The US GDP figures might suggest that a Fed rate cut can’t address the real problem holding back the world’s biggest economy.

Ronald Temple, head of US equities, Lazard Asset Management, said:

Today’s GDP report reaffirms the Fed narrative that the US consumer is in good shape, but business confidence has weakened. A Fed rate cut appears to be a done deal next week, but the unfortunate reality is that rate cuts will not resolve uncertainties over trade policy.

And another angle: US President Donald Trump has so far kept his counsel this morning, but the figures do not appear to back up the rationale for his tax cuts.

Business investment remained meagre in the quarter, suggesting the growth boost given by the cuts may be unsustainable.

Wall Street gains at the opening bell after US GDP figures that had something for everyone.

The Nasdaq is storming ahead, up by 0.7%, while the S&P 500 opened up 0.37% and the Dow Jones industrial average was up by 0.1%.

Meanwhile, we’re not wanting to sound like a broken record, but Sports Direct has delayed its results yet again after that 2pm BST deadline came and went.

The delay has left some in the City with a bit of time on their hands on a sultry Friday afternoon.

We hear that the new deadline is 4pm BST. Maybe don’t hold your breath.

The Fed’s Jerome Powell should make it a “one-and-done” rate cut next week, said Ian Shepherdson, chief economist at Pantheon Macroeconomics.

This economy is not broken, and it does not need Fed action to fix it (but it will get it).

So much for the first half rollover in the US economy. Growth averaged 2.6% in the first half, slightly better than the 2.4% average for the previous five years, despite the end of the boost from the tax cuts and the manufacturing recession.

It might be enough for the Fed to stick to its guns and follow through on the widely expected rate cut next week.

Paul Ashworth, chief US economist at Capital Economics, said:

This slowdown just about justifies a 25 basis point cut by the Fed next week, but the chances of a bigger 50 basis point reduction just receded further.

Despite the weaker headline gain, consumption growth actually accelerated to 4.3% in the second quarter, from 1.1%. But business investment declined by 0.6%.

It looks like it might be a Goldilocks US GDP release for Wall Street: not too hot, not too cold.

Art Hogan, chief market strategist at National Securities in New York (via Reuters), said:

This is just what the market needed, not so soft that the economy is slowing down precipitously and not so strong that the Fed is going to reverse course.

We expected bad earnings and bad GDP numbers, but an upside on both is something markets are going to embrace today.

US stock market futures have given up some of their earlier gains, but still point to a rising tide on Wall Street.

Futures prices are pointing to increases of about 0.3% on the S&P 500, the Dow Jones industrial average and the Nasdaq.

US economic growth slowed in the second quarter of 2019 as ongoing trade disputes and a global slowdown took their toll.

But, writes the Guardian’s Dominic Rushe, the decline was less than expected – thanks to a consumer spending spree – and the report showed signs that there is continuing momentum in the US’s decade-long economic expansion.

You can read the full report here:

The inflation figure in the GDP data is fairly striking: it shows that consumer prices rose by an annual rate of 2.3%, according to the personal consumption expenditures price index, one of the Federal Reserve’s preferred measures of inflationary pressures.

That represented a large jump from the 0.4% rate seen in the first quarter.

The figures also confirmed that the US economy missed the 3% growth target set by US President Donald Trump for 2018.

US GDP expanded by 2.9% during the calendar year, the Bureau of Economic Analysis said, despite Trump’s unfunded tax cuts. The cuts were criticised for targeting wealthier Americans.

Already the doubts over the pace of the Federal Reserve’s purported plans to cut rates are coming through.

Here’s the Bureau of Economic Analysis’s graph showing the US GDP growth slowdown.

The 2.1% annualised rate of GDP growth was the second slowest since the end of final quarter of 2016 – but it may cause something of a headache for the US Federal Reserve given that it came in ahead of economists’ expectations.

The Bureau of Economic Analysis said:

The deceleration in real GDP in the second quarter reflected downturns in inventory investment, exports, and nonresidential fixed investment. These downturns were partly offset by accelerations in PCE and federal government spending.

Investors have dialled back their bets on a shock and awe 0.5 percentage point cut from the Federal Reserve next week, says IG Group’s senior market analyst, Joshua Mahony.

A strong GDP print in 10 minutes could make the Fed less willing to cut interest rates as quickly as some expect.

With just over half an hour to go until US GDP data is released, Wall Street futures prices are pointing to gains on stock markets: the S&P 500 and Dow Jones industrial average are both set to rise by 0.3% and the Nasdaq is set for a 0.4% gain.

Amazon and Google owner Alphabet both posted mixed earnings results last night, but Twitter beat analyst forecasts in results published today.

Reuters reported: Twitter posted better-than-expected second-quarter revenue on Friday and an uptick in daily users who see advertisements on the site, driven by changes to show users more relevant content, sending its shares up by 5% in pre-market trading.

However, the company forecast third-quarter revenue below many Wall Street estimates and said revenue growth would lag the first two quarters, partly due to ending some older ad formats.

The UK car industry lobby group has welcomed Boris Johnson as prime minister – and reminded him that it is implacably opposed to his key policy.

Mike Hawes, the chief executive of the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) said that a no-deal Brexit – an option backed by Johnson and several senior cabinet members – “presents an existential threat to our industry”.

Some extracts from the letter:

Above all, we must ensure the sector continues to enjoy – without interruption – preferential trade with critical markets around the world, including the EU.

[...] when automotive succeeds, so does the UK. We cannot, however, continue to deliver these benefits, or take advantage of new opportunities, if the UK leaves the EU without a deal. A no-deal Brexit presents an existential threat to our industry.

We are highly integrated with Europe, and a no-deal Brexit would result in huge tariff costs and disruption that would threaten production, as well as further undermining international investors’ confidence in the UK. We need a deal with the EU that secures frictionless and tariff free trade. No-deal Brexit is simply not an option.

Russia’s central bank has joined the global move to stimulate the economy: it just delivered a rate cut from 7.5% to 7.25%.

There could be more rate cuts to come, the Central Bank of the Russian Federation warned, as “the weak dynamics of domestic and external demand” weigh on inflation.

The central bank has seen a “significant drop in annual export growth rates, including on the back of weaker external demand”, it said in its latest monetary policy statement.

Sports Direct has finally given us an update: we need to wait for another update.

The company is still finalising its results, and will let us know the progress at 2pm BST. A reminder: markets close at 4:30pm BST.

Shares seem unaffected: they are now up by 2.2% to put them among the top 10 gainers on the FTSE 250 index.

Sports Direct shares have now risen by more than 1% for the day – despite there being no update on the results.

Some eyebrows have been raised in the City and on Fleet Street amid the confusion. Sports Direct earlier said there would be an update at midday.

A spokesman for the Institute of Directors, the business group that focuses on corporate governance, said: “Good communication is at the heart of good corporate governance, and boards should always try to avoid sending a confusing message to shareholders.”

Morning trading has been somewhat more forgiving than yesterday’s performance on European stock markets. Most major indices, with the exception of Italy, have gained.

The FTSE 100’s gains have been underpinned by Vodafone – shares now up by 9.4% – as investors lick their lips on a £10bn+ pay day if it successfully floats its European mobile masts business.

The battle between Santander and its former chief executive, Andrea Orcel, has already been fairly colourful. Now it has hit the courts and the fur is really flying.

Orcel had been offered the top job at Santander last year but the bank changed its mind in January, saying it could not meet his pay demands, writes the Guardian’s Rob Davies.

Santander has now accused Orcel of “dubious ethical and moral behaviour” after he sued the bank for €100m (£90m) when it withdrew an offer to make him chief executive. Orcel had already quit his job as head of the UBS investment bank.

The bank accused Orcel, one of Europe’s highest-profile bankers, of making secret recordings during the dispute.

You can read the whole tale here:

The UK’s broadcasting regulator has fined the news channel RT £200,000 for “serious failures” to comply with rules on impartiality in relation to its coverage of multiple issues related to Russian foreign policy.

RT, previously known as Russia Today, was censured by Ofcom over its coverage of the poisoning of Sergei and Yulia Skripal in Salisbury, the armed conflict in Syria, and the Ukrainian government’s position on Nazism and its treatment of Roma Gypsies.

Ofcom will make the channel broadcast a summary of the findings to its viewers.

RT broke impartiality rules seven times in March and April 2018, Ofcom said. In its statement, the regulator said:

Taken together, these breaches represented serious and repeated failures of compliance with our rules. We were particularly concerned by the frequency of RT’s rule-breaking over a relatively short period of time.

A statement from the RT press office (via agencies) said: “It is very wrong for Ofcom to have issued a sanction against RT on the basis of its breach findings that are currently under judicial review by the High Court in London. RT went to court over Ofcom’s December findings against our network because we believe that they were reached in a manner contrary to the law and were wrong.”

Let’s have a quick Brexit update: new prime minister Boris Johnson came into office promising a renegotiation of the terms of the withdrawal agreement with the EU. The response was, perhaps unsurprisingly, a short, sharp no.

European Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker told Johnson that the current deal is the only one on offer. While widely expected, if neither side compromises a no-deal Brexit could become more likely.

The pound has duly weakened against the dollar and the euro. Sterling lost 0.1% against the euro and the US dollar, remaining near the two-year low levels hit at the start of last week as Johnson’s Brexit rhetoric hardened.

Juncker will remain in post until his successor Ursula von der Leyen takes over on 31 October – the same day that the UK is scheduled to leave the EU. A commission spokesperson said:

President Juncker listened to what Prime Minister Johnson had to say, reiterating the EU’s position that the withdrawal agreement is the best and only agreement possible – in line with the European council guidelines.

You can follow today’s Brexit news on the politics live blog with the Guardian’s Andrew Sparrow here:

Here is what markets expect from the Federal Reserve, based on futures prices reported by CME Group.

The current target range is 2.25% to 2.5%, so the upshot is there is apparently a 100% chance of a cut.

Some investors are covering themselves for that 50 basis point (0.5 percentage point) cut, but the consensus remains that a 25 basis point cut is the most likely.

Note that this is the implied probability – investors have just occasionally been proven wrong in the past.

However, others are less sure that the federal open markets committee (FOMC), that sets rates, will be so pessimistic.

Seth Carpenter, an economist at UBS, expects annualised US GDP growth of 2.6% for the second quarter – slower than the start of the year but significantly above 1.9% consensus expectations.

That could “ease the FOMC’s concerns on the near-term outlook”, he wrote.

We believe that the pervasive pessimism at the June FOMC meeting was in part driven by softness in April data, especially as the softness followed relatively tepid growth in the first quarter. Much of that weakness has subsequently been erased either by outright revisions or by strong gains in the following months.

The data are a clear risk to our expectation of a 50 basis point cut next week. However, [...] the core of the committee has consistently downplayed good data and focused on weakness.

If US GDP growth does slow, as expected, then that could provide an obvious rationale for the Fed to cut rates on Wednesday.

With a rate cut all but guaranteed, if traders’ bets are any guide, it could also give the chance for Powell to give a dovish signal – in contrast to his counterpart in the ECB, Mario Draghi.

Draghi’s statements “disappointed” markets yesterday, but Powell could take a different path, according to Viraj Patel, a global macro strategist at financial tech company Arkera.

Looking ahead to US GDP later, it’s all about the implications for the Federal Reserve.

Jerome Powell appears to have put the US central bank on a path towards a rate cut on Wednesday next week, in a move which could mark the end of an extraordinary period of monetary and economic history.

The last time the Fed cut its main interest rate, the federal funds rate, the US economy was at the start of the financial crisis. Since then central banks around the world have unleashed unprecedented rounds of economic stimulus.

After a decade of growth (albeit rather insipid growth) more and more economists think we are approaching a turning point. Weak eurozone data has this week raised fears of a recession in Germany, with the manufacturing sector particularly at risk.

Powell has highlighted that weakening growth outlook alongside trade tensions in his most recent dovish comments.

Sports Direct’s repeated results delay is starting to annoy people.

There is a “total lack of visibility – there is not yet an indication that there is a material problem with the numbers, although one can draw one’s own conclusions,” said Neil Wilson, chief market analyst at Markets.com.

It’s a total and utter shambles and betrays a number of problems at the business after Ashley embarked on his rather random acquisition spree. Above all it betrays a total disregard for shareholders.

It not only raises questions about the haphazard way in which the investor relations and finance teams are run, but also could suggest a material problem with the numbers.

Additionally it raises a question about whether Ashley will ultimately take the company private.

And here is the full update on the Sports Direct shenanigans from the Guardian’s Rob Davies:

Sports Direct says there will be an update around midday. There must be a fair bit of scrambling going on behind the scenes.

Its auditor is Grant Thornton, which is under pressure over its failure to spot alleged manipulation of the accounts of Patisserie Valerie.

Sports Direct – still a member of the FTSE 250 index of mid-cap stocks – has a history of what some might describe as unusual corporate governance.

You can read about some of the more colourful episodes in the company’s history here:

Pearson is jostling with telecoms company Vodafone to be the biggest riser on the FTSE 100, after the world’s largest education company put out a solid set of results.

Shares have bumped by more than 7% in early trading as investors welcomed signs of a turnaround after a dire run of results.

“We’ve had a good first half, with underlying growth across all divisions, as we start to benefit from accelerating our shift to digital,” chief executive John Fallon said.

We are on track to at least stabilise revenue this year and return the company to top line growth from 2020.

The former owner of the Financial Times, whose cash cow was print textbooks, has come under pressure from the shift to digital in recent years, but now appears to believe that belated investments in new technology will start to pay off.

Sports Direct shares are down by 1.5% in early trades – still no sign of their results from where we are sitting.

The FTSE 100 has gained 0.1% at the open, helping European shares to a 0.1% increase, according to the Euro Stoxx 600 index.

France’s Cac 40 index has gained 0.2%, but Spain’s Ibex has lost 0.2%. Germany’s Dax benchmark was flat at the opening bell.