Business news live: Bonds latest after Reeves backed and Microsoft cut 4% of jobs

Ryanair have cancelled 170 flights due to French air traffic control strikes.

The flights are across Thursday and Friday and include destinations such as Greece, Spain and the UK.

CEO Michael O’Leary said: “Once again, European families are held to ransom by French air traffic controllers going on strike.

“It is not acceptable that overflights over French airspace en route to their destination are being cancelled/delayed as a result of yet another French ATC strike.”

Shares are down 1.2 per cent today and up 0.6 per cent across a month.

An online gambling firm has been fined £170,000 for regulatory failures including the use of unfair terms and conditions.

Taichi Tech Limited, trading as Fafabet, will also have to undergo a third-party audit to ensure it has effective anti-money laundering and safer gambling procedures, the Gambling Commission said.

An investigation found that Taichi Tech’s terms claimed that it had “the right at their own discretion to close accounts or forfeit winnings”.

The regulator concluded that the firm breached the “fair and open” licensing condition by including a discretionary term allowing the operator to close customer accounts or forfeit winnings without clear justification.

The investigation also found failures relating to anti-money laundering and social responsibility breaches.

Two-thirds of small and medium UK businesses would now vote to remain in the EU after seeing their profits harmed by Brexit, new analysis shows.

A survey of more than 500 importers and exporters found 66 per cent would choose to stay in the bloc, up from 53 per cent who voted that way during the referendum in 2016. The percentage of those who would vote to leave was 29 per cent, down from 32 per cent.

The findings, from research carried out by Critical Research, appear to be a direct response to the fact that costly rising regulations and red tape burdens have harmed the profitability of their businesses.

65 per cent of responders said the increased demands on them to comply with trade regulations have “significantly” affected their overall profits. More than half (56 per cent) said Brexit has directly made their business less-competitive within the context of the global marketplace.

Last night saw a real mix of trading in Asia.

Japan’s Nikkei 225 ended essentially flat, but the Hang Seng in Hong Kong was down more than 0.6 per cent.

In Australia and Singapore trading was flat, India’s Nifty 50 fell 0.16 per cent and the Shanghai composite rose 0.18 per cent.

Meanwhile, the forward-looking data for US stocks shows a very slight rise is on the cards, so far at least.

The Dow, Nasdaq and S&P 500 are all projected to rise, but each of them less than 0.1 per cent so far.

A critical shortage of skilled workers is jeopardising the Government’s pledge to build 1.5 million new homes by 2029, according to research.

Skills development organisation City & Guilds surveyed employers, training providers and employees, finding 76% of construction firms are struggling to recruit the skilled people they need, with 84% agreeing the industry is suffering from critical skills shortages.

The latest outlook from the Construction Industry Training Board suggests the industry needs to recruit 239,300 workers by 2029 to be able to meet the projected demand for the 1.5 million homes target.

Following the cyber hack earlier this year, Marks & Spencer say they will spend £300m in an accelerated programme to revamp existing stores and open 16 new ones.

A dozen of those new shops will be food halls.

Stuart Machin, CEO, said: “We have to go fast. I’m hoping by 18 months’ time, half of our store estate will be new or renewed.”

The move comes in a bid to win back shoppers after online and store sales were severely impacted by the hack, which is expected to also cost around £300m.

OpenAI will pay Oracle around $30bn a year to lease 4.5GW of power.

Multiple data centres across the US will operate to satisfy that demand, the FT reports, in an expansion of the country’s Stargate project.

It is due offer both further innovation and increasing consumer demand for AI.

Aviva will hand out £500 to each staff member following a £3.7bn takeover of insurance rival Direct Line.

That includes 23,000 staff at Aviva and 8,500 at the smaller firm, to celebrate the deal.

Staff will need to hold the shares for a minimum of three years, Aviva said.

Aviva shares are up 0.4 per cent today, at 608.60p per share.

Foreign investors have stepped closer to buying part of the Telegraph, as MPs backed relaxed laws on foreign ownership of UK newspapers that will allow them to own up to 15%.

The Commons voted overwhelmingly in favour of a change to the law by Labour which would allow foreign firms to buy minority stakes.

It is the latest turn in a tumultuous two-year takeover process for the 170-year-old newspaper business.

It’s not just the 10-year gilts which are settling this morning – the pound is recovering too.

The GBP is about 0.15 per cent higher this morning against the US Dollar, after it too fell yesterday following Reeves’ tears and Starmer not initially backing her job yesterday.

But it all looks rather more settled this morning.

The FTSE 100 is also up a strong 0.5 per cent in morning trading, well ahead of Germany’s DAX at 0.3pc and France’s CAC40 at 0.18pc.