Monday 11 June 2018

Company news, markets and financial talking points, available from 8am Monday to Friday

Rolls-Royce 'to slash thousands of middle-management roles'

Rolls-Royce will announce more than 4,000 job losses this week, reports The Guardian. The company hopes to bolster profits by taking an axe to middle-management posts. Boss Warren East believes the aero-engine maker is hampered by unnecessary layers of management and duplicated roles. He has had a challenging three years at the helm: he was forced to issue a profit warning on only his second day in the job.

Gordon Brown says lack of reform will hit hard next time

The failure to adopt vital reforms in the financial sector means the world will be hit hard by the next financial crisis, warns Gordon Brown. The former PM and chancellor said: "My fear is that we will find ourselves in a crisis a year or two from now [and] people will ask: 'Why didn’t you make these changes when you had the chance to do so?'"

Sir Martin Sorrell denies sex worker claims

Sir Martin Sorrell "strenuously" denies paying for a sex worker using funds from WPP. The allegation arose in a report in the Wall Street Journal on Saturday. He resigned eight weeks ago as chief executive of the company. The longest-serving FTSE 100 chief executive until his departure, he was paid £13.9m in 2017, £48.1m in 2016 and £70.4m in 2015.

Legal & General in bold move on climate

Legal & General has acted against companies that it believes are not fighting climate change. In what The Times describes as "one of the most interventionist policies by an investment house," the firm’s fund management division has sold shares in eight companies in a number of sectors. It will also vote against the re-election of their chairmen or women.

Law must force digital firms to protect children

Social networks and internet gaming firms should be forced to protect children from addiction, says a coalition of the country’s leading experts. Such firms have a statutory "duty of care" to protect children from mental illness, abuse and addictive behaviour, says the coalition, which is spearheaded by Peter Wanless, chief executive of the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children.

Quote of the day… Trump's touchy trade tirade

"Fair trade is now to be called fool trade." A snippet from US President Donald Trump’s latest Twitter tirade against key allies.

THE NUMBERS... AT 0709 GMT

FTSE 100: down -0.30 to 7,681.07
Dow Jones: up +0.30 to 25,316.53
Dax: up +0.35 to 12,766.55
Cac 40: up +0.03 to 5,450.22
Nikkei: up +0.57 to 22,822.89
Hang Seng: up +0.18 to 31,014.54
US dollar: buys €0.8475 and £0.7457
Sterling: buys $1.341 and €1.1364
Oil: $76.15 down -0.41