1 Households are preparing to go on a £600 billion spending spree this summer after shops, restaurants, beauty salons and pubs reopen next week.
2 People have been given the green light to book foreign holidays for the first time this year despite warnings that cancellations are likely, due to high rates of coronavirus abroad. Jet2, the tour operator, appeared to underline concerns over a resumption of large-scale European travel by cancelling all of its flights and holidays until June 23.
3 Elon Musk, chief executive of the electric car manufacturer Tesla, has offered a glimpse of his next trick. The billionaire’s start-up company Neuralink has released footage of a monkey playing a 1970s video game through a wireless chip implanted in its brain. Neuralink aims to design a chip that can be implanted in human brains, enabling people to control computers or prosthetic limbs with their minds.
4 A record number of bidding wars are taking place in the property market with more than a third of homes sold this year by the UK’s largest estate agency group having at least three offers. A total of 36 per cent of sales made in the first quarter of 2021 by Countrywide have received bids from three or more people.
5The boss of John Lewis has insisted the department store chain will not close any more shops and defended its strategy, two weeks after the retailer announced plans to shut eight outlets.
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6 House prices in the UK have hit a record high after rising at the fastest pace in six months in March as the chancellor extended the stamp duty holiday. Property values rose by 1.1 per cent, according to the Halifax house price index.
7 Fears were growing for the future of Stanlow oil refinery after it emerged that it was in talks over its finances and had suffered a string of director resignations. Essar Oil UK said it was confident of surviving a pandemic-induced downturn despite concerns in Whitehall it could be close to collapse.
8 Amazon, the online retail giant, appeared to have won its latest battle against unionisation after unofficial tallies of a vote signalled its campaign against a high-profile organisation in Alabama had a clear majority.
9 Rio Tinto has said that the financial penalties imposed on its ousted chief executive were the most that could be “legally defended”, as it attempts to head off a shareholder revolt over his pay package. Jean-Sébastien Jacques left the Anglo-Australian mining group at the end of last year.
10 America’s plans for a global minimum corporation tax rate would raise £13.5 billion a year for Britain if it was set at 20 per cent, campaigners say.