THE DAILY BRIEFING

■ EURO WOE Unemployment in the eurozone has fallen from 9.4pc to 9.3pc – but is still more than double the 4.6pc rate in the UK.

■ BANK WARNING US bank shares slid after two big lenders warned of a drop in trading turnover. JPMorgan revenues from the division were down 15pc in April and May. And at Bank of America, trading business fell 10pc to 12pc in the first three months of 2017.

■ BETTING PROFITS Spread betting firm IG Group expects profits to ‘modestly’ beat expectations for the year to May 31.

■ CANCER EXPERT Pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca has appointed a cancer research expert Professor Nazneen Rahman, head of genetics and epidemiology at the Institute of Cancer Research, to its board.

■ TOBACCO DEAL US tobacco giant Reynolds American said its chief executive Debra Crew will remain once its £40bn merger with

British American Tobacco goes ahead, and will report to BAT’s chief Nicandro Durante.

■ MINING SALE Mining company Antofagasta has sold its 40pc stake in a solar park in Chile to a Latin America-focused solar platform launched in March by London private equity fund Actis.

■ SHELL STAKE Oil giant Shell has hugely reduced its involvement in the oil sands industry in Canada by cutting its stake in the Athabasca project to 10pc and offloading oil sand leases.

■ BOSS QUITS Broker NEX’s finance boss Stuart Bridges has quit and will leave later this year.

He has been replaced by Samantha Wren, chief commercial officer at the markets division.

■ DESIGN ROLE Indian-focused retailer Koovs has appointed exPrimark fashion boss Samantha Chilton as head of design. ■ SALES DIP Fashion sales at John Lewis were down 5pc last week compared to last year, while home sales were down 4.8pc. ■ WAREHOUSE SWOOP Woodford- backed LondonMetric boasted rising rental sales and earnings and revealed it had snapped up three warehouses. ■ CLOSURE PLAN Fashion house Michael Kors is to close up to 125 stores over the next two years.