Donald Trump calls for big cut to US interest rates after jobs report shows hiring slowdown – as it happened

Newsflash: Hiring slowed across the US economy last month, and fewer jobs were created than previously thought in March and April too.The US added 139,000 new jobs in May, according to the latest non-farm payroll report, with the US unemployment rate unchanged at 4.2%.Economists had expected the non-farm payroll to rise by 130,000 jobs, so this is slightly higher than forecast.The U

US jobs market slows down as businesses cope with Trump trade war uncertainty

The US economy added 139,000 jobs in May, a slowdown compared with recent months as American businesses cope with uncertainty around Donald Trump’s continuing trade war.After signs of a strong labor market in April – which was largely seen as resiliency against teetering trade policy from the White House – May saw a drop in new jobs added to the labor market, according to new data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The unemployment rate remained steady at 4.2%, unchanged from last month.May’s jobs report was dragged down by the loss of 22,000 federal workers’ jobs as the Trump administration used the so-called “department of government efficiency” (Doge) to cut government positions

NatWest apologises to millions of customers locked out of app

NatWest has apologised to millions of customers locked out of its app in the latest IT outage to hit a major UK bank.The high street bank said it was investigating a problem caused by an update to the app that was rolled out late on Thursday, leaving customers unable to access their accounts through the app since shortly after 9am on Friday.It will be disruptive to the more than 10 million customers who use the NatWest banking app to access their account every day.The lender said its other services – including card payments, in-branch, online and telephone banking – were operating as normal.A NatWest spokesperson said: “We are aware that customers are experiencing difficulties accessing the NatWest mobile banking app

Hedge fund orders London-based analysts back to office five days a week

Man Group has ordered its London-based analysts to return temporarily to the office five days a week, as the world’s biggest listed hedge fund seeks to recover from a period of poor performance amid Donald Trump’s tariff war.Quantitative analysts working at Man AHL, the company’s computer-run fund that aims to identify and follow momentum in markets, have been told they are expected to be in its offices daily until the end of July as part of an “all hands on deck” project.The edict applies to about 150 staff in London, just under 10% of the overall group’s 1,700 global employees, the Financial Times reported.“Man AHL has asked its staff in London to work in the office five days a week for a three-month period to support an ‘all hands on deck’ cross-team research project,” the company said. “While these cross-team initiatives are infrequent, experience has shown that a period of highly focused, in-person collaboration allows significant research progress to be made in a relatively short amount of time

UK house prices fall by more than expected amid economic uncertainty

UK house prices suffered a steeper than expected fall last month and the biggest quarterly drop in value in almost a year, as economic uncertainty continued to affect the property market.The average property price fell by 0.4% month on month in May to £296,648, a much steeper fall than the 0.1% decline City economists had expected.Figures published by Halifax on Friday showed that the cost of a typical UK property has fallen in three of the past four months, with the drop in May following a 0

Sports Direct pricing practices ‘may be breaking the law’, Which? says

Sports Direct could be breaking the law by misleading shoppers into thinking they are getting a good deal, a consumer body has claimed, after it looked at prices of items ranging from trainers to hoodies.Which? said it had reported the retailer to the Competition and Markets Authority after uncovering what it claimed were “some questionable and dodgy pricing tactics” on its website.The organisation said it had found products being sold on SportsDirect.com with recommended retail prices (RRPs) “that appear to be misleading”, as its researchers could not find the products sold at that RRP price anywhere else online.It meant people may be being misled “into thinking they are getting a better deal than they really are”