Source: Sharecast
Stocks to watch
DCC said it has agreed to sell its healthcare division to HealthCo Investment, an independently managed unit of funds managed or advised by Investindustrial Advisors for a total enterprise value of £1.05bn. The company on Monday said it expected total expected net cash proceeds of £945m, including an unconditional deferred amount of £130m receivable within two years, and would return surplus to shareholders “while maintaining a strong, investment-grade balance sheet”.
J Sainsbury announced the launch of a share buyback programme of up to £200m on Tuesday, as flagged in its results announcement last week, aiming to complete it by 12 September. The FTSE 100 retailer said it intended to cancel all repurchased shares to reduce its share capital. It said BNP Paribas would conduct the buyback independently under non-discretionary instructions, in line with shareholder authority granted at the annual general meeting in July last year.
Newspaper round-up
Rachel Reeves will fly to Washington this week to argue for global free trade in the face of Donald Trump’s punitive tariffs, amid continued international economic turbulence. The UK chancellor will use the spring meetings of the International Monetary Fund, which is attended by top finance ministers and central bankers, to make the case that free trade is in both British and global interests. - Guardian
American equities fell sharply in early trading and the dollar weakened as investors digested rising uncertainty over the future of US economic policy amid President Trump’s repeated attacks on the chairman of the Federal Reserve. Last Thursday Trump said the “termination” of Jerome Powell as Federal Reserve chairman “cannot come fast enough”, after Powell raised concerns about the impact of tariffs on the US economy. - The Times
Pylons have knocked up to £100,000 off the value of nearby homes across England and Wales, according to new research. Findings shared with The Telegraph by property consultancy Allsop show the average-sized home in England and Wales within 500 metres of a pylon sells for around £8,000 less than the typical price for the area. In the worst case, the penalty can run to almost six figures. - Telegraph
Thousands of drivers in England are being sent demands for up to £170 from private parking companies because of faulty ticket machines, campaigners have said. Many private car parks require motorists to input their vehicle registration when purchasing a ticket from a machine, which is supposed to ensure they do not receive a parking fine. - Guardian
More than eight million people will be dragged on to, or forced higher up, the tax ladder over the next five years as a result of successive governments freezing tax thresholds, official forecasters say. In data published alongside its economic forecast at the March spring statement, the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) predicted that, by the 2029-30 financial year, an extra 8.3 million people will be hit by so-called fiscal drag as their pay rises. - The Times
US close
Major indices closed sharply lower on Monday as traders returned from the Easter long-weekend break to an escalation in tensions between the White House and the Federal Reserve.
At the close, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 2.48% at 38,170.41, while the S&P 500 lost 2.36% to 5,158.20 and the Nasdaq Composite saw out the session 2.55% weaker at 15,870.90.
The Dow closed 971.82 points lower on Monday, extending losses recorded in the previous session on the back of a warning from Federal Reserve chairman Jerome Powell that the central bank could very well find itself in somewhat of a quandary when it comes to its efforts to both control inflation and support economic growth.
Powell noted that with elevated uncertainty surrounding the impact of Donald Trump's recently implemented tariffs on the US economy, he now expects to see inflation rise and growth slow, undermining both elements of the Fed's dual mandate of ensuring price stability while maximising employment and making it harder for the central bank to justify loosening monetary policy and further.
Powell said Trump's tariffs were "likely to move us further away" from its goals for "the balance of this year", while Chicago Fed head Austan Goolsbee cautioned that the tariffs will potentially cause the US economy to "fall off" by the summer.
