Our main story today:UK inflation held steady in August, official figures show, maintaining pressure on households as the Bank of England prepares to keep borrowing costs at elevated levels,Figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) show the annual rate of inflation as measured by the consumer prices index remained at 3,8% last month, the same level as July and matching the forecasts of City economists,Financial markets are widely predicting that Bank policymakers will keep interest rates on hold at 4% on Thursday amid signs of sustained inflationary pressures at almost twice its official 2% target rate,The Bank of Canada cut interest rates by a quarter point today, and the US Federal Reserve is expected to make a similar move tonight.

With this, we are signing off.Good-bye! We’ll be back tomorrow.Wall Street has opened flat ahead of the US Federal Reserve’s interest rate decision tonight.The FTSE 100 index in London has gained 20 points, or 0.2%, to 9,215 and the Dax in Frankfurt is also 0.

2% ahead, while the CAC in Paris has fallen by 0.25% and the FTSE MiB in Milan has lost 1.3%.The Fed is widely expected to cut rates for the first time this year, by a quarter point.Victoria Scholar, head of investment at interactive investor said:British Gas owner Centrica is [near] the top of the UK basket thanks to a broker upgrade from Morgan Stanley while Barratt Redrow is another gainer on earnings.

Fresnillo is at the bottom of the leaderboard on weaker precious metal prices.Meanwhile Trump’s second state visit to the UK is very much dominating the headlines.So far, a $42bn ‘Tech Prosperity Deal’ has been agreed to boost ties between the two nations around AI and technology.Microsoft has promised $31bn in UK investments.The Fed is in focus, widely anticipated to cut interest rates for the first time this year, a day after Trump’s attempt to fire Fed governor Lisa Cook was blocked by an appeals court.

While the rate cut is already priced in, focus will be on the dot plot for guidance around where rates might go next,Barclays is projecting the Fed will signal three rate cuts by year-end,AstraZeneca today announced disappointing results from a late-state clinical trial of Fasenra in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD),The drug did not achieve statistical significance in ten of controlling flare-ups,COPD, a debilitating, progressive disease which causes irreversible lung damage, increased hospitalisations and can lead to death, affects 391 million people worldwide.

Fasenra is currently approved as a treatment for severe eosinophilic asthma (SEA) in more than 80 countries, including the US, Japan, the EU and china.Sharon Barr, Executive Vice President, BioPharmaceuticals R&D, AstraZeneca, said:COPD, which remains a leading cause of death worldwide, is a complex, heterogeneous disease and we continue to advance other promising approaches in our pipeline to address the unmet needs of patients.With its well-established ability to target and eliminate eosinophils, Fasenra has helped transform treatment of severe asthma, and more recently has demonstrated a significant effect in eosinophilic granulomatosis with polyangiitis and hypereosinophilic syndrome.The latter is a rare condition that causes inflammation in small- to medium-size blood vessels.The company also reported positive late-stage (phase III) results for a subcutaneous version of its lupus drug Saphnelo, saying the treatment significantly reduced disease activity in patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) compared to a placebo, and matched the safety seen with the currently approved intravenous version.

A subcutaneous injection is under the skin and is slower and safer while an intravenous injection is into a vein.AstraZeneca’s share price fell earlier and was among the biggest losers on the FTSE 100 index, but have since recovered and are now up by 0.3%.Water company directors will have to meet new, higher standards for honesty, experience and financial management or face the sack, according to new rules published by the regulator for England and Wales.Ofwat said the privatised water companies will have to assess new hires and existing directors each year to make sure they meet standards for honesty, experience and financial management.

“Fit and proper” tests are widely used across sensitive British industries, ranging from investment managers and broadcasters to the owners of Premier League football teams.The regulator could block appointment of directors with unspent convictions, a history of financial mismanagement (including previous responsibility for a bankrupt company) or misconduct - although it is unclear whether the rules would have helped under-pressure Thames Water to avoid the long-running crisis it faces.The changes come on top of rules allowing Ofwat to block bonuses for chief executives or chief financial officers if the company has breached environmental rules.Emma Hardy, water minister in the Labour government, said the rules were part of “a new era of accountability in the sector”.She added:By ensuring that those at the top of water companies meet the highest standards, we are rebuilding public trust, strengthening accountability, and driving change to clean up our rivers, lakes and seas for good, as part of our Plan for Change.

Helen Campbell, executive director, delivery at Ofwat said the regulator “will take action where companies fall short”.The UK operation of the Chinese online marketplace Temu doubled revenues and pre-tax profits last year, as British consumers snapped up products offered by the super-budget retailer.Temu UK reported revenues of $63.3m (£46.4m) last year, almost double the $32m in 2023, while pre-tax profits similarly surged from $2m to $3.

9m, accounts show.However, at an operating level, the company, which files under the name Whaleco UK at Companies House, reported losses widening from $7.9m to $8.7m year-on-year.The company put most of its broadening operating loss down to “exchange losses”.

Because of Temu’s small pre-tax profit, the company paid just $985,000 in UK corporation tax, up from $517,000 in 2023,After a cyber-attack rained on its summer, Marks & Spencer is banking on fashion to brighten its autumn,A Prada-esque, crystal-embellished, charcoal V-neck cardigan (£46), a faux leather trenchcoat with a price tag of £90 – £6,810 less than the Burberry version – and a £36 short pleated skirt that offers a wearable take on Charli xcx’s “brat” styling will hit shop floors shortly,“We can be bolder because, while we continue to dominate in the over-55s, we’ve got new customers in the 35- to 55-year-old age range,” said Maddy Evans, the brand’s womenswear lead, at a showcase of the new collection in the run-up to London fashion week, which begins on Friday,The store is relying on womenswear, which has been ticking upward in sales and credibility for two years, to lead a bounce back after a devastating cyber-attack that affected M&S from April to August and is predicted to have cost the business £300m in profits.

Evans said the retailer was aiming for two-thirds newness in store,That basically means that if a customer walks in to see the new season, two-thirds of it she will never have seen before,The other third is core product – white T-shirts, skinny jeans, black wide-leg trousers, pieces that never go out of stock,Manchester United have revealed record revenues of £666,5m for last season but still reported a loss of £33m for the financial year.

The club were without Champions League football in 2024-25 and finished 15th in the Premier League but their revenue marginally increased by 0.7%.Accounts for the year ending 30 June show United’s operating loss fell from £69.3m to £18.4m compared with the previous 12 months.

Overall losses dropped from £113.2m to £33m after the co-owner Sir Jim Ratcliffe oversaw wide-ranging, and often unpopular, changes at a club he claimed in March had “gone one off the rails” as a business.The British billionaire warned United would have gone “bust at Christmas” if they had not taken “really tough decisions”.The chief executive, Omar Berrada, said:On the field, we are pleased with the additions we have made to our men’s and women’s first-team squads over the summer, as we build for the long term.Off the field, we are emerging from a period of structural and leadership change with a refreshed, streamlined organisation equipped to deliver on our sporting and commercial objectives.

To have generated record revenues during such a challenging year for the club demonstrates the resilience which is a hallmark of Manchester United … As we start to feel the benefits of our cost-reduction programme, there is significant potential for improved financial performance, which will, in turn, support our overriding priority: success on the pitch.The Bank of Canada has cut interest rates by a quarter point to 2.5%, as expected.The rate is now below the midpoint of the Bank’s 2.25% to 3.

25% neutral range estimate for the first time since the opening stages of the pandemic,In his opening statement to the press conference, governor Tiff Macklem highlighted three factors behind the decision: the softness of the labour market, recent more encouraging core price data, and the government’s decision to remove most of its retaliatory tariffs on US goods,Even so, Macklem struck a cautious tone in relation to US trade policy, noting thatthe disruptive effects of shifts in trade will add costs even as they weigh on economic activity,It is difficult to predict the extent of cost increases, where they will show up, and how they could be passed through to consumer prices,The Bank dropped the line from its previous policy statement that said “if a weakening economy puts further downward pressure on inflation and the upward price pressures from the trade disruptions are contained, there may be a need for a reduction in the policy interest rate.

”However, the Bank reiterated that it will be assessing the extent to which weakness in exports “spills over into business investment, employment, and household spending”, how “trade disruptions are…passed on to consumer prices” and “how inflation expectations evolve”.Stephen Brown, deputy chief North America economist at Capital Economics, said:That leaves the door to another interest rate cut this year if, as we expect, economic growth remains weak while core inflation pressures remain under control.The Bank of Canada’s decision to cut by 25bp today was of little surprise following the recent softer labour market data and easing of upside inflation risks, although the relatively neutral tone of the Bank’s policy statement suggests that it is not necessarily expecting to cut rates again in October.Meanwhile, a report from the life science campus developer Pioneer Group and the Crown Estate found that the research done at British universities offers “huge economic potential that is not being realised due to capital constraints, with strong regional disparities at play”.The study, titled Bridging the Capital Gap for UK Research Commercialisation, said that if £15bn were invested in early-stage ventures over the next 10 years, with a further £27bn of investment this could lead to 1,771 new spinout companies – more than doubling the current number, and creating 56,000 jobs.

Over the past decade, the UK has generated 1,358 university spinouts, mostly in the golden triangle – the life sciences cluster of London, Oxford and Cambridge – which has attracted £8bn of venture capital.It receives the vast majority of capital (85%), even though it produces less than a third of British research.The report flagged the government’s pension reforms, aimed at getting pension funds to invest in UK assets.Toby Reid, executive director at Pioneer Group, explains:British science is globally significant, with the UK boasting 17 universities in the world top 100, including four in the top 10.Their world-leading research and innovation represent huge economic potential that is not being realised due to capital constraints, with strong regional disparities at play.

Despite universities across the UK demonstrating strong research power, 85.2% of all spinout venture capital raised since 2010 was in the Golden Triangle.Yet it only produced 31% of the research in the UK.This demonstrates the pressing need to ensure we maximise the commercial potential of research flowing from regions up and down the country.Indeed, the world is entering a new kind of race – not for territory or trade – but for next generation technologies.

Our universities hold the keys to these technologies, but we must go further and faster in commercialising them to enable their real-world impact.Matt Mason, head of innovation at The Crown Estate, said:British science is world-class, but its commercial potential remains largely untapped.To make the most of these opportunities and our innovation economy, we must build the necessary infrastructure to support talent, venture capital and technology.This will allow us to turn research excellence into economic impact and position the UK as a global leader in research commercialisation, while delivering the next generation of world-changing technologies.Jensen Huang, the co-founder and chief executive of the US AI chipmaker Nvidia, has predicted “the UK is going to be an AI superpower” as he announced a new £500m investment in a British firm.

Huang, who is due to join Donald Trump at Wednesday night’s state banquet with the king, said he was taking an equity stake in NScale, a UK cloud computing company, and predicted it would earn revenues of up to £50bn over the next six years.He told a press conference in London:We’re here to announce that the UK is going to be an AI superpower.Huang cited as evidence of Britain’s potential its universities and several companies founded in the UK, ranging from the AI giant DeepMind to the driverless car startup Wayve.“You just don’t appreciate it.Your universities.

Come on,You’re too humble,” he said,Defeating far-right populism will require Labour to radically overhaul its “arid” approach to raising living standards in left-behind communities, the former Bank of England chief economist has said,Andy Haldane warned that Labour’s growth plans were failing to support parts of the country where voters feel neglected and disenfranchised,With ministers under pressure to respond to a summer of unrest, he said the “single most important thing” Keir Starmer’s government could do was to rethink its economic approach before the autumn budget.

He said:We need a story of growth that isn’t aridly told from 30,000 feet, but speaks to the lived experience and to the prospects and opportunities of workers in the everyday economy,Morrisons has reported a slowdown in sales growth and flagged “challenging macroeconomic conditions”,The UK’s fifth-largest supermarket chain, which was acquired by the US private equity firm Clayton, Dubilier & Rice in 2021, said like-for-like sales rose by 3% in the 13 weeks to 27 July, down from 3,9% growth in the previous quarter,The company also complained of rising costs:We are also managing the incremental impact of the autumn budget and other government legislation, which has created significant cost headwinds, some of which were unexpected at the start of the financial year.

Alexandra Brown, North America economist at Capital Economics, said:The weakness in August housing starts was as expected, especially after July’s hard-to-explain strength.While homebuilders have recently become more optimistic about prospects for housing demand, as mortgage rates have eased, the decline in building permits suggests that housing starts are nonetheless likely to decline further.The fall was broad-based by housing type… The weakness was centred in the South; total housing starts increased in the Northeast, and West and single-family starts increased in the Midwest.Looking forward, the 3.7% decline in building permits in August suggests this weakness will continue, with both single family and multifamily permits falling