Traders are hesitant to send US stocks even higher as China initiates a clampdown on homegrown tech companies - REUTERS/Carlo Allegri
US stock indices sank at the opening bell this afternoon following China's crackdown on locally listed tech companies, with America's own digital titans set to release a slew of earnings reports this week.
The Dow inched 0.05pc down while the S&P 500 rose by the same degree, with the tech-heavy Nasdaq slipping 0.08pc shortly after the start of trading.
Traders will look to tech giants Apple, Tesla Alphabet, Amazon and others for signs of growth amid fears that the global rise in delta variant infections is taking its toll on the world recovery.
“The second half of the year is going to be this glass half-full, half-empty context” spanning monetary and fiscal support and good earnings but also concern about the virus, Virginie Maisonneuve, Allianz Global Investors global chief investment officer for equities, said on Bloomberg Television.
“Though the market is pointing to the red to kick off the week, keep in mind that we’re entering the final week of July at record levels,” said Chris Larkin, managing director of trading at E*Trade. “There’s no shortage of potential catalysts with the FOMC meeting and GDP on deck, and earnings season picking up the pace with tech heavyweights reporting.”
01:24 PM
Delta variant rips through German economy
Angela Merkel
Germany faces a "massive slowdown" in its economy as the delta variant rages through the country, according to a survey of businesses released today.
My colleague Russell Lynch writes:
The Ifo institute’s closely watched sentiment benchmark, based on 9,000 companies, surprisingly fell in July for the first time since January as businesses fretted over supply shortages and a surge in case numbers.
Its index defied expectations for a rise, dropping from 101.7 in June to 100.8 points last month amid a “broad-based” blow to confidence.
Clemens Fuest, president of the economic think tank, warned: “Expectations for the coming months were significantly less optimistic. Supply bottlenecks and concerns over newly rising infection numbers are weighing on the German economy.”
Mining stocks surge in anticipation of record earnings
Mining stocks are rising as the sector's biggest companies prepare to reveal how much cash they’re making from this year’s commodity boom.
The top-five western diversified miners may have earned a combined $85bn (£62bn) for the first half of the year, according to analyst estimates, more than double the level from a year ago.
Rio Tinto Group, the first to report on Wednesday, is expected to announce $22bn (£16bn) of profit for the six months, on a par with its total for all of 2020.
The mining sector has been one of the biggest beneficiaries from the world’s efforts to emerge from the pandemic. The trillions of dollars poured into recovery packages have ignited demand for commodities like steel, iron ore and aluminum, driving prices sharply higher and sending inflation pressures rippling through the global economy.
Each of the group of five majors - which also includes Glencore, Anglo American and Vale SA - are expected to report their biggest-ever earnings for the six months through June, according to average analyst estimates compiled by Bloomberg.
“This should be a pretty much stellar set of results all round,” said Ben Davis, an analyst at Liberum Capital. “We’re expecting record dividends from BHP and Rio, while Anglo and Glencore also have the potential to surprise.”
US copper miner Freeport-McMoRan gave a hint of what to expect when it reported last week when it wiped out $5bn (£3.6bn) of debt in the last 12 months, hitting its target months ahead of schedule.
Anglo American Platinum Ltd. added to that on Monday. The company, 79pc owned by Anglo American, paid out a record dividend of $3.1bn (£2.2bn) that equates to 100pc of first-half headline earnings.
12:33 PM
FTSE 100 recovers losses
The FTSE 100 is now clawing back this morning's losses and is currently treading water at around 7,021 points.
The blue-chip index has received a boost from British Airways owner IAG (up 3.7pc) as well as mining stocks which are mostly up above 2pc.
12:27 PM
Brent inches lower as curfews return in southeast Asia
Brent declined to as low as $72.77 today before recovering slightly to $74.02, as investors assessed the outlook for demand amid a resurgence in Covid-19.
The fast-spreading delta variant has raised concerns about the short-term outlook with tight restrictions making a comeback.
Countries including Thailand and Vietnam are imposing curfews in cities to battle a surge in Covid-19 cases, while in Germany senior politicians have floated the possibility of tough restrictions for the unvaccinated.
Brent is currently down 0.1pc compared to Friday's close.
12:20 PM
Arm faces decline and cuts without $40bn Nvidia deal, watchdogs told
The British microchip company Arm is falling behind its rivals and struggling to gain a foothold in crucial new markets, according to evidence Nvidia has handed to regulators in an effort to secure support for its $40bn (£29bn) takeover, reports James Titcomb.
He writes:
Research commissioned by Nvidia, which it has used to build a case for approving its takeover, claims that Arm is “stuck in the mud” and would be unable to fund the major investments needed to compete against US giants if it were forced into a Plan B of going public.
The report by semiconductor industry analysts Future Horizons says that years of misplaced investment under SoftBank, Arm’s current owners, mean that the British company is struggling to catch up in areas such as data centres and connected cars as its money-spinning smartphone business saturates.
“With stagnant revenues and no profits, time is not in Arm’s favour and funding the required increased levels of R&D spending will clearly be a business and financial leap of faith,” the report states. “Arm does not have the financial firepower to self-fund this from revenues.”
Digital bank Starling has acquired buy-to-let mortgage group Fleet Mortgages for £50m, in the first in a series of deals designed to build on the bank's rapid expansion during the pandemic.
Seven year old Fleet manages £1.75bn of mortgages and after the acquisition finalised, Starling will become the sole funder of Fleet's buy-to-let mortgages.
Anne Boden, CEO of Starling, said:
The acquisition of Fleet Mortgages is the start of our move into mortgages as an asset class and builds on a number of forward-flow arrangements that we’re doing with leading non-bank lenders.
Fleet’s existing management team will remain in place and Fleet will continue to operate as a stand-alone company, keeping the original name and brand. We’re buying Fleet because it is very good at what it does, not because we want to change it.
An employee places delivery bags into a van at the Royal Mail Plc sorting office in Chelmsford, UK - Chris Ratcliffe /Bloomberg
Royal Mail shares have dropped 1.5pc after broker Liberum suggested the company could suffer from a reversal of pandemic parcel trends.
The pandemic boom in online shopping pushed Royal Mail profits to £726m during the year to March, a fourfold increase on a year earlier. However in a note, Liberum analyst Gerald Khoo warned that UK parcel volumes in the quarter to June fell sharply.
"We anticipate a further slowdown in revenue growth in coming quarters as comparatives toughen and trading conditions begin to normalise," Khoo said.
"We believe the long-term structural decline in letters revenue will reassert itself next year, and it will become harder to keep costs flat."
However Khoo adds: Despite the lack of an improved outlook at the recent Q1 update, it remains difficult to take a negative stance against anything related to online retail fulfilment.
"The pandemic has accelerated growth by several years. Even if long-term growth rates revert to previous trends, it will be from the newly-established higher base."
11:45 AM
New River sells pubs business to Admiral Taverns for £222m
Admiral Taverns has cemented its position as one of Britain's biggest pub groups after buying 674 pubs in a £222m deal, writes Hannah Boland.
Admiral said it had struck a deal with NewRiver REIT to buy Hawthorn, the property group's community pubco, to take its total estate to around 1,500 wet-led pubs.
The takeover is being funded through debt provided by Admiral Taverns' lenders as well as capital by Proprium Capital Partners, an existing investor in the business.
It sees Admiral Taverns leapfrog Punch Pubs, which earlier this month announced that the size of its estate was increasing to almost 1,400 after it bought the majority of Young's tenanted pubs.
NewRiver had been considering floating Hawthorn, but said it had seen strong interest in the private market for the pubs.
Boss Allan Lockhart said: "An IPO was definitely a credible option for us. It is a good quality portfolio, we don't have a lot of exposure to City centre drinking establishments.
The proceeds from the sale, which is expected to complete in August and requires shareholder approval, are expected to go towards lowering NewRiver's loan to value ratio. Mr Lockhart said the funds would also be used to invest in new retail assets and into redeveloping surplus retail space into residential properties.
11:35 AM
BOE's Vlieghe says economy needs help until 2022
Bank of England interest rate setter Gertjan Vlieghe said the central bank should not scale back its stimulus, possibly until well into 2022, adding a recent inflation is likely to be temporary and the coronavirus remains a threat to the economy.
"I think it will remain appropriate to keep the current monetary stimulus in place for several quarters at least and probably longer," he said, in a speech to the London School of Economics.
"And when tightening does become appropriate, I suspect not much of it will be needed, given the low level of the neutral rate."
Gertjan Vlieghe explains the current limits to what monetary policy can do. He argues that monetary policy ‘headroom’ is limited, because of persistent structural factors beyond our remit. And he considers how to restore policy space. https://t.co/h3GW9pGDs7pic.twitter.com/tAmfDpjpQ3
The Battersea Power station construction site - Geoff Pugh/Telegraph
Construction firm Skanska has refused to return furlough funds despite awarding shareholders £32m in bonuses, writes my colleague Ben Gartside.
According to the company's accounts, the company received £4m in furlough from HMRC, while paying dividends' to Skanska's parent company and other shareholders. Government figures highlight Skanska receiving £350,000 in the first quarter of 2021.
Despite the dividend, Skanska also made a number of redundancies throughout last year, as the total number of employees fell by over 200. Chief executive Gregor Craig said last year that the redundancies were “based on the decisions we made regarding the future direction of the business before the pandemic struck”.
A spokesperson for Skanska UK told Construction News it had topped up the salaries of lower-paid staff, supplied office and IT equipment for staff working at home, provided extra paid leave for those caring after dependents and gave all staff an extra day off: “These actions have required a significant investment by the company in our people. Additionally, we made no pay cuts or redundancies as a result of COVID-19".
Skanska's decision highlights a split within the construction industry over how to approach furlough funds received from the Treasury.
Morgan Sindall, Balfour Beatty and Galliford Try have all promised to return furlough funds following positive results, while NMCN, TClarke and VP declined to pay back furlough funds while paying out dividends to shareholders.
11:05 AM
US stock futures dip after China crackdown
US stock futures are pointing downwards, after Beijing cracked down on some of the country's fastest growing listed companies sparking a sell off in Hong Kong and China.
Futures tied to the Dow dropped 0.3pc, futures tied to the S&P fell 0.2pc and Nasdaq futures slid 0.1pc.
E-commerce major Alibaba Group and search engine Baidu, two of the largest listed Chinese stocks in the US, slipped 4.2pc and 4.6pc in premarket trade.
Ride-sharing app Didi Global also sank 14pc.
The dip in sentiment arrives after the blue chip Dow Jones Industrial Average crossed 35000 milestone for the first time ever on Friday.
10:54 AM
Cranswick posts 10pc sales jump as demand for sandwiches recovers
Adam Couch the CEO of Cranswick (the country's biggest pork producer) outside Smithfield Market. - Telegraph/Geoff Pugh Photography
Yorkshire meat producer Cranswick posted a 10pc spike in sales as easing Covid restrictions drove a recovery in demand for sandwiches, reports my colleague Hannah Boland.
FTSE 250-listed Cranswick said it had experienced a "positive start to the year" as more people returned to the office and started once again buying food on the go.
The company said it was also helped by higher demand for meat in supermarkets across the UK, as well as a rebound in demand in the Far East.
Export sales to the region came in "well ahead" of the same quarter last year, due to strong market prices, although Cranswick said its China export licence at its Norfolk primary processing facility remained suspended.
This had been due to China having halted imports of meat from plants which had suffered coronavirus outbreaks. The Cranswick site was hit by an outbreak last October.
Cranswick said the technical audits were passed at the site in January 2021, although it still was waiting for final approval for the licence.
Despite this, Cranswick said its revenue for the first quarter was 9.6pc higher than the same period last year.
Cranswick said UK pig prices increased by 12pc during the 13 weeks to the end of June.
After the company's annual general meeting on Monday, Martin Davey will stand down as Cranswick's chairman - a role he has held for 17 years.
10:48 AM
SMT shares drop after Chinese tech crackdown
Shares of Scottish Mortgage Investment Trust dropped 1pc or 14.5p to £13.31 on Monday, after the FTSE 100 company's largest investment, technology giant Tencent Holding, found itself entangled in a crackdown by Chinese regulators.
Tencent's shares in Beijing tumbled almost 8pc after it was told by regulators to relinquish its exclusive music label rights as it had violated antitrust law.
The State Administration for Market Regulation said that the majority stake Tencent bought in rival China Music Group in 2016 meant it effectively controls more than 80pc of exclusively held music streaming rights domestically.
10:26 AM
Germany business morale unexpectedly drops
The UBS Group AG logo sits on the bank's European Opera Tower (OpernTurm) headquarter skyscraper on the financial district skyline in Frankfurt, Germany - Alex Kraus /Bloomberg
German business morale fell unexpectedly in July as supply chain concerns deepened and the number of coronavirus infections rose after more than two months of steady decline.
The Ifo institute said its business climate index fell to 100.8 from a revised figure of 101.7 in June and versus a Reuters poll forecast of 102.1.
The drop was the index's first decline since January.
"Supply bottlenecks for preliminary materials and concerns regarding a renewed rise in (coronavirus) infection numbers are weighing on the German economy," Ifo President Clemens Fuest said in a statement.
The flooding in western Germany two weeks ago is expected to add to the problem and road transportation of goods has slowed significantly. In the week of July 11, as the disaster unfolded, the volume of late shipments rose by 15pc from the week before, according to data from supply-chain tracking platform FourKites.
Companies gave a slightly better assessment of their current situation but optimism with regard to the coming months waned.
"Nerves are on edge again," said Andreas Scheuerle, economist at Dekabank. "The first drop in the Ifo business climate came faster than feared."
10:10 AM
IAG leads gains on FTSE 100
British Airways owner IAG has leapfrogged mining stocks to lead gains on the FTSE 100, even as holiday destinations Spain and Greece risk being added to the UK's amber list in the government's next travel update.
The stock has lifted 2.9pc today and is 7.7pc higher compared to last week.
09:59 AM
Money round-up
Here's the day's best stories from The Telegraph's Money team:
Bin collection company Biffa has been found guilty of illegally exporting 1,000 tonnes of household waste for the second time in two years, according to the Environment Agency.
The company labelled the private home waste, including used nappies, tins, hairpieces, plastics, clothing and food packaging, as paper before shipping it to India and Indonesia, an investigation by the Environment Agency found.
Exports of unsorted household recycling waste from the UK to India and Indonesia have been banned since 1994.
A London court was told Biffa continued to export waste despite being fined £350,000 for shipping similar banned items to China in 2015. The jury did not accept Biffa’s version of events that items leaving its premises complied with the law because they contained waste paper.
Malcolm Lythgo, head of waste regulation at the Environment Agency, said:
We are pleased with the court’s decision. We want all producers and waste companies to be responsible and make sure they only export material that can be legally and safely sent abroad for recycling.
Illegal waste exports blight the lives and environment of those overseas. The Environment Agency will not hesitate to take appropriate enforcement action against those found to break the rules.
We... are working with the Government on a number of measures that would tighten controls. These include increased monitoring of international waste shipments, and charging higher fees to improve compliance.
The company will be sentenced on Friday at Wood Green crown court. The company's shares are currently up 1.5pc.
09:29 AM
Bitcoin up 11pc
Bitcoin's price surge means the coin is now trading at its highest price since June 16th, after spending the past month languishing around the $30,000 mark.
09:22 AM
Selfridges up for sale
A woman wearing a face mask carries bags of shopping from clothing retailer HM and department store Selfridges along Regent Street in London - NurPhoto
The owners of Selfridges are launching a formal auction of the department stores and advisers Credit Suisse are expected to send out documents pitching the business to prospective buyers imminently, according to The Times.
Reports suggest there already two or three interested parties but no official bid has been made.
The billionaire Weston family, which owns Selfridges, are reported to be asking for at least £4bn for the department store's 25 sites worldwide.
The pound has edged higher against the dollar and the euro on Monday, after data showed covid cases had fallen in the UK for five consecutive days.
Analysts noted however that the data does not yet reflect the removal of most restrictions on July 19.
"If we do not get any notable pick-up in infections over the coming days, market participants are likely to conclude that the UK government's strategy is working and that this strategy could be replicated in other countries with higher vaccination rates," currency analysts at MUFG said in a note.
"It could well help support risk sentiment through a period that tends to be a period of fragile risk appetite."
Against the dollar, the pound was 0.15pc higher at $1.3769 while against the euro, it was 0.01pc higher at 0.8559p.
The pound was the second-best performing G10 currency over the previous week's 5-day trading period.
08:55 AM
Burger King UK owner plots sale
A Burger King restaurant is seen closed due to the current coronavirus pandemic on April 19, 2020 in Southampton - Naomi Baker /Getty Images Europe
The owner of Burger King's UK operations, Bridgepoint Group, has started preliminary talks with investment banks about an auction of the fast food chain next year, according to Sky News.
The discussions are unlikely to result in a formal sale process for another 12 months, according to the report, but it could arrive in early 2022 if sales keep growing at a significant rate.
The prospective appointment of bankers is likely to alert rival private equity firms and potential trade buyers.
There is little public detail about the company's recent performance, although the chain's rebound is said to be boosted by an expanded portfolio of drive-thru restaurants.
08:41 AM
Bank stocks weigh on FTSE 100
Banks are emerging as the main drag on the FTSE 100 this morning, with Standard Chartered down 2.1pc, HSBC down 2.1pc, Barclays down 2pc, Natwest down 1.9pc, Prudential down 1.8pc and Lloyds down 1.6pc.
The stocsk are tracking the UK's benchmark bond yield which fell to its lowest since February.
08:30 AM
Dignity appoints new chairman after boardroom coup
Funeral provider Dignity has appointed John Castagno as a new chairman, three months after a boardroom coup orchestrated by its biggest shareholder.
Phoenix Asset Management ran out of patience with Clive Whiley, the group's former chairman, forcing a vote on his future at the company. He was forced out, with 55pc of shareholder votes cast against him.
Today the company announced he has been replaced by Castagno, who joined the company last week as non-executive chairman.
For the last three months Dignity has been headed by Gary Channon, a partner at Phoenix which seized control of the company in April after building up a nearly 30pc stake in the funeral provider in recent years.
Channon will continue running the company as chief executive.
08:15 AM
Expert reaction: Ryanair results
Laura Hoy, equity analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown, comments on Ryanair's smaller-than-expected first-quarter loss of €273m:
The group’s seen bookings rise since the new rules waving quarantine for double-jabbed travellers were announced and expects to fly 9m people in July and a further 10m in August. This is still below pre-Covid levels, but a huge improvement on the past year.
However, despite an influx of travellers, Ryanair’s losses widened over the past three months as the costs to restart flights—fuel, staff, airport handling costs—rose significantly. Ticket prices, on the other hand, were depressed. The airline is using ultra-low fares to offset the knock to passenger confidence that ever-shifting quarantine rules have had. Operating with costs outweighing revenue isn’t a long-term strategy, but management doesn’t expect it will last forever—guidance still suggests the group may be able to breakeven at the full year.
Unfortunately, Ryanair is still at the mercy of the virus and, although a recovery is materialising, the group noted that travel within Europe will be depressed for the foreseeable future. We’re encouraged by the group’s progress, but it may have to toe the precarious line between low fares and high costs for some time.
07:59 AM
Business water bills to rise as suppliers recover bad debts
Britain's water regulator Ofwat said today it would allow suppliers to temporarily increase water bills for thousands of businesses to offset bad debt costs incurred through the pandemic.
The regulator said that many companies have struggled to pay their bills due to the coronavirus crisis. As a result, water companies have seen bad debt across the market reach more than 2pc of their non-household revenue.
Ofwat said that prudent suppliers should be able to plan for and deal with bad debt levels of up to 2pc. But anything above that they will now be allowed to recover from other business customers on their books.
Although water companies will have to shoulder a quarter of the bad debt above the 2pc threshold, the rest can be added to companies' water bills over the next two years, Ofwat said.
Ofwat business retail market director Georgina Mills said:
These decisions aim to protect the interests of non-household customers in the short and longer term, including from the risk of systemic retailer failure as the business retail market continues to feel the impacts of Covid-19.
By implementing market-wide adjustments to price caps, we aim to minimise any additional costs for customers in the shorter term by promoting efficiency and supporting competition.
Shares in listed water companies Severn Trent and United Utilities were both down shortly after markets opened in London.
Today we've published a decision document following a consultation in March 2021 on the business retail market and customer bad debt.
Bitcoin has soared 10pc today to approach $40,000, a rally some are attributing to traders exiting bets on declines as well as speculation over Amazon.com’s potential involvement in the cryptocurrency sector.
“The extent of the jump was probably driven by over-leveraged shorts,” said Vijay Ayyar, head of Asia Pacific at crypto exchange Luno in Singapore told Bloomberg, adding the rumors over Amazon likely had a role to play too.
Amazon last week advertised a job vacancy for a digital currency product lead, stirring speculation it might accept digital coins for transactions.
More than $700m of Bitcoin shorts were liquidated on Monday, the most of any day in at least the past three months, according to data from Bybt.com.
The world's largest cryptocurrency is currently trading at above $38,000 however that's still $27,000 off its mid-April high of almost $65,000.
The coin's price has suffered from criticism of the energy use needed to mine the cryptocurrency, a regulatory crackdown in China and increased scrutiny from officials in both Europe and the US.
07:34 AM
FTSE risers and fallers
Stocks weighing on the FTSE 100 this morning include B&M (down 1.6pc), BT Group (down 1.3pc) and Barclays (down 1.2pc).
The index remains down 0.4pc below 7,000 points, as markets remain concerned about rising inflation and coronavirus infections despite a drop in cases.
Miners Antofagasta, Rio Tinto and Anglo American were leading gains, all up over 1pc.
On the mid-cap FTSE 250 index, investment trust Apax Global Alpha was up 2.6pc while at the other end of the index Ultra Electronics was down 4.7pc.
07:16 AM
FirstGroup activist Coast demands CEO resigns
The biggest shareholder of British transport company FirstGroup is demanding the resignation of the chief executive and two board members in the aftermath of a contentious US asset sale, Reuters is reporting.
Coast Capital, which owns roughly 15pc of FirstGroup, opposed the sale of the company’s FirstStudent and FirstTransit businesses, arguing the price was too low.
Coast Capital founding partner James Rasteh told Reuters the US hedge fund presented alternative deal proposals to FirstGroup that Coast believed would provide better value for shareholders.
“Given the board’s decision to pursue a different path, Coast Capital and fellow shareholders request that [FirstGroup CEO Matthew] Gregory resign,” Coast said in a statement seen by Reuters.
It also asked for the resignation of board members Julia Steyn and Warwick Brady.
07:04 AM
FTSE opens down
The FTSE 100 has opened on the verge of 7,000 points this morning down 26.14 points or 0.37pc. It is currently trading at 7,001.44.
The FTSE 250 is also down at 22,826.50, a drop of 56.89 points or 0.25pc.
07:02 AM
Brent drops 1.2pc
Brent is falling this morning as part of a wider decline in oil prices, as investors assess the outlook for demand amid a resurgence in Covid 19.
Brent was down 1.2pc at $73.2 while futures in New York dropped toward $71 a barrel.
“The delta variant continues to hang over the demand recovery,” said Vandana Hari, founder of energy consultant Vanda Insights in Singapore. “It may take some time for the oil bulls to recover their confidence.”
Covid-19 infections globally have reached a two month high, coinciding with an OPEC+ agreement to add more barrels from August.
06:54 AM
Ryanair Q1 loss smaller than expected
A Ryanair Holdings Plc aircraft at London Stansted Airport, operated by Manchester Airport Plc - Chris Ratcliffe /Bloomberg
In more travel industry news, Ryanair today posted a smaller-than-expected first-quarter loss of €273m (£234m), with the Irish company adding it should break even or post a small loss for the year through March as long as the vaccine rollout can contain the pandemic.
“We would hope in Q2 that we make a profit,” chief financial officer Neil Sorahan told Bloomberg Television.
“A lot will depend on how that final outcome is, but we have a lot of hopes as we get into the autumn as well. Germany and central and Eastern Europe have been very strong.”
The company said it now intends to cut fares in order to fill its planes to pre-Covid levels. The first-quarter load factor was 73pc, with Sorahan adding the objective is to reach 90pc over the fiscal year before strengthening prices towards next summer.
Ryanair’s loss for the three months through June was slightly lower than the €277m average estimate of analysts, though it widened from €185m a year earlier as hoped-for Easter traffic failed to materialise.
06:43 AM
Heathrow's pandemic losses near £3bn
A passenger pulls her roller suitcase on arrival in Terminal 5 at Heathrow airport in London - DANIEL LEAL-OLIVAS /AFP
Heathrow has announced that its pandemic losses have now mounted to £2.9bn, as fewer than four million people travelled through the west London airport in the first half of the year.
By comparison, the airport took just 18 days to reach that total in 2019.
"Even though we passed freedom day last week, this was not freedom day for the travel sector or for anyone who wants to go away on holiday or to visit friends and family," said chief executive John Holland-Kaye on Times Radio.
"Until that starts to change, we're not going to see the return to economic growth that we should be seeing in the UK."
Revenue dropped from £712m in the first six months of 2020 to £348m in the opening half of this year. Meanwhile, pre-tax loss widened 18pc to just over £1bn.
The company said that recent changes to the Government's traffic light system are "encouraging" for the sector but that the airport could serve fewer passengers in 2021 than in 2020 because of expensive testing requirements.
06:33 AM
FTSE to slip below 7,000 points
Good morning. The FTSE 100 is due to start the week 0.45pc lower following a fall in Asian stocks overnight amid China's continued crackdown on technology companies. The Hang Seng sank 3.2pc and the Shanghai Composite followed it down 2.4pc following strict new restrictions on education tech firms, and Tencent being forced to relinquish certain online music streaming rights.
That left London's main index set to open below 7,000 points, though Britain's easing Covid infection rates is a cause for optimism, according to some analysts. Michael Hewson, chief analyst at CMC Markets, said: "While none of these worries have gone away, as investors balance up the pincer like concerns of rising inflation and slowing growth, the benefit of the doubt appears to be leaning towards a recovery slowed, rather than one stopped in its tracks, largely as a result of companies beating expectations as they report on how business is going."
Asian shares struggled to rally on Monday as super-strong US corporate earnings sucked funds out of emerging markets and into Wall Street, where records were falling almost daily.
More than one third of S&P 500 is set to report quarterly results this week, headlined by Facebook, Tesla, Apple, Alphabet, Microsoft Corp and Amazon.com.
With just over a fifth of the S&P 500 having reported, 88pc of firms have beaten the consensus of analysts' expectations. That is a major reason global money managers have poured more than $900 billion into US funds in the first half of 2021.
Nasdaq futures were up 0.1pc in early trade, while S&P 500 futures held steady.
As funds flock to Wall Street, Asian markets have been largely snubbed. MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan has been trending sideways since March and was up just a fraction on Monday.
Japan's Nikkei bounced 1.6pc in early trade, but that was off a seven-month low.
Costco made buying a gold bar as simple as tossing it in a shopping cart. Adam Xi, 33 years old, called five different dealers to get a price he could accept for the gold bar he bought at Costco in October. Costco shoppers are spending as much as $200 million monthly on gold, according to a Wells Fargo estimate.
Microsoft has been one of the pioneers in the field of AI, but this tech giant is also set to win big time from the growing adoption of this technology.
Tesla's growth story was about leading the paradigm shift to EVs, and an affordable car was a part of that story. Now without it, the narrative has changed.
In the chaos of the 2008 recession, perhaps no bank stood more prepared than Jamie Dimon's J.P Morgan Chase & Co. (NYSE:JPM). In advance of the crisis, Jamie Dimon realized that "underwriting standards were deteriorating across the industry," with late payments on subprime loans rising. In late 2006, the bank led his firm to exit Wall Street's hot subprime business, starting with a frantic call made to J.P. Morgan's vacationing Chief of Securitized Products where he said, "I really want you to w
