on Wall Street overnight triggered by changes to the US tariff regime

The Australian sharemarket closed lower on Friday, ending a volatile week on a sour note as concerns about Donald Trump’s unsettling policy shifts and deteriorating trade relations between the world’s two biggest economies took hold.

The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 dropped 0.8% on Friday to 7,646.5 points after a sell-off on Wall Street overnight.

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Trump tariffs likely to drag down weak UK growth, Bank policymaker warns

Sarah Breedon says too early to judge impact on inflation of ‘most significant change in trade policy in a century’

UK economic growth will be hit by US tariffs, which are the biggest trade policy change in a century, a senior Bank of England official has warned.

Sarah Breeden, the Bank’s deputy governor for financial stability, said on Thursday that business activity was likely to be adversely affected by Donald Trump’s tariff regime, dragging down the UK’s already weak growth rate.

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EU drug companies warn of exodus to US as Trump threatens import tariffs

Von der Leyen urged to take ‘rapid and radical action’ as president says tariffs on pharmaceuticals coming ‘shortly’

Pharmaceutical companies in the EU have warned of a “risk of exodus” to the US as stocks in the sector slid around the world on the back of Donald Trump’s renewed threat to impose tariffs on US drugs imports.

Drugmakers’ shares across Europe and India, another foreign drugs hub, slipped on Wednesday after Trump indicated further carnage was on the way in addition to the 20% “reciprocal tariffs” on imports that kicked in overnight.

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Asian markets fall as Trump’s sweeping global tariffs, including 104% against China, due to take effect – business live

Stock markets down from Australia to Japan and Taiwan as Trump presses ahead with plans to hit China with huge retaliatory tariffs

Today’s tariffs follow Trump’s 10% tariff on all imports from many countries, including Australia, which came into effect at the weekend.

US customs agents began collecting the unilateral tariff at US seaports, airports and customs warehouses on Saturday. Today’s measures are higher levies on goods from 57 larger trading partners.

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Bank ‘should cut UK interest rates to at least 4% in May amid tariff turmoil’

Ex-Bank of England deputy governor Charlie Bean says cut of 0.5 points needed because of ‘crazy situation’ in US

The Bank of England should use its meeting next month to cut interest rates by at least half a percentage point to 4% in response to the financial turmoil created by Donald Trump’s trade tariffs, the former deputy governor Charlie Bean has said.

He believes an aggressive strategy is needed to combat the fallout from Trump’s tariff war, which has knocked trillions of pounds off global stock markets, undermining business and consumer confidence.

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Asian markets plunge further amid tariff fallout; Trump says ‘sometimes you have to take medicine’ – business live

Japan’s Nikkei 225 tumbles nearly 9% on Monday as Hong Kong’s Hang Seng down 8% and South Korea trading temporarily halted amid Trump tariff concerns

Hong Kong stocks have plummeted more than 9% at open, while Singapore stocks dropped over 7%, according to reports.

Hong Kong and Chinese stocks dived on Monday as markets around the world crumbled in the face of the widening global trade war and fears it will unleash a deep recession, Reuters says.

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Asian markets plunge further amid tariff fallout; Trump says ‘sometimes you have to take medicine’ – business live

Japan’s Nikkei 225 tumbles nearly 9% on Monday as Hong Kong’s Hang Seng down 8% and South Korea trading temporarily halted amid Trump tariff concerns

Hong Kong stocks have plummeted more than 9% at open, while Singapore stocks dropped over 7%, according to reports.

Hong Kong and Chinese stocks dived on Monday as markets around the world crumbled in the face of the widening global trade war and fears it will unleash a deep recession, Reuters says.

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Starmer warns ‘world as we knew it has gone’ as countries mull tariff responses – live updates

PM says he will use policy to shelter British businesses following the stock market turmoil prompted by Trump’s announcement

Starmer orders economic reset amid Trump’s tariff mayhem

Welcome back to our live coverage of the economic fallout from Donald Trump’s announcement of sweeping tariffs last week.

Almost $5tn (£4tn) was wiped off the value of global stock markets after the US president made his shock announcement last Wednesday, which included a 10% base tariff on imports into the US from the UK.

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IMF warns of ‘significant risk’ to global economy from Trump tariffs as markets plunge

Fund boss Kristalina Georgieva says it is important that US and trading partners avoid escalating trade war

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has warned that Donald Trump’s implementation of swingeing tariffs poses a “significant risk” to the global economy, as stock markets were hit by a punishing worldwide sell-off by investors.

Kristalina Georgieva, the managing director of the IMF, said it was important that the US and its trading partners avoided further escalating Trump’s trade war, while stock markets plunged on Friday as China retaliated against the tariffs.

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Trump prepares to unveil reciprocal tariffs as markets brace amid trade war fears

President promises he will be ‘very kind’ but critics warn his strategy risks triggering chain reaction and global trade war

As Donald Trump prepared to unveil a swathe of reciprocal tariffs, global markets braced and some Republican senators voiced their opposition to a strategy that critics warn risks a global trade war, provoking retaliation by major trading partners such as China, Canada and the European Union.

The US president said on Monday he would be “very kind” to trading partners when he unveils further tariffs this week, potentially as early as Tuesday night.

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