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The 10 biggest business stories on Monday January 4

China stocks down 7% forcing trading to be suspended; Oil price jumped on Middle East tensions; Support for staying in Europe is fading among finance directors

Zlata Rodionova
Monday 04 January 2016 09:43 GMT
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An investor observes the stock market at a stock exchange hall in Nanjing, China, last year
An investor observes the stock market at a stock exchange hall in Nanjing, China, last year

1. Trading on China’s stock markets has been suspended after Chinese shares plunged 7 per cent on Monday, weak factory activity surveys and falls in the yuan added to concerns about the country’s struggling economy.

2. Britain's government has promised more than £40 million to rebuild and improve the country's flood defences that failed to protect thousands of homes over the Christmas holidays.

3. Sports Direct has been forced to clarify the role of Michael Murray at the company. He was reportedly hired as a property director. Sports Direct said in a statement this morning that while he "heads up the company's property team for the UK and internationally", he is only working on a consultancy basis and gets paid on results.

4. Oil prices jumped in early trading of its first session in the New Year as relations between major crude producers Saudi Arabia and Iran deteriorated.

5. Business support for membership of the EU has narrowed from 74 per cent six months ago to 62 per cent, according to a survey of large businesses by consultants Deloitte.

6. Growth in Britain's private sector picked up speed in the three months to December and companies think the momentum will carry on into early 2016, according to the Confederation of British Industry.

7. Former business secretary Vince Cable said Chancellor George Osborne is lacking motivation when it comes to tackling abuses in the banking sector in an interview with Sky News.

8. Mark Zuckerberg wants to live a bit more like Iron Man. In a post on Facebook on Sunday afternoon the social network’s founder wrote that he intends to build an AI that can run his home and present him with virtual reality visualisations of his work.

9. Developing nations are embracing the greater competitiveness that comes with the beating their currencies have taken, leaving their reserves untouched. Bloomberg reports that the 12 biggest emerging markets, excluding China or countries with pegged currencies, have $2.8 trillion of reserves, down just 2 per cent from a year ago.

10. Tesla has reached its goal of delivering 50,000 vehicles in 2015. Sales from October through December totalled 17,400, a new company record for a single quarter. The electric car company was hoping to ship between 50,000 and 52,000 cars this year.

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