1 The majority of employees are now in the office five days a week instead of working from home for the first time since Covid lockdowns eased. In a survey of 15,000 professionals and employers, recruiter Hays found only 39 per cent were working in a hybrid fashion, versus 43 per cent in an office full-time.
2 Barber shops are the fastest growing sector of the retail economy, with more than 2,300 opening over the past year, according to the Local Data Company, taking the total number to 19,404. Over the same period, 369 nail salons and 636 beauty salons have opened.
3 Chevron has agreed to buy Hess in a $53 billion, all-share deal as the American oil major doubles down on fossil fuels. It is the second big oil and gas takeover this month, after ExxonMobil’s $60 billion acquisition of Pioneer, the fracking specialist. Page 31
4 British start-ups attracted $15 billion in investment from venture capital firms this year, cementing the UK’s status as Europe’s leading hub for young, high-growth companies. The figure outstrips the $8 billion attracted by start-ups in France and the $7 billion in Germany.
5 St James’s Place has suspended dealings in its property unit trust, as clients look to get out of the struggling market. The offices, warehouses and shops in the trust’s portfolio were last valued at £826 million.
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6 Indivior has reached a $385 million agreement to resolve legal claims over its blockbuster opioid addiction treatment. The company has been battling lawsuits over allegations from claimants that it violated antitrust and consumer protection laws in marketing Suboxone.
7 The yield on the benchmark ten-year US government bond breached 5 per cent yesterday for the first time since the early stages of the financial crisis in 2007, extending a bond market sell-off that analysts warned could carry on for the rest of the year.
8 Gloom among European consumers has intensified as higher interest rates and sticky inflation threaten to constrain economic growth. The European Commission’s consumer confidence index for the eurozone has fallen to -17.9 in October from -17.8 in September.
9 Britons lose more cash to identity fraud than people in any other developed country,. More than a fifth have fallen victim to impersonation in the past year, losing an average of £268 each, according to Adyen, the financial technology platform. It was the highest value across the 26 countries polled.
10 WPP has sacked a member of staff in its GroupM advertising airtime-buying operation in Shanghai after a raid on its offices last Friday. The employee was detained on bribery charges and the marketing firm has brought in a third party to conduct an independent investigation.