Business Blast: Markets Roundup 17/7/20

Stocks closed higher for the third straight week on Friday as major US banks delivered impressive Q2 results. Trading revenues were of note. The Nasdaq, a big winner this year with a remarkable 17% gain YTD, underperformed this week as already crowded tech stocks spluttered.Netflix dropped Friday. Q2 results were mixed – a slight earnings

HS2 divides the Conservative Party

Prominent Conservatives, including a former Chancellor, plead with the Prime Minister to persist with HS2, despite reports that the project is two to three times over budget and may not benefit the areas of England that it was intended to.

HS2 will not create the opportunity that the north needs

Under the Cameroons HS2 was hailed as a great project to reconnect the UK. However, as days go by it becomes clearer that this vanity project will do very little to benefit the northern people.

Uber’s Licence Loss Spells Disaster for Londoners

Today the TFL have declared that they would strip Uber’s licence to operate in the capital. This decision is not only detrimental for Uber and the company’s 40,000 drivers, who will miss out on Uber’s most profitable city, but also to the three-and-a-half million people who use Uber across the 32 boroughs of London. Instead, the TfL, have opted to damage consumers by facilitating a monopoly on the London market of the older and more established taxi service, that costs substantially more than the service Uber had offered.