Image source, Reuters

Bitcoin has hit a new record high, above $1,700 (£1,313). On Bitstamp, external - a bitcoin exchange based in Luxembourg, the digital currency is trading at around $1,790 per unit. 

Analysts say the latest surge is due to broader interest in the crypto currency markets, which has been bringing in new investors. 

The price for one unit of bitcoin has surged by more than 80% this year. One bitcoin was pricing around $997 in January.

BBC World Service

A top EU lawyer says that taxi app Uber should be regulated just like a traditional cab company - but are European lawmakers failing to catch up with the fast-moving world of digital companies, who have an entirely new business approach? 

World Business Report's  Mike Johnson spoke to tech lawyer Steve Kuncewicz from Slater Gordon.

Image source, Reuters

More on the Lloyds AGM now ...

In April the bank announced that it was setting aside a further £100m, to compensate customers who lost money in a fraud scandal.

Six people, two of whom had worked for Halifax Bank of Scotland (HBOS) - owned by Lloyds - were jailed in February, though the case dates back to the time before Lloyds took over HBOS. 

Chairman Lord Blackwell told shareholders he was is "determined" the victims in the case were "fairly, swiftly and appropriately compensated" now that the trial has finished.

He said that meant within "weeks rather than months". 

He told one shareholder: "You have our full sympathy for what you've been through and I'd like to express our regret and apologies for what happened in HBOS at that time." 

BBC World Service

Saudi Arabia's government has told its ministries and other departments to phase out the employment of foreign nationals, reports BBC World Service.

There are currently believed to be around 70,000 expatriates in the Kingdom's public sector. 

The aim is replace them all with Saudi citizens over the next three years. 

This is part of a job nationalisation programme that's intended to tackle unemployment among local people. Plans were announced last month to reserve all employment at shopping malls for Saudis.   

Image source, gett

The FTSE 100 has closed little changed at 7,386.63, that's a tiny increase of 1.4 points or 0.02%.  

There were three miners among the top five risers; Fresnillo was up 5%, Randgold up 3.6% and Antofagasta was up 2.2%. They were boosted by a rise in the price of gold and copper. 

The biggest fall was in Hikma Pharmaceuticals whose shares were down by 8.2% at the close of play after it reported that a second application for a cut-price version on an asthma and chronic lung disease medicine had been turned down by the US Food and Drug Administration. 

Labour's draft manifesto pledges to bring Britain's railways back into public ownership. But how would it work?

Image source, Reuters

UK taxpayers are expected to make a profit of at least £500m from the government's bailout of Lloyds Banking Group, shareholders were told at the company's AGM in Edinburgh.

Directors confirmed that the government now has a 0.25% stake in the bank, and that itsl return to full private ownership is "just days away". 

At one point taxpayers owned a 43% stake in Lloyds after the government spent £20.3bn to save it at the height of the financial crisis. 

Earlier this year the government announced it had recovered all of that money. 

Theo Leggett
BBC Business News Reporter

Image source, EPA

Uber is a transport firm that requires a licence to operate, a senior member of European Union's top court has said (See post at 10:21am).

The decision is a set-back for Uber, which had argued it only provided technology to help drivers find passengers. 

But what does that actually mean?

This isn't a final ruling - although judges at the ECJ do follow the reasoning of the Advocate General in most cases.

Uber says if it loses the case, its operations in most countries won't be affected. This is true - Uber has spent the past few years fighting a raft of legal cases, and has generally found a solution acceptable to national and local authorities.

But it still regards the rules in many areas as "outdated and disproportionately restrictive". It maintains that it's a different kind of company to traditional taxi firms, with a new business model, and it says laws should be updated to take that into account.

That idea doesn't go down well with many European taxi driver unions, which regard Uber as an interloper, intent on undercutting their members and determined to use any legal loopholes it can find to do so.

If the court decides that under European law Uber is not simply an intermediary - a platform for putting passengers in touch with drivers - but is in fact a transport company, it will set an important precedent, which national governments will be able to refer to. In law, it will effectively be just another taxi firm.

That, the company thinks, could undermine the "much needed reform of outdated laws" which it is anxious to promote.

More thoughts on why the pound has lost ground now ...

ETX Capital analyst Neil Wilson says it's not only the Bank of England's 7-1 vote to keep rates unchanged, and its warnings about consumer spending this year, that are weighing on sterling. 

The pound's fall is also partly because of dollar-strength, driven by better-than-expected US jobless and inflation data, he reckons.

Image source, bbc

The oil price has continued its upward path.  

Brent Crude is at $50.79 a barrel, a rise of 01.1%.

West Texas Intermediate is up 1.2% at $47.88 a barrel. 

Prices have been boosted over the last couple of days by a fall in US inventories and a larger than expected cut in supplies from Saudi Arabia to Asia.

However, earlier on Thursday prices rose even higher, but retreated after Opec released a report saying that higher than expected production from its competitors would reduce demand for its crude this year.

Shares in Hikma Pharmaceuticals have taken a serious hit today after it reported that a second application for a cut-price version of an asthma and chronic lung disease medicine had been turned down by the US Food and Drug Administration.

Its share price is currently down 7.1% at £18.16.

BT is to shed 4,000 jobs worldwide over the next two years and is stripping the chief executive of his annual bonus (See earlier posts). 

Image source, Getty Images

The pound is still trading lower.

It's down 0.49% against the dollar at $1.2875 and 0.53% lower against the euro at 1.1844 euros.

BBC World Service

After announcing it had got fewer new users in the first three months of 2017 than it was expecting, the share value of Snapchat fell by over 20%. 

BBC Minute on World Service asked staff in the BBC’s business unit what they think the company should do next.

Analysts have been poring over what the Bank of England had to say earlier and have been coming up with forecasts for the future direction of interest rates.

Image source, get

Shares in Snapchat owner Snap Inc are down by 22% so far on Thursday.

On Wednesday the company reported disappointing user growth and revenue numbers and said its net losses had soared to $2.2bn from $104m. 

Image source, Getty Images

All three key US stock indexes have opened lower on Thursday.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average is at 20,857.04, a fall of 86 points or 0.41%.

The S&P 500 is down 14 points or 0.58% at 2,385.69. 

And the tech-heavy Nasdaq is at 6,091.50, that's down 38 points or 0.61%.

Image source, Getty Images

Former Greek finance minister Yanis Varoufakis is no stranger to tortuous talks with the European Union, having tried, fruitlessly, to re-negotiate Greece's bailout in 2015.

He's now written to Theresa May warning about what awaits her if she is re-elected next month. In an open letter in the Evening Standard, external, he says negotiations will probably "be an exercise in futility and frustration".

The only two options left to the UK, as he sees it, are to request an off-the-shelf deal, like Norway's; or to end talks and unilaterally leave the EU. "Never fear to walk away from their phoney negotiations," he concludes.

The CBI says the Bank of England is in "wait and see mode", following slower first quarter growth, tepid wages and signs that household spending is coming under pressure.

Chief economist Rain Newton-Smith says: “There are mixed messages on economic momentum, with survey indicators pointing to stronger growth than official data. Any changes to monetary policy are unlikely in the near future, particularly amid ongoing uncertainty over the impact and outcomes of EU negotiations."