Top Stories Tamfitronics
Thanks for joining me. Aston Martin will invest £2bn in its switch to electric cars after revealing widening losses in the first half of the year.
The luxury car maker revealed revenues fell 11pc to £603m as it delivered 1,998 vehicles, which was nearly a third lower than the same time last year.
Top Stories Tamfitronics 5 things to start your day
1) Virgin Atlantic passengers to pay green levy on every flight | Environmental surcharge to come into force over next 18 months, warns chief executive
2) Treasury urges Chancellor to target pension savings of 6m middle-class workers | Chancellor urged to impose flat 30pc rate of tax relief, raising levy for higher rate payers
3) Google about-turns on controversial change to cookies | Proposed changes risked undermining online news publishers’ business model
4) Crown Estate to make billions of pounds from Miliband wind farm spree | Swathes of subsea land to be rented out as Government plans offshore turbine building boom
5) How the failure of carbon capture risks causing a net zero nightmare | Labour’s green pledge hinges on technology that is proving less transformative than hoped
Top Stories Tamfitronics What happened overnight
Asian stocks mostly fell on Wednesday as markets digested Japanese and Australian business data.
Japan’s benchmark Nikkei 225 slipped 0.2pc in morning trading to 39,508.84, with the Japanese yen trading at its highest level in months ahead of a Bank of Japan policy decision next week.
A business survey released on Wednesday showed Japan’s factory activity contracted in July, as weak demand weighed on the manufacturing sector. Services were on the rise, helping to drive growth in overall activity in Japan’s private sector.
Elsewhere in Asia, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng shed 0.6pc to 17,370.09, led by the Hang Seng Tech Index which dropped 0.9pc. The Shanghai Composite was nearly unchanged at 2,915.46.
Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 edged 0.1pc higher to 7,973.20 after its services sector saw weaker growth in July. Manufacturing improved slightly but remained in contractionary territory.
South Korea’s Kospi shed 0.3pc to 2,772.55, as heavyweight Samsung Electronics plunged 1.1pc after talks between the company and its largest workers’ union ended with no agreement. Earlier this month, the workers declared an indefinite strike to pressure the company to accept their calls for higher pay and other benefits.
On Wall Street, the S&P 500 lost 8.67 points, or 0.16pc, to 5,555.74 points, while the Nasdaq Composite lost 10.22 points, or 0.06pc, to 17,997.35. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 57.35 points, or 0.14pc, to 40,358.09.
Eight of the major S&P sectors ended in negative territory, with the energy index the worst performer, down 1.6pc, as US crude prices hit a six-week low.
The yield on benchmark US 10-year Treasury bonds gained 0.9 basis points to 4.246pc.
