Taking Stock on Thursday 2nd November 2023
Taking Stock: Is a look at today's top business news & investment views plus we cover the winners, losers, the most read company news & the most followed. Today this includes:
The Bank of England kept interest rates at 5.25%
Unchanged from September's rate - after the Bank previously raised rates 14 times in a row to tame inflation.
- The Bank said it expects a sharp slowdown in inflation to 4.8% in October's figures, which will be released this month
- It also forecast that UK economic growth will flatline next year, with zero growth over 2024
Are we about to see a Central Bank fuelled Santa Rally?
Companies discussed on “Taking Stock” today:
WPP Group #WPP 01:20
CT Automotive #CTA 06:15
Destiny Destiny #DEST 08:55 & 23:52
Ocado #OCDO 11:56
BT Group #BT.A 13:05
Audioboom #BOOM 16:18
Smith & Nephew #SN. 37:55
StreakAI #STK 20:18
Ethernity #ENET 26:45
Shanta Gold #SHG 28:36
Shell #SHEL 29:00
Equals #EQLS 30:50
Silver Bullet Data Service #SBDS 33:40
Videndum #VID 35:29
Novacyt #NCYT 35:40
TOP BUSINESS STORIES
Rishi Sunak: AI firms cannot 'mark their own homework'
Monitoring the risks posed by artificial intelligence (AI) is too important to be left to big tech firms, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has said.
He said that governments needed to take action and AI firms could not be left to "mark their own homework".
He was speaking ahead of the AI Safety Summit, where a global declaration on managing AI risks has been announced.
Mr Musk arrived at the summit on Wednesday morning, having warned the day before that AI could lead to the extinction of humanity.
Shell Q3 profit drops to $6.2 billion, group boosts buybacks
Shell reported on Thursday a 34% annual drop in third-quarter profit to $6.2 billion as energy prices cooled, with strong trading of liquefied natural gas (LNG) helping offset a sharp drop in its production.
The company also announced share buybacks of $3.5 billion over the next three months, up from $2.7 billion in the previous three months, and maintained its dividend unchanged at $0.331 per share.
M&S pulls Christmas advert post after Palestinian flag criticism
M&S has apologised after being accused of posting an Instagram photo of Christmas party hats in the colours of the Palestinian flag on fire.
The image, an out-take from one of the company's TV adverts, showed red, green and silver hats burning in a fireplace.
M&S said the intent was to "playfully show that some people don't enjoy wearing paper Christmas hats".