World Markets
STOCK MARKETS
Feb 3 prev %chg
S&P 500 3249.49 3225.52 0.
Nasdaq Composite 9259.69 9150.94 1.
Dow Jones Ind 28437.64 28256.03 0.
FTSEurofirst 300 1606.98 1604.59 0.
Euro Stoxx 50 3661.86 3640.91 0.
FTSE 100 7326.31 7286.01 0.
FTSE All-Share 4076.19 4057.47 0.
CAC 40 5832.51 5806.34 0.
Xetra Dax 13045.19 12981.97 0.
Nikkei 22971.94 23205.18 -1.
Hang Seng 26356.98 26312.63 0.
MSCI World $ 2342.41 2372.01 -1.
MSCI EM $ 1062.34 1072.79 -0.
MSCI ACWI $ 558.62 565.50 -1.CURRENCIES
Feb 3 prev
$ per € 1.106 1.
$ per £ 1.301 1.
£ per € 0.850 0.
¥ per $ 108.710 108.
¥ per £ 141.470 142.
SFr per € 1.068 1.
€ per $ 0.904 0.Feb 3 prev
£ per $ 0.768 0.
€ per £ 1.177 1.
¥ per € 120.207 120.
£ index 81.250 80.
SFr per £ 1.257 1.COMMODITIESFeb 3 prev %chg
Oil WTI $ 50.43 51.56 -2.
Oil Brent $ 54.87 56.62 -3.
Gold $ 1584.20 1578.25 0.INTEREST RATES
price yield chg
US Gov 10 yr 1.53 -0.
UK Gov 10 yr 0.53 -0.
Ger Gov 10 yr -0.44 -0.
Jpn Gov 10 yr -0.06 0.
US Gov 30 yr 115.53 2.00 -0.
Ger Gov 2 yr 105.96 -0.68 0.price prev chg
Fed Funds Eff 1.55 1.55 0.
US 3m Bills 1.55 1.57 -0.
Euro Libor 3m -0.42 -0.42 0.
UK 3m 0.76 0.69 0.
Prices are latest for edition Data provided by MorningstarR O B E RT S M I T HCitigroup as suspended one of itsh
most senior bond traders in London
after the US investment bank accused
him of stealing food from the office
canteen.Paras Shah bruptly left his post lasta
month as Citi’s head of high-yield bond
trading for Europe, the Middle East and
Africa. The bank suspended Mr Shah
after alleging that he had stolen food
from the canteen at its European head-
quarters in Canary Wharf, London,
according to four people familiar with
the matter.
Citi declined to comment. Mr Shah
declined to comment over email, refer-
ring inquiries to Citi.
The 31-year-old was one of the high-
est-profile credit traders in Europe, hav-
ing joined Citi in 2017 after about sevenyears at HSBC. His job entailed match-
ing buyers and sellers of junk bonds —
debt from companies judged to be risk-
ier borrowers — with two former col-
leagues telling the FT that he was a well-
liked and successful trader.
Mr Shah is likely to have received a
seven-figure pay package, according to
rival traders and junk bond investors,
and was suspended weeks before Citi
was due to pay bonuses to senior staff.
Revenue in Citi’s fixed-income trad-
ing divisionsurged 49 per cent n thei
fourth quarter of 2019, ahead of ana-
lysts’ expectations, helping the bank hit
its target for return on equity last year.
Financial institutions and regulators
in the UK have in the past harshly disci-
plined executives alleged to have
engaged in personal misconduct such as
theft, even involving small amounts
of money.Japan’sMizuho Bank ired a Londonf
banker in 2016 after he was caught
stealing a part from a colleague’s bike
worth about £5.
In 2014, the Financial Conduct
Authoritybanned formera BlackRock
executive from senior roles in the UK
financial sector after he was found to
have repeatedly dodged paying the train
ticket for his commute to the City.
Jonathan Burrows, who worked as a
managing director at BlackRock Asset
Management Investor Services, paid
£43,000 to settle the case when the
extent of the evasion, which took place
over several years, became clear.
Mr Shah’s LinkedIn profile shows that
he graduated with an honours degree in
economics from the University of Bath
in 2010, joining HSBC’s fixed-income
trading division the same year.
Additional reporting by David CrowCiti suspends senior bond trader over
alleged food theft from office canteen
Competition watchdog Andrea Coscelli
has told the FT that US tech groups
will be firmly in his sights after Brexit.
‘You take back control — genuinely —
of the decisions,’ says the head of the
Competition and Markets Authority,
which will take on complex cases that
were the domain of Brussels. But he
will also seek powers to fine companies
engaging in harmful behaviour without
going through the courts and to stop
suspect conduct during its probes.
ReportiPAGE 13Watchdog relishes freedom
to take on US tech giantsTUESDAY4 FEBRUARY 2020Briefing
i oldman nears loans deal with AmazonG
People briefed on the talks have said the Wall Street
bank is close to a deal to offer small business loans
on the online marketplace as it turns to Big Tech to
extend its Main Street push.— PAGE 13; LEX, PAGE 12i hina stocks tumble as virus scare hitsC
Shanghai and Shenzhen stocks suffered their worst
opening in 13 years as traders returned from an
extended break.— PAGE 4; EDITORIAL COMMENT, PAGE 10;
LEX, PAGE 12; OIL CUT, PAGE 23; MOHAMED EL-ERIAN, PAGE 24i acked climate boss accuses JohnsonS
Claire O’Neill, sacked by the prime minister from
her role atop a UN climate summit in November,
has accused him of failing to provide leadership on
the issue.— PAGE 2; NATASHA LANDELL-MILLS, PAGE 11i mperial taps Inchcape chief BomhardI
The group formerly known as
Imperial Tobacco has named
Stefan Bomhard, who has
headed the car dealership for
five years, as its new chief.
— REPORT & LOMBARD, PAGE 17i edia walk out as No 10 bars reportersM
A group of senior journalists has boycotted a
briefing from government officials after the prime
minister’s head of communications attempted to
exclude some members of the media.— PAGE 3i rdogan says Syria will ‘pay’ for deathsE
The Turkish president has vowed to make
Damascus “pay” for the death of eight Turkish
soldiers in Idlib as he accused Russia of turning a
blind eye to rising violence in the province.— PAGE 7i ernandes quits amid AirAsia questionsF
Owner Tony Fernandes has stepped aside as chief
executive afterthe Malaysian carrier was pulled
into a bribery probe targeting Airbus. Its shares slid
10 per cent before the announcement.— PAGE 14Datawatch
UK £2.90 Channel Islands £3.20; Republic of Ireland €3.© THE FINANCIAL TIMES LTD 2020
No: 40,314★
Printed in London, Liverpool, Glasgow, Dublin,
Frankfurt, Milan, Madrid, New York, Chicago, San
Francisco, Orlando, Tokyo, Hong Kong, Singapore,
Seoul, Dubai, Doha
Subscribe n print and onlineI
http://www.ft.com/subscribenow
Tel: 0800 028 1407
For the latest news go to
Grounded
cutting back on leisure flights
to fight climate change
0 20 40 60 80
China
Germany
France
Europe
Spain
Italy
Sweden
US
UK
Ireland
Source: European Investment BankNEWS PROVIDER OF THE YEAR
Nearly two-thirds
of Europeans say
they take fewer
flights to go on
holiday because of
climate change.
The rate of those
in China trying to
cut their carbon
footprint is 83 per
cent;another
11 per cent say
they will take
action soonC H R I S G I L E S— ECONOMICS EDITOR
Britain’s public finances face a black hole
in three years if the economy follows the
path forecast by the Bank of England,
breaking Sajid Javid’s new rules to guar-
antee a current budget surplus.
Financial Times calculations suggest
that the lower rates ofgrowth forecast
by the BoE would leave the chancellor
with a £12bn deficit by 2022-23, instead
of the £5bn surplus laid out in the Con-
servative’s election manifesto.
The projections, based on modelling
by the Office for Budget Responsibility,
would leave Mr Javid facing the difficult
task of considering tax rises and more
austerity before his first Budget on 11
March to ensure the fiscal watchdog
gives his budgetary rules a pass mark.
“We can’t run an overdraft forever on
our day-to-day spending,” Mr Javid said
when he outlined his new fiscal rules in
November, in a move that left little
room for extra day-to-day spending.
The OBR’s post-Brexit economic fore-
casts may not be as pessimistic as het
BoE’s, but the two independent bodies
usually have similar outlooks.The
Treasury is fully aware of the challeng-
ing landscape for the public finances.
Ministers and officials are working on
policies to address the expected short-
fall in tax revenues over the next few
years alongside efforts to stimulate eco-
nomic growth in the medium term.
Although Mr Javid has not set an offi-
cial target, he told the FT last month
that raisinggrowth was hispriority and
he hoped in the long term it would reachan annual rate of 2.7 per cent to 2.8 per
cent. Thatwouldsupportthe finances
without resorting to tax increases. “I
want to really turbocharge growth,” the
chancellor said, whilst acknowledging
that it was “much easier said than done”.
According to the BoE, Mr Javid’s mis-
sion to improve the performance of the
economy was likely to prove even more
challenging than he had thought. It esti-
mated that the economy could grow no
more than 1.1 per cent a year if the bank
stuck to its 2 per cent inflation target.
Alongside a small amount of spare
capacity, the BoE forecast that the econ-
omy could grow by a maximum of
3.8 per cent in total over the next three
years, against the OBR’s projections that
4.8 per cent was possible.
Using OBR calculations, a 1 per centshortfall of gross domestic product
would increase the government deficit
by 0.7 per cent, implying additional bor-
rowing of £17bn in 2022-23. Last March,
before big revisions to its calculations of
the deficit andspending increases, the
OBR predicted the government was set
for a £37bn surplusin 2022-23.
The OBR and Treasury declined to
comment on the FT’s calculations.
James Smith, research director of the
Resolution Foundation, said the BoE’s
economic downgrade wasreflected pro-
ductivity performance that had not
been so weak since the Victorian era. “It
creates a tough outlook for living stand-
ards and the public finances,” he said.
Domestic demand age 2p
Local focus to ‘level up’ age 3p
Robert Shrimsley age 11pJavid set to miss surplus target as
finances head for £12bn black hole
3 BoE forecasts threaten manifesto vow 3 Chancellor faces raising taxes or more austerity
High stakes
Johnson plays
tough on trade
Boris Johnson lays out Britain’s position
before trade talks tart with the EU nexts
month, during his first post-Brexit
speechin London esterday.y
Theprime minister called on the bloc
to agreea “Canada-style” deal. Butset-
ting out its own position,Brussels
warnedthat such an accord would be
unattainable if Britain were to diverge
from EU standards.
Meanwhile,European ambassadors’
farewell to their British counterpart was
lost in translation when the final adieu
uttered at a meeting on Friday by the
Croatian envoy was: “Good riddance.”
Reports ages 3 & 6p
Editorial Comment age 10p
Robert Shrimsley age 11p
Brexit batters pound age 23p
Jason Alden/EPA
Sajid Javid
told the FT in
November that
‘turbocharging’
growth was his
main priorityUnlocking Japan Inc
Activist investors force change in a
risk-averse world— BIG READ, PAGE 9
Fleet of dreams
An Uber plan to pay for millions of
driverless cars— INSIDE FINANCE, PAGE 14
Lost in the Valley
Venture capitalists are losing their
edge— JOHN THORNHILL, PAGE 11
FEBRUARY 4 2020 Section:FrontBack Time: 2/20203/ - 20:16 User:simon.roberts Page Name:1FRONT, Part,Page,Edition:LON , 1, 1