FTSE 100 Live: Job vacancies at record, oil price surges to 7-year high
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- Tuesday, 18 Jan, 2022
Vacancies in October to December were also a record 1.25 million, an increase of 462,000 from the pre-Covid January to March 2020 level.
The figures from the Office for National Statistics come with the FTSE 100 index trading at a two-year high.
Sweet Christmas for Hotel Chocolat
Hot chocolate subscriptions and high-end gifts like a wreath box helped posh treat maker Hotel Chocolat to a bumper Christmas.
The company, which both manufactures and sells chocolates, said sales in the 13 weeks to 26 December jumped 37% or 63% when compared to two years prior.
CEO Angus Thirwell said the “very strong Christmas” was driven by demand for high-end items - chocolate boxes costing upwards of £50, such as its wreath - and its hot chocolate machine, the Velvetiser. Hotel Chocolat launched a major ad campaign for the product in the run up to Christmas, which helped drive strong sales.
“We could see it had the potential to be a real belter for us,” Thirwell said.
Velvetiser sales also boosted income as customers can also opt for a subscription alongside it, with hot chocolate recipes delivered to their door. The company plans to launch 12 new flavours this year and has 70 more in development. Recent new additions include Mayan Chilli and Cinnamon and Maple and Pecan.
Strong sales over Christmas, which was the second quarter of the company’s financial year, mean first half sales were up 40% on last year. Hotel Chocolat now expects trading for the full year to be “marginally ahead” of prior forecasts. Liberum raised its forecast for full-year profits from £19.5 million to £21 million.
Shares rose 6p, or 1.1%, to 516p.
FTSE 100 drops, BT rallies
The FTSE 100 index has fallen 0.4% to 7580, despite a further rally for BP and Royal Dutch Shell on the back of higher oil prices.
The heavyweights added another 1%, but were beaten to the top of the risers board by BT as the telecoms group continued its recent improvement. Shares were 2% or 2.9p higher at 183.95p, the highest level since last summer.
Technology-focused stocks underperformed amid ongoing concerns about faster policy tightening from the US Federal Reserve.
The fallers board included Scottish Mortgage Investment Trust, while the prospect of higher borrowing costs sent US-focused plumbing business Ferguson down 2% or 235p to 12,295p.
The FTSE 250 index dropped 0.6% to 22,734, with Trustpilot the biggest faller after a decline of 4%.
Triple figure oil price in sight
Fears over supply disruptions following an attack by Yemen's Houthi group in the United Arab Emirates contributed to the surge in oil prices.
Brent crude is up by 13% in 2022 at $88 a barrel, reflecting signs that the Omicron variant won’t have a long-lasting impact on fuel demand.
It means that Brent and its West Texas Intermediate equivalent are both at their highest level since October 2014.
The focus is now on whether OPEC+ can deliver the 400,000 barrels a day increase it has promised each month.
Oanda's senior market analyst Craig Erlam said: “The evidence suggests it's not that straightforward and the group is missing the targets by a large margin after a period of underinvestment and outages.
“That should continue to be supportive for oil and increase talk of triple-figure prices.”
Rates set to rise in February as inflation beats pay rises
Pay is falling for the first time since the summer as inflation bites, suggesting the Bank of England might have to move faster to raise interest rates.
While the jobs market remains healthy, the spectre of rising prices could lead to a cost of living squeeze even worse than experts have so far predicted.
In December last year there were 29.5 million UK people in work, up 184,000 on November.
That is up 409,000 on the pre-pandemic level of February 2020. The UK employment rates increased by 0.2 percentage points. Unemployment is down a little 4.1%.
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Oil prices continue to surge
Oil prices continue to rise after Brent crude futures hit a seven-year high at almost $88 a barrel.
Supply tightness as some OPEC+ countries struggle to meet their production targets and the recovery in fuel demand has sent prices surging in 2022.
Brent rose another 1.5% or $1.22 to $87.70 a barrel overnight.
The FTSE 100 index is expected to fall back today after closing at its highest level in almost two years last night.
CMC Markets has forecast a decline of 18 points to 7593 as London follows the downward set by Asia markets overnight.
US markets were closed yesterday but futures markets are pointing to a 1% fall for the Nasdaq after the US 10-year bond yield climbed above 1.8% for the first since the pandemic on expectations for higher interest rates.
Wall Street is pricing in a March hike and up to four rises over the course of 2022.
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