Welcome to Taking Stock on Friday 15th September 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:
Big Data Week Next - Are we nearly at peak rates & peak pessimism?
The market & the economy are not the same. If the market does not bottom on seemingly bad news, then peak pessimism has happened.
TOP BUSINESS STORIES
Tata Steel: Port Talbot steelworks given £500m by UK government
Port Talbot's steelworks will be given up to £500m by the UK government in a bid to keep the plant open and produce steel in a greener way.
Tata Steel in Port Talbot is seeking UK government funding to switch its coal furnaces to zero-carbon electric ones.
Tata steel will add £700m of its own as it invests in cutting emissions. It has asked ministers to provide a bigger chunk of the cost.
But the package is likely to mean as many as 3,000 job losses at Port Talbot.
The site in south Wales is home to Britain's biggest steelworks.
Sainsbury's and Tesco loyalty card prices not as good as they seem, says Which?
Supermarkets' loyalty schemes are not the bargains they appear, according to a leading consumer rights group.
Which? says Sainsbury's and Tesco are using "dodgy tactics" by increasing the prices of everyday items so the discounts for people with loyalty cards look bigger than they really are.
However, the claims have been rejected by both supermarkets.
UK public inflation expectations stabilise: Bank of England survey
The British public's predictions for inflation in the coming years were broadly stable during August, according to a Bank of England survey that will reassure its officials that expectations are not spiralling out of control.
The BoE's inflation attitudes survey, conducted by polling firm Ipsos, showed inflation expectations for the coming year rose to 3.6% in August from 3.5% in May.
For five years ahead - crucial for BoE policymakers who want to ensure that high inflation is not becoming permanently embedded in the public mindset - expectations eased to 2.9% from 3.0% in May, the lowest reading since May 2021.
With Britain suffering the highest rate of inflation among major advanced economies, the public's net satisfaction with the BoE's job in controlling price growth fell to -21% - the lowest reading since the survey started in 1999.
Train drivers have announced two more strikes as part of a long-running dispute with rail companies over pay.
The Aslef union said its members at 16 train companies would walk out on 30 September and 4 October.
It added an overtime ban for drivers across the rail network would take place on Friday 19 September and for five days from 2 to 6 October.
The latest industrial action is expected to lead to cancelled and delayed services.
Both the train drivers' union Aslef and the RMT, which represents other rail workers, have been locked in a row with train companies over pay and working conditions, leading to regular strikes in recent times.
Progress in the dispute with union bosses has ground to a halt since the latest proposals put forward by train operators were rejected.
The offer put forward included a series of changes to working practices which would enable pay rises of 4% for one year and 4% the next.