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  • Today's business and finance round up 5th August 2022

Today's business and finance round up 5th August 2022

Bank of England hikes rates and raises economic alarm

5th August 2022

Bite-sized business news from the UK and beyond

Good morning If you’re ever feeling bad about your spending habits, this might cheer you up: Warner Bros. has canned its upcoming ‘Batgirl’ film despite shelling out $90m to make it. It’s reported that the ‘Batman’ spinoff performed so poorly with audiences during test screenings that the studio binned it before it could see the light of day.But it’s not just Warner Bros. that’s out of pocket. Business owners in Glasgow, where ‘Batgirl’ was filming, were forced to endure months of disruption and are now calling for compensation.

Today's stories

  • Bank of England hikes rates and raises economic alarm

  • There’s a new meme stock in town

ECONOMYBank of England hikes rates and raises economic alarm

Other stories to keep you in the loop

  • 'Very challenging winter ahead' Ofgem says as it confirms quarterly update of energy price cap

  • Next forecasts bigger profits as summer dresses and suits lift sales

  • UK construction industry declines for first time in 18 months

  • Gordon Ramsay's restaurants let 300 staff go as they lose nearly £7m

  • Rolls-Royce blames supply chain woes and Covid hit to aviation for £111m loss

  • City law firm ups newly-qualified lawyers salaries to £105,000

STOCK MARKETThere’s a new meme stock in town

What happened?AMTD Digital, an obscure stock that listed on the New York Stock Exchange last month, briefly had a stock market value higher than Facebook owner Meta this week due to retail investor activity that has driven up the stock price up 21,000%. Who?AMTD is a Hong Kong-based fintech company with a team of around 50 people. Last year it made $25m in revenue mainly by charging fees and commissions for its digital financial services business.Two weeks ago is made its debut on the US stock market pricing each share at $7.80. On Tuesday it jumped to $2,555 giving the company a value of over $300bn, well over that of Wall Street giants like Goldman Sachs, Mastercard and Disney. Since then, it has fallen to $1,300 but is still up 16,500%. What’s behind it?The company said there are “no material circumstances” for its stock spiking, but nonetheless thanked investors for their support.It’s led to the theory that AMTD has become the latest company in the meme stock phenomenon, in which everyday retail investors push up the price using social media platforms like Reddit to promote it. Due to the nature of their popularity, trading in meme stocks is often extremely volatile.Last year American retailer GamesStop and cinema chain AMC were two of the most high profile meme stocks that saw their shares rocket thanks to hype created on Reddit.

Stat of the day

Metaverse-related job openings plunged 81% from April to June as Meta, Google and Apple rolled back meta-hiring

Interesting links from around the web

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