Lloyds Banking Group is to cut 5,000 more jobs by the end of next year as it continues to reduce overlap following its merger with HBOS last year.

While almost half of these posts are among staff, 2,600 permanent jobs would be lost. The union Unite accused the bank of "corporate arrogance" and short-termism following the announcement, which will mean that Lloyds will have cut 15,000 jobs this year.

Japan’s second- largest carmaker Honda Motor Co have announced that they will be widening job cuts at its UK factory in Swindon, due to a major fall in demand in Europe as the end of government stimulus programs draws close.

According to a company spokesman, Honda plans to expand their voluntary early retirement plan, which succeeded in reducing the number of workers at the factory by 1,300 last December, although the spokesman declined to say how many additional jobs would be cut. The plant, which builds the CR-V and Civic models for the European market, saw production plunge by 75 percent to 400,000 units in the year until end September 2009.

A rapid recovery in UK commercial property values conditions could see the sector turn positive this year. The recovery comes after the deepest slump on record that looks like leading to an almost boom like situation according to forecasts. Real estate values are set to overturn most of the losses suffered in the first half as booming investor demand has taken prices back to near peak levels in some sectors.

As was widely expected, Cadbury have rejected the formal bid from Kraft on Monday, going as far as to describe the US food group’s offer as “derisory”. Roger Carr, Cadbury’s chairman, declared the formal offer “worse than the proposal the board has previously rejected” as it made no attempt to improve the terms of its original offer of two months ago. In the meantime Kraft’s share price has fallen steadily since their offer in early September, reducing the value of the bid from 745 pence a share to 717. Cadbury’s shares closed up 3 pence to 761 on the FTSE, while Kraft’s shares fell 31 cents in New York in midday trading to $26.47. However, Kraft have not rules out making an increased offer during the formal takeover offer period, which could last up to three months as analysts predict that the company may wait until towards the end of the offer period before making a final offer.

Company management at Sainsburys will be feeling the pressure as recent figures show that the supermarket group sales were expanding at the lowest rate of the UKs "big four " supermarkets. Sainsbury’s sales were shown to have risen by 4.7 percent in the 12 weeks to October 31, making for the lowest turnover expansion, less than the 5.6 percent recorded by Tesco, with Asda and Morrisons leading the way.

Unofficial reports have it that Orange UK sold more than 30,000 iPhones on launch day. Orange is the second carrier to offer the iPhone in the UK behind O2, while Vodafone has announced plans to begin offering the handset early in 2010, as well as the iPhone, Orange UK have also launched a so-called business homescreen for the soon to be launched Samsung Omnia Pro B7330. The Omnia Pro is reputed to be a smartphone based on a different concept from the iPhone, featuring Windows Mobile 6.5 and a full QWERTY keypad. Orange’s new homescreen provide quick access to email, voicemail, contacts, calendar and so on, “ensuring vital business applications are right at their employees’ finger tips”. The Samsung Omnia Pro B7330 will be soon available through Orange, coming as the carrier’s first “business WM6.5 device,” targeted at medium and large business customers.

For more information about The Samsung Omnia Pro B7330 Visit Compare-Mobile.co.uk

Sterling lost ground on Tuesday after a ratings agency said the UK was the major economy most at risk of losing its AAA credit rating , Since then the pound has weakened in value over the last two days against all the major currencies.

• Pound/US dollar 1.6719
• Pound/Euro 1.1161
• Pound/Japanese Yen 149.468
• Pound/Swiss Franc 1.6852

The FTSE 100 has rallied strongly since the beginning of the week up 86 points to 5,230.55. The FTSE 250 also rose 38.3 points to 9,120.96. London equities principally made progress on Monday, largely thanks to strong trading in insurance stocks.

As US carmaker General Motors (GM) were seen to be making efforts to calm the waves after their surprise decision last week to retain ownership of their European plants, a spokesman for the company has forecast that Opel and Vauxhall will retain consider independence as well as receiving considerable financial support . The US carmaker has announced that that they will provide a “reasonable and sizeable” portion of the restructuring costs for Opel and Vauxhall, rather than seek 100 percent government aid. GM have forecast that they will need €3 billion ($4.5 billion) to restructure the Opel and Vauxhall operations and intend to raise at least partial funding from interested European governments.

The Dow Jones has made some major steps forward since the weekend, up 243 points to 10246.97, closing at the highest level since October 2008.

The NASDAQ also jumped, reaching 2151.08.

US software company Adobe Systems has announced that it is to cut almost 10% of its workforce, a total of 680 jobs. Adobe Systems best known for Photoshop, Flash and Acrobat, said the cuts were necessary to cut costs.

Gold extended its record-breaking run above the $1,100 mark on Monday while crude oil raised more than $2 a barrel as markets made a strong start to the new trading week. Gold hit a record at $1,110.85 a troy ounce, a rise of 26.5 per cent this year, before easing back to $1,107.00, up 1.1 per cent on the day as analysts digested the implications of India’s decision last week to buy half of the gold the International Monetary Fund has put up for sale.

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Tags: Acrobat, Adobe, Adobe Systems, ASDA, Banking, British Economy, Cadbury, Currency, Dow Jones, Economy, Employment, Financial News, Flash, FTSE, General Motors, GM, Gold, HBos, Honda Motor Co, International Monetary Fund, iPhone, Kraft, Lloyds, Lloyds Banking Group, Money, Money Markets, Morrisons, NASDAQ, O2, Oil, Omnia Pro, Opel, Orange UK, Photoshop, property values, Recession, Retail, Roger Carr, Sainsburys, Samsung Omnia Pro B7330, smartphone, Stock Markets, Stocks and shares, Tesco, UK Banks, UK commercial property, UK Economy, UK government, UK Recession, Vauxhall, Vodafone

After an inquiry found they had taken unreasonably large rewards from the now bankrupt car maker MG Rover Group Ltd, UK Business Secretary Peter Mandelson is seeking a ban on the investors involved in the collapse from running other companies

A recently released 800-page government-commissioned report into the demise of MG Rover, who went belly up in 2005 with debts amounting to £1.3 billion states that directors of Phoenix Venture Holdings, Peter Beale, John Edwards, Nick Stephenson, John Towers and Kevin Howe had drawn a combined 42 million pounds in pay and benefits over five years.

About 6,000 people lost their jobs when the car maker collapsed.

Lord Mandelson, business secretary, has also announced his confidence that following the sale of General Motors’ European business to Magna International, a Canadian car-parts supplier, and Russia’s Sberbank jobs were safe at Vauxhall’s plants in the UK. GM’s decision to sell Opel to the Canadian and Russian partnership ended months of uncertainty over the fate of the car maker.

Magna has already made a commitment to the German government not to shut any of its four factories there, however t there is still unease and uncertainty among Britain’s trade unions that either the Luton or Ellesmere Port plant, might be slated for closure by Magna. Without giving any specific reason why, Lord Mandelson, in a statement issued before the weekend. Said he was satisfied with the deal and that the immediate uncertainty about GM’s future in Europe has been removed.

The star of the show on the FTSE Friday was the rail maintenance group, Jarvis, whose shares jumped to their highest level in more than a year after the company reported an “extremely preliminary” takeover inquiry.

Their stock, which has been stuck below the 15 pence since a profits warning way back in November 2007 wiped 75 per cent off its value, has increased in value by close to 70 percent from 17 pence to 24 pence with two days of trading after the company released a statement to the markets on the approach

Analysts speculated that that any of the other companies involved the rail maintenance sector might be interested in the company, with others suggesting that an overseas buyer might also be a candidate.

The UK’s fourth-biggest supermarket group WM Morrison warned of lower sales growth on the back of more moderate rises in food prices, as it lifted profits and raised its interim dividend by 35 per cent.

Morrisons, who increased their underlying profits by 22 per cent, also announced that they are embarking on an expansion drive containing its fresh food shop within a shop concept, as it seeks expansion.

A spokesman for the company did warn that a natural reduction in comparative growth rates was liable to be caused by easing food price inflation, along with strong like-for-like sales growth. Shares in the group dropped by 0.8 pence to 283.7 pence.

As the market continued to digest news it was under investigation by the Serious Fraud Office and Office of Fair Trading over allegations of anti-competitive business practices, shares in Sports Direct International dropped 0.9 per cent to 107.9 pence.

The FTSE 100 index made it back over the 5,000 points, rising. 23.79 points to close at 5,011.47

The FTSE 250 rose again on Friday, up 82.18 points to close for the weekend to close on 9,207.89

The pound rose against the dollar yet took a minor tumble against the Euro on Friday’s trading, as well as the other major currencies.

• Pound/US dollar 1.616
• Pound/Euro 1.1433
• Pound/Japanese Yen 150.5651
• Pound/Swiss Franc 1.7281

According to a recent declaration by Treasury secretary Tim Geithner, the US is starting to pare back its emergency support for banks and financial markets, stating that the US financial system was no longer in need of extensive government prop-ups.

Almost a year since the collapse of Lehman Brothers, which triggered a financial panic that tipped the world into a deep recession, Geithner has announced that the time had come to ease the US economy from crisis to recovery mode.

Pointing to the evidence of a return to partial stability in global financial markets, Mr. Geithner announced that the US would allow their $2,500 billion guarantee for industry to expire as scheduled this month.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average faltered by just a little on Friday down 12.07 points to 9695.44 while the NASDAQ Composite rose by 0.2 points to close on 2080.9.

Fast-falling corporate inventories meant Japanese gross domestic product grew more slowly in the second quarter of this year than was initially forecast, according to government data released on Friday, but analysts stated that the world’s second largest economy’s recovery remained on track.

In the three months to June, GDP expanded 0.6 per cent quarter-on-quarter on a seasonally adjusted basis, revised data issued by the cabinet showed, down from the 0.9 per cent growth initially estimated last month.

Global oil consumption will contract less than previously feared this year and grow strongly in 2010, according to the International Energy Agency (IEA) the developed countries’ energy watchdog, another of the signs of optimism for the economic welfare of the World popping up on a regular basis these days.

The IEA now expect global oil demand to drop 1. 9 million barrels a day for 2009, less than the 2.3 million forecasts as recently as last month, making for the third revision since May, when the organisation forecast a contraction of 2.6 million barrels per day. .

Gold reached $1,011.55 a troy ounce on Friday, just 1.9 per cent below the record $1,030.80 reached in March 2008.

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Tags: British Economy, British Pound, Dow Jones, Economy, Employment, Financial News, FTSE, GDP, General Motors, International Energy Agency, John Edwards, John Towers, Kevin Howe, Lehman Brothers, Lord Mandelson, Magna International, MG Rover, Money Markets, Morrisons, NASDAQ, Nick Stephenson, Office of Fair Trading, Peter Beale, Peter Mandelson, Phoenix Four, Phoenix Venture Holdings, Recession, Retail, Serious Fraud Office, Sports Direct, Stock Markets, Tim Geithner, UK Banks, UK Economy, UK government, UK Recession, US economy, WM Morrison