Author: WTX Business Team

Godzilla vs Kong smashes pandemic box office record Godzilla vs Kong has smashed pandemic box office records which raked in £35m just this weekend. It’s the United States biggest opening in the last 12 months, with the blockbuster passing the highly anticipated ‘Wonder Woman 1984’ which took home around £12 million in its opening.  Globally, the movie starring British actor Millie Bobby Brown made £171 million.  Due to the pandemic, the film suffered a scheduling setback…

London boroughs where houses sell the fastest The outer London boroughs have been revealed to be the areas of the capital where property sells the fastest.  In Waltham Forest, sellers can hope to sell their properties the quickest – a two-bed terrace house can be off the market in just 35 days.  Barking and Dagenham, Bexley and Redbridge were the next fastest-moving London borough for house sales, with properties taking 39, 41 and 48 days…

Capgemini to make 1,500 UK hires in 2021 Capgemini is set to hire 1,500 new team members across the UK this year adding to its existing 8,800-strong workforce. A third of the new recruits is set to be sourced through the firm’s long-running graduate and apprentice programmes.  The programmes currently employ 600 people, but a further 470 will be added in 2021.  Capgemini also plans to grab talent from across the UK. The firm will…

Cineworld, AMC Cinemas – Exclusive deal sees reopening of cinemas  Cineworld will reopen in its US cinemas next month, and the UK in May, after signing a deal with Warner Bros to show films in movie theatres before they are streamed.  Godzilla vs. Kong will be the first film to make its debut in the theatres. Cineworld says the deal meals films will have a period of exclusivity in cinemas before being made more widely…

Wetherspoons in the red, £20.7m operating loss JD Wetherspoon reported a half-year pre-tax loss of £46.2 million as pandemic restrictions forced hundreds of its pubs to close through important holiday seasons. The pub giant operating loss hit £20.7m, while revenue sunk by more than 53% to £431.1 million.  Like-for-like sales were also down by almost 54 per cent for the six months ended 24 January 2021 as national lockdowns heavily hit pubs across the UK.…

Sterling rises as speedy vaccine rollout creates optimism Sterling is higher against both the euro and the dollar on Monday as the fast vaccine rollout has fuelled hopes of economic recovery.  The rise soared as high as $1.3999 in Asian trading, after retreating from a three-year high on Friday amid inflation concerns.  In early London trading, it was 0.1 per cent higher at $1.3938 as investors took a chance on vaccination programmes lifting Britain’s economy. …

Amsterdam crowned Europe’s top trading hub, ousting London Amsterdam has ousted London as Europe’s largest share trading centre, as Brexit led London to lose business.  Some €9.2bn shares a day were traded on Euronext Amsterdam and the Dutch arms of CBOE and Turquoise, the London Stock Exchange’s platform, last month – a more than fourfold increase from December, the Financial Times reported. By comparison, volumes fell sharply in London to €8.6bn, knocking London from its…

Boohoo buys Dorothy Perkins, Wallis and Burton for £25.2 million, stores to close, jobs lost Online retail giant Boohoo has bought Arcadia brands Dorothy Perkins, Wallis and Burton out of administration in a £25.2m deal. The company has bought the brands’ e-commerce and digital assets and associated intellectual property rights. The deal does not include the retailers’ physical stores and the brands will become online-only. All 214 Dorothy Perkins, Wallis and Burton stores will now…

Bank of England: Economy to rebound strongly due to vaccine The UK’s rapid vaccination programme will help the economy rebound strongly this year, according to the Bank of England.  The economy is expected to shrink 4.2% in the first three months of 2021, amid tighter lockdown restrictions to slow the spread of the virus. But, it’s expected a rebound in the spring as people become confident in spending again.  ‘Rapid’ recovery The Bank said economic…

London economy hit hardest as tourists spending slumps £7.4bn  Central London’s economy has been hit hardest by Covid-19 mainly due to working from home and a sharp drop in tourism.  Major Sidiq Khan commissioned a report today looking into the future of the capital, which shows a profound effect on the Central Activities Zones (CAZ).  The impact is likely to create even bigger challenges for the city than those faced in other major cities like…

Stamp duty scrapped: Rishi Sunak could extend tax holiday permanently for house buyers Chancellor Rishi Sunak is reportedly considering extending the current holiday and is facing calls to drop the property tax completely. He is being urged by homeowners, campaigners and more than 50 conservative MPs to extend the tax or get rid of it in favour of another tax. The property tax usually adds 3% to the price of homes worth under £500,000. The…

Lockdown boosts October loungewear sales Retail sales in October were boosted by a pre-lockdown splurge in England, but the British Retail Consortium (BRC) and KPMG have warned that the industry is “teetering on a cliff edge”. In the four weeks to 31 October, total sales were up 4.9% year on year, the BRC-KPMG Retail Sales Monitor shows. It is in-line with the three-month average growth of 4.9% and above the 12-month decline of 0.7%.  Helen…

More than £215 million furlough money returned to the government The government has seen a return of more than £215 million in furlough payments from employers, whilst the reimbursements will go some way in helping the UK’s leaders with the management of the coronavirus pandemic, the figure is minuscule in comparison to the £3.5bn officials say were paid out in error or to fraudsters.  Data released by HM Revenue and Customs show that 80,433 companies…

John Lewis scraps staff bonus for the first time since 1953 For the first time since 1953, John Lewis staff will not receive a bonus after being hit by lockdown store closures.  The retailer posted a huge £635m pre-tax loss for the six months to 25 July after higher costs offset a 1% rise in sales.  Its chairwoman told staff the announcement “will come as a blow”. Even before the pandemic, John Lewis had warned…

Nearly 700,000 UK job losses through pandemic Job losses in the UK have hit almost 700,000 through the coronavirus pandemic. The labour market took a turn for the worst in July despite the economy slowly reopening, the losses have put pressure on the government to extend support programs.  Employment fell by 102,000 – the first decline since April said the ONS on Tuesday. The single-month unemployment figure reached 4.4% – the highest since 2018.  Despite…

Amazon to create 7,000 UK jobs Amazon has said it will create a further 7,000 UK jobs this year to meet growing demand. So far, the retail giant has already created 3,000 roles in 2020, and by the end of the year, it would have created 10,000 new jobs. The new UK jobs will take Amazon’s UK workforce to more than 40,000. Amazon says the new jobs will be permanent and pay £9.50 an hour.…

UK employment drops by the biggest amount in a decade The UK has seen the biggest employment dip in over a decade between April and June, official figures show.  Employment fell by 220,000 on the quarter, said the Office for National Statistics. This was the largest quarterly decrease since May to July 2009, the depths of the financial crisis.  The youngest workers, oldest workers and workers in manual or elementary occupations were most likely to…

UK debt rises in June amid pandemic The UK government borrowed £35.5bn in June, roughly five times more than the same month last year, as the global pandemic continues to weigh on public finances.  The figure took total government debt to a record £1.98 trillion. But, the monthly borrowing figure was in line with expectations.  The re-opening of non-essential shops and other businesses in June saw a drop in furlough scheme spending and a rise…

UK’s inflation rate The UK’s inflation rate rose to 0.6% in June as the Covid-19 pandemic lockdown started to ease.  The Consumer Prices Index (CPI) picked up slightly from May’s four year low of 0.5%, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) said.  Food and alcohol prices fell but clothing and games rose, the ONS said. Despite the slight increase in the rate, inflation remains below the Bank of England’s 2% target.  https://twitter.com/Suren_Thiru/status/1283282091443134464 Jonathan Athow, at…

Pakistani passengers arriving and leaving Pakistan have faced some inconvenience due to delay in the integration of flight schedules from Qatar Airways flights with the system of Civil Aviation Authority (CAA), a spokesman said on Tuesday. This glitch has left thousands of Pakistani passengers stranded in Pakistan and is adding to the anxiety of another lockdown of Air travel from Pakistan. “Due to delay in the integration of flight schedules from Qatar Airways with the…

Twitter security breach Twitter users received an email from the networking giant this morning stating information about a data security incident that may have involved their personal information on ads.twitter.com and analytics.twitter.com. The email says: “We became aware of an issue that meant that prior to May 20, 2020, if you viewed your billing information on ads.twitter.com or analytics.twitter.com the billing information may have been stored in the browser’s cache.  “Examples of that information include…

The number of workers on UK payrolls dived more than 600,000 between March and May, official figures suggest. Meanwhile, the number of people claiming work-related benefits – which includes the unemployed – was up 126% to 2.8 million. The early estimates reflect the impact of around six weeks of lockdown in which large parts of the UK were shut. But economists say the full effect on employment will not be felt until wage support schemes…

The federal debt surged past $26 trillion this week as the government ramped up emergency relief spending in the wake of the  CORONAVIRUS pandemic. It’s set to swell even more. The Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, a nonpartisan watchdog, estimated the federal debt will grow by $4 trillion this year, the product of massive federal spending to keep individuals and companies afloat during an unprecedented economic shutdown. Congress and President Donald TRUMP implemented the $2…

Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte said on Saturday Italy is opening borders and was taking a calculated risk in rolling back lockdown measures from next week as the daily death toll from the  COVID-19 pandemic fell to its lowest rate since March 9. He said “the contagion curve” could rise again, but the country could not afford to wait for a vaccine. Mr Conte announced that travel to and from Italy, and between the country’s…

The Middle East has many reasons to fear the coronavirus pandemic, but it has one big advantage when it comes to resisting it. Most people in the region are young. A rough average is that at least 60% are under the age of 30. That makes them less responsive to developing Covid-19. Most governments in the region reacted swiftly as the pandemic broke globally and had time to impose curfews and social distancing measures. Even…