Closing summary - US stock markets have fallen at the open as a result of concerns about slowing economic growth, and fresh fears about the spread of Covid-19, especially the Delta variant.

Following on from the disappointing US ADP jobs data, the Dow Jones Industrial average fell 0.2% or nearly 69 points at the opening bell, to 35,047. Meanwhile the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq Composite were about 0.1% down.

Fresh fears about the spread of the Delta variant are also knocking shares in sectors such as banking and industrials, which are considered sensitive to the wider economy.

It comes as new figures from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention stated that the Delta variant now accounts for more than 93% of Covid-19 cases in the US.

In other news from today:

• UK service sector growth slowed in July as a result of staff shortages due to the “pingdemic”, and also supply chain disruption.
• European stocks have been climbing again on the back of strong corporate results.
• Housebuilder Taylor Wimpey was among the highest risers on the FTSE 100 after hiking its profit guidance and reporting that it had built a record number of homes during the first half of 2021.
• US payroll growth slowed last month.

You can continue to follow our live coverage from around the world:

The WHO has called for a moratorium on Covid vaccine boosters until at least the end of September, to concentrate on getting first jabs to more people globally.

Thanks for following our live coverage today and please join us again tomorrow. JP

Growth in Britain’s dominant service sector has slowed to its weakest since March after businesses were hit last month by a triple whammy of bottlenecks, workers self-isolating and a less generous tax break for homebuyers.

The latest monthly health check on UK services firms – which account for just under 80% of the economy – found costs rising at their fastest pace in at least 25 years in July, and raised concerns that the best of the UK’s economic recovery from the winter lockdown restrictions might be over.

The report from IHS Markit and the Chartered Institute of Procurement & Supply said firms were struggling with supply chain delays and shortages of workers exacerbated by the “pingdemic”, the instructions to self-isolate that have been running at more than 500,000 a week.

IHS Markit/Cips said the reduction in the threshold at which stamp duty is paid on house purchases from £500,000 to £250,000 in England and Northern Ireland at the end of June was also a factor in slowing growth in activity to a four-month low.

You can read Larry Elliott’s full article on the UK services data here:

The slowdown in US employment growth is also an indicator that staff shortages remain a problem, according to Capital Economics.

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

The ADP breakdown does show employment in leisure and hospitality rising by 139,000, but that represents a slowdown on recent months, so it isn’t a sign that low-wage workers are returning to the labour force now that the enhanced unemployment benefits have been withdrawn early in many states. Otherwise, the gains were evenly spread across the remaining service sectors. But construction added only 1,000 jobs, with manufacturing adding 8,000.

Ashworth also flags the importance of Friday’s upcoming payroll report. It’s the last bit of employment data the Fed will have before its Jackson Hole meeting towards the end of this month.

Sony is among those companies whose results have beaten expectations, which has been helping to drive global stock markets higher.

In the case of the Japanese entertainment and electronics conglomerate it’s thanks to ongoing demand for the PlayStation 5 games console, which at times is outstripping supply. Consumers have been clamouring for home entertainment throughout the pandemic.

Sony reported a 26% rise in operating profit in the three months to the end of June to 280.1bn yen (£1.85bn) from 221.7bn yen a year earlier, prompting it to raise its profit forecast for the year to March 2022.

The firm is anticipating that prospects for its music, movies and electronics divisions will continue to improve as the global economy emerges from the pandemic.

However, like many companies from technology firms to automakers, Sony is also feeling the impact of the global shortage of semiconductors.

You can read Jillian Ambrose’s article on Sony’s results here:

And if you’d like to read more on the shortage of semiconductor chips, here are a couple of earlier reports on the problems, and the impact on industry.

Reaction to the UK’s services PMI data from the economic forecasting group EY ITEM Club - it suggests inflation is likely to move higher in the second half of 2021, hitting 3.5% in later 2021, but this will only be temporary.

Given the growth business activity, the group anticipates further strong GDP growth between July and September.

Martin Beck, senior economic advisor to the EY ITEM Club, said:

The pace of activity growth has continued to slow, which is likely to reflect the notion that the biggest gains from reopening are now behind us. The PMI may also have been negatively affected by the rise in COVID-19 infections during July, which required growing numbers of people to self-isolate.

Beck is not too worried about inflation and doesn’t believe the Bank of England needs to be either, ahead of its meeting tomorrow.

While the EY ITEM Club is cautious about these results, given the survey has tended to overstate price pressures in the past, inflation is likely to reach around 3.5% on the CPI measure in late 2021. But the EY ITEM Club remains confident that this rise will prove transitory and expects the majority of the MPC to take a similar view at tomorrow’s meeting.

Taylor Wimpey, one of the UK’s biggest housebuilders, has returned to profit and upgraded its earnings targets after building a record number of homes in the first six months of the year.

The High Wycombe-based firm built more than 7,300 homes in the first half of 2021, almost all of which have been pre-sold, allowing the company to lock in the benefit of soaring house prices triggered by cheap loans, the government’s stamp duty holiday and a pandemic-driven preference for larger houses.

The FTSE 100 housebuilder reported a pre-tax profit of £287.5m for the six months to early July after a £40m loss in the same period last year in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic.

Pete Redfern, Taylor Wimpey’s chief executive, said the company expects to complete between 13,200 and 14,000 houses in 2021, and reach an operating profit for the year of about £820m.

Read the full story here:

Staffing shortages and supply chain disruptions also impacted firms in the euro zone last month, although business activity in the bloc grew at its fastest pace in 15 years.

The IHS Markit final composite PMI for the 19 countries which share the euro rose to 60.2 in July, up from 59.5 in June and the highest level since June 2006.

The reading for the euro zone’s service sector also hit its highest final reading since June 2006, after many service businesses across the region reopened.

IHS Markit said:

Among the four largest eurozone economies, the quickest rise was in Germany, where again the rate of expansion accelerated to a record high. In Italy, private sector activity growth jumped to a three-and-a-half year high, while Spain and France registered softer increases in output.

The British e-commerce specialist The Hut Group (THG) has snapped up online beauty retailer Cult Beauty for £275m.

The Manchester-based online firm, which listed last year, already sells directly to consumers through websites such as Lookfantastic, Glossybox and Zavvi, as well as sports nutrition company Myprotein, and racked up £1.1bn of revenues in 2019.

THG said Cult Beauty would add around £140m of net sales to it business in 2022.

Cult Beauty calls itself “the insider’s guide to the best beauty products” and was co-founded by former model and PR Alexia Inge in 2008.

THG is only slightly older, having been founded by Matthew Moulding in 2004. THG listed on the London stock market in September last year, in a flotation which valued it at £4.5bn.

THG has also raised it sales growth guidance for 2021 t0 38% - 41%, compared with previous guidance of 30% - 35%.

This is the view of equity analysts at broker Jefferies of THG’s latest acquisition:

Cult is an authorised retailer for c.300 prestige third-party brands, two-thirds of which are not currently listed on existing The Hut Group beauty sites. The deal will also enable THG to expand Cult’s overseas presence, given <50% international sales. Demographically Cult Beauty is at the younger end of the market, with a clearer bias to indie brands.

If you want to know more about The Hut Group, see some of the Guardian’s previous coverage of the growing e-commerce company, including the recent deal it struck with Japanese investment bank SoftBank:

More passengers took to the skies with Ryanair in July.

The number of passengers carried by the Irish airline doubled from 4.4m people in June to 9.3m in July.

The Irish carrier said it flew over 61,000 flights last month, which were 80% full.

Just a few days ago, the airline said it had seen a surge in bookings in recent weeks, thanks to the rollout of EU digital Covid certificates last month, as well as the scrapping of quarantine for fully-vaccinated people arriving in the UK from the EU.

Ryanair’s shares are also flying slightly higher in early trading, and are nearly 1% up.

Concerns about the Delta variant don’t appear to be weighing on Asian stock markets today, which have been moving towards one-week highs.

After a hesitant start to trading in Asia, stocks had bounced back by mid-morning.

MSCI’s index of Asia-Pacific shares outside of Japan remains in positive territory, although it has slipped a bit from earlier gains of over 1%.

Hong Kong’s Hang Seng is nearly 1% higher, although Japan’s Nikkei remains in the red.