Last week, a coalition of thirteen of the UK’s major insurers vowed to cut their supply chain emissions as part of the Sustainable Markets Initiative’s (SMI’s) sustainable supply chain pledge.

In signing the SMI pledge, the 13 insurers and brokers – including Axa, Phoenix, Lloyd’s, and Direct Line – vowed to work with their suppliers to set “meaningful” near-term sustainability targets that align with the Paris Agreement’s ambition to create a carbon neutral world by 2050.

Launched at Davos in 2020, the SMI itself was set up by Prince Charles with a view initiating action in the private sector by bringing together a coalition of major companies committed to accelerating “the transition to a sustainable future”.

In achieving its goals, the SMI pledge commits insurers to measuring and reporting on the carbon emissions that arise from them purchasing goods and services from other firms.

The pledge is set to see signees work to systematise...

Just under £300bn has been wiped off the value of UK corporate bonds since the start of this year following a major sell-off in the bond market in what is considered the biggest collapse in two decades.

In the first six months of this year, the total outstanding value of UK corporate bonds has fallen by 13.3% from £2.237 trillion to £1.940 trillion, a fall of £297.5 billion.

This compares to a fall of 3% for the FTSE100 over the same period, digital asset manager Collidr told City A.M. this morning.

Bond prices have been hit by rising interest rates and rising inflation since the start of the year, in response to central banks tightening monetary policy to control inflation.

Collidr’s research shows that £283.8bn has also been wiped off the value of Gilts (UK government bonds) since the start of the year.

Gilts have fallen by 14.8%, the biggest drop since the 1980s.

The collapse in bond prices has been a major challenge for...

Three in four British workers want hybrid work to cope with the cost of living crisis gripping the country.

Employees want their employers to offer flexible hybrid working as inflation surges to record levels of 9.4 per cent in the country, a survey by hiring software company Greenhouse found today.

As the cost of essentials like groceries and energy soar and the Bank of England hikes interest rates to tame inflation, 75 per cent of employees also expect a recession.

If their workplace was to refuse benefits like the possibility of working from home, 24 per cent of workers over 55 said they would not leave their jobs while 53 per cent of 23-34 year olds said they would quit.

Job security, high salaries, and flexible working were among the top benefits that employees value most.

56 per cent do not anticipate their wages to drop, with 47 per cent of workers expecting a pay rise of this year. Londoners were most confident of up to a 50...

City traders held off from any sudden moves this morning ahead of what could be another scorching US inflation print.

London’s premier FTSE 100 index edged 0.03 per cent lower to 7,485.53 points, while the domestically-focused mid-cap FTSE 250 index, which is more aligned with the health of the UK economy, climbed 0.28 per cent to 19,967.28 points.

Investors are seemingly exercising caution before new US inflation figures are published stateside this afternoon.

Wall Street thinks the rate of price rises cooled to 8.7 per cent last month from a 40-year high of 9.1 per cent. Core inflation is anticipated to have jumped over the last month.

Any upside shock may send a jolt through markets caused by traders assessing whether a hotter print will prompt the Federal Reserve to keep hiking interest rates rapidly.

Analysts at investment bank Citi said earlier this week Fed chair Jerome Powell and co may lift borrowing cost 100 basis points at...

Chancellor Nadhim Zahawi and Business Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng will hold emergency talks with energy sector chiefs today as the price cap was forecast to hit more than £4,400 in January.

In a new dire outlook for households, Cornwall Insight said bills are set to soar to around £3,582 in October, from £1,971 on Tuesday, before rising even further in the new year.

There has been widespread anger at Shell, BP and British Gas owner Centrica announcing bumper financial results while households struggle to cope with soaring bills.

The Sun reported gas and electricity executives will meet with the Cabinet ministers on Thursday morning, when the bosses will be asked to submit a breakdown of expected profits and payouts as well as investment plans for the next three years.

It comes as Liz Truss branded as “bizarre” proposals to agree support for rising energy bills with the Government and Rishi Sunak before the Tory leadership contest is over.

Chinese authorities are urgently looking into a new deadly virus that has infected over three dozen people in the country, several media in Asia report this morning.

The virus, called Langya, is carried to humans from animals, particularly shrews, according to The Taipei Times.

The Langya henipavirus has been discovered in China, with 35 confirmed human infections reported so far, Taiwan’s Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said today.

A study titled “A Zoonotic Henipavirus in Febrile Patients in China” is reportedly to be published in the New England Journal of Medicine tomorrow and will say that a new henipavirus associated with a fever-causing human illness has been identified in China.

The patients have symptoms including fever, fatigue, a cough, loss of appetite , muscle pain, nausea, a headache and vomiting.

When asked for confirmation, CDC Deputy Director-General Chuang Jen-hsiang (???) on Sunday that said according to the...

Liz Truss wants to give ministers the power to overrule decisions made by the UK’s financial services regulators in a move that is set to create serious tensions with the Bank of England.

The Tory leadership frontrunner wants to revive the policy, which was recently ditched by the Treasury, as a part of the government’s push to diverge from the EU’s City rulebook.

The Financial Times reports that Truss has told allies she “definitely” wants to pursue the change to combat City regulators making decisions that are deemed to be too cautious.

The call-in power was set to be included in the government’s post-Brexit Financial Services and Markets Bill, however it was removed by new chancellor Nadhim Zahawi after pressure from Bank of England governor Andrew Bailey.

Bailey told a Westminster committee last month that the City’s “international standing” depends on “the independence of regulators”.

Truss’ insistence on giving the government...

All eyes are on whether Coinbase will negatively surprise once more after its first-quarter results where expectations of a positive reading suffered a loss of $1.98 per share. Revenue was a miss at $1.17bn instead of an expected $1.5bn. The total trading volume dropped massively, suffering a drop in retail monthly transaction users, yet it remained optimistic and ‘focused on the long-term’ and not just on aspects of crypto trading, with hopes it would emerge as a key and trusted player regardless of the path the overall segment takes.

Costs will remain an item in focus, even after Coinbase announced layoffs thus altering its prior plans for an increased headcount and signifying a phase of slower growth if not contraction as the sphere remains in a ‘crypto winter’. Crypto prices are trading at lower levels since mid-May and Coinbase’s share price though little changed after the big plummet following its 2022 first-quarter earnings release.

Such is the nature of...

The founder of a Cayman Islands investment fund, that bankrolled ‘no win, no fee’ lawsuits, has been convicted of using a complex network of overseas trust to defraud investors of millions.  

Timothy Schools, investment manager at the Cayman Islands headquartered Axiom Legal Financing Fund, used investors cash to fund his luxury lifestyle, that saw him buy a £5m fishing and shooting estate in the Lake District and shares in a luxury ski hotel in France.  

The litigation fund manager secured more than £100m in investment from around 500 investors, by claiming their funds would be paid out to a panel of high-quality law firms and used to finance ‘no win, no fee’ legal cases that were likely to secure returns.

Instead, the funds were siphoned off to just three law firms – ATM, Ashton Fox, and Bracewell’s – all of which were owned or part-owned by Schools himself.

The convicted fraudster later laundered money paid out by investors...

The crypto market recovery continues after a poor start to the summer. The price of Bitcoin now seems to have firmly established itself in a narrow consolidation range in the $22,500 to $24,500 area, sitting at just below $23k this morning. That’s down three per cent since this time yesterday but flat over the past seven days, with its relative resilience providing some comfort to investors. 

Other major cryptocurrencies are also down slightly on Wednesday morning, but broadly up over the past week. The price of Ethereum is $1,685 at time of writing, down around 5 per cent over the past 24 hours but still up three per cent since this time a week ago. Market sentiment also continues to look stronger than it has in recent times, with the Fear and Greed Index yesterday hitting 42 – its highest level since early April. Can it once again turn greedy?

The big news to watch out for today is the release of more US inflation data, with the latest US Consumer...

Rolls-Royce shares (LON: RR) sunk by 10% to 83p on Friday after half-year results spooked investors over long-running problems with supply chain issues and inflation.

The FTSE 100 engineer has struggled to gain traction after the pandemic crash in 2020 saw its shares collapse from 236p in February 2020 to just 39p by October 2020.

And after recovering to 147p by November last year, the Ukraine war combined with tightening monetary policy has seen it surf below penny stock status since early April.

Elon Musk has sold nearly $7bn (£5.7bn) worth of Tesla shares as his battle with Twitter over his botched takeover heads to court.

Musk, tech entrepreneur and the world’s richest man, will head to trial on 17 October.

Musk had sold $8.5bn (£7bn) worth of Tesla shares in April, assuring shareholders that he was not planning any further sales.

The Twitter board in June had “unanimously” recommended Musk’s $44bn (£36.3bn) takeover bid, which was first announced in April.

However, the deal swiftly fell into turmoil in July when Musk retracted his offer, accusing Twitter of not sharing accurate information on the number of spam accounts, or bots, make up Twitter’s total usership.

The ditched bid sent the social media giant’s shares below the price he had agreed to pay for them.

Twitter has since blamed Musk for declining revenue, which dropped one per cent in the second quarter of this year to $1.18bn (£1.5bn), falling short of the...

Chancellor Nadhim Zahawi and Business Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng will hold emergency talks with energy sector chiefs today as the price cap was forecast to hit more than £4,400 in January.

In a new dire outlook for households, Cornwall Insight said bills are set to soar to around £3,582 in October, from £1,971 on Tuesday, before rising even further in the new year.

There has been widespread anger at Shell, BP and British Gas owner Centrica announcing bumper financial results while households struggle to cope with soaring bills.

The Sun reported gas and electricity executives will meet with the Cabinet ministers on Thursday morning, when the bosses will be asked to submit a breakdown of expected profits and payouts as well as investment plans for the next three years.

It comes as Liz Truss branded as “bizarre” proposals to agree support for rising energy bills with the Government and Rishi Sunak before the Tory leadership contest is over.

[Re: Nintendo sales continue to slump as supply chains and fading engagement bite, August 3]

Nintendo may be betting on the new Pokemon to change its fortunes this year, but it needs to do more to convert casual fans into repeat players.

Games are intended to be inclusive spaces, where you can be whoever you want to be. Unfortunately, through their design or representation, they can often be the opposite.

Elden Ring, the bestselling game of 2022, is notoriously difficult. There is nothing inherently wrong with creating a difficult game. But creating barriers to entry, without an “easy mode” for more casual gamers can be exclusionary. Additionally, games don’t represent the people that play them.

Nearly 80 per cent of lead characters in games are male and 54 per cent of lead characters in games are white, even though games are played by all genders, races and ethnicities. Gaming brands must create spaces which are inclusive to ensure that...

Three in four British workers want hybrid work to cope with the cost of living crisis gripping the country.

Employees want their employers to offer flexible hybrid working as inflation surges to record levels of 9.4 per cent in the country, a survey by hiring software company Greenhouse found today.

As the cost of essentials like groceries and energy soar and the Bank of England hikes interest rates to tame inflation, 75 per cent of employees also expect a recession.

If their workplace was to refuse benefits like the possibility of working from home, 24 per cent of workers over 55 said they would not leave their jobs while 53 per cent of 23-34 year olds said they would quit.

Job security, high salaries, and flexible working were among the top benefits that employees value most.

56 per cent do not anticipate their wages to drop, with 47 per cent of workers expecting a pay rise of this year. Londoners were most confident of up to a 50...

Last week, a coalition of thirteen of the UK’s major insurers vowed to cut their supply chain emissions as part of the Sustainable Markets Initiative’s (SMI’s) sustainable supply chain pledge.

In signing the SMI pledge, the 13 insurers and brokers – including Axa, Phoenix, Lloyd’s, and Direct Line – vowed to work with their suppliers to set “meaningful” near-term sustainability targets that align with the Paris Agreement’s ambition to create a carbon neutral world by 2050.

Launched at Davos in 2020, the SMI itself was set up by Prince Charles with a view initiating action in the private sector by bringing together a coalition of major companies committed to accelerating “the transition to a sustainable future”.

In achieving its goals, the SMI pledge commits insurers to measuring and reporting on the carbon emissions that arise from them purchasing goods and services from other firms.

The pledge is set to see signees work to systematise...

Chinese authorities are urgently looking into a new deadly virus that has infected over three dozen people in the country, several media in Asia report this morning.

The virus, called Langya, is carried to humans from animals, particularly shrews, according to The Taipei Times.

The Langya henipavirus has been discovered in China, with 35 confirmed human infections reported so far, Taiwan’s Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said today.

A study titled “A Zoonotic Henipavirus in Febrile Patients in China” is reportedly to be published in the New England Journal of Medicine tomorrow and will say that a new henipavirus associated with a fever-causing human illness has been identified in China.

The patients have symptoms including fever, fatigue, a cough, loss of appetite , muscle pain, nausea, a headache and vomiting.

When asked for confirmation, CDC Deputy Director-General Chuang Jen-hsiang (???) on Sunday that said according to the...

Chancellor Nadhim Zahawi and Business Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng will hold emergency talks with energy sector chiefs today as the price cap was forecast to hit more than £4,400 in January.

In a new dire outlook for households, Cornwall Insight said bills are set to soar to around £3,582 in October, from £1,971 on Tuesday, before rising even further in the new year.

There has been widespread anger at Shell, BP and British Gas owner Centrica announcing bumper financial results while households struggle to cope with soaring bills.

The Sun reported gas and electricity executives will meet with the Cabinet ministers on Thursday morning, when the bosses will be asked to submit a breakdown of expected profits and payouts as well as investment plans for the next three years.

It comes as Liz Truss branded as “bizarre” proposals to agree support for rising energy bills with the Government and Rishi Sunak before the Tory leadership contest is over.