Rolls Royce announces layoffs, Moneysupermarket.com sees growth pick up

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The FTSE 100 was being called to start the day unchanged from 7,630.

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Rolls Royce announced plans to streamline its business and boost efficiency. However, the engineer said that tight cost and headcount controls meant that the reduction in headcount would be minimised. It was anticipating between 2,000-2,500 redundancies out of a global workforce of 42,000. The new structure's aim was to enhance the business's procurement and supply chain management functions.

Price comparison website Moneysupermarket.com saw growth accelerate in the third quarter due to high levels of switching in insurance, offsetting the impact of higher interest rates on borrowing activities. The company said that it remains confident of hitting full-year expectations, with the consensus forecast for adjusted EBITDA at £129.5m for 2023 financial year, up from £115.5m in 2022. Revenues for the three months to 30 September totalled £115.6m, up 14% year-on-year, accelerating from the 11% growth in the first half.

In the press

Rolls-Royce Holdings, the aircraft engine manufacturer, is expected to announce 2,500 job cuts today as part of the new chief executive’s plan to simplify the company’s management structure. The job losses are expected to fall mainly on back office functions such as human resources, finance and other non-engineering roles. - The Times

Mobile phone bills could rise by as much as £300 a year as a result of the merger of the UK operations of Vodafone and the owner of Three, a trade union has said. Unite has been a vocal critic of the proposed deal, which would create the UK’s largest mobile operator, and said that it is a “terrible” deal that also poses risks for national security. - Guardian

Rishi Sunak’s stealth tax raid is equivalent to a 6 pence rise in income tax and will cost the public an extra £52bn a year by 2027, according to a leading think-tank. The Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) warned that a six-year freeze on income tax thresholds would see the number of people paying the higher or top rate of tax double to 8.9 million in a decade. One in six British adults will be paying the higher or additional rate of income tax by the end of the decade, compared with 4pc in the 1990s. - Daily Telegraph

US close

Stocks on Wall Street rose strongly on Monday, with the S&P 500 having its best day in nearly two months, as bond yields largely shrugged off ongoing conflict in the Middle East,

Government bonds and gold prices both declined, pulling back after investors poured into safe havens the previous session on the back of rising tensions between Israel and Hamas.

Michael Hewson, analyst at CMC Markets, said the weekend "saw a lot of noise, but little sign that an Israeli incursion into Gaza was imminent, although it still seems likely that it will happen at some point". He added: "Absent any news out of the Middle East the focus is likely to be on earnings this week."

This S&P 500 finished at 4,374, up 1.1% on the day – its best daily performance since late-August. The Dow Jones Industrial Average meanwhile gained 0.9% and the Nasdaq rose 1.2%.