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Important information: The value of investments can go down as well as up so you may get back less than you invest. Investors should note that the views expressed may no longer be current and may have already been acted upon. This is a third-party news feed and may not reflect Fidelity’s views.

Sunday newspaper round-up: Bank of England, Virgin Media O2, THG

(Sharecast News) - Experts at Investec believe that the Bank of England will stand pat on rates when it meets this week due to financial stability concerns triggered by the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank and bailouts for Credit Suisse and First Republic Bank. "The degree of conviction in this view is necessarily small when inflation is still in double-digits but stability concerns have suddenly surged," they said. Inflation data out on Wednesday on the other hand was expected to decline to just below 10%, posing a dilemma for Bank. Yet senior Treasury officials think the rate of inflation could halve to roughly 5% over the next few months. Similarly, the Office for Budget Responsibility sees inflation tumbling to 2.9% by the end of 2023. - Financial Mail on Sunday Virgin Media O2 is studying a takeover offer for rival broadband supplier Cityfibre of up to £3bn. Virgin Media 02 parent company Liberty Global boss, Mike Fries, and Cityfibre head Greg Mesch, have already held initial talks about a possible tie-up. Cityfibre already reaches approximately 2.0m homes will full fibre brodband and hopes to reach 8.0m by 2025. An acquisition would help Virgin Media both expand its own network and help it hit its own target of upgrading the entirety to full fibre. One source said that Cityfibre, which enjoys the backing of Goldman Sachs, might fetch a price tag of over £3bn. - The Sunday Telegraph

Sparta Capital, a hedge fund set up by a former executive of US outfit Elliott Advisors, has taken out a stake in THG. It joins another activist investor on THG's shareholder register, Kelso. The latter is expected to be close to making its recommendations to THG's board public and is expected to push for the online retailer to move its shares to the premium segment of the main market. - The Sunday Times

The country's lenders have been told by Bank to disclose their exposures to global dent markets. At a meeting last week, officials at Threadneedle Street held talks with lenders, both large and small, to assess their risk profiles and asked them to provide breakdowns of their bond market investments. Also discussed was whether they had any direct exposure to Credit Suisse, which was understood to be minimal. The intervention was only a precautionary action and did not reveal any immediate threats to the UK financial system. Nonetheless, the unusual intervention was a reflection of the degree of concern sparked by the failure of SVB and the situation at Credit Suisse. - Sunday Telegraph

Former top Bank of England official David Blanchflower believes that the central bank should slash interest rates and stop selling Gilts in the aftermath of the turmoil in the banking sector. Blanchflower, who sat on the BoE's Monetary Policy Committee during the 2008 crisis, recommended cutting Bank Rate by 100 basis points to 3% at next Thursday's policy meeting. Blanchflower and fellow economist Richard Murphy said in a submission to the Commons Treasury select committee that Bank should resume Gilt purchases at a pace of £50bn per year in order to keep the economy out of recession. - Guardian

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Wednesday newspaper round-up: Amazon, dividends, Weardale Lithium
(Sharecast News) - Amazon profits soared once again in the first quarter of 2024, the company announced on Tuesday - the latest in a series of robust earnings reports for the retail giant. The company attributed the boost to artificial intelligence and advertising sales. Amazon reported overall revenue of $143.3bn in the first three months of the year - up 13% from the same period in 2023 and surpassing Wall Street expectations of $142.65bn. The e-commerce giant reported an increase of more than 200% to $15bn, with net income more than tripling to $10.4bn from $3.17bn at the same time in 2023. - Guardian
Tuesday newspaper round-up: Meta, ExxonMobil, Very Group
(Sharecast News) - The Federal Communications Commission on Monday fined the largest US wireless carriers nearly $200m for illegally sharing access to customers' location information. The FCC is finalizing fines first proposed in February 2020, including $80m for T-Mobile; $12m for Sprint, which T-Mobile has since acquired; $57m for AT&T, and nearly $47m for Verizon. - Guardian
Monday newspaper round-up: Thames Water, Brexit, Babylon
(Sharecast News) - Senior Whitehall officials fear Thames Water's financial collapse could trigger a rise in government borrowing costs not seen since the chaos of the Liz Truss mini-budget, the Guardian can reveal. Such is their concern about the impact on wider borrowing costs for the UK, even beyond utilities and infrastructure, that they believe Thames should be renationalised before the general election. Officials in the Treasury and the UK's Debt Management Office fear that, unless the UK's biggest water company is renationalised as soon as possible, "prolonged uncertainty" about its fate could "damage confidence in UK plc at a sensitive time", with elections in the UK and the US later this year. - Guardian
Sunday share tips: Centrica, Lancashire Holdings
(Sharecast News) - The Sunday Times's Lucy Tobin told her readers to book their profits in Centrica and 'sell'.

Important information: This information is not a personal recommendation for any particular investment. If you are unsure about the suitability of an investment you should speak to one of Fidelity’s advisers or an authorised financial adviser of your choice. When you are thinking about investing in shares, it’s generally a good idea to consider holding them alongside other investments in a diversified portfolio of assets. Past performance is not a reliable indicator of future returns.

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