Joe Biden is prepared to accept damage to the US economy to protect the country from threats posed by China, the Treasury Secretary has said.
Janet Yellen said the President is ready to handle the costs of protecting US national security interests against Beijing amid deteriorating relations between the world’s two largest economies.
In a speech at Johns Hopkins University in Washington, she will say: “National security is of paramount importance in our relationship with China.
“We will not compromise on these concerns, even when they force trade-offs with our economic interests.”
Ms Yellen outlined three priorities in dealing with China.
The administration will defend its national security interests and express concerns over China’s behaviour; seek healthy and fair economic competition; and aim to engage on issues like climate change and debt relief in the developing world.
The excerpts released ahead of the speech made no mention of a possible visit by Ms Yellen to Beijing — a trip that has been planned for months but not yet scheduled.
Read the latest updates below.
03:44 PMHanding over
That’s all from me today. Adam Mawardi will keep you up to speed for the rest of the day.
I leave you with this video of the SpaceX launch… and how it ended in dramatic fashion.
This content is not available due to your privacy preferences.Update your settings here to see it.This content is not available due to your privacy preferences.Update your settings here to see it.03:31 PMOil falls amid signs of weakening US economy
Oil has fallen for the third time in four days amid further signs of a US slowdown.
Brent crude, the global benchmark, has dropped 2.1pc toward $81 a barrel after closing 2pc lower on Wednesday.
American produced West Texas Intermediate has slumped 2.2pc and is on its way to $77.
The US economy stalled in recent weeks, the Federal Reserve said in its Beige Book survey, casting a cloud over prospects for energy demand.
The dollar has also ticked higher, providing another headwind for commodities.
In Asia, gasoline markets are showing signs of weakness as profits from producing the fuel slump.
Diesel is also lagging, with some refiners considering cuts to processing as margins decline.
Story continues
Despite this week’s pullback, crude is still up from a 15-month low reached in mid-March following turmoil in the banking sector.
03:17 PMCity watchdog investigates British tech champion over misstated accounts
The City regulator is investigating the technology firm WANdisco after revelations about potential fraud threw the company into chaos and led to the exit of its founder.
Technology editor James Titcomb has the latest:
The Sheffield-based company said on Thursday that the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) had notified it of an investigation into its accounts over concerns the software firm may have overstated its financial position.
Last month, WANdisco, which had been valued at £890m, suspended trading of its shares after warning its revenues may be less than half of what it had previously told investors.
The company, which specialises in helping IT departments move and synchronise data, blamed “potentially fraudulent irregularities” which it attributed to “one senior sales employee”.
An independent investigation has since found that revenues last year were around $9.7m (£7.8m), not the $24m previously stated, and that bookings – the value of contracts signed during the year – were $11.4m, not $127m.
Shares have been suspended since the announcement and its founder, chairman and chief executive David Richards has left the company, along with chief financial officer Erik Miller.
03:03 PMTesla shares plunge on Wall Street
Tesla shares fell sharply at the opening bell after the company felt the sting of numerous price cuts it made across its model line up this year in hopes of energising sales.
Tesla is shaving thousands of dollars off the price of its cars as American consumers pull back spending on big ticket items, anxious over elevated inflation and the US banks collapses during Tesla’s first quarter.
Tesla’s sales did climb during the quarter, but the amount of money generated per sale fell on price cuts and first-quarter profit slumped 24pc, the company said late Wednesday.
Shares of Tesla fell 8pc.
TDCowen analyst Jeffrey Osborne said he is “concerned” about Tesla’s strategy of selling as many vehicles as possible at lower profit margins and counting on revenue generated later from “Full Self-Driving” technology.
He remains sceptical about when that technology will be available.
Wall Street stocks fell early following a batch of mediocre earnings releases, including disappointing results from Tesla and some regional banks.
Electric car maker Tesla slumped around eight per cent as it reported a drop in quarterly earnings and hinted that it could face further profit pressures from additional price cuts on its vehicles.
Meanwhile, several regional banks – including KeyCorp, Zions Bancorporation and Comerica – fell around five per cent each following earnings reports that showed the impact of an industry panic after the March collapse of Silicon Valley Bank.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average has fallen 0.5pc while the broad-based S&P 500 declined 0.6pc.
The tech-rich Nasdaq Composite has dropped 0.5pc.
Other companies that fell after earnings reports included American Express and AT&T, while Lam Research and IBM pushed higher.
02:46 PMSpaceX launch ends in explosion
The SpaceX launch did not entirely go to plan, then.
At three minutes, the booster rocket, Super Heavy, failed to separate, ending in an explosion high in the atmosphere.
However, the mission may still be viewed as a success in terms of data collection.
This content is not available due to your privacy preferences.Update your settings here to see it.This content is not available due to your privacy preferences.Update your settings here to see it.02:37 PMWall Street falls at the open
Elon Musk’s SpaceX launch appears to have been a success but on Earth, markets are certainly not rocketing.
US stock indexes opened lower as disappointing results from Tesla, AT&T and some regional banks dented investor sentiment already soured by prospects of further U.S. interest rate hikes.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 156.41 points, or 0.5pc, at the open to 33,740.60.
The S&P 500 opened lower by 24.04 points, or 0.6pc, at 4,130.48, while the Nasdaq Composite dropped 118.15 points, or 1pc, to 12,039.08 at the opening bell.
02:27 PMStarship rocket poised for launch
Less than a minute until the launch of the world’s most powerful rocket. Follow what happens in our live blog.
02:10 PMBed Bath & Beyond sinks amid bankruptcy reports
Bed Bath & Beyond has tumbled in premarket trading in New York after reports that the retailer is preparing a bankruptcy filing for as early as this weekend.
Shares of the embattled retailer fell as much as 27pc after the report in the Wall Street Journal.
The shares had surged by about 95pc over the past three days after Bloomberg News reported that the company was holding talks with advisers and lenders ahead of a possible Chapter 11 filing.
Bed Bath & Beyond shares, which attracted the attention of meme-stock traders in early 2021, have been volatile since the beginning of the year, when the company indicated it was preparing for a potential bankruptcy filing.
A spokesperson for the company, which is based in Union, New Jersey, did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Michael Gove is expected to write to cladding manufacturers urging them to engage in talks about removing dangerous materials, the Telegraph understands.
Business reporter Riya Makwana has the exclusive:
It marks the Housing Secretary’s latest attempt to engage with cladding companies after the Grenfell Tower tragedy.
A letter from Mr Gove will say that the Government will consider using “all legal and commercial tools” unless developers begin mediation.
It comes a month after the Housing Secretary accused the cladding company that worked on Grenfell Tower, Kingspan, of continuing to threaten people’s safety.
In a letter sent to Gene Murtagh, the chief executive of Irish building materials company Kingspan, Mr Gove said people’s “safety continues to be threatened by your products”.
Kingspan manufactured some of the cladding used in Grenfell, which caught fire in London in 2017 and led to the deaths of 72 people.
The Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities has been contacted for comment.
01:40 PMCutting electric car prices will ‘kill’ industry, says Renault chief
Renault has warned that cutting prices for electric cars will “kill” their value, hours after Tesla hinted it will keep reducing prices to drive sales.
The French carmaker’s shares have slumped as much as 7.9pc in Paris after Tesla unveiled overnight a 24pc slump in profit and told investors that further price reductions could be coming in future.
Renault’s fall was despite it revealing that group revenue rose 29.9pc to €11.5bn (£10.1bn), above analyst estimates of €11.3 billion. Renault also confirmed its full-year outlook.
Chief financial officer Thierry Piéton said: “When you cut prices significantly, residual value takes a hit.
“There is no big incentive to go cut the prices and kill the residuals and go into a spiral that some of the competition has done.
“If it results, short term, in slightly lower volume, so be it.”
Tesla has cut prices repeatedly in recent months amid increasing competition among established car companies and Chinese upstarts, squeezing the profit margins it makes on each vehicle.
The European Parliament has voted to impose its first cryptocurrency regulations following the collapse of major players including FTX.
The approval of the EU’s Markets in Cryptoassets regulation is the first time that governments have tried to supervise the industry on such a scale.
European Financial Services Commissioner Mairead McGuinness said that she expects the legislation to come into force in July after it’s formally approved by the bloc’s 27 member states.
It comes as the former chief executive of a collapsed cryptocurrency exchange has been extradited from Albania to Turkey to face charges of fraud and money laundering.
Faruk Fatih Ozer, 29, was immediately arrested by police when he arrived at Istanbul Airport, according to the state-run Anadolu Agency.
He ran crypto platform Thodex, which abruptly stopped operations about two years ago, leaving tens of thousands of customers with losses.
Mr Ozer had disappeared following the collapse of the platform, but was arrested in Albania in August 2022 after Turkey issued an Interpol red notice against him.
Elon Musk is has declared “all systems green” for the test flight of the most powerful rocket ever built, Starship, designed to one day send astronauts to the Moon and Mars.
Senior technology reporter Matthew Field is live blogging the launch:
The 390ft rocket, which has been picked by NASA for its return to the lunar surface, is on the launch pad at the billionaire’s SpaceX spaceport in Boca Chica, Texas. It is due to launch at any moment from 2.28pm UK time.
The mission has already been delayed once, after a frozen valve led to issues with fuelling the rocket during its first attempt on Monday.
Mr Musk has sought to manage expectations for the first launch, saying on Sunday his main objective for the mission was “just don’t blow up the launchpad.”
Follow the launch as it happens here.
The Nasdaq is on course to fall nearly 1pc at the opening bell as Tesla shares tumbled in premarket trading after the electric-vehicle maker posted its lowest quarterly gross margin in two years.
Wall Street’s main indexes have remained steady this week as mixed earnings from US banks allayed concerns of a contagion from the March banking crisis, but rapidly rising rates and recession worries have dimmed their outlook.
Tesla slid 6.7pc in premarket trading after its first-quarter gross margin missed expectations on aggressive price cuts for its vehicles and chief executive Elon Musk said the company would put sales growth ahead of profit.
Other megacap stocks such as Apple, Amazon and Microsoft fell 1pc each.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average is expected to open 0.4pc lower, while the S&P 500 is on track to be down 0.7pc.
In premarket trading, the Nasdaq 100 was down 0.9pc.
11:51 AMEY investigated over audit of collapsed Made.com
EY is being investigated over its audit of online retailer Made.com, which crashed into administration last year, leaving thousands of customers out of pocket.
Retail editor Hannah Boland has the details:
The Financial Reporting Council (FRC) said it had opened an investigation into EY’s auditing of Made.com’s accounts for 2021. The City regulator did not give any detail on its decision, which it said had been taken last month.
It comes after shareholder advisory firm Pirc raised concerns over fees paid to EY by Made.com to advise on its listing.
Pirc told investors in May last year that the level of advisory fees paid to EY raised “major concerns about the independence of the statutory auditor”.
Made.com had once been seen as one of the UK’s brightest technology companies, floating with a valuation of £775m in London in the summer of 2021.
But in September 2022, the firm said it was cutting jobs and putting itself up for sale because of supply chain issues and increased freight costs.
It followed a cash crunch at the company, after the retailer filled its warehouses with stock to avoid a repeat of earlier supply chain issues. The cost-of-living had then led to a downturn in customer spending, meaning it was battling to free up cash.
The scandal-hit Confederation of British Industry (CBI) group has passed fresh information to the police regarding a report of a criminal offence.
A CBI spokesperson said:
Late yesterday afternoon, the CBI was made aware of additional information relating to a report of a serious criminal offence.
We have passed that information immediately to the police, with whom we are liaising closely and who have asked us not to comment further on potentially criminal matters.
Recognising the need for confidentiality, we urge anyone, including the media, who has further information in relation to any alleged offence to also report that to the police.
We are anticipating findings from Fox Williams on the matters it has been looking at imminently.
The board will be communicating its response to this and other steps we are taking to bring about the wider change that is needed early next week.
It comes after a war of words between the business lobbying group and its former director general, Tony Danker, who was fired over separate misconduct allegations last week, claiming he had been “thrown under a bus” amid wider scandals at the organisation.
11:27 AMIkea unveils £1.8bn US expansion plan
Ikea will spend €2bn (£1.8bn) expanding in the United States over the next three years, its biggest investment in a single country, in a bet to win American customers as other big-box retailers close stores.
The Swedish retailer, which opened its first US store in 1985 near Philadelphia, is seeking to win market share across the Pond as cash-strapped consumers look for more affordable products.
Tolga Öncü, head of Ikea Retail at the company’s owner Ingka Group, said: “It is in all the states across the US where we see opportunities, but I would say in particular the South, where we see big demand that we have not so far been able to respond to.”
Ingka plans to open eight new big Ikea stores and nine smaller stores as well as upgrading existing stores in the US, which is the company’s second-biggest market by sales after Germany.
As consumers spend less, big-box retailers Walmart and online furniture retailer Wayfair are cutting jobs and shutting stores, creating an opportunity for Ikea to pick up cheaper store and warehouse space.
The expansion will create 2,000 jobs, Ingka said.
Victims of Neil Woodford’s investment empire collapse are in line for a £235m payout, following an investigation into one of Britain’s biggest investment scandals.
Rachel Mortimer has the details:
The City watchdog the Financial Conduct Authority has confirmed more than 300,000 investors who had money in Mr Woodford’s flagship Equity Income Fund are to be offered redress payments.
It comes more than three years after a number of popular investment funds, containing billions of savers’ deposits and operated by the star fund manager, were forced to close after a string of investments in unlisted firms lost money.
Link Fund Solutions (LFS), the administrator of the collapsed Woodford Investment Management vehicle, will pay the redress after the regulator found it had failed to properly manage the liquidity of the income fund.
Link Group, the parent company of LFS, will help partially fund the redress payment by selling the fund solutions business to Australian investment company Waystone Group.
However, the payout offer falls significantly short of the full amount owed to savers.
WH Smith has revealed plans to open more than 120 new shops after resurgent travel demand helped sales rocket over the past six months.
The retailer also saw profits more than double as it continues to shift its focus further towards airport and railway station shops instead of its traditional high street spots.
Boss Carl Cowling hailed “strong” current trading and told shareholders performance was “ahead of expectations for the full year”.
WH Smith said group revenues increased by 41pc to £859m for the six months to February 28, compared with the same period last year.
As a result, it also said pre-tax profits rose to £45m from £18m in the previous half-year.
WH Smith benefited from a strong rebound in passenger numbers after the easing of pandemic travel restrictions.
Bosses of the group said its growing travel arm is set to represent over 70pc of all revenues by the end of the year, as well as 85pc of its profits.
IBM delivered a cautiously optimistic signal about technology spending in the economy as it forecast annual revenue to be in line with analysts’ projections.
Sales will increase from 3pc to 5pc in 2023, the multinational company said, and it confirmed a previous free cash flow forecast of $10.5bn (£8.5bn) for the year.
IBM reported first-quarter revenue of $14.3bn, little changed from the period a year earlier and slightly below analysts’ average estimate.
Chief executive Arvind Krishna said:
We’re seeing some softening going into the end of the first half.
Then I do think that growth will get a bit better near the end of the year.
Shares gained about 2pc in premarket trading before New York exchanges opened. The stock has declined 10pc this year.
10:20 AMPound falls back in face of persistent inflation
The pound has retreated today as Britain battles with the highest inflation rate in Western Europe, underscoring the threat to the economy.
The consumer prices index fell to 10.1pc in March from February’s 10.4pc, but it was well above expectations for a fall to 9.8pc, data showed on Wednesday.
More worryingly, the figures from the Office for National Statistics showed price pressures are everywhere, with food and drink inflation rising at its sharpest pace since 1977.
The pound was down 0.1pc against the dollar at $1.24, and down 0.2pc against the euro, which is worth more than 88p.
Sterling is the second-best performing currency in the G10 against the dollar so far this year, with a gain of 2.7pc, just behind the Swiss franc, which has gained 3pc in that time.
The prospect of the Bank of England having to raise rates more than previously expected has partly driven flows into sterling, but that boost might not last much longer, given the impact of high prices on households and businesses.
Stephen Gallo, global currency strategist at BMO Capital Markets, said:
The type of inflation the UK has now — linked to an energy crisis, labour shortages, and a term of trade shock — is never good for a currency.
It’s an erosion of internal purchasing power. Simply look at real wage growth.
09:51 AMHigh street banks penalising loyal savers, City watchdog says
Loyal savers have been penalised with much lower returns as interest rates have climbed in what the City watchdog described as a “cultural” problem requiring major reform to fix.
Economic editor Szu Ping Chan has the latest:
Nikhil Rathi, chief executive of the Financial Conduct Authority, told MPs that it had become “standard practice” for firms to offer more attractive rates to new savers, “while leaving existing savers earning less competitive rates”.
In a letter to the Treasury select committee, Mr Rathi warned the problem had become worse as the Bank of England started raising interest rates from 0.1pc in December 2021 to 4.25pc today.
He said some banks only increased their savings rates with a “material time lag” compared with mortgage products.
“We expect that the harm from this practice (and the loyalty penalty faced by longstanding customers) will have increased as the base rate has risen”, he said.
The FCA is introducing new consumer protection rules from July aimed at ensuring high street banks provide value for money for customers.
09:34 AMMelrose spin-off slumps on stock market debut
Automotive business Dowlais Group fell as much as 28pc as it began trading on the London Stock Exchange after being spun off from industrial buyout firm Melrose Industries.
Dowlais shares were trading at less than 117p in London, while Melrose shares were trading up 11pc at 385 pence.
Dowlais has a market capitalization of about £2bn based on its opening price.
The new company is effectively an automotive platform, owning both GKN Automotive, which supplies driveline technologies, and GKN Powder Metallurgy, a maker of metal powder and precision powder metal parts for the automotive and industrial sectors.
It also holds GKN’s hydrogen business.
Melrose said last year it would split its GKN automotive business into a separate unit, renaming the new company Dowlais.
The listing is a welcome addition to the London market, which has faced a stream of high-profile departures amid weakened
valuations in a volatile market.
09:20 AMGas prices edge higher amid Norway outage
European natural gas prices have ticked up marginally even as data from the EU showed a 17.7pc decline in demand for the fuel since last summer.
Benchmark futures dropped as much as 2pc earlier but are now 0.3pc higher at more than $40 per megawatt hour.
It comes as an unplanned outage at a facility in Norway gives some support to prices.
However, data from the EU showed that demand for the fuel was 21pc down in Germany in March compared to levels seen before the war in Ukraine.
08:54 AMFalling oil prices drag down FTSE 100
The FTSE 100 has fallen amid weakness in oil and mining stocks as commodity prices drop amid concerns over further rate increases by the US Federal Reserve.
The blue-chip index has slumped 0.2pc, while the mid-cap FTSE 250 was down 0.1pc.
Oil giants BP and Shell lost 0.8pc and 0.5pc respectively, with crude prices falling against the dollar as fears of a rate hike in the US hurt growth and weighed on fuel demand.
Brent crude, the international benchmark, has fallen by 1.4pc this morning to below $82 a barrel. It has slumped 3.6pc over the last three days.
Base metal miners lost 0.7pc, with shares of Antofagasta leading declines, down 4.4pc.
Limiting losses, lenders were up 1pc amid upbeat US bank earnings.
Segro gained 1.5pc after the warehousing specialist said it was witnessing strong occupier demand from a diverse range of customers amid limited supplies in the market.
Hochschild Mining dropped 4.7pc after the miner reported a near-35pc fall in annual adjusted core profit.
08:47 AMDunelm says outlook ‘remains unpredictable’
Dunelm increased revenues by 6pc in the first three months of the year to £423m but admitted the outlook consumers “remains unpredictable”.
It said its outlook for annual profits remains unchanged.
John Coldham, retail partner at Gowling, said:
Although profits are struggling at Dunelm, shareholders will be pleased with the sales growth the business has achieved by appealing to consumers with its affordable prices and reliable products.
The cost of living crisis will continue to pose a challenge for the home furnishings retailer as consumers are more wary of their spending and the impact of inflation.
But having picked up some sales from failing rivals and an increase in e-commerce, there is plenty of reason for investors to be optimistic.
Managing costs will be crucial to Dunelm’s future success and chief executive Nick Wilkinson will want to focus on smaller ticket items rather than larger purchases amidst the economic downturn until consumer confidence returns.
Jet2 has improved its outlook for the year ahead as Britons race to book their summer holidays.
Britain’s biggest tour operator said it now expects profit to come in between £387m and £392m, up 5pc from the bottom end of its previous range.
The company said seat capacity for this summer is 7.2pc higher than the same time last year at 15.3m seats.
It said its pricing for both package holiday and flight-only products remains strong despite input cost pressures including fuel, carbon taxes, a strengthened US dollar and wage increases.
Margins per booked passenger are “encouraging”.
Its shares have risen 2.9pc in early trading.
The markets have opened lower in London amid a series of weak earnings reports from companies.
The FTSE 100 has dropped 0.1pc to 7,889.29 while the midcap FTSE 250 has dropped 0.6pc to 19,179.59.
08:03 AMECB may need to raise rates in June and July, warns policy chief
The European Central Bank may need to raise interest rates in June and July following next month’s increase, according to the chief of the Dutch central bank.
The ECB is widely expected to raise rates again on May 4 but it is unclear what direction it will take from then amid a mixed global picture for central banks.
The US Federal Reserve is only expected to raise rates once more this year but the Bank of England is now expected to raise rates three more times.
ECB Governing Council member Klaas Knot told the Irish Times:
It’s too early to talk about a pause.
For a pause, I would really need to see a convincing reversal in underlying-inflation dynamics.
Mr Knot, who is among the hawkish members of ECB’s Governing Council, said the size of the next rate move will probably be determined by April inflation data, which will be published two days before the meeting.
07:54 AMDeliveroo sales fall as households cut back on takeaways
Deliveroo said orders fell 9pc in the first three months of the year as customers look to save money by cutting back on meal deliveries.
Users placed 72.1m orders in the first quarter, down from 78.8m in the same period a year ago.
Gross transaction value fell 1pc on a constant currency basis to £1.75bn.
Chief executive Will Shu said last month that while the company’s been weathering a “really tough consumer environment,” he is cautiously optimistic conditions will begin to improve this year.
Rival Just Eat also reported a drop in orders for the previous quarter on Wednesday and the Dutch company said it would focus on improving profitability.
Deliveroo has bled money since home delivery slowed following the end of pandemic lockdowns.
The stock has fallen 73pc since its initial public offering in 2021. Last year, the company reported an operating loss of £245.6m.
Capita said it had restored staff access to Microsoft Office 365 following the incident, which was announced on April 3.
It said at the time that there had been “disruption” to some services provided to clients, by primarily affecting “access to internal Microsoft Office 365 applications”.
It is understood that companies that use Capita for call centre services, such as O2, were affected by the incident, according to PA.
Local authorities, such as Barnet Council in London, also reported the IT issue impacted some customer service lines.
Capita insisted the majority of its client services were not affected and remained in operation, and that it has now “restored virtually all client services that were impacted”.
It said: “In parallel with the services restoration activity, Capita has continued to work closely and at speed with specialist advisers and forensic experts in investigating the incident to provide assurance around any potential customer, supplier or colleague data exfiltration.”
07:34 AMHackers may have accessed customer data, Capita admits
Outsourcing firm and government contractor Capita has revealed that customer, supplier or colleague data may have been accessed by hackers in a recent cyber attack on the firm.
The group – which is a major contractor for local authorities – said investigations since the hack was discovered on March 31 have shown some evidence of a “limited” data breach.
It said this “might include customer, supplier or colleague data”.
“Capita continues to work through its forensic investigations and will inform any customers, suppliers or colleagues that are impacted in a timely manner,” it said.
WH Smith has revealed a surge in sales for the past six months as the retailer was boosted by the return of travellers to airports and train stations as well as new store openings.
It revealed that group revenues increased by 41pc to £859m for the six months to February 28, compared with the same period last year.
Bosses said current trading is “strong” and “ahead of expectations for the full year”.
As a result, the group also revealed pre-tax profits rose to £45m from £18m in the previous half-year.
None of SpaceX’s Starship rocket will be recovered if its launch goes ahead as planned today.
Instead, if all goes well, the first-stage booster, dubbed Super Heavy, would drop into the Gulf of Mexico.
The spacecraft on top would continue eastward, passing over the Atlantic, Indian and Pacific Oceans before ditching near Hawaii. The whole flight, if successful, will last just one and a half hours.
The company plans to use Starship to send people and cargo to the moon and, eventually, Mars.
NASA has reserved a Starship for its next moonwalking team, and rich tourists are already booking lunar flybys.
This content is not available due to your privacy preferences.Update your settings here to see it.07:17 AMSpaceX to make second attempt at launching world’s largest rocket
SpaceX will try again to launch the world’s biggest and most powerful rocket today which could eventually take people to Mars.
The nearly 400-foot (120-meter) Starship is poised to blast off from the southern tip of Texas, near the Mexican border.
It comes after engineers have been working nonstop since Monday after the first shot at a test flight was halted by technical issues with a booster valve.
SpaceX chief executive Elon Musk had given 50-50 odds of the spacecraft reaching orbit on its debut.
He tweeted this morning that: “All systems currently green for launch.”
The launch is scheduled to take place within a 62-minute window, starting at 9.28am eastern time – which is 2.28pm UK time.
This content is not available due to your privacy preferences.Update your settings here to see it.07:16 AMInstagram staff to quit London amid tech layoffs
Meta is expected to cut or relocate its Instagram staff based in London as the tidal wave of layoffs sweeping the tech sector continues.
Its European headquarters near Covent Garden had become a centre of growth for the social media app owned by Facebook’s parent company.
Its leader Adam Mosseri moved to London last year but he plans to relocate to the US along with staff who are not laid off, according to Bloomberg.
Meta announced in March plans to cut 10,000 jobs as part of an efficiency campaign pushed by chief executive Mark Zuckerberg.
According to a memo the company sent on Tuesday, Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram and Reality Labs — which houses the business’s virtual reality efforts and Quest hardware — will be affected.
A further round of cuts is expected to follow in May.
Instagram’s London office was its first international presence, opening in 2013. Today the app is understood to have about 100 employees there.
The tech sector is undergoing a period of mass job losses after over-expanding during the pandemic amid a buzz that working from home would lead to greater demand long term.
Amazon is axing 19,000 jobs while Microsoft announced plans to cut 10,000 staff back in January.
Meta declined to comment.
Meta-owned Instagram is expected to cut or relocate its London staff as the Facebook owner executes its programme of 10,000 job losses across the business.
The decision comes amid a wave of layoffs in the tech sector after an over expansion during the pandemic amid the working from home boom.
5 things to start your day
1) Tesla profits slip for first time since 2019 after Musk cuts prices | The electric carmaker expects to squeeze rivals with lower manufacturing costs
2) Russian hacking is surging as Putin targets Britain, warn spy chiefs | Hackers attempting to ‘disrupt or destroy’ crucial infrastructure, says GCHQ
3) Supermarkets accused of failing to rein in soaring food prices | Grocers yet to pass on drop in global costs
4) CBI risks being frozen out by senior politicians until end of the year | Top business group faces protracted investigation as dismissed boss claims he was made the ‘fall guy’
5) Murdoch’s bill for settling Fox defamation lawsuits likely to exceed £1bn | Billionaire’s media empire faces more legal woes from Smartmatic’s $2.7bn lawsuit
What happened overnight
Asian stocks inched lower on Thursday, while the dollar clung to overnight gains in cautious trading as US Federal Reserve policymakers reiterated their commitment to reining in inflation despite signs of mounting economic headwinds.
MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was 0.2pc lower, set for third straight day of losses.
Japan’s Nikkei was up 0.3pc, while Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 index was 0.1pc higher.
Wall Street stocks closed mostly flat on Wednesday following another day of mixed company results.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 0.2pc at 33,897.34, while the broad-based S&P 500 was almost unchanged at 4,154.54.
The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite Index was also relatively flat at 12,157.23.
The yield on 10-year Treasuries was up 3 basis points to 3.61pc after reaching 3.639pc – its highest since March 22.
Treasury two-year yields, which are more sensitive to imminent monetary policy decisions, rose for a fifth straight session and topped 4.2pc.