Summary

  • Shell's annual profits crash but shares jump

  • Bank of England governor Mark Carney ' too aggressive' on rates threat

  • Halifax house prices jump 9.7% in three months to January

  • SSE to close coal-fired power unit

  • Sumner Redstone steps down as CBS chairman

  1. Postpublished at 11:04 Greenwich Mean Time 4 February 2016

    BBC economics correspondent tweets:

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  2. 'Falling oil makes us fat'published at 10:48 Greenwich Mean Time 4 February 2016

    Low oil prices could make us fatter - economist Tim Harford tells BBC Business Daily on World Service about the unintended consequences of the plummeting oil price. He says that there is a correlation between falling petrol prices and an increase in restaurant visits - making waistlines bigger.

    Media caption,

    Falling oil prices could be making us fatter, as more people drive and visit restaurants.

  3. General strike in Greece closes public transportpublished at 10:29

    A closed tube station in Athens on day of general strikeImage source, Getty Images

    BBC correspondent Nick Thorpe is reporting on today's 24-hour general strike in Greece. Trade unions are protesting at planned reforms to the country's pension and social security systems.

    There will be no public transport, schools will shut be closed and hospitals will only provide emergency care. 

    Under the terms of its international bailout, Greece has to cut pension spending by $2bn this year. The left-wing government of Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras says it wants to protect the elderly as much as possible and plans to increase social security contributions.

    But unions say the compromise will only increase unemployment. 

  4. Ford investing in driverless techpublished at 10:08 Greenwich Mean Time 4 February 2016

    BBC interview

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  5. Miners lead the packpublished at 09:52 Greenwich Mean Time 4 February 2016

    The top five risers on the FTSE 100 today are all miners, with Anglo American at the head of the list with an 8% rise. Glencore, Rio Tinto and BHP Billiton are all up more than 5%. 

    The blue-chip index is still up 1.2%, or 70 points, at 5,911 points.

  6. UK car sales hit 11-year highpublished at 09:35

    VWImage source, Getty Images

    New UK car sales last month reached an 11-year high for January, according to industry figures. The Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders said 169,678 new cars were registered in the UK - 2.9% higher than January 2015. 

    Last year a record 2.6 million cars were sold in the UK - up 6.3% on 2014. 

    However, Volkswagen continued to lose ground, with VW-branded vehicles slipping to a 7.1% market share, down from 8.5% a year ago. 

  7. 'Soaring' house pricespublished at 09:18

    For sale signImage source, Getty Images

    More on those Halifax house prices from Samuel Tombs at Pantheon Macroeconomics, who sums up the situation in one word: "soaring".

    Quote Message

    Lower mortgage rates have enabled households to take on more debt in the short-term, while the dearth of homes for sale has resulted in intense buyer competition. With wage growth set to strengthen in response to the decline in labour market slack, interest payments currently comprising only a small fraction of homeowners’ income and supply shortages unlikely to be resolved overnight, price gains look set to remain rapid in 2016.

  8. EU open market 'critical' for Fordpublished at 09:09

    BBC Business Live

    Jim Farley, chief executive Ford Europe

    Jim Farley, chief executive of Ford Europe, has switched to the Business Live studio where the thorny issue of Brexit is on the agenda. He's asked what it would mean for his company.

    "We have been on the record many times because of the importance of the EU as an open market for us," he says. "We have 14,000 employees here in the UK, we build nearly 2m engines, we have 3,000 engineers working on global engineering here in the UK's second-largest engineering R&D centre for the automotive industry and for us having that free market available in Europe is critical.

    "We export 85% of those engines, most of them to Europe. Any interruption, any uncertainty will be a risk for our employees."

  9. House prices up 10% in three monthspublished at 08:58

    IHS economist Howard Archer tweets:

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  10. 'Be thankful' for North Sea oilpublished at 08:50

    BBC Business Live

    Lord Browne

    Former BP chairman tells BBC economics editor Kamal Ahmed on Business Live that although the North Sea oil industry is a "very diminished" part of the global industry, we have reason to be grateful.

    "One of the things that is extraordinary about the North Sea is that we all used to think - because I was there when it started - that it would all be over by the year 2000. We would turn off the lights," he says.

    "But 2000 came and went. We've had some extra time here, and so we should all be grateful."

  11. Shell: is the dividend safe?published at 08:41

    Quote Message

    Along with the other oil majors the main focus of concern is the dividend policy as well as the risks of cutting expenditure too deep ... As far as the dividend policy is concerned Shell is better placed to keep it at current levels in the short term, given its better dividend cover, while its debt levels have been falling relative to its peers since the end of 2013.

    Quote Message

    The bigger problem comes if oil prices remain at their current levels for a significant period of time, which could prompt some concern later on into 2016, particularly if margins continue to shrink. One thing is certain; Ben Van Buerden won’t want to go down in history as the first CEO to cut the dividend since 1945."

    Michael Hewson, Chief market analyst, CMC Markets

  12. EasyFoodstore runs out of foodpublished at 08:30 Greenwich Mean Time 4 February 2016

    Tweet from The Grocer

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  13. Ford boss: 'we don't have defeat devices'published at 08:24 Greenwich Mean Time 4 February 2016

    BBC Radio 5 Live

    Worker in Ford factoryImage source, Getty Images

    You can't be the boss of a car company these days without being grilled over the emissions scandal. 

    On 5 live the chief executive of Ford Europe, Jim Farley, was asked if he was sure that none of the issues that VW had seen had gone on at Ford. 

    He insisted: "We are absolutely confident. In fact, the first thing we did was to communicate to all of our employees here in the UK that we don't have any defeat devices and we support moving to a real world emissions testing for all emissions".   

  14. FTSE 100 bounces higherpublished at 08:15

    London has had a strong start to the day, with the FTSE 100 adding 1.4%, or 82 points, to 5,919 points in the first 10 minutes of trading. 

    Hong Kong has also had a good day, with the Hang Seng index closing up 1%.

  15. Tokyo shares end lowerpublished at 08:07

    Tokyo stocks ended lower as a stronger yen hit exporters. Shares in Panasonic and Hitachi sank after they warned that China's slowdown was weighing on their results.

    The Nikkei 225 index fell 0.85%, while the Topix index was down 1.25%.

    Sharp jumped almost 17% after reports that it favours accepting a $5bn bailout from Taiwan's Foxconn. 

    Energy firms were among the few gainers after oil prices surged on the back of a weaker dollar and hopes for talks to cut production. 

  16. Credit Suisse to cut 4,000 jobspublished at 07:58 Greenwich Mean Time 4 February 2016

    Tidjane ThiamImage source, Getty Images

    That red ink just keeps on coming today: Credit Suisse posted a net loss of 2.94bn Swiss francs (£2bn) - considerably worse than the 2.12bn Swiss francs expected by analysts. It's the bank's first annual loss since 2008. It plans to cut about 4,000 jobs in response.  

    Chief executive Tidjane Thiam (pictured) said: "Market conditions in January 2016 have remained challenging and we expect markets to remain volatile throughout the remainder of the first quarter of 2016 as macroeconomic issues persist." 

  17. Vodafone keeps growingpublished at 07:49 Greenwich Mean Time 4 February 2016

    VodafoneImage source, Getty Images

    Vodafone has posted a 1.4% rise in revenue in its third quarter - its sixth consecutive quarter of growth - as recovery in Europe gained pace. The mobile operator reported organic service revenue of £9.2bn, in line with analyst estimates. 

  18. Shell profits fall 'pretty ugly'published at 07:37

    Today Programme
    BBC Radio 4

    Shell petrol stationImage source, Getty Images

    Professor Paul Ekins of University College London has been talking to the Today programme about Shell's profits slide.

    "It's pretty ugly but none of us should be surprised by it," he says. "Over the last year to 15 months oil prices have gone down by 70% so for its earnings only to have gone down by 53% you can see it's done some cost-cutting and some savings."

  19. Missing out on millionspublished at 07:29

    Spare a thought today for poor Chris Hill-Scott, who's just missed out on a whopping pay day, according to The Times. He set up a firm in 2008 with two university friends called Swiftkey, a mobile phone app. The firm has now been sold to Microsoft for £170m. 

    Trouble is, Mr Hill-Scott left the company soon after it was formed for a career in photography, apparently handing back his shares in return for - a bicycle...

  20. AstraZeneca quarterly revenues fallpublished at 07:22

    AstraZeneca signImage source, Getty Images

    AstraZeneca expects profits to fall by "a low to mid single-digit percentage" figure this year as the arrival of cheap generic copies of the cholesterol treatment Crestor offsets growth in sales of new medicines, the drug maker says.

    Revenue for the fourth quarter of 2015 fell 5% to $6.4bn, hit by earlier drug patents expiring, Astra says in a statement, external.