Bank of England lending data show housing market gathers paceDollar retreats to two-year low as Fed is expected to maintain ultra-supportive monetary policy to help economyMid-morning summary 2.32pm BST Spotify is the second of the big US tech firms to report second-quarter results, after Twitter last week. Google owner Alphabet, Apple, Amazon and Facebook will report tomorrow. Spotify has said its back to business business as usual beating subscriber growth expectations in the second quarter as the number of hours users spent listening to music and podcasts returned to pre-Covid levels, reports our media business correspondent Mark Sweney. The company grew the total number of monthly users, those who listen for free and pay a subscription, by 29% year-on-year to €299m in the three months to the end of June. Paying subscribers, who bring in the lion’s share of Spotify’s income, grew 27% year-on-year to 138m. Both came in slightly above Wall Street expectations.“We met or exceeded our guidance on almost every metric,” said Daniel Ek, Spotify’s founder. “Usage returned to normal at the end of the quarter and we feel good about our momentum as we go into the third quarter.”The company said that early in the quarter it had seen some “Covid-related softness” in some countries, with increases in payment failure from some subscribers, but that by June the business had “rebounded”.Spotify has been impacted by advertisers freezing budgets as the world went into lockdown, with ad revenues falling 21% to €131m in the second quarter. However, the company said that they are coming back with June down just 10% year-on-year.The advertising slowdown had little impact on Spotify’s overall business as it accounts for just a small fraction of its total €1.89bn revenues, which rose 13% year-on-year in the second quarter. Subscription revenues, the company’s lifeblood, rose 17% to €1.76bn. 2.06pm BST While negotiations continue between US lawmakers over the Republican-controlled Senate’s $1 trillion stimulus plan, our columnist Gene Marks has taken a look at what it means for small businesses. He says the proposal looks good, and offers three elements to help struggling firms get through the Covid-19 crisis.The bill’s final form will probably be different, but the key points in the proposal are: Related: The Senate’s stimulus proposal looks good for small businesses | Gene Marks Continue reading…
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