Welcome
G ood morning. On Monday European shares suffered their sharpest drop since directly after the Brexit vote with the FTSE 400 plunging 3.3pc, its worst one-day fall for four and a half years. Around £ 100 bn was wiped off the value of companies across London’s main market.
Across the pond, Wall Street stocks joined the global rout and finished with steep losses as worries mounted that the new coronavirus will derail economic growth.
5 things to start your day
1) Boris Johnson’s plan to ‘level up’ the UK and its regions faces serious challenges, with the richer economies of London and the south east set to grow significantly faster than northern areas . Towns in the north east, Yorkshire and the Humber, and the West Midlands are expected to be the slowest-growing areas over the next three years.
2) Coronavirus spells trouble for tourism from Bangkok to Bicester : Bicester Village’s streets of wood -panelled designer stores and red letter boxes have looked more like a ghost town since the coronavirus triggered a plunge in Chinese visitors.
3) Goldman Sachs and EY quarantining staff returning from China : Goldman is one of several banks and professional services companies understood to have told staff to “self-isolate” and work from home for up to 14 days after returning from the worst-affected regions, including China and Hong Kong.
4) An aggressive New York hedge fund has demanded the break-up of Prudential after building a near-5pc stake in the insurer. Third Point is calling for the British blue-chip to split its US life insurance business Jackson from its high-growth Asian operations, arguing Prudential is heavily undervalued because the two arms are tied together.
5) Uber to pay drivers to install rooftop billboards on their cars : In its first move into the advertising industry, the app-based taxi company has signed a deal with Las Vegas firm Adomni to place the adverts in three US cities.
Coming up today
A nalysts at Goodbody say a sell-off at shopping center-owner Hammerson looks “overdone”, adding the FTSE 250 group’s disposal strategy – which included the sale of a further seven retail parks for £ 400 m on Friday, its biggest sale in a decade – was proceeding as planned, and some of its assets are being underestimated.
Interim results: Clinigen, Hotel Chocolat, Manchester United
Full-year: Derwent London
Preliminary: Croda, Hammerson, Meggitt, Morgan Advanced Materials, Petrofac
Economics: CBI distributive trades (UK), final GDP reading (Germany), consumer confidence (US)
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