Mario Draghi urges eurozone leaders to act 'without delay'

• ECB's Draghi says eurozone is at risk of lasting damage
  
• European markets fall
• UK trade deficit narrows unexpectedly
• George Soros: Brexit would trigger EU collapse
• Poorest would be hit hard by Brexit costs, NIESR claims
• US jobless claims fall more sharply than expected

3.01pm BST

With this, we are signing off for the day. Thank you for all your great comments. We'll be back at the crack of dawn tomorrow.

2.59pm BST

Meanwhile, Britain's biggest wine retailer is to increase pay for its store managers in an attempt to prevent one in four of them leaving the business each year.

Majestic Wine is introducing new share incentive plans and overhauling cash bonuses for its 213 store managers, who typically earn a 30,000 salary - up from 28,000 in November - plus an annual bonus.

2.56pm BST

Ryanair is to take on Airbnb - by launching the Ryanair Rooms service in October, offering everything from 5-star hotel rooms to hostels and spare rooms in private homes.

It will add at least two partners to Booking.com, currently its exclusive accommodation partner, Reuters reported.

We see this as a natural progression towards Ryanair.com becoming the Amazon of air travel.

2.26pm BST

Catching up on corporate news" Argos has reported its strongest sales performance in two years as it prepares for its sale to Sainsbury's, but also revealed it had set aside 30m to compensate store card customers who were charged "excess fees" on late payments.

It's not a massive amount of money - at most "double-digit pounds" per customer.

Given the pending takeover, the board of Sainsbury's will probably be shaking their heads at the news, though in the grander scheme of things the sum involved is not enough to derail the deal.

2.08pm BST

Laith Khalaf, senior analyst, Hargreaves Lansdown, has a take on the drop in 10-year UK bond yields to a record low.

While all eyes have been on the EU referendum campaign, gilt yields have been slipping, fast.

The US Federal Reserve is backing away from interest rate rises following wavering employment data, and in Europe the central bank is pumping billions of euros into the bond market every month in the form of quantitative easing, both of which have served to drive yields down.

2.02pm BST

Back at the Brussels Economic Forum, European Commissioner Pierre Moscovici and Greek finance minister Euclid Tsakalotos have both identified Brexit as a potential crisis facing Europe.

Moscovici:

A year ago we were talking about Grexit, now we are talking about positive integration.

There are several crises around... Brexit, hopefully it will be remain but we await that...

1.43pm BST

The jobless claims will be a relief to those investors concerned by last week's shockingly weak payroll numbers.

The non-farm payrolls showed just 38,000 jobs were added in the US in in May, compared with expectations of a 164,000 increase. It was the slowest rate of growth since September 2010.

Drop in U.S. jobless claims points to labor market strength https://t.co/L0Kqrh3Luv

1.36pm BST

There were 264,000 jobless claims in the US last week, slightly down on the 268,000 a week earlier.

It was a bigger-than-expected fall, with economists forecasting 27o,000 claims. It was also lower than the four-week average of 269,500.

1.22pm BST

US markets are expected to open lower, as bond markets rally:

US Opening Calls:#DOW 17947 -0.31%#SPX 2111 -0.37%#NASDAQ 4506 -0.32%#IGOpeningCall

12.43pm BST

Pierre Moscovici, European Commissioner for economic and financial affairs, is speaking at the Brussels Economic Forum.

He says that while he understands structural reforms have negative connotations in some countries and can be politically difficult to push through, "we need to stand firm".

Output growth will increasingly depend on our ability to improve productivity growth and investment.

I want reform to mean progress.

12.25pm BST

Rolls-Royce is one of the FTSE 100's biggest fallers, down 3.4% at 590.5p.

[The] business remains in reasonable shape with opportunities and issues broadly balanced.

Delivery issues mean there is a lot to do in the second half and hence a higher risk.

Right now I do know that in many parts of the organisation that discomfort is very real indeed " For many at the moment 'transformation' is simply unpleasant.

I appreciate that this is a difficult environment, difficult enough just to do the job, without people like me preaching about 'pace'.

12.01pm BST

Catching up on some corporate news, Amazon begins fresh food deliveries in parts of London today.

Taking on Britain's supermarkets, Amazon Fresh will offer more than 130,000 groceries to homes in north and east London, including thousands of fresh produce, dairy and bakery items that the company has not previously sold in the UK.

11.43am BST

Low-income households are likely to shoulder a disproportionate share of the costs of Brexit if the UK votes to leave the EU in this month's referendum, a respected thinktank has warned.

11.37am BST

We've got more reaction to those better-than-expected UK trade figures.

Not everyone is convinced that trade will make a positive contribution to GDP in the second quarter.

While the fall in the trade deficit is welcome, it still remains unacceptably large and is likely to be a drag on UK growth in Q2.

April's figures also highlight the need for the government to do more to support exporters, including improved access to finance for companies looking to break into new fast-growing economies.

While export volumes were up 4.3% in the three months to April compared with the previous three months, import volumes were up by 4.6% over the same period. So as things stand net trade is likely to exert a drag on GDP growth in Q2, unless April's apparent export strength is sustained.

The chances of this happening would appear to be relatively low. Global growth remains pretty subdued and sterling has regained a good chunk of its losses from earlier in the year, so the backdrop for exporters remains very challenging.

11.25am BST

George Soros, the billionaire investor who famously helped to force the pound out of the exchange rate mechanism on Black Wednesday in 1992, has been speaking about Brexit.

If Britain leaves, it could unleash a general exodus, and the disintegration of the European Union will become practically unavoidable.

I'm confident that as we get closer to the Brexit vote, the remain camp is getting stronger. Markets are not always right, but in this case I agree with them.

11.02am BST

Turning to other events, there has been more reaction to Wednesday's shock sessions on BHS, where MP's quizzed key members of the BHS team about the collapse of the high street retailer.

Among other things, the former owner of BHS, Dominic Chappell, was accused of threatening to kill the retailer's chief executive, Darren Topp.

10.49am BST

Exports grew more than imports in April, triggering a surprise fall in the trade in goods deficit.

In normal times, George Osborne would have been all over the good news from the manufacturing sector like a rash. The figures from UK industry were better - a lot better - than the City had been expecting and showed the fastest month-on-month increase in almost four years.

So where was the instant statement from the chancellor praising the strength of the economy and the success of the government's strategy? Sherlock Holmes would have had the answer. Osborne's unusual reticence was a classic case of the dog that doesn't bark.

10.21am BST

Howard Archer, chief UK economist at IHS Global Insight, says the figures suggest trade could make a positive contribution to gross domestic product in the second quarter, after being a drag for a prolonged period.

April's data suggests that net trade could actually make a positive contribution to UK GDP growth in the second quarter, having been a significant drag in the first quarter of 2016 and through the second half of 2015.

It lifts hopes that UK exporters will increasingly be helped by the overall marked weakening of the pound over the coming months.

10.09am BST

More on those trade figures, which were better than expected and showed a surprise fall in the deficit.

UK trade figures show importance of EU markets. Export volumes to EU +10.3% vs year ago. Non-EU up just 1.9%: https://t.co/tqLs0pc1Fu

9.44am BST

Britain's trade deficit with the rest of the world fell more than expected in April following a record jump in goods exports.

The deficit fell to 10.5bn from a downwardly revised 10.6bn in March according to the figures from the Office for National Statistics.

9.22am BST

Benchmark 10-year gilt yields have fallen to record lows, part of a global bonds rally as investors dump shares.

For those wondering about bond market highs, yield lows (UK Gilt today) and interest-rate cuts here is my explainer https://t.co/wpBbClPXck

9.03am BST

All major markets are down in early trading:

Despite Brent Crude hitting an 8-month high the European indices got off to a sluggish start this Thursday morning.

The FTSE once again fell away from 6300 as the European session began, the index dragged down by chunky losses for the likes of Vodafone, Johnson Matthey and Berkeley Group Holdings.

8.49am BST

Draghi is talking about employment trends in the eurozone and warns unfavourable demographic trends will create challenges.

Employment growth [is likely] to decelerate in the not-too-distant future because of the fall in the working age population.

Even migration is unlikely to fully offset this natural population decline.

There are many political reasons to delay structural reforms, but very few economic ones.

And the cost of delay is too high.

8.35am BST

Draghi > Need to restore clarity and confidence in the institutional set up of the euro area is critical #EUBEF2016 pic.twitter.com/WxGccWORCS

#ECB's #Draghi calls for structural reforms to raise #Eurozone potential growth. Says cost of delay is too high https://t.co/DiEPmXYqB7

8.31am BST

Mario Draghi, President of the European Central Bank, has taken to the stage at the Brussels Economic Forum.

Fiscal policies should work with and not against monetary policy.

Firms may understandably choose to defer or abandon investment plans. This has been clear in the past when the future of the euro area has been called into question. It can also effect the saving rate of firms and households, leading to higher precautionary [spending behaviour].

There is a critical need for clarity on the institutional make up of the euro area. Many proposals have been put forward to overcome the [shortcomings] of the euro area.

8.14am BST

Brent crude oil prices have been steadily rising since the beginning of the year...

8.03am BST

Oil prices are climbing higher this morning, following larger than expected drawdowns in the US and disruptions to supply in Nigeria, where militant attacks have driven production in the country to a 20-year low.

While oil inventories still remain at elevated levels continued supply disruptions in Nigeria, have sent output to a 20 year low and this is helping underpin prices.

The third successive weekly draw in a row has also helped sustain the uptrend for oil prices which has been in place now for nearly five months.