Sharecast - The Bank of England has sounded the alarm over a worsening crisis in the rental market as high taxes and red tape forces landlords to sell up. In its Monetary Policy Report published on Thursday, the Bank said demand for rental properties has continued to outstrip supply as “the number of landlords choosing to exit the market increased”. – Telegraph
Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN) has fallen to its worst ever annual loss and Apple’s iPhone sales slumped over Christmas, fuelling fears of a painful correction in the tech sector. The online retail giant posted record festive revenues, but fell to a $2.7bn annual loss, its worst since it went public in 1997 and its first full-year loss since 2014. The online retailer posted revenues of $149.2bn, up 8.6pc, in the three months ending in December, buoyed by its internet services division. – Telegraph
The lack of a national strategy to secure supply chains for semiconductors is “an act of national self-harm”, the chairman of the Commons’ business select committee has warned. Darren Jones said the government had to act swiftly to keep up with the United States, the European Union and Japan, each of which is putting tens of billions of dollars into fostering homegrown supplies of the critical electronic components. – The Times
The chief executive of NatWest (LON:NWG) has bowed to pressure from MPs and will appear before the Treasury select committee to answer questions on savings rates, having initially refused to attend. Dame Alison Rose will attend with executives from Lloyds (LON:LLOY), Barclays (LON:BARC) and HSBC (LON:HSBA) after she had turned down an invitation to explain why banks had been slow to pass on the Bank of England’s recent base rate rises to savers. – The Times
