Tesco posts largest loss in its history
Tesco's Lewis: 'Some encouraging signs, but we are only at the beginning'
Tesco's loss before tax for the year is £6.4bn
That wraps it up for today. Tesco dominated the headlines after reporting record annual losses of £6.4bn with around £4.7bn of the losses the result of a fall in property value for its UK stores. And a UK financial trader accused of contributing to the 2010 Wall Street "flash crash" has been granted bail. Join us again tomorrow from 06:00.
Deutsche Bank has announced that it expects litigation costs of approximately €1.5bn, external in first quarter of 2015.
The US is unhappy about European Union plans to allow individual member countries to decide whether to allow imports of genetically modified foods and animal feed. "Dividing the EU into 28 separate markets for the circulation of certain products seems at odds with the EU's goal of deepening the internal market," said US trade representative Michael Froman.
The US Securities and Exchange Commission said it can't by law name either the whistleblower who got more than $1m for raising misconduct concerns about a firm, or the firm itself. But, it said that a whistleblower can get between 10% and 30% of the money collected by the SEC when its sanctions exceed $1m. Since 2011, the SEC has paid out more than $50m to 16 whistleblowers.
US financial regulators have awarded a whistleblower between $1.4m and $1.6m for reporting misconduct at his firm. The unnamed compliance officer blew the whistle "after responsible management at the entity became aware of potentially impending harm to investors and failed to take steps to prevent it," the US Securities and Exchange Commission said in a statement, external.
Market complexity and size were factors in how long it took to bring charges against Navinder Singh Sarao, a UK trader accused of contributing to the Wall Street "flash crash" nearly five years ago, according to the head of the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC). "Sometimes it takes a long time to put cases together," said CFTC chairman Tim Massad. "These are huge markets. There's a lot going on."
The FTSE has closed at 7,030.66, a fall of 32.27 points, or 0.46%. Big supermarket shares had a rough old time today, with the biggest fall seen by Tesco. Its shares dropped just over 5% after it reported a record £6.4bn annual loss. Shares in Sainsbury's fell 4%, and Morrisons dropped 3.8%. The biggest gains on the FTSE were made by Rolls Royce Holdings, which rose more than 4% after it announced that chief executive John Rishton would be succeeded by Warren East, head of technology company Arm Holdings.
Image source, NanexBail conditions for Mr Sarao, apart from the £5.05m security he must pay, and the £50,000 security his parents must pay, include: his wearing an electronic tag, a curfew at his Hounslow address, no internet access, and surrendering his passport and his parents' passports. In addition, he must make no attempt to leave England or Wales, and must report to Hounslow police station three times a week. Mr Sarao is accused of contributing to the 2010 Wall Street "flash crash".
Navinder Singh Sarao, who shares a house with his parents in Hounslow, was granted conditional bail by a UK court after being accused by US authorities of contributing to the 2010 Wall Street "flash crash". Judge Quentin Purdy said: "I suspect the last 24 hours or less have been somewhat dramatic for you. You know the US seek to extradite you to face very serious charges and put you on trial to prove that."
Navider Singh Sarao, a UK trader who was arrested after US authorities accused him of contributing to the Wall Street "flash crash" of 2010, has been granted bail with a security of £5m. Mr Sarao appeared in the dock at Westminster Magistrates' Court wearing a bright yellow sweatshirt and white tracksuit bottoms.
Harry Low
BBC Magazine
"It's a communication technique commonly used by political parties and businesses, although it's not so well known by the public.
The idea is to get release all of your bad news at the same time rather than creating a drip-drip effect over an extended period of time."
Read Harry's full article.
In New York, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down slightly in early trading, with a fall of 0.22% to 17909.58. McDonald's shares rose 4.28% after it said it had a turnaround plan that it will reveal on 4 May, and Coca Cola saw gains of more than 1% after better than expected profits. Boeing shares fell more than 1.3% after sales missed analysts' expectations.
Image source, AFPMcDonald's first quarter like-for-like sales fell 8.3% for the Asia Pacific, Middle East and Africa regions. This was mainly due to "prolonged, broad-based consumer perception issues in Japan." In January, McDonald's apologised after a human tooth, plastic, and vinyl were among objects found in its food in Japan.
Image source, AFPPresident Francois Hollande says that France will reimburse Russia if it fails to deliver two Mistral helicopter carrier warships in a deal frozen over the Ukraine conflict. "According to the different scenarios you either have payment or reimbursement," Mr Hollande said. He said that he will broach all aspects of the frozen deal when he meets Russian President Vladimir Putin later this week, but that delivery was not possible in the current conditions.
Image source, APBoeing said it delivered 184 airliners in the quarter, up from 161 in the same period last year, with two-thirds of them for the venerable 737 jet. Orders rose by a net figure of 110 in the quarter, and Boeing now has 5,700 orders on its books. About half are for an upcoming version of the 737. The backlog is valued at $495bn.
Kevin Peachey
Personal finance reporter, BBC News
"Tesco wants to close its defined benefit pension scheme - which guarantees a pension based on earnings and length of service - to new members and for existing members' future accrual.
This means that, should the change happen, all entitlements to date would be preserved, but staff would then move to a defined contribution scheme."
Read Kevin's full article.
Kevin Peachey
Personal finance reporter, BBC News
tweets, external: Threat to #Tesco staff's pension is sign of the times. Hardly any big biz offering final-salary scheme to new staff
Image source, Getty ImagesIn the US, McDonald's like-for-like sales declined 2.6% in the first quarter "reflecting negative guest traffic", the company said, external - we're guessing that means it had fewer customers. In Europe, the firm saw sales growth in the UK, but this was more than offset by "weak results" in France and Russia.
Image source, ReutersBoeing delivered more airliners in the first quarter, which helped prop the company up amid slow defence sales. First-quarter earnings rose 38% to $1.34bn (£890m). Sales rose 8% to $22.15bn, although that missed analysts' expectations.
Image source, Getty ImagesCoca-Cola's first quarter net profit fell 4% to $1.6bn (£1.06bn) the company has said, external. The figures beat Wall Street expectations after the world's largest soft drinks maker raised prices to offset slower growth.