Themes from July
Conservative party members voted to appoint Boris Johnson MP as leader by a majority of almost 2:1. The new PM stated the Withdrawal Agreement was dead and the backstop provisions must be removed.
EU leaders have stated they will not re-open or renegotiate the Withdrawal Agreement and the Northern Ireland backstop provisions must remain.
Sterling slumped over July from $1.2640 to $1.2160 and from €1.12 to €1.092 despite the new PM on his first day stating that “those who bet against the UK will lose their shirts”.
US Federal Reserve lowered its key Federal Funds lending rate by 0.25% as widely expected. The board had been under pressure from President Trump to cut by 0.5%.
Apple confirmed its credit card offering “Apple card” will be launched in August 2019. Q3 sales rose 1% to $53.8bn but net profit dipped 3% to $10bn.
BP reported interim profit of $4.75bn but the board left the quarterly dividend unchanged at 10.25 cents.
Fresnillo reported revenues fell 10.2% with profit of $70.9m down 69.1%. EPS fell to 9.5 cents from 31.1 cents, with the interim dividend cut to 2.6 cents from 10.7 cents.