The past week has seen the emergence of a series of significant stories, all while the UK economy more generally continues to feel the effects of the global trade war launched across the pond.
Hack attacks
The week started with the news that Marks & Spencer had ordered hundreds of agency workers at its main distribution centre to stay at home after a cyber attack.
For more than a week, the British retailer was left unable to accept contactless payments, fully stock its shelves or let customers shop online.
The chaos has rumbled on this week, with customers sharing images online of empty shelves at branches across the country.
The attack has been linked to the notorious young hacking group Scattered Spider – who you can read more about here.
And just two days later, it emerged hackers had attempted to break into Co-op’s systems, forcing the retailer to shut down some of its operations to block the criminals.
In order to stop the hack, Co-op told Sky News it took “proactive steps” that “resulted in a small impact to some of our back office and call centre services”.
Co-op members and customers appeared to have escaped major immediate impact, with a spokesperson saying they were not being asked “to do anything differently at this point”.
A third hack was then reported yesterday afternoon by our City editor Mark Kleinman – at luxury shopping brand Harrods.
Our Daily podcast focused on the story this week – it’s well worth a listen…
Mortgage rate falls
There was better news for those looking to buy a house, with Zoopla saying expectations for lower interest rates over 2025 look set to keep mortgage rates at current levels or lower.
HSBC UK was the latest bank to cut mortgage rates, knocking up to 0.24 percentage points off this week and increasing the number of mortgage deals below 4%.
“While house price growth is expected to slow further, towards 1 to 1.5%, we’re still on course for a 5% uplift in sales volumes in 2025, assuming sellers remain pragmatic on pricing,” said Richard Donnell, executive director at Zoopla.
“Regions where affordability is better aligned to local incomes, particularly across the North and Midlands, are set to lead this recovery.”
Some lenders have recently announced changes to stress rates used in their affordability calculations, however, which could increase some people’s ability to borrow.
The food industry’s dirty secret
Money blog feature writer Brad Young sat down with numerous experts who explained how food manufacturers were incentivised to exploit your genetics, encourage over-eating and to remove a crucial healthy ingredient from their products.
These experts say it is costing the poorest families their health and the country billions of pounds to deal with the consequences.
Adding preservatives, and salt and sugar, while removing fibre – which can spoil food – leads to lower storage, transport and wastage costs for food companies.
But while it’s helping those businesses’ profit margins, it’s harming our guts – and making us want to eat more, and more, and more.
Tip of the week
Arguably, the most useful tip this week came in the form of the huge tranche of new holiday data released by travel website giant Expedia.
Just as many of us are looking to get our summer break plans locked down, the firm released some potentially very useful information.
According to its data, the cheapest dates to fly are 8 and 12 June, while the least busy are 27 and 31 August.
In terms of dates to avoid, the most expensive are 19 and 26 July – and the busiest 20 June and 25 July.
How Lucie made millions
Lucie posted a video on TikTok about her homemade hair oil during the COVID-19 pandemic.
That video went viral, and Lucie was soon inundated with messages asking if it was for sale.
Fast-forward a few years, and now the 25-year-old heads up a multimillion-pound beauty brand.
In this episode of New Money, Sky’s James Lillywhite visited the Hair Syrup warehouse in Pembrokeshire to find out how Lucie did it, and why they are based in rural Wales.
Before you go, remember to check back in on Saturday for our weekly feature, which will look at the fascinating topic of what it’s really like to be a brain surgeon.
Have a good weekend – we’ll be back with live updates on Tuesday after the bank holiday.