No 2p coins were produced last year, according to Royal Mint figures
No 2p coins were minted last year, figures from the Royal Mint show.
According to figures on the Mint’s website, the mintage for 2ps in 2022 was zero, following a mintage of 117,700,000 in 2021 for this coin denomination.
It is not the first year that no 2ps were minted, with mintages for the years 2018, 2019 and 2020 also at zero for this coin.
There were also no mintages for 1p coins recorded in the years 2018 and 2019.
US shares climb after PCE and jobless data
US shares rose this morning , after jobless claims this week came in slightly below expectations, while the core PCE inflation index ticked up as expected.
The data is far from showing a clear victory for the Federal Reserve in its battle with inflation, but should still be positive enough to convince Jerome Powell that another hike is not needed.
Take a look at all of our key market data.
Nationwide cuts mortgage prices again
Nationwide has cut the rates on its mortgages yet again, hours after a top Bank of England policymaker signalled that the Bank’s interest rates may peak at a lower level than expected, but stay high for longer.
The country’s largest building society cut 0.15 percentage points off many of its fixed-rate mortgage products, while also introducing reductions for some of its tracker range too.
Ashley Thomas, director of City-based mortgage broker Magni Finance, noted that while the cut was not large, it is the latest in a wave of reductions, which all of the top lenders cutting rates at least three times in the last six weeks.
Market snapshot with shares slightly higher
The FTSE 100 is slightly higher, and could be on to finish ahead for the sixth conseuctive day.
Take a look at our key market data.
Wilko job cuts to begin on Monday with support staff to be laid off after full rescue deal fails
Wilko is to start cutting jobs, letting go of its support staff such as HR on Monday and distribution staff later this week, the union that represents a third of its employees said, as the only bid to save its entire business was seen as unviable.
The GMB Union said it had been told by administrators at PwC that “the one bid for the entire business”, understood to be from private equity firm M2, has fallen through, after the bidder “failed to provide the necessary evidence” to prove it could afford to buy the discount retailer.
M2 emerged as a possible rescue bidder for Wilko over the weekend, claiming it aimed to save all of Wilko’s staff and give them part-ownership of the chain.
But questions soon emerged over whether it had the financial backing in place for such a deal. Adminsitrators at PwC set a deadline of yesterday for M2 to submit evidence it had that backing.
Whole Foods axes luxury products in favour of discounted items as losses widen
Whole Foods is scrapping luxury offerings and ramping up its range of cut-price products at London stores as it seeks to rekindle its appeal to middle-income shoppers amid widening losses.
The high-end supermarket has axed its famous ‘cheese vault,’ a separate room at its flagship Kensington site packed with fine cheeses that carried a hefty price tag, as well as slashing its range of eco-friendly, packaging-free grains and nuts that can be purchased using refillable containers.
The Amazon-owned firm has also scaled back checkout staffing and introduced self-service checkouts resembling those of mid-market supermarkets Tesco and Sainsbury’s.
It has introduced scores of “low prices” signs across stores as well as a raft of discounted items.
Today’s market snapshot
Take a look at all our key market data, with the FTSE 100 almost perfectly flat.
London fintech Wise accused of ‘inappropriate’ controls over Russia financial sanctions
London fintech Wise has been accused of ‘innapropriate’ controls over financial sanctions rules by a government watchdog.
Wise permitted a cash withdrawal held by a company owned or controlled by a person under the government’s Russia sanctions list in late June, according to the Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation (OFSI).
The £250 cash withdrawal, while small, was considered a “moderately severe” breach of the sanctions rules, according to the OFSI.
Shares initially fell by 3.3% but quickly recovered.
City Comment: Stubborn euro inflation is a fresh headache for the Bank of England
Inflation had been subsiding faster in the eurozone than in the UK. But now it appears to be stuck.
Today’s figures show that consumer prices rose 5.3% across the single currency area in August, the same rate as in July.
That was higher than the 5.1% consensus forecast, and still two-and-half times above the target, with food and drink prices the main culprit.
It delivers a tricky conundrum for officials at the ECB ahead of their decision on rates next month. ECB hawk Isabel Schnabel describes Euro inflation as “stubbornly high”, suggesting that a further turn of the interest rate screw is still likely.
Frasers ups Boohoo stake, FTSE 250-bound 888 gets upgrade
Frasers Group has revealed it holds 9.1% or £40 million of Boohoo after disclosing the second big purchase of shares in the past month.
The Sports Direct and House of Frasers chain, which is majority owned by founder Mike Ashley, also increased its holding of Boohoo rival ASOS earlier this week.
Other recent investments have included Currys and AO World as Frasers takes advantage of fallen valuations to ramp up its portfolio of high street interests.
Boohoo shares are down 40% since April but rallied 0.6p to 33.8p after the regulatory filing. Frasers shares are up 17% since mid-July and lifted 6.5p to 803p today.
That put the retailer among the blue-chip frontrunners in a session when traders struggled to find reasons to commit new money. The FTSE 100 index was barely changed, up 2.24 points at 7475.91 and on course to finish a disappointing month 3% lower.
Some of the day’s biggest moves came from stocks trading without the value of their upcoming dividends. They included the mining giant Glencore, which slid 5% or 201.5p to 418.5p.
On the risers board, a gain of 8p to 1070.5p for Persimmon came too late to prevent its relegation as last night’s quarterly reshuffle ended a decade in the top flight.
The housebuilder will next month be joined in the FTSE 250 by William Hill owner 888 Holdings, which is back among London’s mid-caps after doubling in value since April.
The gambling group’s shares today added another 4.7p to 129.1p after analysts at Jefferies upgraded their price target to 175p.
The FTSE 250 index fared better than its top flight counterpart by adding 86.58 points to 18,651.10, with building materials provider Grafton 22p higher at 877.5p after announcing a further buyback of shares alongside in-line half-year results
In the FTSE All-Share, Tullow Oil recovered a penny to 35.1p after falling yesterday on fears over the potential impact of the coup in Gabon on its operations in the country.
