Third quarter profits surge at NatWest, Hilton acquires meat supplier Fairfax

London open

The FTSE 100 is expected to open 33 points lower on Friday, having closed down 0.05% at 7,249.47 on Thursday.

Stocks to watch

NatWest Bank reported a surge in third quarter profits as it released £242m set aside to cover bad loans during the Covid crisis. The company on Friday said operating pre-tax profits rose to £1.07bn from £355m a year ago, but lower than the £1.5bn in the second quarter.

Hilton Food Group announced on Friday that it has acquired UK foodservice meat supplier Fairfax Meadow Europe from Argent Holdings. The FTSE 250 company said it paid £23.8m in cash, taking into account adjustments for net debt and normalised working capital, funded from its debt facilities. It said the acquisition would improve access to the out-of-home channel.

Newspaper round-up

Homeowners face the biggest rise in mortgage costs since the financial crisis, with the amount of interest they pay set to jump by 13% in 2023, data from the government’s independent forecasting unit suggests. Politicians and analysts seized on a table “buried” in a report published by the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) alongside the budget, which stated that mortgage interest payments were set for their biggest rise since at least 2008. – Guardian

Whitehall’s independent watchdog has found “no evidence” that ministers or officials considered potential conflicts of interest before giving the disgraced financier Lex Greensill government contracts just months after he had left a job as a No 10 adviser. The National Audit Office said Greensill left a job as an adviser to David Cameron, then the prime minister, in 2017. Eight months later, his firm was involved in a bid for a large public sector contract. – Guardian

Wizz Air has fired an executive after an investigation by regulators revealed he had breached rules governing trading by company insiders. András Sebők, the budget airline’s chief supply officer, bought and sold shares on 114 different occasions without notifying the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). – Telegraph

Joe Biden is preparing to launch an unprecedented tax raid on US millionaires as he scrambles to raise $2 trillion to fund a flagship spending package. The Senate is poised to vote on a 5pc tax on earnings above $10m (£7.2m) a year, with an extra 8pc for incomes above $25m. – Telegraph

Apple and Amazon both disappointed investors with their earnings reports last night as they warned of continuing disruption to their supply chains. Shortages knocked Apple’s sales by $6 billion in the latest three-month period and it said that the impact could get worse in the remainder of the year. – The Times

US close

Wall Street stocks finished in the green on Thursday, as traders digested some key data points and more corporate earnings.

At the close, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 0.68% at 35,730.48, the S&P 500 added 0.98% to 4,596.42, and the Nasdaq Composite was ahead 1.39% at 15,448.12.

The Dow closed 239.79 points higher on Thursday, clawing back the previous session’s losses that saw the blue-chip index knocked off its record high.

Thursday's primary focus was news that US economic growth had slowed more sharply than anticipated over the three months ended 30 September.

According to the Department of Commerce, a preliminary reading showed that the rate of growth in US gross domestic product decelerated to a quarterly annualised pace of 2.0% in the third quarter - down from the 6.7% clip observed during the preceding three months.