Seven days in the Square Mile

With days to go before the deadline for an outline agreement for a post-Brexit trade deal, ministers were reportedly working on the assumption that the UK will trade with Europe on WTO terms when the transition period ends on 31 December. The FTSE 100 fell midweek on the news of the deadlock. The Government has also apparently given up hope of reaching a trade deal with the US ahead of November’s election, blaming the pandemic for slow progress in negotiations. During a visit to London, the US secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, reiterated calls to “push back” on China. The Chancellor, Rishi Sunak, dismissed the prospect of state bailouts of companies when emergency measures end, but faced calls from the City to ease up to £35bn of unsustainable debt to avoid up to three million job losses. Pizza Express said it would close 75 restaurants across the UK as part of a financial restructuring. M&S announced plans to cut 950 jobs across the group. Goldman Sachs reported its second best quarterly results ever, banking $2.4bn in profits in Q2. A serious security breach at Twitter resulted in the hacking of 130 prominent accounts, including those of Barack Obama and Elon Musk. The name RBS plc disappeared from the stock market – the banking group will now be known as NatWest Group plc. Tati, the Paris department store credited with revolutionising postwar shopping in France, is to close next year – a victim of declining sales during the pandemic.