Sky's Naomi Kerbel offers a look ahead to what's coming up in the week's business news.
:: Monday 6th May
UK bank holiday
:: Tuesday 7th May
HSBC Q1 results
:: Wednesday 8th May
J Sainsbury Q1 results
:: Thursday 9th May
UK interest rate decision
:: Friday 10th May
G7 finance ministers and central bank governors summit
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The United States created 165,000 new non-farm jobs in April, with the figure beating expectations.
Hiring was much stronger in the previous two months than first thought, and the gains trimmed the unemployment rate to a four-year low of 7.5%, the official figures showed.
The Department of Labour report showed the job market is improving despite higher taxes and government spending cuts.
In addition to the April gains, the government said employers added 138,000 jobs in March and 332,000 in February. That is 114,000 more over the two months than was originally estimated.
The economy has created an average of 208,000 jobs a month from November through April, which is above the 138,000 added in the previous six months.
John Silvia, chief economist at Wells Fargo, said: "This is a good report. There's a lot of strength.
"It's good for the economy. It's good for people's income."
The stronger job growth suggests that the federal budget cutting "does not mean recession," Mr Silvia said. "It does not mean a dramatic slowdown."
The release of the figures in the US came with certain drama after a fire overnight at the department's headquarters shut down the building for most employees.
Members of the media were allowed in for the release of the report.
By Liz Lane, Sky News Reporter
Smartphones could soon become an even greater part of our lives as networks join forces to let us pay for high street goods with our mobiles.
The battle to dominate the market for "virtual wallets" is heating up, but with it come concerns about how thieves and fraudsters could take advantage.
Britain's big-three mobile networks - EE, Vodafone and O2 - are creating an opt-in service that will allow all bank, credit and loyalty card details to be stored on a phone SIM.
The customer will be able to swipe it on a card reader in a shop and instantly pay for goods.
David Sear, chief executive of Weve, the company managing the project, said: "You'll be able to pick up your goods from the counter - your sandwich or whatever it might be, on a small transaction - and simply swipe your phone, rather than having to get your card out of your wallet."
He is hoping to get retailers to sign up later this year, with the promise of advertising opportunities.
Stores will be able to send special offer alerts to customers' phones as they walk past in an effort to tempt them in.
Google, Barclays, Mastercard and Paypal have all come up with their own versions of the virtual wallet, but they have not caught on in the UK.
The contactless payment market as a whole has yet to take off, with only 6% of people in the UK having made such a transaction with a credit or debit card.
Bryan Glick, editor of Computer Weekly Magazine, describes it as a chicken and egg situation.
He said: "Retailers aren't going to offer this as a means of paying unless they know they're going to use it, but people aren't going to use it unless they know there are a lot of retailers they can use it at."
As for security, the new system will have a limit on how much can be spent on a phone without entering a Pin code.
However, cyber security expert Jason Hart said he would take further precautions before using it - including having his smartphone, and the payment system itself, password-protected.
By Mark Kleinman, City Editor
The investors which own the parent company of Yorkshire Water are poised to put a £1.5bn stake in the company up for sale.
I have learnt that shareholders led by Infracapital, the infrastructure arm of the British fund manager M&G Investments, plan to sell a 30% stake in Kelda Group, which they paid roughly £3bn to take private in 2007.
Insiders said on Thursday that Kelda, which was acquired through a vehicle called Saltaire Water, could be worth as much as £5bn now, with a 30% stake raising as much as £1.5bn.
Kelda serves a population of more than five million people as well as 130,000 businesses, according to the company.
Infracapital plans to offload its entire 13% stake in Kelda as part of the deal, while Citi Infrastructure Investors, an arm of the giant Wall Street bank, wants to cut its 37% holding to about 20%, according to sources.
If they proceed with a deal, the Kelda stake sale would be one of the largest infrastructure transactions in the UK this year, and comes as the water industry prepares for its crucial five-yearly price review in 2015.
A research note from analysts at HSBC yesterday said that the window for mergers and acquisitions in the water sector was closing because of the impending regulatory review.
Macquarie, the Australian investment bank, has been appointed to handle the sale process by Kelda' shareholders and is understood to be taking initial soundings from potential investors. Macquarie is itself the controlling shareholder in Thames Water, although it sold a minority stake to China's main sovereign wealth fund, CIC, last year.
At £1.5bn, the available stake in Kelda may be broken into smaller chunks or sold in one block, insiders said.
Infrastructure assets such as water companies have become increasingly appealing to investors seeking stable income streams, particularly since the volatility precipitated by the banking crisis.
M&G, Infracapital's parent, is owned by Prudential, the insurance group. Last year, it participated in a takeover of Veolia Water RegCo, the second largest regulated water-only company in the UK, which provides water services to more than 3.5m people in three regions of northwest London and southeast England.
The other shareholders in Kelda, Deutsche Asset & Wealth Management, and GIC, an investment fund backed by the Singaporean government, are not planning to reduce their shareholdings as part of the new process.
None of the investors in Kelda would comment today.
The cost to Manchester United of servicing its debts has helped plunge the club into a third quarter pre-tax loss.
The Premier League champions for the 2012/13 season said they achieved a 23% increase in underlying profit in the three months to March.
But when certain expenses were included in the figures, including net finance costs of more than £18.3m, the club swung to a pre-tax loss of £3.15m from a £2.8m profit in the same period last year.
It said that the addition of £6.7m in tax credits ensured a profit of £3.6m and insisted it was on course to hit revenue and profit targets for the financial year, which runs to the end of June.
Revenues in the quarter rose 30% to £91.7m, with the commercial sector, which includes sponsorship, showing the strongest growth of 52% thanks to new deals in Asia and Europe.
The club's debt - a source of anger among fans since the Glazer family bought United - had fallen 16% since June last year to £367.6m, United said.
Manchester United listed on the New York Stock Exchange last August, with the proceeds of the 10% stake sale helping efforts to cut the debt pile at Old Trafford.
Shares have recovered from an initial dip to trade at $18.41, up from a flotation price of $14.
Ed Woodward, United's executive vice chairman, said of the results: "Each of our three primary sectors – Commercial, Broadcasting and Matchday – delivered strong top-line gains and helped us achieve a record third quarter for both revenue and adjusted EBITDA.
"In addition, we are delighted to be continuing and deepening our relationship with Aon, as our new Training Kit, Training Centre and Tour Partner, for an additional eight years."
The Royal Bank of Scotland has returned to profit with its latest quarterly results, reporting a group operating gain of £826m.
RBS said its profit after tax for the January-March period compared with a net loss of £1.545bn in the first quarter of 2012.
It is the first profit report from the bank, which received Britain's biggest ever bailout following the financial crash, for 18 months.
The profit was above forecasts. The bank is currently 82% owned by the British taxpayer.
Sky News City Editor Mark Kleinman revealed last night that the bank's chairman would announce later today the start of privatisation.
Kleinman said: "Sir Philip Hampton will say that George Osborne, the Chancellor, will be able to press the button on a multi-billion pound share sale by the middle of next year."
The bank's balance sheet was helped by not needing to make a further provision for payment protection insurance (PPI) mis-selling.
RBS CEO Stephen Hester has focused the bank on core priorities RBS chief executive Stephen Hester has overseen the shedding of billions in assets and is focusing on core lending to British households and small businesses.
"We expect to substantially complete the bank's restructuring phase during 2014. We are seeing the start of a pick-up in loan demand and have a strong surplus of funds ready and available to support economic recovery," he said.
However, Mr Hester still has major hurdles to overcome.
Britain's financial regulator said in March that UK banks must raise £25bn of extra capital by the end of the year to absorb any future losses on loans.
Although the regulator has not yet given specific guidance to individual banks, analysts expect the biggest shortfall to be at RBS.
RBS said its capital position had improved during the period and its core tier one ratio - a bank's main benchmark of health - had risen by 50 basis points to 10.8%.
It expects to have a core capital ratio of 9% at the end of 2013 on the basis of full implementation of tougher Basel III capital rules.
The City regulator wants major lenders to achieve a core-tier one ratio of at least 7%.
Homeowners with interest-only mortgages due to be paid before 2020 need to "act now" to ensure they have enough money to pay their loans back, a report says.
The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) fears that consumers are under-estimating the scale of the problem, with around 260,000 people thought to have no strategy in place for repaying their loan.
Consumer campaigners also raised concerns that a "significant" number of people claimed to be unaware how their loan was meant to be paid back when they took the product out and called for further work to make sure some borrowers were not mis-sold deals.
13% of borrowers were unaware they needed an interest-only repayment plan Mortgage lenders have agreed to alert their most at-risk customers to help them avoid "payment shocks". Some of them could end up having to sell their home to pay the loan back if they do not take stronger control of their repayment planning.
Around 2.6 million interest-only mortgages are due for repayment over the next 30 years but research has revealed that one in 10 people on such a deal have no plan for paying the money back.
The report said it was not clear how well some borrowers understood the discussions about how the mortgage was meant to be repaid when they took the deal out.
Some 13% of interest-only borrowers said they were not aware when they took out the deal that they needed a plan in place to repay the whole amount borrowed, not just the interest - and a further 6% were unsure.
However, those who said they were unaware of the need for a repayment strategy were more likely to have taken out the deal longer ago and just one in 40 people (2.5%) who said they were unaware still has no repayment plan in place.
Richard Lloyd, executive director of consumer group Which?, said: "We're worried that a significant proportion of consumers say they did not know they needed a separate repayment plan on their interest-only mortgage."
The FCA said that the regulator is concentrating its efforts on making sure that the people whose interest-only mortgages are maturing will have a way of paying their loan back.
Mortgage lenders will contact homeowners considered most at risk It is thought that despite the report's findings, there are no particular jumps in mortgage complaints figures to suggest that the way that interest-only mortgages were sold was a widespread problem.
A Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML) spokeswoman said that the body's focus will be on helping those who still have no strategy in place for repaying their mortgage.
BSkyB, the owner of Sky News, has announced a 9% rise in profits and confirmed the creation of 550 new jobs.
Adjusted operating profit for the nine months to March 31 reached £994m, partly driven by growth in the number of products customers are paying for.
Sky said its total paid-for subscription product base had exceeded 30 million for the first time, with broadband and telephone performing particularly well.
It added 152,000 broadband customers over the past three months while 186,000 more homes took Sky Talk services.
Another highlight from its performance was a fivefold year-on-year increase in On Demand downloads, hitting 4.5 million on average per week.
The company said the new roles would be mainly based at its new customer contact centre in Newcastle and support growth in its product base.
Jeremy Darroch is Sky's chief executive The move meant Sky had created a total of 1,250 jobs during 2013.
Chief executive Jeremy Darroch said: "We have had a good third quarter and our multi-product strategy is delivering strong results.
"Increased take-up across our product set led to another improvement in financial performance with growth in revenues and profits accelerating in the third quarter.
"Group revenues are up 6%, operating profit up 9% and earnings per share up 16% for the first nine months.
"In our television business, we continue to see rapid growth in our connected TV services as customers take advantage of new ways to watch our content. The number of internet-connected Sky+HD boxes grew by almost 45,000 every week in the quarter, leading to a fivefold increase in On Demand downloads and 37% growth in movie rentals against last year.
"Alongside the expansion of our mobile video service with the launch of Sky Go Extra, these trends are opening up new sources of future growth and value creation.
"These results highlight the way that our successful transition to more broadly-based growth has created a bigger, more profitable business. And having more ways to grow serves us particularly well at a time when household budgets look likely to remain stretched."
He concluded: "We will continue to focus on overall product sales as the best means of delivering sustainable growth and returns for shareholders."
The BSkyB share price rose 2% in early trading on the FTSE 100 as the results were seen as beating analysts' estimates.
Further cuts to petrol and diesel prices have been launched amid fierce competition among supermarkets.
Morrisons sparked a likely supermarket round of cuts today by announcing a reduction in its fuel prices for drivers from 3pm on Thursday.
It would take up to 2p a litre off petrol and 1p a litre off diesel costs, the company said.
The move is the latest in a series of reductions by supermarkets over the last few weeks as wholesale costs have fallen.
Morrisons petrol director Mark Todd said: "With a sunny bank holiday weekend predicted, we're expecting to see high numbers of motorists filling their tanks for family trips out.
"That's why we're passing on these savings in time for the pre-bank holiday shop."
Con artists in the UK are thriving during the recession by coming up with new ways to profit from the financial misery of others, Citizens Advice has warned.
The charity said 22,000 scams were reported to it in England and Wales in the last 12 months.
Financial desperation is making people more vulnerable to scams that offer loans or employment opportunities, it added.
"Opportunistic con artists are targeting people who have fallen on hard times with offers of phoney jobs, training and debt scams," Citizens Advice said in a statement.
Typical scams include persuading victims to pay upfront fees to qualify for non-existent loans or to reserve places on fictitious professional training courses, the charity said.
Citizens Advice CEO Gillian Guy said: "Scammers have never had it so good.
"For most people the recession has been really tough but it's a different story for rogues and tricksters as they've cashed-in on other people's misfortune.
"We're seeing people who have been dealt a double-blow by losing their job and then losing money while trying to find a new one."
Citizens Advice will run a campaign throughout May to raise awareness of potential scams.
Leon Livermore, from the Trading Standards Institute, said: "Trading standards officers see first hand the impact these unscrupulous fraudsters are having on often the most vulnerable in our communities. We are working hard with other authorities to stop them."
Citizens Advice said it was worried con artists were already dreaming up new schemes to profit from proposed benefit changes, specifically the so-called Bedroom Tax and the localising of council tax support.
Apple has sold $17bn (£10.9bn) in the largest non-bank bond deal in history as it moves to placate frustrated shareholders.
The move, to raise money to pass along to investors through dividend payments and stock buy-backs, is part of an effort to reverse a 37% drop in Apple's stock price during the past seven months.
It took advantage of low interest rates through the sale despite having $145bn in cash - more than enough to cover the $100bn cash return programme.
However, most of its money sits in overseas accounts and the company doesn't plan to bring it to the US unless the federal corporate tax rate is lowered.
Raising the money through a corporate bond sale also gave Apple a tax benefit because interest payments on corporate debt are tax-deductible.
The plunge in Apple's stock has been attributed to intensifying concerns about the company's shrinking profit margins as it faces more competition in the mobile computing market.
Last week, Apple confirmed its first drop in quarterly profits for a decade.
Rajeev Sharma at First Investors Management said: "Apple made its intentions clear that this deal is for shareholder-friendly activity, but they have tremendous metrics and brand recognition.
"Apple is something everyone wants in their portfolio," he concluded.
Apple's stock added $12.66, or nearly 3% on Tuesday, to close at $442.78.
The shares have now risen by 9% since Apple announced its plan to return $100bn to stockholders.
The energy regulator is investigating six suppliers, saying they have failed to meet their targets on providing consumers with efficiency measures.
Ofgem said that while the sector had achieved 99% of energy efficiency targets set by the Government, some had not complied with their obligations.
It named British Gas, Drax, Scottish Power and SSE as companies which had missed the targets - aimed at helping households lower their energy bills and reduce carbon emissions.
Under the measures, energy suppliers were obliged to provide customers, and in particular vulnerable consumers such as people on low incomes or the elderly, with insulation for their lofts and walls and replace inefficient boilers.
Energy firms are under pressure to help bring bills down The investigation is a sign that the Government and regulator are taking an increasingly tough stance against energy suppliers, after a series of fines for mis-selling and at a time when energy bills are rising and wages are flat.
Ofgem said EDF Energy, Eggborough Power, E.On and nPower had all met their responsibilities.
Sarah Harrison, Ofgem's senior partner for enforcement, said: "Ofgem's role is to ensure that consumers do not lose out by the failure of firms to deliver all the help required or not disadvantaged by late delivery."
Under the Consumer Energy Saving Programe, British Gas was found to have met just 62.4% of its target while Scottish Power managed 70%.
SSE, which was recently fined £10.5m for mis-selling, achieved a figure of 90.9%, the regulator said, while EDF, E.On and Scottish Power all easily overcame their targets.
The Government's shake-up of the welfare system starts today with the launch of a new all-inclusive payout to replace a string of benefits including jobseeker's allowance and housing benefit.
Universal Credit will be introduced in four local Jobcentres in selected areas of Ashton-under-Lyne, Oldham, Warrington and Wigan.
Those living in Ashton-under-Lyne will claim the new benefit from today while in the other three areas other elements of Universal Credit will be trialled.
Work and Pensions Secretary Iain Duncan Smith described the new benefit as part of a "fundamental cultural shift" of the welfare system.
He said: "This will revolutionise the way people experience the welfare state.
"It will make it easier for people to claim what they are entitled to, but more importantly it will make it easier for people to move off benefits and into work.
"This is the first step on a long journey and the pathfinder is our opportunity to get Universal Credit right.
"We will bring in this radical and vital reform in a careful and controlled way."
But the launch is expected to be opposed by unions who say that the Government should rethink Universal Credit and prioritise creating jobs and supporting people into them instead of "demonising" those out of work and entitled to benefits.
Iain Duncan Smith says welfare system is undergoing a 'cultural shift' Public and Commercial Services (PCS) union, which represents staff in Jobcentres, said it will stage a protest at Ashton-under-Lyne.
PCS general secretary Mark Serwotka said: "If Universal Credit was being introduced to genuinely make life easier for people entitled to benefits it would be commendable, but the Government's pernicious language exposes its real intent is to demonise and punish them.
"We have shown that ministers are prepared to mislead and misdirect to drive through their welfare cuts, so we are challenging Iain Duncan Smith and others to prove what they claim is true.
"The next time a minister says people are better off on benefits than in work, give them a pen and paper and ask them to show you how."
The Universal Credit system will be rolled out from October nationally, with completion due in 2017.
Around 7,000 people are expected to get the payout during the initial period.
Universal Credit will replace income-based jobseeker's allowance, income-related employment and support allowance, income support, working tax credit, child tax credit, and housing benefit.
Minister for Welfare Reform Lord Freud said: "The start of Universal Credit today is a big step forward.
"We are finally implementing a benefit system that is fairer, where claimants will be better off in work than on benefits.
"We are introducing Universal Credit in a slow and safe manner so that we get this important reform right and help more people move smoothly from benefits and into work."
The credibility of the coalition's £310bn plan to boost Britain's infrastructure and help the economic recovery has been questioned by MPs.
The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) urged ministers to be "realistic" about how much private and public investment can be raised as the economy stalls.
And it warned that consumers would be left shouldering the main burden of the costs through higher rail fares and utility bills.
The National Infrastructure Plan first launched in 2010 and was updated last December.
It lists projects worth £310bn - £200bn of which are to be wholly funded by the private sector.
The committee stressed that investment in power generation facilities, roads, railways, airports, ports and communication systems was "crucial for stimulating economic growth".
But it said: "We are not convinced that a plan requiring £310bn of investment in infrastructure is credible given the current economic climate, the cutbacks in public finances and the difficulty in raising private finance for projects on acceptable terms."
The Treasury says it has prioritised 40 programmes but the committee claimed many of these are broad and that there are 200 individual projects "whose relative priority is not clear".
"The Treasury should assess how much investment can realistically be financed and develop a coherent strategy using tightly defined criteria to identify and prioritise project," it said.
The report also cautioned that investors would be reluctant to come forward with money "until government policy is clear and consistent".
Margaret Hodge: 'This is not a real plan' PAC chair Margaret Hodge described the plan as "a long list of projects requiring huge amounts of money, not a real plan with a strategic vision and clear priorities".
She said: "Most of the £310bn of investment needed will come from the private sector, with households shouldering the cost through higher energy bills and fares.
"Family budgets are already badly squeezed and inevitably those on the lowest incomes will be hit hardest. The Government needs to urgently assess the impact on consumers and how this can be contained."
Mrs Hodge also warned that taxpayers' money might have to be used to attract investors and that the lack of money could increase Britain's vulnerability over energy supplies.
"It is likely that the UK will have to buy ever more energy from overseas and at a higher price due to the failure to secure investment," she said.
The Treasury said it did not agree with the committee's depiction of its plans and insisted long-term infrastructure was a central priority.
"Government regularly monitors progress and at the Budget published details of delivery of the top 40 infrastructure projects," a spokesman said.
"As well as switching billions of pounds from current to capital spending, we are also using the Government's balance sheet to provide vital funding.
"Last week, Drax Power became the first recipient of a UK Guarantee, with the Treasury underwriting £75m of investment in biomass energy."
Which? executive director Richard Lloyd agreed investment was vital but insisted it could not be at any cost to already-struggling consumers.
"In economic times like these it's all the more vital that ministers take into account the full impact on hard-pressed households, and avoid imposing any unnecessary extra financial pressure on those that foot the bill for Government-backed projects, as consumer spending will be central to economic recovery," he said.
A senior official with rating agency Moody's has said it is not yet possible to exclude Italy from being forced to ask for a future eurozone bailout.
Moody's said it will monitor the ability of the newly formed Italian government to overhaul the economy, it told an Italian newspaper on Monday.
Italian 10-year bond yields dropped more than 2% in early trading as markets opened.
"We will have to verify the commitment of the new government and its ability to resolutely pursue the huge structural reforms the country needs to improve its creditworthiness," Moody's senior credit officer Dietmar Hornung told La Repubblica.
"For now the situation remains difficult," Mr Hornung said.
It said help may be needed through the European Central Bank and the European Stability Mechanism.
The ratings agency said on Friday it had kept Italy's sovereign debt rating at Baa2 thanks to the country's reasonably low current cost of funding and its primary surplus.
But Moody's maintained its negative outlook for Italian sovereign debt because of prolonged economic crisis.
Last week, after weeks of political deadlock, Italy elected Enrico Letta of the centre-left to become the new prime minister.
Mr Letta, a 46-year-year-old leftist moderate, leads a broad-coalition government backed by his own Democratic Party and the conservatives of former prime minister Silvio Berlusconi.
A general election in February proved inconclusive, with the electorate split among three main blocs and no party winning enough of the vote to muster majorities in parliament.
