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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: TV subscriptions, Unilever, NatWest

(Sharecast News) - UK consumers cut back on groceries, clothes shopping and eating out last month but streaming and pay TV subscriptions jumped as cash-conscious viewers switched to nights in. The return of big hit series such as Succession, The Mandalorian and Ted Lasso fuelled a healthy 4.1% increase in spend on digital content and subscriptions in March, the highest year-on-year rise in five months, according to Barclays' regular snapshot of consumer credit and debit card use. - Guardian The Treasury spent almost half a million pounds on an unused emergency scheme for energy traders launched by Liz Truss that was quietly closed earlier this year. The energy markets financing scheme (EMFS) was devised by the Treasury and the Bank of England as a £40bn government-guaranteed backstop fund to provide stability for energy and financial markets. - Guardian

An era of ultra-low interest rates will return as soaring inflation becomes a historical blip, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has said. In a boon to homeowners, the Washington-based organisation, said that an ageing population coupled with low productivity will tame inflation and lead to interest rates returning to pre-pandemic levels. - Telegraph

Unilever needs to sharpen up operationally and demonstrate how its strategy for buying and selling businesses adds value, a large shareholder has said. Speaking before the arrival in July of Hein Schumacher, 51, the new chief executive, Sue Noffke, head of UK equities at Schroders, said the Dove-to-Domestos group needed to get better at proving it could exploit its distribution channels and marketing expertise to extract the benefit from deals. - The Times

Marshall Wace has built the biggest short-selling bet against NatWest ever recorded by the City regulator as fears about the health of the global banking system cause turbulence in shares throughout the sector. Disclosures to the Financial Conduct Authority show that Marshall Wace, one of the world's biggest hedge funds with about $61 billion of assets, has taken a 0.61 per cent net short position in shares of the taxpayer-backed lender. - The Times

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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
Thursday newspaper round-up: Car production, UK retailers, water bills, KPMG
(Sharecast News) - The architect of a ban on newspaper takeovers by foreign states has demanded that an Abu Dhabi fund be forced to sell The Telegraph by Easter. Baroness Stowell, the Conservative chairman of the Lords communications and digital committee, said the Government should impose an ultimatum on RedBird IMI. It should be backed by the threat of regulatory action, she said, to strip the fund of control of what has been dubbed "the newspaper auction from hell". - Telegraph

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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