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US retailer Kroger, which with 2,792 outlets is the biggest supermarket by store count, is having a torid time on the stock market.

A profit warning sent the shares tumbling 12% in early trading, and Kroger also said pay talks with unions could be "challenging" as it seeks to cut costs.

It doesn't help investor sentiment that Lidl and Aldi have recently unveiled big expansion plans in the US.

Banning ministers from accessing pre-released data from the Office for National Statistics - those jobless figures, for example - has been welcomed by statisticians.

Indeed, the Royal Statistical Society can claim a victory. It's long campaigned about the absue of pre-release and the damage it does to the profession.

The society's executive director, Hetan Shah, says:“This is extremely welcome news. It’s a major achievement for the RSS and our members. It will reduce the opportunities for figures to be ‘spun’ and increase public confidence in official statistics.

"It will also lower the risk of market-sensitive information being leaked or abused. We hope it will set an example for other government departments to follow and bring forward the day when pre-release access to all official statistics is ended.”

Next time a minister pops up on your TV screen minutes after a big announcement, they may not be looking so self-assured.

Image source, Careem

Saudi Arabia's Kingdom Holding Company has bought a $62m stake in local car ride-hailing business Careem, its latest venture in the sector.

In 2015, Kingdom Holding invested more than $100m in Lyft, a San Francisco-based rival to another US-based ride-hailing operation, Uber.

Car booking apps are popular in Saudi Arabia, particularly among women who are banned from driving in the country.

Kingdom Holding, chaired by Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, has stakes in a variety of sectors, including banking, through Citigroup, and media with Time Warner.

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Are we going to get more fireworks over pay at Renault this afternoon? Shareholders of the French car giant were meeting on Thursday to discuss the salary package of long-serving chief executive Carlos Ghosn - a subject of controversy with the company in recent years.

Ghosn, who heads the Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi alliance, earned €7m last year, but not before a tussle with Renault shareholders who voted by 54% to reject the executive's pay package.

The shareholders' decision is not binding and the Renault board dismissed their concerns and signed off on Ghosn's salary.

The then-economy minister Emmanuel Macron, who swept to the French presidency in May, was a frequent critic of Ghosn's pay and the two also clashed over the state's influence over the carmaker.

US stocks have opened lower, with technology shares leading a broad decline. The S&P 500 technology sector dropped 1.2%, led by declines in index heavyweights such as Apple, Microsoft and Facebook. All 11 major S&P 500 sectors were lower.

About 30 minutes into trading the Dow Jones was down 0.28% at 21,315.6 points, the S&P 500 was down 0.61% at 2,423, and the Nasdaq was 1% lower at 6,130.8.

Pre-release access to official figures from the Office for National Statistics is to end. It means government ministers, for example, won't be given early sight of things such as the monthly unemployment data.

A statement from the UK Statistics Authority says the growing use of early-access does "damage to trust in official statistics".

The authority had tried to tighten up on the protocol of pre-release of ONS figures, but it was not working.

Sir David Norgrove, chair of the authority, says: "I have therefore decided that pre-release access to ONS statistics will stop with effect from 1 July 2017. Should there be a need for exceptional pre-release access to particular individuals for a specific release this would be fully transparent."

You can read the full statement here., external

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Shares in oilfield services business Petrofac are having a good day, rising as much as 9% before falling back to around 5% up in early afternoon trading.

The company is under investigation by the Serious Fraud Office as part of a huge probe into Unaoil over allegations of bribery (all sides deny any wrongdoing).

But investors brushed that aside today thanks to a positive research note from analysts at Jefferies, who have recommended the shares as a "buy".

Their reasoning is that any potential fine could be recovered by cutting the dividend and argue that all the share price falls since Petrofac was dragged into the scandal (shares hit 941p less than three months ago) have probably been overplayed.

Analyst Mark Wilson writes: "Unless the company truly is a deck of cards, we see support [in buying shares] at this level."

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German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble said he was confident that Greece will win sorely needed funds at bailout talks on Thursday.

"I remain confident that we will find an agreement today on the payment of the latest tranche (of Greece's bailout)," Schaeuble said as he arrived for talks in Luxembourg to discuss the delayed Greek bailout with his eurozone counterparts.

The City of London has now cancelled tonight's Mansion House Dinner because of the Grenfell Tower fire, Reuters reports.

Chancellor Philip Hammond pulled out earlier citing the tragedy in West London. Bank of England governor Mark Carney was due to speak at the event, too.

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It's been an up and down day for the pound. It slipped earlier, then jumped by almost a cent after the Bank of England's monetary policy update, which suggested we may see rate rises sooner than expected.

Now it's given up those gains to trade 0.16% lower against the dollar at $1.27300.

Theo Leggett
BBC Business News Reporter

International Airlines Group, the owner of British Airways, is holding its Annual General meeting in Madrid.

Both the chairman, Antonio Vasquez and the chief executive Willie Walsh have apologised for the catastrophic IT failure that caused disruption for thousands of British Airways passengers in late May.

Mr Walsh acknowledged that it had been a "dreadful experience" for many of the airline's customers.

But he insisted it had "absolutely nothing to do with the way we resource our IT".

The crisis had resulted in the cancellation of 728 flights, he said, and cost the company in the order of £80 million.

While today's MPC vote on rates was the tightest since 2011, the departure of one of its most hawkish members, Kristen Forbes, at the end of the month could lead to a more dovish committee.

If anyone is in any doubt on how hard the blue chip index is being hit today, just two of the 100 companies listed on the FTSE 100 have shares in the green.

Neil Wilson, senior market analyst at ETX Capital, reckons the hawks are circling, following the Bank of England vote.

He says: "The main takeaway is that the Bank is a lot closer to hiking than previously thought. It looks like rising inflation and falling real incomes are at the forefront of policymakers’ minds.

"A hike could derail what growth there is, hurt homeowners with mortgages and sap business confidence further. But failing to act could hurt the credibility of the Bank in terms of its mandate.

"There is certainly an argument that hiking now will help limit the drop in real wages and support consumer spending. If the gap between inflation and pay growth widens much further over the summer we could easily see the Bank hike.”

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London's benchmark index has slipped further after it emerged three members of the Bank of England's monetary policy committee voted to raise rates this month.

It's down almost 90 points at 7,384.78, with poor-performing retail stocks also weighing on the index.

Ben Brettell, senior economist at Hargreaves Lansdown writes:

"Set against a backdrop of disappointing retail sales, slowing growth, shrinking real wages and heightened political uncertainty, it was somewhat surprising that three MPC members voted for higher rates at this week’s policy meeting.

"If inflation continues to surprise we could see higher rates by the end of the summer.

"The minutes show policymakers are more optimistic than many economists about the UK’s prospects.

"[They] believe lacklustre consumer spending will be offset by a pickup in other components of demand – notably exports, which are being helped by the depreciation of sterling and stronger growth elsewhere in the world."

Image source, AFP

Delving through the minutes from the Bank of England's monetary policy committee, the nine-strong members appear to be weighing up how to tackle the high inflation levels, while also recognising that wages are under pressure.

The minutes said: "there were arguments in favour of a moderate tightening in monetary policy... Inflation was projected to overshoot the target [of 2%] by more than previously expected, and to remain above it throughout the three-year forecast period."

It added: "But there were also arguments in favour of leaving the policy rate unchanged. A slowdown in household consumption, and GDP as a whole, had recently begun, and it was too early to judge with confidence how large and persistent it would prove to be."

The pound jumped after it emerged that three members of the panel that set interest rates voted in favour of an interest rate rise.

Before the announcement, it was trading at $1.27, but it's rallied to $1.2788.