Business Live: Oil surges above $50 a barrel

Summary

News site Gawker to close next week
William Hill suitors pull out of bid
Oil price climbs above $50 a barrel
Asda quarterly sales plunge 7.5%
Uber plans driverless taxis

Live Reporting

Dan Macadam

Road tax clamp down?published at 12:30 British Summer Time 18 August 2016
BBC personal finance correspondent tweets
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Asda sales plummetpublished at 12:25 British Summer Time 18 August 2016
Breaking
Image source, Getty Images
Sales at Asda fell 7.5% in the past three months - its worst quarterly performance on record, the company said.
Taxing times?published at 12:21 British Summer Time 18 August 2016
BBC personal finance correspondent tweets
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Sainsbury's welcomes 'first step' on childhood obesitypublished at 12:14 British Summer Time 18 August 2016
Image source, Getty Images
Quote Message
This is a welcome first step, but we need a holistic approach to tackle childhood obesity, including compulsory measured targets across all nutrients - not just sugar - and mandatory traffic light labelling across all food and drink products, regardless of whether they are consumed inside or outside the home. Our progress on reformulation, removal of multi-buys and our Active Kids programme demonstrate our commitment to being part of the solution and making it easier for our customers to live healthier lives. Because of the nature and scale of the challenge, we welcome the fact that today’s announcement includes the whole of the food and drink industry for the first time.
Mike Coupe, Chief Executive Officer, Sainsbury’s
What can employers find out from our health data?published at 11:52 British Summer Time 18 August 2016
BBC World Service
Does my boss know I want a baby?
And can we trust employers with our health data?
Business Daily's Manuela Saragosa speaks to privacy advocate Jessica Roberts of the University of Houston.
Media caption,
And can we trust employers with our health data, asks privacy advocate Jessica Roberts.
Government 'could have been more ambitious'published at 11:37 British Summer Time 18 August 2016
More views on the child obesity plan ...
Quote Message
The government could have been much more ambitious. They said a year ago they would be ambitious. They've committed to some of the actions they mentioned but not nearly as many as we'd hoped. And we really need to be persistent about his, you know, many decades ago we'd just started to tackle smoking. Nowadays obesity is rapidly overtaking smoking as one of the primary causes of diseases like cancer.
Professor Linda Bauld, Cancer Research UK:
Sugar tax would 'cost 4,000 jobs'published at 11:20 British Summer Time 18 August 2016
Today Programme
BBC Radio 4
As promised, reaction has been coming in to the prospect of a sugar tax on the likes of sugary drinks.
Here we have the view of the soft drinks industry ...
Quote Message
Not all of us spend our entire life eating and drinking according simply to the metric of what is nutritionally beneficial for us. We actually do have some pleasure in our lives. And there's a role for everything here. We in soft drinks of course can take steps to reduce sugar and that's what we're doing, palpably, the evidence suggests that. But you know we're now facing a tax that's going to cost 4,000 job losses throughout the supply chain, including in pubs and retailers.
Gavin Partington, Director general, British Soft Drinks Association:
Labour security firm 'won't recognise unions'published at 11:08
Image source, Getty Images
The GMB warns that an unresolved row over security for next month’s Labour Party conference threatens to scupper the Liverpool event. The union says it had made repeated requests for security provider Showsec to recognise the GMB through a standard recognition agreement - to negotiate workers' pay and conditions – but has been rebuffed.
GMB said it was “intolerable” for the party to work with a service provider that continually refused to recognise trade unions.
Roger Jenkins, GMB national officer for the security industry said: “This is by no means sorted... The clock is ticking fast ahead of next month’s conference and the company’s continued refusal to recognise GMB is intolerable."
Do not adjust your setpublished at 10:56
Image source, Getty Images
ITV will stop broadcasting on all seven channels on Saturday 27 August as part of a tie-up with Britain’s Olympians to encourage people to play sport.
It's the first time in the commercial broadcaster's 61 years that it has pulled the plug in this way, the Guardian's Mark Sweney reports, external.
Viewers will see the message “We’ve gone running – why don’t you join us?”
Thousands of sports clubs are set to take part in the post-Olympics event.
Robot rockpublished at 10:45
Business producer Mark Broad tweets:
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Co-op Bank listing a 'possibility'published at 10:36
More on the Co-op Bank's results for a moment.
Chief executive Niall Booker says he has not ruled out the possibility of a stock market listing, but stresses that it is not "on the agenda any time soon".
The bank has set aside another £33.5m for payment protection insurance (PPI) compensation after the City watchdog recently proposed a later-than-expected deadline for claims.
It confirmed that cost-cutting efforts under its turnaround had seen jobs axed and 54 branches shut in the first half, with another five due by the end of the year.
Since Mr Booker joined the lender in 2013, the Co-op Bank has sold off risky assets and slashed branches in a bid to get the business back in shape. However, it still lacks enough of a cash buffer to "withstand a severe stress scenario", the Bank of England found.
Eurozone prices still in the doldrumspublished at 10:26
IHS economist Howard Archer tweets:
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Online sales jump 17%published at 10:18 British Summer Time 18 August 2016
Quote Message
It is ... worth noting the strong year-on-year growth in online sales values: up 16.7% since July 2017. The online market now accounts for 14.2% of all retail sales, 1.6 percentage points more than 12 months ago. Not only does this indicate a step up in online spending, but retailers also appear to be on the right path when it comes to engaging with the online consumer.
Ian Geddes, UK head of retail, Deloitte
UK's wealth equates to £135,000 per personpublished at 10:06 British Summer Time 18 August 2016
Image source, Getty Images
It's a busy morning at the ONS, which has released some other figures that may or may not make you feel better.
The total net worth of the UK economy, external at the end of last year was £8.8 trillion. What does that actually mean? It's measuring the wealth of the UK and it shows the estimated market value of financial assets, such as loans and other assets like properties.
The "market value" is an estimate of how much these assets would sell for. On that basis the ONS says the £8.8 trillion works out at about £135,000 per head of the population, or £327,000 per household. Feel better now?
“The £8.8 trillion figure represents an increase in cash terms of £493bn, or 6%, on 2014," said ONS statistician Ole Black said. "This continued the general long-term upwards pattern in net worth except during the economic downturn of 2008-09. Much of this increase came from dwellings, where there was a £355bn rise in value."
Tougher times ahead...published at 09:58
Image source, Getty Images
Samuel Tombs, chief UK economist at Pantheon Macroeconomics, comments:
"July’s retail sales figures show that consumers have been protected from the immediate fallout of the Brexit vote, but with firms intending to stop hiring and inflation set to soar, the high street is set for a tough year.
"Sales volumes rose in all major categories, although the 3.5% leap in clothing sales clearly reflected a rebound from weakness in June due to heavy rainfall. Retailers also had to continue to cut prices rapidly - the retail sales deflator, excluding fuel, fell 1.7% year-over-year - to get consumers to open their wallets."
Slimmer slowdownpublished at 09:54
Capital Economics tweets:
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Sterling uppublished at 09:49 British Summer Time 18 August 2016
Sterling jumped about half a cent, or 0.9%, to a two-week high of $1.3150 against the dollar after the stronger than expected retail sales figures.
The pound also gained 0.5% to 86.1 pence against the euro.
'Weaker pound' helping retail sales?published at 09:46 British Summer Time 18 August 2016
ONS tweets
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Put a ring on itpublished at 09:45 British Summer Time 18 August 2016
Image source, Reuters
The fall in the pound appears to have tempted tourists to splash out on luxury items such as watches and jewellery.
Joe Grice, chief economic adviser at the ONS, says: "Better weather this year could be a major factor with sales of clothing and footwear doing particularly well. There is also anecdotal evidence from respondents suggesting the weaker pound has encouraged overseas visitors to spend."
Watches and jewellery sales soarpublished at 09:38
Business producer Mark Broad tweets:
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