Business information reside: Housebuilders pay £100m after investigation and Rachel Reeves despatched Cash ISA plea

The futures quotes show the US stock markets set to open higher this afternoon, with the Dow Jones leading the way, up 0.29 per cent.

Individual stocks such as Meta and Nvidia are set for modest rises after opening.

However, gold’s price is on the decrease once more, down almost 0.5 per cent.

John Lewis has been named as the nation’s favourite retail store, beating a string of other major businesses to take the top spot for customer satisfaction.

The UK Customer Satisfaction Index (UKCSI) received almost 60,000 responses from customers, ranging through retail, banking, services, utilities, telecommunications and more, with a score then assigned to each brand.

John Lewis edged out Marks & Spencer to take the top spot among retail outlets, with Holland & Barrett, Ocado and Amazon also among the best ranked.

In banking, the most notable highlight was seeing smaller, digital or challenger brands beat off competition from most of the main established high street names.

Full details and top brands here:

The EU is closing in on a trade deal with the US finally – but the overall tariff is expected to be higher than that arranged by the UK.

A report in the FT suggests Brussels will sign a temporary framework which will not have the same exemptions or reductions as the UK have, with cars and aerospace products.

The base tariff will be 10 per cent, the same as the UK, but EU agrifood products may be tariffed at 17 per cent.

Rachel Reeves is not just getting told not to cut the cash ISA – there are also renewed calls to remove stamp duty from buying British shares.

Presently, 0.5 per cent is charged on all purchases of UK-listed shares other than AIM companies.

That’s in contrast to buying European or US stocks, for example, which has no such fee attached – a real barrier to buying British, in the eyes of investment platforms.

The report from the CBI also wants secondary listings in London to become a more prevalent theme, particularly for firms already listed in Asia.

One of the biggest lines to come out of ongoing tariff discussions is Donald Trump suggesting pharmaceuticals could see a 200 per cent levee placed on them.

The US president said companies had to “to get their act together” – but suggested they might have a year or longer to make changes before those come into force.

AstraZeneca announced plans worth more than £2bn last year to develop on US soil and GSK announced more than £500m worth of US investment shortly before Mr Trump was elected.

A watchdog has cracked down on a host of weight-loss jab providers for advertising the prescription-only medications to the public.

The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) said the nine rulings against the ads – one featuring reality TV personality Gemma Collins – made it “crystal clear” that all injectable forms of weight-loss medication were prescription-only and therefore could not advertised to the public.

In December, the ASA warned businesses and individuals who were targeting members of the public with ads for the medicines.

More from Josie Clarke, PA:

Any attempt by Rachel Reeves to plug the gap in the UK’s public finances through a wealth tax would be “naive”, with very few success stories from other nations, experts have warned.

The chancellor may need to find as much as £30bn in savings through either cutting costs or raising taxes ahead of her Budget, with Keir Starmer’s government under pressure to find ways of raising funds for the public purse.

But leading tax lawyer Dan Neidle, now of Tax Policy Associates, claims a wealth tax would actually have a detrimental effect on the UK’s tax take – and that the government would be “arrogant” to think it would work in this country.

Talks to conclude a deal to see tariff threats removed from steel exports remain ongoing, Downing Street has said.

The UK-US deal means 100,000 cars can be exported to the US without additional tariffs, while aerospace manufacturers are also exempt.

But without a deal for steel, the current 25 per cent tariff rate could rise to 50 per cent.

“A swift and positive resolution is needed to safeguard jobs, unlock growth and restore confidence in the UK steel sector,” Gareth Stace, director general at the industry body UK Steel, said.

Following on from the Building Society Association’s open letter to Rachel Reeves, we should point out not everybody is against cutting the cash ISA.

Investment platform IG called recently for a complete abolishing of the cash ISA.

Now Adrian Murphy, CEO of Murphy Wealth, says money not “being spent” should “be invested in companies” to boost growth.

“Far too much ISA wealth is held in cash, which is not what the tax wrapper was originally conceived for,” Mr Murphy said.

“To that end, reducing the cash ISA allowance would be a sensible move. Ultimately, a cash ISA is a waste of the allowance and anything that encourages people to invest for the long term should be welcomed. Billions sitting in cash is bad for the economy, bad for the stock market, and bad for business. If money isn’t being spent it should at least be invested in companies helping to boost growth at home and globally.”

Shares in FTSE 100 advertising firm WPP have crashed more than 17 per cent this morning.

The £5.5bn company is currently seeking a new chief executive and has lost key business this year, including a £1.2bn Mars contract.

This morning’s drop comes after a profit warning, with both net sales and profit margin set to drop and job losses expected as a result.

“While the uncertain economic backdrop is clearly unhelpful, some of its peers have fared better and WPP’s share price halving under Mark Read’s tenure cannot be attributed to this alone. Advertising agencies have faced pressures from the dominance of Meta and Google-owner Alphabet in online advertising, with AI another potential threat,” said Dan Coatsworth, investment analyst at AJ Bell.

“Current chair Philip Jansen – who used to run BT and has a background in corporate restructuring – faces potentially the biggest challenge of his career as he looks to appoint the right man to succeed Read and provide support for a turnaround in WPP’s fortunes.”