Inflation is also driving higher-income customers to the discount chain.
Virgin Orbit stops operations and furloughs almost all staff
Virgin Orbit has paused its operations and furloughed its workforce as it hunts for a funding lifeline.
The satellite launch company, based in California, will put all work on hold for at least a week with just a skeleton team remaining at work.
Bosses told employees at an all-staff meeting on Wednesday that the remainder of the workforce will be put on unpaid furlough, although employees can cash in annual leave.
The decision comes after Virgin Orbit’s attempt to make the first satellite launch from UK soil in January failed.
The company’s chief executive, Dan Hart, told staff that putting them on furlough would buy time to finalise a new investment plan, Reuters reported. Staff are expected to be updated next week.
The pause spooked investors, and sent shares down 18.8% to 82 cents. The stock, listed on the US Nasdaq exchange, is down 44% this year.
The company said: … Read more
Bank Crisis Spreads, Stocks Emphatically Down
The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell Wednesday as investors contemplated the future of Credit Suisse, a bank with a large international and U.S. presence, and peers.
The 30-stock index was pounded 280.83 points to 31,874.57.
The S&P 500 fell 27.36 points to 3,891.93. Wednesday’s decline brought the S&P 500’s year-to-date gain down to less than a percentage point.
The NASDAQ Composite fought its way into plus territory, 5.9 points, to 11,434.05.
The indexes regained some ground in afternoon trading following announcement from a Swiss regulator that the country’s central bank would give Credit Suisse liquidity if necessary. Investors were concerned earlier in the day after the Saudi National Bank, Credit Suisse’s largest investor, said Wednesday it could not provide any more funding, according to a Reuters report.
The news came after the Swiss lender said earlier this week it had found “certain material weaknesses in our internal control over financial … Read more
Credit Suisse Shares Crash, Bank Borrows Over $50 Billion
Shares in the bank plummeted by 30% on Wednesday.
UK faces the biggest fall in spending power for 70 years as cost of living bites
The UK faces its biggest fall in spending power for 70 years as the surging cost of living eats into people’s wages.
The government’s independent forecaster said that household incomes – once rising prices were taken into account – would drop by 6% this year and next.
Living standards won’t recover to pre-pandemic levels until 2027, it warned.
It came as Chancellor Jeremy Hunt said the economy would shrink this year but avoid recession.
Energy and food bills have shot up due to the war in Ukraine and pandemic, and are squeezing household budgets.
Inflation – the rate at which prices are rising – is currently in double digits.
It is set to more than halve to 2.9% by the end of this year, according to the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR). But for now, the figure remains very high, and well ahead of average wages.
The drop in real … Read more