Commodities trader Glencore is considering ditching its primary listing in the UK in favour of New York or another location where it can “get the right valuation”.This would deal another big blow to the London Stock Exchange, which has been hit by a string of high profile departures.Chief executive Gary Nagle said the company was assessing whether other exchanges were “better suited to trade our securities”.He told journalists:Ultimately, what we want to ensure is that our securities are traded on the right exchange where we can get the right and optimal valuation for our stock.There have been questions raised previously around whether London is the right exchange.

If there’s a better one, and those include the likes of the New York stock exchange, we have to consider that.Stock markets are falling on both sides of the Atlantic.The FTSE 100 index in London has lost 0.7%, or 64 points, to 8,703 while the German and French markets fell by more than 1%.On Wall Street, shares are trading about 0.

3% lower across the Nasdaq, Dow Jones and S&P 500 indices,Glencore is still the biggest faller on the FTSE 100 index, after it reported a fall in underlying profits in 2024 for the second year in a row, and blamed lower commodity prices, despite a rise in commodities trading,The Swiss-based miner and commodities trader said it is considering ditching its primary listing in the UK in favour of New York or another location where it can “get the right valuation”,This would deal another big blow to the London Stock Exchange, which has been hit by a string of high profile departures,Glencore has been listed in London since 2011, when the company was valued at about £37bn – at the time the largest-ever float on the London Stock Exchange.

The listing made Nagle’s predecesssor, Ivan Glasenberg, one of Europe’s richest men, with a paper fortune of nearly £6bn.The company became known as a “millionaire factory”.Last year, 88 companies delisted from the London Stock Exchange or moved their primary listing from its main market.Just 18 listed during 2024.UK inflation accelerated faster than expected at the start of this year, eating into workers’ wages and reducing the chance of an interest rate cut next month.

The consumer prices index (CPI) measure rose to 3% in January, the Office for National Statistics reported, up from 2.5% in December.City economists had expected a smaller increase in January’s inflation rate, to 2.8%.The ONS said a jump in the cost of meat, bread and cereals pushed up food bills, while higher private school fees after the government’s withdrawal of a VAT exemption increased the cost of education services.

Airline tickets fell in price in January, but not by as much as usual, and combined with a rise in fuel costs, pushed up the annual rate of inflation in the transport sector to its highest level since February 2023.Our other main stories today:Thank you for reading.We’ll be back tomorrow.Cheerio! – JKThe scandal-hit US electric vehicle maker Nikola – once a rising star on Wall Street – has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection after warning that it could run out of cash.Its share price tumbled by 41% on the news.

Nikola filed for protection in the United States Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware, and said today that it has also filed a motion seeking approval to pursue an auction and sale of the business,The company has about $47m in cash,Nikola plans to to continue to provide limited service and support for vehicles on the road, including fuelling operations through the end of March, subject to court approval,The company said that it will need to raise more funding to support those operations after that time,Chief executive Steve Girsky said the group had tried to raise more money and preserve cash but that hasn’t been enough.

Like other companies in the electric vehicle industry, we have faced various market and macroeconomic factors that have impacted our ability to operate.The board has determined that Chapter 11 represents the best possible path forward under the circumstances for the company and its stakeholders.The company’s founder former executive chairman Trevor Milton was convicted in 2022 for misleading investors about its technology.In December 2023, he was sentenced to four years in prison after being convicted of exaggerating claims about his company’s production of zero-emission 18-wheel trucks, leading to sizeable losses for investors.Milton resigned in 2020 amid reports of fraud that sent Nikola’s share price into a tailspin, and investors suffered heavy losses.

At his trial, prosecutors said a company video of a prototype truck appearing to be driven down a desert highway had actually rolled down,Federal prosecutors in Manhattan said Milton misled investors by stating that Nikola had built a pickup from the “ground up”, that it had developed its own batteries even though he knew it was buying them, and that it had early success creating a “Nikola One” semi-truck that he knew did not work,Thomas Ryan, North America economist at Capital Economics, has looked at the US figures,The decline in housing starts in January is not a major concern, as it comes after a surge in starts in December and appears partly driven by the unseasonably harsh weather,Encouragingly, permit issuance remained solid, reinforcing our view that starts will grind higher in the first half of the year, before Trump’s tariff and immigration policies take effect, eroding developers’ ability and willingness to build and causing starts to drop back.

The 9.8% month-on-month fall in seasonally adjusted housing starts in January only partially reversed the 16.1% m/m jump in December, taking them to 1.37m annualised, from 1.52m.

That still leaves starts slightly above their average from last year and broadly in line with our year-end forecast.The main driver was a 91,000 decline in single-family starts, with starts in the volatile multi-family segment down by 58,000.The polar vortex that hit the eastern half of the country appears to have contributed to the fall, as starts in those regions fell, while they edged up in the West which was unaffected.Likewise, permit issuance inched up showing that builders remain confident to start new projects.Single-family homebuilding in the United States fell sharply in January as snowstorms and freezing temperatures disrupted construction, with a rebound likely to be limited by higher costs from tariffs on imports and elevated mortgage rates.

The number of single-family homes, which account for the bulk of homebuilding, started last month dropped by 8.4% to 993,000 units, according to the US Commerce Department’s Census Bureau.Data for December was revised higher to show homebuilding increasing to a rate of 1.084m units from the previously reported pace of 1.050m units.

Overall, housing starts fell by 9.8% to 1.366m homes from 1.515m the month before, which was worse than expected.Snowstorms swept across large parts of the country in January, which also impacted retail sales and the labour market last month.

While residential construction remains supported by a shortage of previously owned houses for sale, a protectionist trade policy being pursued by Donald Trump’s administration could make it challenging for builders to break ground on new housing projects,After taking office on 20 January, Trump lost no time and slapped a fresh 10% tariff on imported goods from China,A 25% levy on imports from Mexico and Canada has been paused until March,Tariffs on steel and aluminium imports have been raised to 25% and Trump has tasked his team to formulate plans for reciprocal tariffs on every country that taxes US imports,A survey on Tuesday showed the National Association of Home Builders/Wells Fargo Housing Market Index tumbled to a five-month low in February, a decline that was blamed on tariffs.

The survey noted that “with 32% of appliances and 30% of softwood lumber coming from international trade, uncertainty over the scale and scope of tariffs has builders further concerned about costs.”More pressures are coming from high mortgage rates.The average rate on the popular 30-year fixed-rate mortgage is hovering just under 7%.Higher mortgage rates and house prices have made it harder for people to buy a home, leading to a glut of new homes, with inventory at levels last seen in late 2007.Permits for future construction of single-family housing were unchanged at a rate of 996,000 units in January.

Here’s some reaction.Fund manager Mario Cavaggioni said:US:Housing Starts m/m -9.8% (est -7.3%, last +16.1% from +15.

8%)Building Permits m/m +0.1% (est -1.5%, last -0.7%)Building Permits surprised on upside..

,,,positive for newly private housing units,.

.pic.twitter.com/mI9icjk8JASpencer Hakimian, founder of Tolou Capital Management, said:*US JAN.HOUSING STARTS FALL 9.

8% M/M; EST,-7,3%*US JAN,HOUSING STARTS 1,366M; EST.

1.390MZero housing activity going on.We should be in a recession right now, but that’s not possible at 8% deficits to GDP.So housing is paying the costs.Home prices only going up…Britain’s biggest weapons manufacturer BAE Systems has reported record orders as the European defence industry gears up for increased spending sparked by the Ukraine war.

The company, a member of the FTSE 100 share index, said that it expected sales next year to top £30bn, as it reported annual profits before interest and tax of more than £3bn for the first time in 2024.Weapons companies have benefited from a rush of spending in the three years since Russia invaded Ukraine, and they are gearing up for further increases as Europe and the UK, which is reviewing defence spending, scramble to adjust to Donald Trump’s signals that the US will withdraw much of its support.The US was the key military backer of Ukraine’s resistance until Donald Trump’s return to the White House.However, Trump blamed Ukraine for the war on Tuesday, and his administration held talks this week with Russia that excluded Ukraine, the EU and the UK.Charles Woodburn, the chief executive of BAE Systems, said the company was “waiting for some clarity” about the extent of European defence spending increases but “given what’s happening, it’s going to be higher than it is today”.

KFC, the fast food chain previously known as Kentucky Fried Chicken, has come in for some heat after announcing plans to move its corporate headquarters from the state after which it is named to Texas.The chain’s parent company, Yum! Brands, told investors it would move about 100 employees from its office in Louisville, Kentucky, more than 800 miles south-west to the city of Plano in Texas, where the group’s Pizza Hut chain is headquartered.The employees are expected to move in the next six months and will receive relocation support.An extra 90 remote workers will be expected to move to Texas or other Yum! Brands’ corporate offices during the coming 18 months.The governor of Kentucky, Andy Beshear, said in statement:I am disappointed by this decision and believe the company’s founder would be, too.

This company’s name starts with Kentucky, and it has marketed our state’s heritage and culture in the sale of its product.Here’s our analysis on the jump in UK inflation to 3% in January:Andrew Bailey had warned there would be a bump in the road.But after inflation jumped by more than expected to 3% in January, the Bank of England governor could be in for a rockier ride than anticipated.For the chancellor, Rachel Reeves, too, it will be a tough road to travel, having promised to achieve economic growth that can be “felt in people’s pockets” – amid the accusation Labour is leaving those pockets feeling lighter, not heavier.A few years ago, Bailey and his peers in the US and the eurozone were burned by predicting the period of high inflation coming out of the Covid pandemic would be “transitory”, only to see living costs continue to accelerate amid a succession of economic shocks