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Forecasts for growth in the German economy this year have been cut to 0.8% from 1.9%.

That's according to economic institutes in Germany which also said that growth could be lower if there is not a Brexit deal.

Oliver Holtemoeller, an economist involved in the report, said: "The long-term upswing of the German economy has come to an end".

Dave Lee
North America technology reporter

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There’s bad news for users of Microsoft’s eBook store:the company is closing it down, external, and, with it, any books bought through the service will no longer be readable.

To soften the blow, the company has promised to refund any customers who bought books through the store (a clue that there may not have been that many of them, hence the closure. Microsoft did not offer further comment).

But just think about that for a moment. Isn’t it strange? If you’re a Microsoft customer, youpaidfor those books. They’reyours.

Except, I’m afraid, they’re not, and they never were - when you hand over money for your “book”, what you’re really paying for isaccessto the book. That access, per the terms and conditions of every major eBook store, can be taken away at any moment.

Read more here.

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Back to Saga, whose shares have recovered slightly but are still down a whopping 33%.

Here's the view of Helal Miah, investment research analyst at The Share Centre:

"Today’s disappointments have been compounded by the slashing of the final dividend by more than half. Saga’s share price performance since the IPO back in 2014 will have been a major disappointment for some income seeking investors. We do not have a formal recommendation on the stock but it should no longer be considered an income stock but more of recovery play for investors taking the contrarian approach and willing to accept a higher level of risk".

Ethiopian investigators cannot yet say whether there is a structural problem with the Boeing 737 Max, based on flight and cockpit voice data, the head of the investigation has said.

"We will analyse whether other problems were existing on this aircraft," Amdye Ayalew Fanta told a news conference in Addis Ababa, saying this would take between six to 12 months.

The Ethiopian transport minister Dagmawit Moges said earlier that Ethiopian Airlines pilots had been unable to prevent the plane from repeatedly nosediving, despite having followed proper Boeing procedures.

Saga was floated on the stock market at 185p a share in 2014. The chart shows that after today's announcement they are at 67p.

"Four years after its flotation at nearly twice the current share price, the company is starting over," says Tom Stevenson, investment director at Fidelity Personal Investing's share dealing service.

"The company admits that it has got a lot wrong in recent years. It has squandered its strong brand recognition among its target market of over-50s, trying and failing to compete in a highly competitive and commoditised insurance market when it should have focused instead on what it could do differently.

"That’s the new approach and investors must hope that after a disastrous start as a publicly-quoted company, the new Saga ends better than the last one".

According to Dagmawit Moges, Ethiopia’s Transport minister:

a) The plane had valid certificate to fly

b) Pilots found to be capable

c) Pilots followed the manufacturer’s procedure and tried to control the plane but couldn’t.

d) Repetitive, un-commanded nose-down conditions are noticed in the preliminary investigation

Boeing has to investigate the automatic control system on all its Max 737 series aircraft, say Ethiopian Authorities who have been investigating the crash of Ethiopian Airlines flight 302.

They also say that aviation authorities around the world must confirm the issues have been adequately addressed by the manufacturer Boeing, before they sign off any release for the planes to take to the air again.

Ethiopia has released its preliminary official report into the crash of Ethiopian Airlines flight 302, when a Boeing 737 Max 8 crashed not long after take off.

It states that pilots followed all correct regulations but could not control flight.

China's Shanghai Composite Index put on 0.9% to close at 3,246.57 points, while Japan's Nikkei 225 index added 0.1% to end at 21,724.95.

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US President Donald Trump will meet with Chinese Vice Premier Liu He in Washington on Thursday as the US and China continue talks to try and achieve an end to the trade war, according to media reports.

The meeting is set to take place at 4:30 pm local time (8:30pm GMT).

Negotiations have been ongoing since a truce on tariffs was agreed in December but have been rocky at times.

Bloomberg reported, external that a deal being negotiated by the US and China would give Beijing until 2025 to fulfil commitments on commodity purchases and allow American companies to fully own businesses in China, citing sources.

The singer got a response from Elon Musk, founder of Tesla:

Image source, Saga

Saga may be excited by the launch of its three-year fixed insurance deals, but the market has taken a dim view of its wider trading update.

Shares in Saga have crashed by narly 40% after the over-50s travel and insurance specialist wrote down the value of its business by £310m and cut its dividend.

It also expects underlying profit before tax for the 2019-20 financial year to be between £105m to £120m.

Its shares were down by 39% at 65p.

At open the FTSE index of bluechip stocks was down 40 points, or 0.54%, at 7378.23.

Today Programme
BBC Radio 4

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Lance Batchelor, Chief Executive of Saga, has been telling Radio Four's Today programme, about why it is an important day for the group.

"Over the past decade our insurance business has been in decline, whereas the other, cruise, side has been flourishing," he says.

"We are now making a change to the way we sell insurance, with the launch of our three year fixed price offering for home and motoring insurance. This is an exciting day for Saga."

German industrial orders fell by 4.2% in February - that's the fastest rate in more than two years.

Analysts had been forecasting a 0.3% increase for February.

Howard Archer is the chief economic adviser to the EY Item Club:

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Carlos Ghosn's lawyer says that Tokyo prosecutors confiscated the passport and mobile phone of his wife Carole, when they arrested the former Nissan boss on Thursday morning.

Junichiro Hironaka, who heads Ghosn's Japanese defence team, added that they would "strongly appeal" against the latest arrest.

"Ghosn's wife happened to be with him when he was arrested, so they confiscated her passport and her mobile," he said.

"His wife is not a suspect... this is unforgivable," he told a news conference at the Foreign Correspondents' Club of Japan.

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Online electrical retailer, AO World has warned it expects to take exceptional costs of £2.5m in its full year results because of changes to management team sparked by the reappointment of John Roberts as chief executive and charges for a loss-making contract in Germany,

The business also gave more details of its Brexit contingency planning, in which it said in the last quarter of its financial year it "increased our usual core fast moving inventory levels" by £15m. That's washing machines and ovens and other products which are mostly made outside the UK, "This will help ensure we can continue to deliver our market-leading proposition to our customers," it said, external.

The company reported a first-half loss in Novemb, externaler and its full-year results are due on 4 June.