Problems viewing this? Click to view in your browser
Business - Need to Know

Afternoon Edition

The euro is down against the pound this morning amid growing concerns about the risk of Greece leaving the eurozone.

Greek banks are on the verge of running out of money as the country’s finance minister warns other eurozone nations not to “play with fire” by forcing Greece into a default.

Negotiations to prevent Greek bankruptcy next month continue to be deadlocked over eurozone demands for VAT increases, pension cuts, privatisations and labour reforms in return for emergency funding.

Greece must today repay the European Central Bank (ECB) €80 million in interest payments as the government in Athens faces being unable to pay public workers if it continues to service debts to its creditors.

The euro is down 0.3 per cent at 72p. Citi said it was recommending a short euro and long sterling position, targeting a drop to 71p. The single currency is also down against the dollar, off 0.5 per cent to $1.0748.

Bruno Waterfield, our man in Brussels, has the story here.

You can follow all the developments and market reaction, on our Business Now live blog.

On the corporate front, G4S has decided not to issue a first quarter trading update to the stock market and is also reviewing whether it will make a third quarter statement this year.

The decision follows a change that came into effect last November, when the Financial Conduct Authority said that listed companies did not need to publish interim management statements.

Don't forget you can follow me on Twitter for regular updates throughout the day - @becclancy.

Have a great day.

Rebecca Clancy
Breaking News Editor, Business
The Times
rebecca.clancy@thetimes.co.uk

The Footsie, plump with resource shares, has started the week on the front foot after China, the hungriest consumer of industrial metals, took steps to pep its stuttering economy by cutting the amount of cash its banks need to hold in reserve.

London’s leading index is 49 points higher at 7,044, led by mining shares. Anglo American is up 33p at £10.43 and BHP Billiton is 24.5p better at £14.71.

Ashtead, the plant hire group, has run on 29p to £11.41 after a push by Barclays, while Friday’s deal speculation is buoying InterContinental Hotels Group 59p to £27.81.

Gary Parkinson
Market Reporter

House prices have hit another record high, according to figures from Rightmove.

This is a light week for economic news, but there are plenty of earnings due out, including Amazon, Google, Facebook, eBay, IBM, Morgan Stanley, Halliburton and Microsoft announcing their quarterly financial results.

Morgan Stanley is expected to report a rise in first-quarter earnings when it posts results before the opening bell. The company's institutional securities business now depends more on equities trading business, rather than fixed income trading. The bank is trying to squeeze more revenue out of its major businesses by getting wealth clients to use investment banking and trading services. Ruth Porat, Morgan Stanley's chief financial officer, who helped execute a sweeping cost-cutting strategy across several business lines at the bank, will step down to join Google as its finance chief next month. It is expected to report earnings per share of 78 cents, against 74 cents for the same period last year, and revenue of $9.17 billion, up from $8.93 billion a year ago.

Halliburton is expected to report a lower first-quarter profit, hurt by soft drilling activity. Oil producers have significantly scaled back spending amid weak oil prices. The company has said it would cut more than 6,000 jobs and investors will seek details about any further cost cuts, especially after Schlumberger cut 11,000 more jobs. Halliburton is looking to complete its $35 billion acquisition of smaller rival Baker Hughes, which is expected to report its own first-quarter results on Tuesday. Wall Street is expecting revenue of $7.02 billion, against $6.99 billion a year ago.

IBM reports first-quarter earnings after markets close today. It disappointed investors last quarter as it continued to see a slowdown in its software business and struggled to improve sales as it transitions to a cloud- and software-based company from its more traditional hardware business. It has missed sales expectations in seven of the last eight quarters. Wall Street is expecting revenue of $19.7 billion, a 12 per cent decline from the year ago figure of $22.5 billion.

Today marks the fifth anniversary of BP’s Deepwater Horizon disaster, the worst oil spill in history.

Markets: Futures suggest a positive day on Wall Street. The Dow Jones is expected to open up 103 points at 17,873, the S&P to rise 11.5 points to 2,087, and the Nasdaq to grow 18.5 points to 4,367.5.

Alexandra Frean
US Business Editor
@freanie

"The economy is taking the general election in its stride as ‘noflation’ trumps politics. The eurozone recovery is bedding in and completes the positive UK growth picture."
Peter Spencer, chief economic adviser to the EY ITEM Club which predicts UK GDP will grow 2.8 per cent this year and 3 per cent in 2016
Today's FTSE 100 risers and fallers
Up (%)
Anglo American 3.21
Ashtead Group 2.6
InterContinental Hotels Group 2.16
Rio Tinto 1.96
BHP Billiton 1.76
* As at noon
Down (%)
Persimmon -1.26
G4S -1
Capita -0.98
Centrica -0.84
Coca Cola HBC -0.81
* As at noon
The Markets Today
FTSE 100 7,044.59 0.71%
FTSE 250 17,571.41 -0.01%
Cac 5,166.19 0.45%
Dax 11,873.59 1.58%
Brent Crude 64.21 -0.05%
Gold 1,199.39 -0.29%
GBP/US 1.4917 -0.28%
GBP/euro 1.3908 0.48%
10Y Gilt 130.965 -0.11%
* As at noon
Unsubscribe | Update Profile
This email was sent by: %%Member_Busname%%
%%Member_Addr%% %%Member_City%%, %%Member_State%%, %%Member_PostalCode%%, %%Member_Country%%