QE stopped Covid financial meltdown, says Bailey

That is all from us today - here are some of our top stories:

• Eurostar rescued after France bows to British demands 
• Company tells home workers to track their carbon footprint 
• Transport for London bailout hinges on £150m Hammersmith bridge repair bill
• Shortage of workers threatens recovery as economy reopens
• Vodafone eyes joining BT's ultrafast broadband push

Thank you for joining, and see you again tomorrow!

Robinhood Markets plans to reveal filings for its initial public offering as soon as next week, as the trading app targets late June for its market debut, reported Bloomberg.

The news agency has more:

• While plans are advanced, the timing and details could change.
• The filing will give potential investors their first comprehensive look a Robinhood's financials and the risks associated with the stock.
• Robinhood submitted confidential documents to the US Securities and Exchange Commission in March, a process that allows the regulator to weigh in on any changes needed before making them widely available.

A securities filing in May revealed that the company’s payment for order flow -- its largest source of revenue -- more than tripled in the first quarter to $331m (£233m) as it became immensely popular with young investors amid the meme-stock frenzy.

Regulators have said that Robinhood’s platform encourages the game-like nature of trading, particularly among inexperienced retail traders.

Britvic’s sales took a heavy hit amid lockdowns but said it is hopeful of a revival in grab-and-go drinks as restrictions ease, as the Robinsons-parent reinstated its dividend.

My colleague Sam Hall reports:

The soft drinks maker said it has experienced 'encouraging trading' in recent weeks, after lockdown heavily impacted performance in the hospitality sector as well as on-the-go sales.

Revenue fell to £617.1m in the six months through March, from £698.8m in the same period last year. Profit after tax dropped from £38.9m to £33.2m.

Sales at supermarkets and convenience stores, however, were up 6.2pc. The firm credited ‘family favourites’ such as Robinsons, Pepsi MAX and 7UP for the growth, as well as strong online grocery sales. It also highlighted a fourth consecutive year of revenue growth in Brazil. An interim dividend of 6.5p per share was reinstated.

Chief executive Simon Litherland said Britvic delivered “a robust first half performance”, adding it has made "good progress" on “simplifying our Irish business, entering the mainstream energy category in GB and Ireland by relaunching Rockstar with PepsiCo, and acquiring Plenish, a leading natural premium brand in the fast growing plant based drinks category.”

In the latest coronavirus casualty, Irish airline Aer Lingus - owned by London-listed International Airlines Group - is closing its base at Shannon Airport, one of its four main domestic hubs and one of Ireland's largest airports.

Some 81 cabin crew at the base will be offered severance packages or a possible transfer to Dublin, while 45 ground staff will be permanently laid off. It comes as part of a coronavirus-induced restructuring plan that will result in company-wide cutbacks and layoffs.

In a statement to Reuters, Aer Lingus said it had "confirmed to staff that the airline will emerge smaller from the pandemic, and there will be a requirement for redundancies".

It added: "The cumulative impact of the crisis over the last 15 months means immediate actions and structural changes are required... to generate the cash required to rebuild (Aer Lingus') financial health".

Earlier this month Aer Lingus posted a €103m (£88.6m) loss in the first three months of this year, following a €361m loss last year.

The airline also plans to temporarily close its base at Cork Airport, which has 60 ground staff and 138 cabin crew, from September until late November due to planned works shutting down the runway. It is also reviewing its ground handling operations at both locations.

WeWork says demand has bounced back in the aftermath of the coronavirus, exceeding pre pandemic levels, with the business expecting to benefit from companies adopting more flexible attitudes to office space. 

“The demand for WeWork space today is higher than it was prior to the pandemic,” Marcelo Claure, WeWork's executive chairman, who is also chief operating officer at the company's biggest investor SoftBank Group Corp., said during an interview at the Bloomberg Businessweek virtual summit.

Covid-19 shutdowns gave WeWork a chance to “reinvent” itself, he said, encouraging the company to slash costs.

In a March presentation, WeWork said revenue excluding China for 2021 was estimated at $3.2 billion, on par with 2020 and 2019.

Customers “are basically sending us their employees because they don’t know how many days they’re going to be working,” Claure said.

Elon Musk's decision to turn his back on Bitcoin has wiped billions off his wealth and left him no longer the world's second-richest person, reports James Titcomb. 

He writes: 

[Musk] has a proven ability to swing asset prices via his Twitter account, and Bitcoin was no different. By mid-April, the cryptocurrency’s price had climbed above $60,000, a record high that was at least partly attributed to the Tesla chief.

It turns out that Musk’s influence works both ways, however. Last week, he announced that Tesla would no longer accept Bitcoin as payment due to concerns about the cryptocurrency’s environmental impact. In the days since, he has doubled down.

His decision has knocked Tesla's share price and pushed Musk down one place on the list of the world's richest people. after $3bn disappeared from his net worth.

Read the full story here. 

Tech giant Amazon is reportedly in talks to buy MGM, one of Hollywood's most famous studios which has produced the James Bond franchise, for $9bn (£6.3bn). 

If confirmed, the attempted acquisition would mark an escalation in the streaming wars, with these reports arriving just one day after telecoms giant AT&T launched an effort to create a new entertainment giant by combining its WarnerMedia unit with Discovery. 

MGM also makes hit TV programmes such as The Handmaid's Tale and Fargo, 

Bitcoin has fallen to its lowest price since February, after China banned financial institutions and payment companies from providing services linked to cryptocurrency transactions. 

"Recently crypto currency prices have sky rocketed and plummeted, and speculative trading of cryptocurrency has rebounded, seriously infringing on the safety of people's property and disrupting the normal economic and financial order," said a statement issued by the National Internet Finance Association, the China Banking Assocaiation and the Payment and Clearing Association of China. 

Both the pound and the FTSE lost ground this afternoon, with the FTSE trading flat at around 3pm and falling to daily lows of 7,035 and the pound also falling briefly back to $1.40 before rising again.

US home construction fell a surprisingly sharp 9.5pc in April, with analysts attributing part of the decline to builders holding back on starting new projects because of a surge in lumber prices and other supply constraints.

Robin Brooks, chief economist at the Institute for International Finance, probes the difference vaccination rates are having on Eurozone and US economies:

US stocks embraced the idea of an economic rebound this morning, with the main indexes all registering modest rises on opening. 

The Dow Jones and S&P 500 were both up 0.1pc. The tech-heavy Nasdaq lifted 0.3pc with tech stocks Amazon and Alphabet contributing most to the advance. 

Markets have been choppy in the US over the past few weeks but today's opening shows optimism about an economic rebound is overshadowing concern about rising coronavirus cases in Asia, at least for now.

Investors will be waiting for minutes from the latest Federal Reserve meeting to be released tomorrow, which could offer clues about inflation pressures. 

The Square Mile was notably left out of the last-minute Brexit trade deal negotiated shortly before Britain left the European Union. 

Talks since then to establish reciprocal access to financial markets have been fractious and slow-moving, with some City voices urging London to pursue opportunities in global markets.

NatWest chairman Howard Davies added his opinion into the mix today, declaring London's "golden age" as Europe's financial centre officially over.

"Almost five years after the Brexit referendum, and five months after Britain’s exit from the European Union, the future of London as a global financial centre seems secure," he wrote in a column for Project Syndicate.

"But although the City will remain Europe’s largest financial marketplace, its Golden Age as Europe’s financial capital is over."

The former deputy governor of the Bank of England added that it will take a long while for the EU to find a rival to London, despite trading in euro shares and swaps moving to the continent post-Brexit.

His column came as Brexit minister David Frost said the Government is "seeing what we can do now we are able to move on from EU arrangements in financial services".

Shell suffered a blow to its green transition proposals this afternoon as more than 10pc of shareholders voted against its environmental plan.

More than one in 10 investor votes were cast against the resolution at the company's annual general meeting, despite chief executive Ben van Beurden calling the plan "comprehensive, rigorous and ambitious".

The motion still passed with almost 89pc of shareholder approval.

PA has the details:

"Together with Ben van Beurden you are one of the few people who can make or break the Paris Agreement," shareholder Mark van Baal told incoming chairman Sir Andrew Mackenzie.

Mr van Baal is the founder of Follow This, a group of shareholders who band together to push oil majors towards a greener future.

"The decisions you will take in your tenure will define how Shell and the world will look like in a few decades from now. By that time your grandchildren will realise what positions their grandfathers held, and will surely ask: What did you do about the climate crisis?" he said.

Mr van Beurden said that his plan includes several elements over the next nine years: "Our production falling by 1pc to 2pc a year, methane emission intensity at below 0.2pc, no new frontier exploration entries after 2025, producing eight tonnes more low carbon fuels than today, storing away up to 25 million tonnes of carbon dioxide each year through CCS (carbon capture and storage), with another 120 million tonnes mitigated each year."

He said that a separate resolution by Follow This did not add anything that Shell's proposal did not already deal with.

In response to Mr van Baal, he said: "In your resolution, you ask for us to set and publish targets, we've done that. You then say: 'Can these targets please be consistent with Paris?' We think they are.

"Then you say there should be long, but also short and medium term targets. Well, we have targets for this year, next year, the year after, 2030, 2035 and 2050."

Meanwhile in the UK the pound remains above $1.42, up 0.53pc against the dollar for the day thanks to a boost from a fall in unemployment for the first quarter of the year.

Weakness in the US currency also helped sterling: it has hit a three-month low after Dallas Federal Reserve President Robert Kaplan reiterated his view that he did not expect interest rates to rise until next year. That means borrowing would remain cheap and stop investors from piling into safe havens such as the dollar.

"At the moment we’re seeing the latest leg higher in cable being driven by the broad sell-off in the US dollar," said Simon Harvey, FX analyst at Monex Europe.

"At the same time you’ve got the very preliminary stages of the second reopening which is boosting sentiment but we’re yet to see it translate into how robust the economic recovery will be."

 

US stock futures are climbing after Walmart and Home Depot reported better than expected results today, signalling robust consumer demand despite evidence of rising prices. 

The world's biggest retailer Walmart gained 1.5pc after raising its earnings forecast while home improvement retailer Home Depot's shares rose 2.3pc after beating quarterly estimates. 

This morning in New York, Dow e-minis were up 0.23pc, S&P 500 e-minis wer up 0.3pc and Nasdaq 100 e-minis were up 0.69pc. 

Jaguar Land Rover has dived deeper into the red as plunging sales and its cash-draining “Reimagine” strategy to go electric by weigh on Britain’s biggest car maker, reports Alan Tovey. 

Global car sales at the Coventry-based business fell 13.6pc to 439,5888 in the year to the end of March, with revenues almost a fifth lower at £19bn.

Before exceptional charges, JLR made a £622m pre-tax profit - almost all of it coming in the fourth quarter as markets reopened as the pandemic eased, driving sales - compared with a £422m full-year loss a year ago.

However, the £1.5bn “Reimagine” strategy to revamp and electrify the Jaguar marque, as well as put alternative powertrains into the bigger selling and more profitable Land Rover division by 2030, meant the company reported an £861m pre-tax loss after exceptional costs for the year.     

Thierry Bolloré, who took the wheel in the autumn, said he was “encouraged” by JLR’s “resilience and strong recovery during a uniquely challenging year”.

He added that the Reimagine process would transform “our iconic British brands for a future of modern luxury by design”, and hoped it would deliver  “double-digit” margins within five years, up from the current 2.6pc.

It will not come without cost. Reimagine will mean about non-factory 2,000 jobs being shed, contributing to a £534m restructuring charge, as the £952m write-downs which make up the £1.5bn of exceptional charges. 

Healios, a British start-up that uses video calls to provide remote therapy for children, has raised $10m (£7m) in a new funding round, reports James Cook. 

The start-up uses video calls with families to provide therapy for children, allowing them to use their smartphones to seek help rather than requiring them to attend in-person sessions.

The company now works with 65pc of NHS Mental Health Trusts in the UK and has carried out over 70,000 remote sessions. It plans to use the investment from InHealth Ventures to improve its artificial intelligence technology.

Rich Andrews, the company’s chief executive, warned that “the UK is facing a mental health crisis. Demand far outsrips supply and technology has a vital role to play in closing that gap.”

“We’re immensely proud of the lives we’ve already changed through Healios,” he added. “This funding will help us reach more families in need and enable us to develop further sector-leading interventions and therapies.”

The company is also now planning to expand overseas for the first time.

British used car site Cazoo reported today its revenue had grown fivefold in the first quarter of this year, reaching £113.9m compared to £19.6m in the same period last year. 

The company, which plans to list in the US by merging with a blank cheque company, said it sold almost 10,000 cars in the first three months of 2021, up 373pc than last year. 

Train operator Eurostar said today it has secured a €290m (£249m) rescue package to help the company pull back from the verge of bankruptcy as it waits for travel restrictions to be relaxed.

The company said capital injection provided by its shareholders, including majority shareholder French rail operator SNCF and associated bank loans, would "secure Eurostar's future".

Eurostar has lost nearly all its passengers to the coronavirus pandemic and only a single Eurostar train currently runs daily between London and Paris and London and Brussels.

My colleague Oliver Gill has more on this story here. 

Despite the positive employment figures earlier today, university leavers are expected to compete for 24pc fewer roles this year after the graduate job market was hard hit by the pandemic and its economic consequences, reports my colleague Will Kirkman. 

England’s universities have reopened for face-to-face learning this week. However, final year students will soon be fighting for just three quarters of the vacancies available in 2019.

Postings for paid internship rolls have also fallen by 41pc. This is despite job listing as a whole falling just 4pc below pre-pandemic levels, according to job site Indeed.

University leavers also have fewer remote working opportunities than established workers, with the proportion of graduate jobs mentioning such perks falling to just 9pc of posts from 17pc in February.

Read his full story here. 

Here's today's stories from The Telegraph's money team: 

• Travel insurance sales spike four fold but holidaymakers unaware of Covid exclusions: Insurers promising 'Covid cover' are misleading, warns consumer champion
• Housing market frenzy boosts cash savings rates: Savers need to be quick to lock in higher interest payments
• England's most in demand neighbourhoods – where bidding wars are driving up house prices: In the London borough of Kingston-upon-Thames there are 26 buyers for every property listing 
• ‘I was overcharged for council tax for 14 years but only refunded for one’: Has a company treated you unfairly? Our consumer champion, Sally Hamilton, is here to help

Investors have lost an estimated $930m (£655m) on their short positions in meme stocks GameStop and AMC Entertainment over the past five trading days, according to data from financial analytics firm Ortex. 

The meme stocks have been roaring back to life this week, with Gamestop rising by a third and cinema operator AMC up 39pc. 

Confidence in a bump in demand is helping push oil prices up, with Brent rising 1pc to $70, its highest point since March. 

Markets in Europe continue to rally today, as investors look beyond rising coronavirus infections in Asia and bet on global recovery.

David Kelly, at JP Morgan Asset Management, told AFP: 

The economic recovery from the pandemic remains largely on track although with inflation looking a bit stronger and employment growth a little weaker than might have been anticipated a few months ago.

Markets continue to view this progress favorably, with long-term interest rates remaining remarkably calm and the stock market, so far, avoiding any sharp correction.

Tesla has pledged to work with Chinese authorities to investigate a crash involving one of its electric cars in which a policeman died.

Bloomberg has more details: 

The California-based company said in a Weibo posting that it made a report to a government agency about the accident, which occurred in the eastern city of Taizhou.

One traffic policeman died after being injured in the accident, local police said in a later statement. A second officer injured in the crash is now out of danger, the statement said. Footage of the accident, reported widely by Chinese press, was spreading quickly on social media Tuesday.

Another crash is also still under investigation in China after a Tesla rear-ended a truck in Shaoguan in Guangdong province on May 7, killing the driver of the EV, according to a Global Times report. The cause of that accident isn’t yet clear.

Tesla has faced a slew of public criticism over recent weeks in the world’s biggest car market. Events came to a head at last month’s Shanghai Auto Show, when footage of an angry customer protesting atop one of its display cars went viral.

Although Tesla is still the No. 1 selling electric carmaker in the country, it has come under fire for its perceived arrogance toward car owners and there are growing concerns over the safety of its vehicles.

The euro zone economy shrank 0.6pc in the first quarter of the year, after a punishing year of lockdowns pushed the 19-nation region into a double-dip recession.

New data published today showed unemployment fell in the monetary union by 0.3pc in the first three months of 2021, after two consecutive gains. 

The European Union's statistics office Eurostat said GDP across the 19 countries sharing the euro fell 0.6pc quarter on quarter in the January-March period. 

The European Commission recently upgraded its economic outlook after taking account of the region’s €800bn (£688bn) joint fiscal stimulus plan for the first time, predicting euro-area growth of 4.3pc this year and 4.4pc in 2022.

However recovery is expected to be uneven, with France, Spain and Italy not reaching their pre-pandemic output levels until next year.

My colleague Tim Wallace has more on this story here. 

Lamborghini, the Italian supercar company famed for its hugely powerful vehicles, has set out a €1.5bn plan to go electric, reports Alan Tovey. 

The business that is part of the giant VW Group envisages a three-stage transition under its Direzione Cor Tauri strategy. This translates as towards the heart of the bull, a reference to the Cor Tauri star which is the brightest in the Taurus constellation and Lamborghini’s bull logo.

The first phase, running from this year and next will “celebrate the combustion engine” with models that develop petrol engines for models Lamborghini says “pay homage to the brand's glorious history and iconic products past and present”. 

It will include two new models with gas-guzzling V12 engines this year.

Stage two will come by the end of 2024 with the marquee launching its first production car with a hybrid engine in 2023 and all the range will offer a hybrid electric option by the end of the following year.

An internal target has been set for this transition to reduce CO2 emissions by 50pc by the start of 2025.

In the final part of the investment programme - the largest in the company’s history - Lamborghini will reveal its first all-electric car in the second half of the decade.

The company said this period would be “dedicated to full-electric vehicles, with the vision of a fourth model in the future”.

Stephan Winkelmann, chief executive, said: “Lamborghini’s electrification plan is a newly-plotted course, necessary in the context of a radically-changing world, where we want to make our contribution by continuing to reduce environmental impact through concrete projects."

British tobacco giant Imperial Brands reported a modest rise in first-half revenue on Tuesday, up 3.5pc, with higher cigarette prices and e-cigarette sales compensating for a drop in duty-free sales at airports.

"We have made a good start in implementing our new strategy to transform Imperial and remain on track to meet full year expectations," said Stefan Bomhard, chief executive.  

The company behind Gauloises Blondes and Winston cigarettes also raised its first-half dividend to 42.12 pence a share, up from 41.70 pence last year after the announcing late last year its annual dividend would be cut. 

Oxford Cannabinoid Technologies, which counts tobacco giant Imperial Brands and rapper Snoop Dogg among its investors, is to start trading on the London Stock Exchange on Friday.

The British pound rose to a three-month high today, above $1.42, as sentiment was boosted by jobs data showing that Britain's unemployment fell between January and March.

Jeremy Thomson-Cook, Chief Economist at international business payments specialist Equals Money, commented:

Jobs data from the UK showed the first gain in employment since the pandemic began with 84,000 gaining jobs in April as the economy emerged from the latest series of lockdowns.

The labour market is very much a two-tier story at the moment; jobs either being snapped up by high-skilled workers furloughed or made redundant through the pandemic or low-skilled workers remaining unable to gain new employment.

For now, the pound is enjoying the stronger news and may be able to continue its growth if tomorrow’s inflation number is shown to be strong.

We also have three Bank of England speakers today with Governor Bailey and Members Broadbent and Ramsden giving evidence in the Lords.

European stocks have shrugged off the inflation concerns of last week and investors are adopting a more optimistic outlook, following the easing of economic restrictions in several countries and the falling unemployment rate in the UK. 

At just before 10am, the FTSE 100, the pan-European STOXX 600 and the German Dax were all up 0.4pc, while Italy's FTSE MIB was up 0.7pc. 

Leading the FTSE 100 for gains was British Airways owner IAG (up 3.2pc), NatWest Group (up 2.6pc) and miners Fresnillo and Evraz (both up over 2pc). 

Vodafone was weighing on the index, with 6.6pc losses after reporting a 2.6pc drop in revenue earlier this morning. 

Commercial landlord Land Securities - better known as Landsec - revealed today it made a £1.4bn annual loss, as lockdowns left many of its properties lying empty and clobbered rent collections.

The group said the pre-tax losses compared with losses of £837m the previous year.

"Our results for the year to March 2021 clearly reflect the challenges caused by both the pandemic and the associated restrictions," Chief Executive Mark Allan said.  

 "We are now entering the recovery phase. Government action to support the economy was swift and the speed of the ongoing vaccination programme impressive. As a result, there is the real prospect of a strong consumption led recovery across the remainder of 2021 and 2022."

The telecoms company Vodafone reported a 2.6pc drop in revenue to €43.8bn (£37.6bn) for the year ending in March, blaming the loss of roaming revenue, lower handset sales, adverse foreign exchange movements and the disposal of Vodafone New Zealand. 

In the UK revenues fell by 5.1pc to €6.15bn (£5.28bn) which the company blamed on the strong pound hitting its balance sheet.

Chief executive Nick Read however was upbeat about accelerating service revenue growth and good performance in the business' largest market Germany. He said: 

We have delivered on the first phase of our strategy to reshape Vodafone as a stronger connectivity provider - including the simplification of the group to Europe and Africa, the successful IPO of Vantage Towers (€13.2 billion market capitalisation), the fast roll out of our next generation mobile and fixed networks, share gain in broadband subscriptions and continued reduction in customer churn.

Our digital transformation initiatives have generated savings of €0.5 billion over the year and the integration of the assets acquired from Liberty Global is well ahead of plan.

Danni Hewson, AJ Bell financial analyst, comments on today’s unemployment and PAYE figures:

The headline rate is down slightly at 4.8pc but it’s the payroll data for April that really hints at how quickly reopening is firing up the economy. 

Compare the figures to pre-pandemic levels and there is a still a long way to go but the sector that bore the brunt of lockdown restrictions is already hiring. 

Job vacancies overall were up 8pc on the last quarter and many hospitality bosses have spoken about their difficulty in recruiting and the possibility they may have to offer higher wages to lure people back to the sector.

On the face of it wage growth is a concern with median monthly pay up 9.8pc compared with the same period last year.  

But there are many factors at play which suggest this will even out as restrictions make way for reopening.  

Leicester-based Topps Tiles has bounced back to a pre-tax profit, reporting record sales in Q1 as shoppers stuck inside turned to home renovations. 

The company reported a profit of £4m for the 26 weeks to 27 March 2021, compared to £3.2m loss in the same period of 2020. 

However it said Q2 was significantly affected by trading restrictions, with homeowners, which represent close to half the Group's customer base, unable to enter stores for three months.

Rob Parker, Chief Executive said:

Inevitably, our first half results reflect two sharply contrasting periods of trading.  An exceptionally strong performance in Q1 demonstrated the ability of the business to bounce back following the initial lockdown. 

Our performance in Q2, while materially stronger than in the first lockdown, was heavily impacted by the re-imposition of Covid-related trading restrictions at the start of the period.

The re-opening of our stores to all customers on 12 April has once again been received very positively and we have seen a strong recovery in sales and gross margins, with Retail like-for-like sales 16.8pc ahead of the same period in 2019 in the five weeks since re-opening.  

Hannah Audino, economist at PwC, comments:

The UK’s labour market has outperformed expectations over the first quarter of the year. The Q1 unemployment rate stood at 4.8pc, a slight decrease from Q4 2020 - this reflects an increase in the employment rate, but also a rise in economic inactivity.

There was also a quarterly improvement in the underemployment rate - the share of workers who wanted to work more hours than they did - but it still stands at 8.1pc.

It is important to bear in mind, however, that the number of payroll employees remains 772,000 below pre-pandemic levels, but it did increase for the fifth consecutive month in April. 

Measures of job vacancies and employment confidence have already begun to pick up in recent weeks, as the reopening of the hospitality and other sectors encourages businesses to begin hiring again.

This provides optimism for the recovery of the labour market over the coming months, although we are likely to see a temporary increase in the unemployment rate as labour market participation increases and the effects of economic inactivity unwind.

The FTSE 100 has lifted 0.8pc on opening, trading at 7,090 points. 

Minister for Employment Mims Davies MP commented on the ONS employment figures out this morning:

A continued fall in unemployment, a further rise in vacancies, and growth in the employment rate is welcome news as we continue on our roadmap to recovery.

While there is more to do to make sure we support jobseekers over the coming months, these figures highlight the resilience of our jobs market and ability for employers to adapt – and through our Plan for Jobs we’re continuing to create new opportunities for people right across the country.

According to ONS stats this morning, output per hour rose above pre-pandemic levels in Q1 but output per worker remained below previous levels.  

There were an estimated 657,000 job vacancies betweet February and April 2021, the ONS says, which is a growth of 8pc (48,400) compared with last quarter.

Matthew Percival, of the CBI, says:

Having the highest number of vacancies since the pandemic first hit shows the value of the roadmap for reopening the economy. However, businesses are starting to report vacancies they're struggling to fill so government support for skills and retraining is essential.

Businesses increasingly need to know what rules will be in place after 21 June to make their next reopening decisions. They're hoping to avoid any further bumps in the road and will be closely watching the trajectory of new variants and the conclusion of reviews into social distancing and Covid-status certificates.

The latest employment figures are out. Darren Morgan, director of economic statistics at the ONS, said the number of employees on payroll "rose strongly" in April as the economy began to reopen. He adds:

There remains, however, three-quarters of a million people fewer on the payroll compared with the pre-pandemic peak.

With many businesses reopening, the recent recovery in job vacancies continued into April, especially in sectors such as hospitality and entertainment.

The renewed lockdown at the beginning of 2021 saw a sharp rise in the number of previously unemployed people no longer looking for work, helping the unemployment rate to fall on the quarter. This mirrored what happened during the first lockdown.

 

Good morning. The rate of unemployment fell slightly to 4.8pc in the three months to March, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) said.

The number of UK workers on payrolls rose by 97,000 between March and April but has fallen by 772,000 since the pandemic struck.

5 things to start your day 

1) Net zero means no new oil and gas fields warns IEA: Oil demand will need to drop by 75pc over the next three decades rendering the need to exploit new reserves obsolete - to achieve net zero.

2) Gig economy firms under pressure over workers' pensions: The Pensions Regulator talking to ride-hailing company following Supreme Court ruling that drivers are workers and not self-employed.

3) Rolls-Royce seeks £300m for 'mini-nuke' power stations: Consortium aims to get "small modular reactors” operating in the next decade to help power UK's green industrial revolution.

4) Activist investor calls for FirstGroup to delay US sale: FirstGroup agreed to sell its most profitable two divisions earlier this month - but its biggest investors thinks they are undervalued.

5) Britain risks Italian-style stagnation without 'decisive decade': Resolution Foundation warns "muddling through" on Brexit and the aftermath of pandemic could trigger era of "prolonged" decline

What happened overnight 

Asian shares rose early on Tuesday, shrugging off worries about an increase in regional coronavirus infections and a subdued session on Wall Street, as inflation jitters helped push gold prices to three-month highs.

MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan rose 1.13pc after a mixed session on Monday. Japan's Nikkei rose as much as 2.2pc, while Hong Kong's stocks opened up 0.87pc. China's blue-chip CSI300 index was slightly lower.

Singapore stocks recovered some losses, gaining 1.29pc after a 2pc fall on Monday as the country reported the highest number of local infections in months.

Shares in Taiwan, which is also seeing a spike in cases, also recovered as lawmakers said the country was in talks with the US for a share of the Covid-19 vaccine doses President Joe Biden plans to send abroad.

Coming up today

Corporate: Land Securities, Vodafone, Cranswick, DCC, Assura, Homeserve (Full year); Topps Tiles, Euromoney (Interim); Imperial Brands, Aston Martin Lagonda, Britvic, ShoeZone (Trading update)

Economics: Unemployment claims, ILO unemployment figures (UK)