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The FTSE 100 has slipped back today, closing some 36.3 points lower at 7,347.9, while the FTSE 250 has fallen 16.5 points to 23,557.5. 

In company news, AstraZeneca said it would start making a profit on its Covid-19 vaccine from the next quarter onwards and use the cash to cover the costs of investment in its antibody treatment for the virus.

The pharma giant, which had promised to sell the jab it developed with Oxford University ‘at cost’ during the pandemic, has said it will now ‘progressively’ shift to ‘modest profitability’ as new orders are received.

Meanwhile, Redrow has become the latest housebuilder to shrug off concerns over the ongoing supply chain crisis thanks to booming house prices.

Japan’s Toshiba is set to break up into three independent companies by spinning off its core energy and infrastructure businesses, as well as its device and storage business. 

Elsewhere, Britain’s jobs market is experiencing record numbers of vacancies with nearly 2.7million now being advertised, research found today amid rising demand for driving instructors, prison officers and forklift truck drivers.  Read More

The Bank of England will be given a fresh headache over interest rates next week as the cost of living spirals. 

Official figures published on Wednesday are expected to show inflation jumped from 3.1 per cent in September towards 4 per cent in October. 

The City ‘consensus’ is inflation will reach 3.8 per cent but Nomura economist George Buckley warns it could hit 4.1 per cent, more than double the 2 per cent target and pile pressure on the Bank to raise rates to stop prices spiralling out of control. 

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Demand may have soared for rural and coastal homes during the pandemic but London still has the 10 most expensive streets in Britain, new data shows.  

Based on average house prices, the list has Kensington Palace Gardens top of the pile for the 13th consecutive year, the Zoopla research reveals.

The private road, which has a number of embassies plus illustrious property owners including Tamara Ecclestone and Roman Abramovich, has homes typically worth £29,828,000. 

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Stratospheric house price increases over the last year may have had some homeowners rubbing their hands in glee, but that’s not the case for first-time buyers.

With an average increase of £23,600 since June 2020 according to Halifax data, many are finding that the home ownership dream is running away from them – especially as price growth is out of kilter with wages.

For those that do not have high salaries, or families with large sums of cash to gift them, raising a deposit is often one of the biggest challenges.

The financial sector has recognised this and cooked up a series of products to help first-time buyers get together that crucial lump sum, but what are they and is taking one a wise move? 

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Once the mainstay of many a portfolio, UK equity income funds are now often seen as deeply unfashionable, in a world still in thrall to the glamour of US tech stocks. 

But there are reasons to take a fresh look at these funds and trusts, which may have some international holdings, but focus on these shores. 

Shares in British companies are regarded by many as undervalued, or even as bargain buys. That is certainly the view of private equity predators. 

This represents an attractive opportunity, so long as you are ready for the shocks that inflation and a slowdown in an economic recovery could produce.

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Broadband and landline customers will soon be able to switch provider in a one touch process, Ofcom announced this week.

The aim is to make switching telecoms firm quicker and easier with residential customers only having to contact their new company rather than both the new and old.

As a result, customers should be able to switch in as little as one day, where possible and the aim is to remove a major barrier to moving provider. 

Households can already switch between providers on Openreach’s copper network, such as BT, Sky and TalkTalk by following a process where their new provider manages the switch.

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It is regularly drummed into us that we need to invest for a comfortable retirement. But so often, life and other financial commitments get in the way, we don’t get round to it, and then – before we know it – we’re on the road to retirement with very little stashed away. 

In fact, one in five Britons say they have no form of private or workplace pension, according to a recent survey by comparison site Finder.com. Yet it’s never too late to start building an investment nest-egg. Even if you have little invested to date, it is still possible to get started and build something meaningful. Here’s how to build that nest-egg from nothing. 

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Homeowners who are coming to the end of a mortgage deal are being urged to protect their finances by locking into a new fixed-rate loan. 

A tsunami of higher energy and food bills, plus inflation heading towards four per cent, means key household bills are on the increase. 

And with the Governor of the Bank of England, Andrew Bailey, warning that interest rates will be pushed up if higher inflation becomes persistent, mortgages are also likely to get more expensive. Bailey has not ruled out a rate rise before the end of the year.

David Hollingworth, mortgage expert at broker L&C, says talk of the need for interest rates to rise to curb inflation means now could be the right time to lock into a loan that will provide homeowners with payment certainty.

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Self-employed pension savings levels hit record lows in the year before the pandemic, the latest figures from HM Revenues suggest.  

Despite more and more people working for themselves in recent years, the amount paid into personal pensions by this growing army of workers has been declining over the past two decades. 

Some £830million was paid by self-employed workers into personal pensions in the financial year of 2019/2020, down from £1.15billion the year before, and the lowest on record.

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Fewer than one in 10 properties for sale online in England are now exempt from stamp duty, new research has revealed.

The findings by Rightmove reveal just how few homes are available to buy without purchasers being hit by the tax.

It said only 9 per cent of homes for sale on its website have an asking price of £125,000 or below – the threshold below which no stamp duty is paid if the property is being purchased as a main home. 

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