Skip Header
Important information: The value of investments can go down as well as up so you may get back less than you invest. Investors should note that the views expressed may no longer be current and may have already been acted upon. This is a third-party news feed and may not reflect Fidelity’s views.

Friday newspaper round-up: News Corp, Shell, Stamp Duty tax

(Sharecast News) - Media conglomerate News Corp said on Thursday that it would cut 1,250 jobs after it missed estimates for second-quarter earnings due to weakness in its news and digital real estate businesses. Rising inflation and higher interest rates are forcing companies to curb their ad and marketing spend, denting one of the major sources of revenue for companies such as News Corp, which has major publishing platforms including the Wall Street Journal and New York Post in the US, the Sun and the Times in the UK, and the Australian. - Guardian British companies have been banned from paying ransomware hackers after a spate of attacks on businesses including Royal Mail and the Guardian newspaper. Foreign Secretary James Cleverly on Thursday unveiled sanctions on seven Russian hackers linked to a gang called Conti, effectively banning any payments to the group. - Telegraph

Shell investors are backing legal action against the company's directors, claiming they are failing to do enough to tackle climate change. Nest, the UK pension fund, and Danske Bank Asset Management, the Danish asset manager, are among those supporting a case brought by ClientEarth, an environmental charity that owns a small number of Shell shares. - Telegraph

A judge in New York yesterday extended a ban on the ability of Sam Bankman-Fried, the founder of the FTX cryptocurrency exchange, to contact employees of companies he once controlled and to use encrypted messaging technology while out on bail awaiting trial on fraud charges. This month District Judge Lewis Kaplan temporarily barred Bankman-Fried from contacting any present or former employees of FTX or Alameda Research, his hedge fund, after prosecutors raised concerns that the 30-year-old former billionaire may be trying to tamper with witnesses. As a condition of his release on a $250 million bond, the judge also prevented Bankman-Fried from using messaging apps such as Signal that allow users to auto-delete messages. - The Times

One of Britain's biggest investment platforms has added its voice to a campaign to scrap stamp duty on investment trust share purchases after calculating that its clients alone had paid £30 million in the tax over the past three years. Interactive Investor, which has about 400,000 clients, called the levy on investment trusts "anti-competitive and unfair" and it wants Jeremy Hunt to change the rules in the budget next month. - The Times

Share this article

Related Sharecast Articles

Friday newspaper round-up: Paramount Global/Skydance Media, farms, River Island
(Sharecast News) - The Federal Communications Commission approved the merger between Paramount Global and Skydance Media on Thursday, clearing the way for an $8.4bn sale of some of the most prominent names in entertainment, including the CBS broadcast television network, Paramount Pictures and the Nickelodeon cable channel. The FCC agreed to transfer broadcast licenses for 28 owned-and-operated CBS television stations to the new owners after Paramount paid $16m to settle a lawsuit filed by Donald Trump over a 60 Minutes interview with former vice-president Kamala Harris that aired in October. - Guardian
Thursday newspaper round-up: UK car manufacturing, River Island, Tesla
(Sharecast News) - British car and van manufacturing slumped in the first half of the year to its lowest since 1953 outside the Covid pandemic, as Donald Trump's US tariffs caused global industry chaos. UK vehicle manufacturing declined by 12% to 417,200 units in the first six months of the year, figures from the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT), a lobby group, show. - Guardian
Wednesday newspaper round-up: Tariffs, UK banks, Eurostar...
(Sharecast News) - Donald Trump said the US had agreed the terms of a "massive" trade deal with Japan that will impose 15 per cent tariffs on goods imported into America from the world's fourth-largest economy. The 15 per cent levy is lower than the 25 per cent he had threatened in a letter earlier this month, but higher than the 10 per cent rate that had been in force while the countries negotiated. Financial Times
Tuesday newspaper round-up: Sizewell C, State pensions, Gaza
(Sharecast News) - Ed Miliband has given final approval for the construction of Sizewell C nuclear power station at a cost of at least £38bn. The Energy Secretary took the final investment decision on the controversial power station on Tuesday. The site will take at least a decade to build. The Suffolk nuclear plant will have a capacity of about 3.2 gigawatts, enough to supply the needs of about six million homes for at least 60 years. - Daily Telegraph

Important information: This information is not a personal recommendation for any particular investment. If you are unsure about the suitability of an investment you should speak to one of Fidelity’s advisers or an authorised financial adviser of your choice. When you are thinking about investing in shares, it’s generally a good idea to consider holding them alongside other investments in a diversified portfolio of assets. Past performance is not a reliable indicator of future returns.

Award-winning online share dealing

Search, compare and select from thousands of shares.

Expert insights into investing your money

Our team of experts explore the world of share dealing.