Source: Sharecast
Stocks to watch
Convenience food group Greencore has been given an extension on the deadline to make a firm offer for rival Bakkavor to May 9 or walk away. The two companies on April 2 struck a £1.2bn deal after two previous approaches were rejected. However, Bakkavor on Friday said talks were still ongoing and requested the original April 11 deadline be pushed back to complete due diligence work.
Energy giant BP on Friday said it expected to report lower first-quarter upstream production than in the previous three months. In a trading update, the company said it saw slightly higher volumes in oil production and operations, but expected lower output in gas and low-carbon energy. Gas marketing and trading is expected to be “weak,” it added.
Diageo announced the launch and pricing of a $1.5bn SEC-registered bond offering on Friday, split into two tranches - $750m in 5.125% notes due 2030, and $750m in 5.625% notes due 2035. The distilling giant said the bonds, issued by Diageo Investment Corporation and fully guaranteed by Diageo plc, were expected to settle on 15 April. Proceeds would be used for general corporate purposes.
Newspaper round-up
The EU will not rip up its tech rules in an attempt to reach a trade deal with Donald Trump, the bloc’s most senior official on digital policy has said. Henna Virkkunen, the European Commission vice-president responsible for tech sovereignty, indicated the EU was not going to compromise on its digital rulebook to reach an agreement on trade with the US – a key demand of Trump administration officials. – Guardian
Prada has agreed to buy the Versace fashion brand for €1.25bn ($1.38bn) from the fashion conglomerate Capri Holdings. It comes after months of speculation about a potential deal to combine the two Italian fashion houses and, more recently, rumours that the acquisition was set to collapse after market upheaval in response to President Trump’s tariff policies. – Guardian
WeightWatchers is preparing to file for bankruptcy amid a boom in blockbuster drugs targeted at dieters. The New York-headquartered company is preparing to begin Chapter 11 proceedings over the coming months as part of a plan to hand control to creditors, according to reports. It comes as weight loss drugs such as Wegovy have exploded in popularity on both sides of the Atlantic, sparking a collapse in demand for services such as WeightWatchers. – Telegraph
The Government is under fire for relinquishing swathes of Cambridge’s green belt for a £400m sewage plant as big as Wembley Stadium. Steve Reed, the Environment Secretary, has approved controversial plans to relocate Anglian Water’s sewage plant in Milton to Honey Hill, as part of a major development across Cambridge which will include 8,000 new homes. – Telegraph
Central banks are under pressure to tighten rules on the amount of leverage taken on by hedge funds in the wake of the alarming tremors in the US government bond market on Wednesday which were seen by some as forcing President Trump’s tariffs U-turn. One former senior Bank of England policymaker told The Times that the high leverage — the use of borrowed funds — used by hedge funds to make bets on US bonds, known as treasuries, was one of the reasons for the unusual sharp fall in prices and spike in yields on Wednesday. – The Times
US close
Major indices closed sharply lower on Thursday as the previous session's impressive rally seemingly ran out of steam.
At the close, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 2.50% at 39,593.66, while the S&P 500 lost 3.46% to 5,268.05 and the Nasdaq Composite saw out the session 4.31% weaker at 16,387.31.
The Dow closed 1,014.79 points lower on Thursday, giving back much of Wednesday's whopping 2,962.86 point gain that came as Donald Trump announced a 90-day pause on his so-called "reciprocal" tariffs.
Thursday's losses come hot on the heels of yesterday's surge, with the Dow Jones delivering its biggest percentage increase since March 2020 and the S&P 500 turning in its third-largest single-day gain since World War II.
When asked why he chose to pause the tariffs, Trump said he thought people were "jumping a little bit out of line" and had gotten" a little bit yippy, a little bit afraid".
