Tesco warns no end in sight as fuel prices surge

Table of Contents

[ad_1]

Good morning.

There are some early signs of how inflation is hitting retailers after Tesco warned the cost-of-living crisis was forcing customers to cut back.

Ken Murphy, chief executive of Tesco, warned the company was seeing “some early indications of changing customer behaviour as a result of the inflationary environment” amid “unprecedented” increases in the cost of living.

It came as the supermarket chain missed expectations for the first quarter, with UK sales slipping 1.5pc against strong lockdown trading last year.

Overall sales rose 2pc to £13.6bn, which Tesco said was 9.9pc ahead of pre-pandemic levels in 2019.

5 things to start your day

1) Swiss franc ‘better than gold’ to beat inflation Currency identified as a new safe haven after Switzerland delivers surprise rate rise

2) World’s biggest hedge fund in €6.9bn bet against Europe Santander and ING caught up in mega-short as eurozone faces recession

3) Gatwick forces airlines to cancel 4,000 summer flights Airport imposes daily limits that are set to affect 800,000 holidaymakers over coming months

4) Crypto meltdown triggers feeding frenzy for jobless tech talent Businesses scramble to take advantage of the current crypto winter in the hopes recruits will return to banking

5) Elon Musk tells Twitter staff to expect job cuts in first direct address Tesla chief aims to grow social media platform to 1bn users

What happened overnight

Tokyo stocks opened sharply lower on Friday after a rout on Wall Street as more central banks hiked interest rates in efforts to tame runaway inflation, fuelling recession fears.

The benchmark Nikkei 225 index was down 2.6pc, while the broader Topix index slipped 2.4pc.

Hong Kong shares opened with fresh losses on Friday morning. The Hang Seng Index fell 0.7pc.

The Shanghai Composite Index retreated 0.4pc, while the Shenzhen Composite Index on China’s second exchange slipped 0.8pc.