Newsflash: Europe’s largest court has refused to overturn a fine of more than €4bn (£3.5bn) imposed on Google for using its Android mobile operating system to thwart rivals.

The European Court of Justice has dismissed an appeal brought by Google and Alphabet against the penalty, which was imposed after the European Commission found that Google had acted anti-competitively by requiring that mobile phone manufacturers pre-install Google’s search and chrome apps on handsets as a condition for carrying Google’s Play app store.

The ECJ concluded that the EU general court had not erred in 2022 when it upheld the judgement (and reduced the fine from €4.34bn to €4.125bn)

The ECJ says (here):

The appeal brought by Google and its parent company Alphabet against the judgment of the General Court is dismissed, thereby confirming the penalty imposed for Google Search’s abuse of a dominant position in the context of the Android operating system

A sell-off in chip stocks has hit Asia-Pacific markets today, as investors lose some enthusiasm for the AI trade.

South Korea’s SK Hynix tumbled by 14.5%, and Samsung lost 9.6%, dragging the KOSPI share index down by around 8% today – and wiping out some of its huge gains from the first half of this year.

This followed a drop in US chip company shares overnight, which knocked more than 6% off the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index.

The sell-off appears to be triggered by the news that Meta Platforms is building a cloud business to sell excess AI computing capacity.

That pushed up Meta’s shares by 9% – but Ipek Ozkardeskaya, senior analyst at Swissquote, says the deal rings alarm bells.

She suggests:

Meta has spent too much, eaten more than its stomach could take, and now needs to spit part of it out. It took debt on its shoulders along the way. It failed to release a go-to model, and it’s now moving to Plan B to make its investments worthwhile.

Plan B will cost the company, so in theory, Meta is arguably in a worse place than the company itself thought it would be. I didn’t get why it rallied 9% on yet another failed business attempt.

While the cost of motor fuel are down, chip prices continue to climb amid a scramble for semiconductors.

The boss of retailer Currys has warned that that global shortages of memory chips will mean some price rises for consumer electrical products.

Currys CEO Alex Baldock told BBC radio:

“AI and data centres are eating up the world’s supply of silicon, leaving less for the likes of mobile phones and laptops which does create availability challenges and will produce some cost price inflation.

“Inevitably there are going to be some price rises but we’re in a pretty good position to dampen that as much as possible.”

Currys also reported a rise in profits this morning – up to £153m in the y to 2 May 2026, up from £124m a year earlier.

UK business confidence has sunk to a near four-year low as firms count the mounting cost of the Iran war.

Accountancy group ICAEW has reported that weaker expected sales activity, rising costs pressures, and growing geopolitical turbulence was weighing on bosses’s minds.

Sentiment hit its lowest level since the fourth quarter of 2022, according to ICAEW’s Business Confidence Monitor (BCM).

ICAEW reports:

Geopolitical risks were the biggest growing challenge to performance with 65% of companies citing this as an issue, likely reflecting the fallout from the Iran conflict and increasing domestic uncertainty as a change of prime minister looms large.

Labour costs (58%) were the second biggest challenge amid the notable minimum wage increase during the survey period, followed by energy costs with the percentage of firms highlighting this issue rising sharply from 35% in Q1 to 55% in Q2. The closure of the Strait of Hormuz and rising fuel prices meant the share of businesses citing transport worries nearly doubled from 11% to 20%, the highest for over two years.

Investment bank Shore Capital suspect the fall in the oil price may have gone too far.

Brent crude has dropped from around $110 a barrel in mid-May to below $71 a barrel today – Shore analyst James Hosie reckons it may rise back over $80 a barrel once the boost from reopening the strait of Hormuz ends.

In a research note titled They think it’s oil over, Hosie writes:

Rapid decline to low $70s may be an over-correction - Near term oil prices have declined by over 15% following the mid-June US-Iran ceasefire agreement that has enabled the gradual resumption of transit through the Strait of Hormuz and reduced the threat of a fresh escalation in the military conflict.

In our view, the sharp drop in oil prices has been driven by the release of oil tankers previously stuck in the Gulf back onto the global market, including Iranian cargoes that are currently sanction free.

As this initial supply boost passes, we anticipate a rise in Brent prices back above $80 per barrel based on a gradual recovery of Persian Gulf oil production.

It’s not just motor fuel prices that are falling.

The average cost of a fixed-rate UK mortgage dipped again yesterday, to 5.52% for both two-year and five-year loans.

That’s down from 5.68% for a two-year mortgage at the start of June, and 5.63% for a five-year.

Rates have been pulled down by the fall in the oil price, which has eased inflation expectations among investors.

There’s some way to go, though, to return to pre-Iran war levels. Back on 27 February, the day before the conflict, the average 2-year fixed residential mortgage rate was 4.83%.

Good morning, and welcome to our rolling coverage of business, the financial markets and the world economy.

The plummeting oil price has lead to widespread price reductions for motorists filling up their fuel tanks in the UK in June.

The average price of diesel fell nearly 17p a litre in June, the RAC reports this morning, which is the biggest fall in a single month since 2000. During June, diesel fell from 183.75p a litre at the start of the month to 167.14p a litre by its end, a drop of 16.6p.

That followed sharp falls in the crude oil price – which slumped by 20% in June.

The average price of petrol fell too, by 8p a litre in June – falling from 159.37p to 151.40p a litre.

RAC head of policy Simon Williams said:

“June has been a far better month for drivers on the back of the announcement of a deal between the US and Iran to end the conflict. The price of oil has fallen dramatically and prices at the pumps have reflected that.”

Diesel is nasty stuff, of course – diesel engine exhaust is classed as carcinogenic to humans by the World Health Organisation, while the Dieselgate scandal is estimated to have killed about 16,000 people in the UK and caused 30,000 cases of asthma in children.

But, swathes of the UK economy run on the stuff – diesel’s used by long-haul trucks in the commercial freight and logistics world, for buses and coaches, and for passenger cars (although sales have been falling in recent years).

So, cheaper diesel should ease the cost pressures buffeting UK households and businesses.

Crude oil is trading at $70.70 today, cheaper than just before the Iran war started.

Diesel and petrol price, though, are still higher than before the conflict began.

Williams explains:

“At the time the conflict began drivers had average prices of 132p for unleaded and 142p for diesel, so we’re still some way off those levels.

“As things stand, petrol should dip under 150p soon and diesel ought to get to below 160p but we would need the price of oil to fall further to see a return to the pre-conflict prices.”

The agenda

• 9.30am BST: BoE credit conditions survey

• 1.30pm BST: US non-farm payrolls jobs report for June

• 1.30pm BST: US initial jobless claims data

• 3pm BST: US factory orders for May