Here are the business stories making the headlines across Scotland and the UK this morning.
JP Morgan to rent new Canary Wharf office as it orders staff back to work full-time
JP Morgan is in talks to lease space at Credit Suisse’s former UK headquarters in Canary Wharf after it demanded staff return to the office five days a week.
The investment bank is understood to be discussing a deal with UBS to rent 150,000 sq ft of space at One Cabot Square office complex.
Although the space amounts to less than a third of the 540,000 sq ft building, it is understood that the bank could expand its presence there further to lease as much as half of it.
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Asda ditches Aldi and Lidl price-match scheme just a year after launch
Asda is ditching its Aldi and Lidl price-match scheme just a year after launching it, as the UK’s fourth-largest supermarket chain battles to win back shoppers amid rising costs.
Stopping the scheme in favour of a wider “Rollback” price cuts campaign is one of the most dramatic moves yet by Asda’s new chair, Allan Leighton, who returned to run Asda late last year more than two decades after quitting as chief executive.
He now wants to take greater control of Asda’s price messaging and not be seen to be “dancing to the tune of the discounters”, according to the Grocer trade journal, which first reported the changes.
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Santander UK boss William Vereker to leave this year
The chairman of Santander’s British business is to leave this year in a surprise exit that will fuel City speculation about the Spanish bank’s future in the UK.
William Vereker’s impending departure from Santander UK was announced little more than a week after the group was forced to deny reports that it is reviewing its operations here and could decide to withdraw from British high streets.
Vereker, 58, will leave later this year once a replacement is found, having chaired the Santander UK board since November 2020.
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Starbucks slows sales decline as it cuts waiting times
Starbucks has slowed a decline in sales as it works to reduce waiting times and improve the customer experience in its coffee shops.
The company reported a 4% decline in global like-for-like sales for the first quarter, an improvement on the 7% drop reported in the last quarter.
In the US, its biggest market, same-store sales were down 4%, having declined 6 per cent in the prior quarter.
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US tech stocks steady after DeepSeek AI app shock
US tech stocks were steady on Tuesday after they slumped on Monday following the sudden rise of Chinese-made artificial intelligence (AI) app DeepSeek.
Shares in chip giant Nvidia rose by 8.8%, having slumped on Monday, as experts said the AI selloff may have been an over-reaction.
The market hit came as investors rapidly adjusted bets on AI, after DeepSeek's claim that its model was made at a fraction of the cost of those of its rivals.
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