Business news live: Trump delays end of trade tariff pause and surprise June house prices data

Donald Trump called Elon Musk’s plans to form a new political party “ridiculous”, after the Tesla CEO suggested a new “America Party” will be his next focus.

Shareholders in the EV maker aren’t impressed, given he has only just left his DOGE role to return to what he said would be full-time attention on his business endeavours, sleeping at the office and so on.

US markets were closed on Friday for 4 July celebrations; ahead of the reopening later today, Tesla shares are down more than 6 per cent.

Imagine that your weekend had started a day earlier… and did so every week. Sounds good, right?

That could be the new reality many companies and employees face in the future, after the four-day business week took another step towards implementation in the UK.

This year, 17 businesses of different types have been trialling the move, organised by the 4 Day Week Foundation. Almost 1,000 different employees were involved, all retaining their normal salary – and after the culmination of that study, all 17 companies have opted to keep going, following an earlier trial which saw 5,000 people adopt the scheme permanently.

But the initial results for those taking part appeared positive, with nearly two-thirds (62 per cent) of employees saying they noted a “reduction in how often they experienced burnout”.

Halifax’s house price index is out this morning and the headline numbers are zero and -0.3.

To make that a little more helpful, we’re talking zero monthly chance in average prices from May into June.

And that means across the second quarter of the year, April to June, prices on average decreased by 0.3 per cent.

Annual growth has dipped a little, therefore, but it’s still at 2.5 per cent – with Northern Ireland seeing the strongest price growth in the UK.

The big overnight news came from yet another flip-flop from President Trump, as the US leader rolled back the end date on 90-day pause on trade tariffs.

An announcement that deals would now continue to be negotiated until 1 August, more than a three-week extension, is perhaps testament to the fact only three agreements have been reached: UK, China and Vietnam.

Trump had earlier spoken of 90 deals in 90 days.

A report into the failed Lindsey oil refinery suggests UK taxpayers will take a £1bn hit if a buyer cannot be found.

The Times reported that HMRC are owed around £250m, while decommissioning costs could be from £700m to £3bn.

The demise of Prax has put 400 jobs at risk with the refinery placed into receivership last week.

With Trump’s 90-day pause on tariffs ending later this week, it’s worth a look at how stock markets have fared of late.

It’s expected they will face heightened volatility as the deadline draws near, with uncertainty around China and the EU’s deals in particular.

• FTSE 100: +0.3 per cent
• S&P 500: +5.2pc
• Nasdaq 100: +6.2pc
• German DAX: -1.91pc
• French CAC 40: -0.72pc
• Japan’s Nikkei 225: +5.47pc

Consumer law firm Slater and Gordon have conducted a survey and concluded that up to 23m may be expecting compensation due to the car finance scandal.

The Supreme Court is set for a final ruling on the issue, with the Financial Conduct Authority then potentially setting up a formal redress scheme for lenders to compensate consumers.

Elizabeth Comley, chief operating officer of Slater and Gordon, said: “The public have very high expectations on the car finance scandal. They rightly expect to be compensated for their losses. The FCA is trying put things right but there’s a risk that a redress scheme leaves many people disappointed and keen to challenge the process. That sort of backlash would be bad for everyone – the scandal would drag on for years, the courts would be inundated with challenges and the public would be denied the clear resolution they want.”

Good morning and welcome to another week of business news and financial coverage here on The Independent.

Coming up today and across the rest of the week we’ll be seeing how markets, companies and trade bodies react to the approaching end of Trump’s 90-day tariff pause.

We’ll also have the latest domestic news with GDP estimates, house price data and more.