Company news,markets and financial talking points, available from 8am Monday to Friday Moscow to send Arctic gas to 'crisis' Britain Russia will send Arctic gas to Britain in the wake of fears of a winter supply crisis, and reports the Daily Telegraph. Prices are approaching five-year highs after a vital North Sea pipeline was closed due to a crack and a distribution hub in Austria was struck by an explosion. Around 40% of the UK’s domestic supplies own been wiped out until 2018. Tesco attacked for 'fake farm' branding Tesco,Aldi, Asda and Lidl are among the UK chains being urged to discontinue using controversial "fake farm" branding on own-brand meat products. The food charity Feedback says shoppers are being misled with "disingenuous" branding that gives the impression the meat they buy comes from genuine farms. "We believe this is peddling a load of bull, or " said the campaign’s director. Sports Direct investors reject Ashley payment A proposed 11m payment to the brother of Sports Direct’s founder,Mike Ashley, has been rejected by shareholders. The controversial Ashley wanted to give his brother John the cash as a back payment but the vote was rejected by more than 70%. The company said its board "respects the views of the company's independent shareholders", and "considers all these things to be closed". US pulls away with another interest rate hike The US Federal Reserve has increased interest rates by a quarter of a percentage point. The third rate hike this year sees the federal funds rate climb to a range of 1.25-1.5%. America is pulling away as central banks in the UK and Europe maintain rates at or near the reduced levels. Fed chair Janet Yellen is preparing to leave the role after Donald Trump decided to replace her. Four arrests over ticket touting Four people own been arrested over ticket touting after dawn raids by the government’s consumer protection body. Officers from the eCrime unit of National Trading Standards raided four properties across the UK and made arrests on suspicion of breaching consumer laws. Last week,The Observer revealed that tickets for hip-hop musical Hamilton were being advertised for up to £6000. Quote of the day… Whither the Old Lady? "Old Lady was given to us as a nickname almost 300 years ago so we won’t be commenting on that." A spokesman for Bank of England after it promised to banish gendered language from its rulebooks. THE NUMBERS... AT 0732 GMT FTSE 100: down -0.05 to 7496.51
Dow Jones: up +0.33 to 24585.43
Dax: down -0.44 to 13125.64
Cac 40: down -0.51 to 5399.45
Nikkei: down -0.28 to 22694.45
Hang Seng: down -0.23 to 29154.85
US dollar: buys €0.84570 and £0.74480
Sterling: buys $1.34270 and €1.13550
Oil: $62.69 down -1.0
Source: theweek.co.uk