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Tuesday newspaper round-up: Consumer spending, Nick Train, Sam Altman

(Sharecast News) - Consumer spending growth is at its weakest in more than three years as higher council tax bills and the rising cost of broadband and mobile phones eat into household budgets, a report has said. The monthly snapshot of credit and debit card activity from Barclays found an improvement in consumer confidence as a result of falling inflation was not leading to a pickup in spending. - Guardian Lawyers and HR experts expect an increase in employment tribunal cases as companies increasingly clamp down on working from home and staff become resentful that the flexibility they have enjoyed since the pandemic is being slowly rolled back. A number of companies are now advocating a full five-day return to the office, with others enforcing a minimum number of days in the workplace. Administrative staff at Boots, who previously worked in the office three days a week, will return to the office five days a week from September. Many US banks, such as Goldman Sachs, also expect senior staff to come in for the full week, and its chief executive, David Solomon, labelled remote working an "aberration". - Guardian

Star fund manager Nick Train has paid himself an estimated £14m dividend despite apologising last month for a recent run of poor stock-picking. Accounts for Lindsell Train, the investment firm founded by Mr Train and Mike Lindsell, showed its founders shared a dividend pot worth £39m in the year to January. Mr Train and Mr Lindsell, with their spouses, each own around 36pc of the business. - Telegraph

The US owner of Channel 5 has agreed to a $8bn (£6.3bn) merger deal with a billionaire tech heir's production company, signalling an end to a months-long takeover saga. Paramount, the TV and film studio formerly known as ViacomCBS, has reportedly agreed to the terms of a merger with Skydance, a company set up by David Ellison, whose father is the Silicon Valley mogul Larry Ellison. - Telegraph

London must not become a listings venue of "last resort" for companies with "dubious human rights records", one of London's leading fund managers has warned in a broadside against the City's bid to host the $70 billion float of Shein. Peter Hugh Smith, chief executive of CCLA Investment Management, which oversees about £14 billion of assets and is an investor in Amazon, said reports that the Chinese fast fashion group was eyeing a float in the UK were "worrying". - The Times

Sam Altman, chief executive of OpenAI, has quietly built up a portfolio of personal investments valued at almost $3 billion in technology companies, some of which do business with his artificial intelligence firm. Altman, 39, has become one of Silicon Valley's most prolific investors with holdings in more than 400 companies, including Airbnb, Stripe and Reddit, managed by his family office. The scale of his investment empire was first reported by The Wall Street Journal. - The Times

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Thursday newspaper round-up: CMA, Riverford, Lloyds, Arm Holdings
(Sharecast News) - The appointment of the former boss of Amazon UK to lead the competition watchdog poses a threat to its independence and pledge to hold big tech to account, according to a group including tech companies and the former business secretary Vince Cable. The group - which includes the News Media Association, the Firefox developer Mozilla, the consumer group Which? and the Future of Technology Institute - has written to the chancellor, Rachel Reeves, to raise concerns about the appointment of Doug Gurr as the interim chair of the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA). - Guardian
Wednesday newspaper round-up: Thames Water, Johnson & Johnson, BoE
(Sharecast News) - Thames Water may need as much as £10bn in debt and equity investment to repair its finances, according to a representative of creditors hoping to lend the struggling utility another £3bn. London's high court heard evidence on Tuesday that suggested the UK's largest water company may need significantly more resources than the roughly £6.3bn it has previously indicated. - Guardian
Monday newspaper round-up: Zero-hours contracts, Barclays, Asos
(Sharecast News) - Hundreds of thousands of British workers are on zero-hours contracts despite being with the same employer for years, according to analysis from the TUC. The majority of zero-hours contract workers have been with their employer for more than 12 months, while one in eight have not been granted regular employment rights after more than a decade working in the same place, the organisation said. - Guardian
Friday newspaper round-up: Apple, Daily Mail, OpenAI, Homebase
(Sharecast News) - Apple slightly beat analysts' expectations in its first-quarter earnings for fiscal year 2025 on Thursday. The iPhone-maker's revenue rose by 4%, coming in at $124.30bn, barely above estimates of $124.12bn. Earnings per share were $2.40, just ahead of analysts' expectations of $2.35. Shares rose more than 8% in extended trading after CEO Tim Cook indicated in an earnings call on Thursday that Apple is on the trajectory for revenue growth next quarter. - Guardian

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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