Below is a selection of the morning's key market news, earning reports & trending stories - see more here.
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Trump has agreed a new trade deal with Mexico.
The US President said today that he will be “terminating” the existing North America Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) that he has been highly critical of in the past.In an announcement, he said: “I’ll be terminating the existing deal and going into this deal. We’ll be starting negotiating with Canada relatively soon. They want to negotiate very badly.
“We’ll get rid of the name Nafta. It has a bad connotation because the United States was hurt very badly by Nafta for many years and it’s now a really good deal for both countries.”
The news saw the S&P 500 rise by 0.8%, finishing near 2,897, a second consecutive record close for the index.
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Operating profits at supplies distributor Bunzl (BNZL) increased by 5% in the first half of the year to £285m as revenue also grew 5%.
With its interims, the FTSE 100 company also announced the acquisition of Norweigan catering equipment supplier Enor.
Chief Executive Frank van Zanten said: "Bunzl has delivered another good set of results with double digit increases at constant exchange rates in revenue, adjusted operating profit and adjusted earnings per share.
“I am particularly pleased to report a further improvement in the level of organic revenue growth to 5.2% during the first half of 2018.”
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Business volumes in the services sector expanded at a steady pace in the three months to August, however strong cost pressures hit profitability, according to the latest quarterly CBI Services Sector Survey.
The business and professional services sector – which includes accountancy, legal and marketing firms – saw growth in business volumes ease and the pace is set to slow further in the three months to November. However, after a sharp decline in the three months to May, business volumes picked up a little in the consumer services sector – which includes hotels, bars, restaurants, travel and leisure firms.
Rain Newton-Smith, CBI Chief Economist, said: “Although consumer services growth inched up last quarter, overall services sector growth was fairly muted. And with cost pressures rising, services firms are not seeing any improvement in their bottom lines."
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Plastics packaging company RPC Group (RPC) today announced it has sold its Foodservice business to Letica for $95m.
Letica is a US-based packaging company that serves business-to-business, consumer and special project customers in markets such as industrial, foodservice, entertainment and retail.
Speaking about the acquisition, RPC Group said: “The acquisition will complement and enhance the existing film recycling activities carried out by the RPC bpi Division, bringing additional annual capacity of almost 50,000 tonnes of rigid recycling”
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