Business News 9th June 2017

We hope you enjoy reading the business news compiled by the Credit Protection Association on Friday 9th June 2017 for its members and visitors.

There is only one real story today. Sorry it is late, the compiler stayed up all night to watch the results come in and then had had to attend an economic forum in the city.

General Election

The UK electorate has returned a hung parliament with the Conservatives as the largest party after the general election produced no overall winner. With nearly all results in, Theresa May faces having fewer seats than when she called the election.
The Tories are projected to get 318 seats, Labour 261 and the SNP 35. Jeremy Corbyn has urged the PM to resign but the suggestion is that she has no intention of doing so at this stage and will try to form a government

The pound fell by 2% on the news of the exit polls and this moring the internationally faced FTSE 100 climbed but the domestically centric FTSE 250 fell.

Asian Markets

Asian stocks started trading mixed, in a wait-and-see mode as they awaited definitive news of the U.K. election result.

U.S. Markets

U.S. stocks closed modestly higher, as investors mulled over former FBI Director James Comey’s testimony which overshadowed data showing that initial jobless claims fell less than expected.

Gold

Gold prices edged down ahead of the UK election verdict with results suggesting no clear winner which could push the country into a new bout of political turmoil before Brexit talks.

UK drops to bottom of EU growth table

Figures from Eurostat show the UK had the lowest GDP growth rate in the European Union in the first quarter of 2017, at 0.2%. In the same period, the UK’s large Continental peers – Germany, France – grew by 0.6% and 0.4% respectively.

The Independent, Page: 5 The Daily Telegraph The Times, Page: 8 The Guardian, Page: 29

Britain could pay access bill of €5bn a year post-Brexit

Calculations by the Times suggest Britain would have to pay up to €5bn a year post-Brexit to secure access to certain programmes, such as the Horizon 2020 science and research project and the EU’s Galileo and Copernicus space programmes. Between €1bn and €3bn a year would be needed for preferential access to the single market, the paper suggests. The €5bn annual total would be on top of any so-called Brexit divorce bill. A senior Conservative Eurosceptic MP told the Times privately that he thought annual payments of €3bn a year would be “about where we end up” – “Our job is to be tough to the point of unreasonableness to ensure that Theresa May can negotiate the best possible deal,” he said.

The Times, Page: 2-3