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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.

Tuesday newspaper round-up: Starling Bank, Asos, Morrisons

(Sharecast News) - Staff have resigned at Starling Bank after its new chief executive demanded thousands of workers attend its offices more regularly, despite lacking enough space to host them. In his first major policy change since taking over from the UK digital bank's founder, Anne Boden, in March, Raman Bhatia has ordered all hybrid staff - many of whom were in the office only one or two days a week, or on an ad-hoc basis - to travel to work for a minimum of 10 days each month. - Guardian Asos has been accused of rewarding its chief executive for "spectacular failure" after giving him a £300,000 pay rise even as the online fast-fashion retailer cut jobs and recorded widening losses. José Antonio Ramos Calamonte's total pay rose from £814,000 to £1.17m in 2024, a 44% increase, according to its annual report, published on Monday. - Guardian

Dozens of Britain's biggest retailers have warned Rachel Reeves that her plans to hike National Insurance will cause staff to be laid off and shops to be shut. Major companies including Tesco, M&S, Boots and B&Q have written to the Chancellor saying that job losses were now "inevitable", as a result of the "sheer scale" of the new costs on business. - Telegraph

The private equity-owned supermarket chain Wm Morrison has almost halved its hefty debt burden as part of a turnaround effort under its new boss. Britain's fifth-largest grocer, which was saddled with debt after its takeover by Clayton, Dubilier & Rice (CD&R) in 2021, said it had paid down a further £200 million of borrowings and extended the maturity of its revolving credit facility to 2030, reducing its overall leverage levels. The restructuring also included extending its term loan facilities from 2027 to 2030. - The Times

Levying big fines on big tech companies is not an effective way of keeping them in line, the UK's privacy chief has said, in comments that have prompted a backlash from data privacy experts and transparency campaigners. John Edwards, the information commissioner, said that issuing penalties in the hundreds of millions of pounds, as his counterparts in Europe do, would only tie up his office in litigation. - The Times

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Thursday newspaper round-up: Solar panels, OBR, Chevron
(Sharecast News) - California's home-insurance safety net does not have enough money to pay all of the claims from damage caused by the Los Angeles wildfires and has asked private insurers to contribute $1bn toward those claims. All private insurers operating in California are required to contribute to the Fair plan, a plan of last resort established so all Californians would have access to fire insurance. More than 450,000 California homeowners got their insurance through the Fair plan in 2024 - more than double the number in 2020. As of 4 February, the plan had received more than 4,700 claims from the Palisades and Eaton fires, almost half of which were for "total losses". - Guardian
Wednesday newspaper round-up: British economy, Heathrow, FOS
(Sharecast News) - The British economy is on course to expand by 1.5% this year after the budget gave a boost to public spending but could be blown off course if Donald Trump goes ahead with threatened tariffs, a leading economic thinktank has warned. In a boost to Rachel Reeves after a bruising month of negative economic figures, the National Institute of Economic and Social Research (NIESR) upped its annual growth prediction from 1.2% to 1.5%. - Guardian
Tuesday newspaper round-up: OpenAI, EVs, gas prices
(Sharecast News) - Elon Musk escalated his feud with OpenAI and its CEO Sam Altman on Monday. The billionaire is leading a consortium of investors that announced it had submitted a bid of $97.4bn for "all assets" of the artificial intelligence company to OpenAI's board of directors. The startup, which operates ChatGPT, has been working to restructure itself away from its original non-profit status. OpenAI also operates a for-profit subsidiary, and Musk's unsolicited offer could complicate the company's plans. The Wall Street Journal first reported the proposed bid. - Guardian
Monday newspaper round-up: Service charge, BP, Heathrow, Elon Musk
(Sharecast News) - An increasingly complex tax system is burdening the government and businesses with hundreds of millions of pounds more in administration costs, Whitehall's spending watchdog has warned. The report by the National Audit Office (NAO) also said "poor levels of service" meant some taxpayers and their representatives were "finding it more difficult to deal with their tax matters and are losing trust in HM Revenue & Customs [HMRC]". - 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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