Shares in Daimler are down 0.7% following the announcement.

Daimler said it would give further details in the coming weeks but tried to assure staff that it was cutting jobs in a “socially responsible manner”.

The company is aiming to cut staff costs by around €1.4bn by the end of 2022.

Workers will also be offered to cut their weekly working hours, and will “be very restrictive” in allowing permanent employees to sign on to 40-hour contracts.

German-listed shares in E.ON are up 3.3% and have hit their highest level since July after announcing plans to cut most of npower’s sites and thousands of jobs across the UK.

Rik Smith, an energy expert at uSwitch.com who previously worked at British Gas, says the job cuts were inevitable after their new owners described its supply business as “an open wound.”

E.On become the owner of npower after buying another German company Innology, which is npower’s direct parent.

Smith warned that E.ON will have a few priorities to juggle: as it drives ahead with its restructuring plans, the company will also have to deal with the cut-throat competition of the UK’s retail energy market.

Smith says that could be a tough ask:

They also have to contend with cut-throat competition in the retail energy market, where smaller suppliers have forced the Big Six to go head to head with them on price, while being nimbler about customer service and doing a better job of convincing consumers of their green credentials.

We are seeing customer loyalty waning, as UK households aren’t content to sit on poor value standard deals and pay over the odds for their energy. Instead they’re taking action and moving to cheaper tariffs and better service, meaning that energy companies can no longer take their customers for granted.

Black Friday card purchases have jumped this year.

Barclaycard said the number of debit and credit card transactions as of 10am this morning were up 12.5% compared to 2018.

This doesn’t necessarily mean more money has been spent overall, and it may just signal that more customers are using card versus cash.

It’s worth noting that Barclaycard processes one in three of the UK’s debit and credit card transactions.

Rob Cameron, CEO of Barclaycard Payments, said:

Over the past couple of years we have seen an increase in the volume of transactions on Black Friday. This trend has continued in 2019, and this morning we’ve already seen an 12.5 per cent rise compared to the same period last year.

This is fantastic news for retailers, with our data showing that transactions have also been strong throughout the week of Black Friday.

With many retailers spreading their deals out throughout the week, they will be encouraged to see this hasn’t cannibalised sales volumes on Black Friday itself. It will be interesting to watch what happens as we progress throughout the day.

If you want more Black Friday news, head over to our dedicated live blog:

GfK survey shows consumers are far more cheery about their own finances – at least relative to their views on the wider UK economy.

Consumers believe their personal financial circumstances slightly worsened in the year to November, but that only resulted in the score dropping from 1 to 0.

The view on the general economic situation also fell one point, but brought the score down to disappointing -34.

Analysts from Citigroup, led by Christian Schulz, have picked up on the gap.

They say the discrepancy is due to strong jobs figures and earnings growth, but warn that any downturn in those indicators could turn the tide:

The post-referendum pattern of resilient personal expectations and weak national expectations seems to have persisted.

Alongside the reduction in the savings index, this implies a resilient picture for consumption in the near term.

The gap between personal and national perceptions is likely underpinned by strong employment and earnings growth. If these weaken, this could depress consumer confidence, risking an increase in precautionary savings.

Consumer confidence is not the only economic indicator suffering as a result of Brexit uncertainty.

A Guardian analysis of data released over the past month gives us a wider view of the reality. My colleague and Observer economics editor Phillip Inman notes that Brexit has continued to knock confidence among businesses, resulting in a drop in pay growth for workers:

David Blanchflower, an economist and former member of the Bank of England’s monetary policy committee, said a rise in inactivity and persistent under-employment helped to explain why wages growth had started to fall.

Full comments from Blanchflower and former Bank of England rate-setter Andrew Sentence about the impact of Brexit on economic indicators over the past month can be found here:

DMGT chairman Lord Rothermere said the ‘i’ will be a “strong cash generator for the group.”

In 2018, the ‘i’ made around £11m in profits and was previously considered the crown jewel for JPI. The ‘i’ sells around 170,000 newspapers each weekday, and around 190,000 on Saturdays, while its website attracts around 300,000 daily unique readers.

DMGT, which also owns the free sheet Metro, tried to buy the ‘i’ last year for £24m just before Johnston Press was put into administration after being brought to its knees by a £220m debt burden.

Lord Rothermere said:

We are delighted to welcome the ‘i’ to our stable of media brands. It is a highly respected publication with a loyal and engaged readership. We are committed to preserving its distinctive, high quality and politically independent editorial style.

The acquisition of the ‘i’ is both strategically and financially compelling for DMGT and there is scope for potential synergies in the future, notably from dmg media’s existing infrastructure and in advertising sales.

The business will benefit from DMGT’s long-term approach and commitment to investing in editorial content. We also see good opportunities to develop inews.co.uk, a growing digital media asset. Financially, the ‘i’ will be a strong cash generator for the group as we continue to invest across the portfolio, both organically and through acquisitions.

Checking in on markets, Ocado is holding the top spot on the FTSE 100.

Ocado shares up are more than 12% after reaching a deal with Japan’s largest supermarket Aeon Co, which boasts a 21,000 store network across 14 countries.

Ocado will help Aeon develop its online business, as it tries to fend off rivals like Amazon that are muscling their way into the online grocery space.

Jasper Lawler, head of research at London Capital Group, says:

Shares of Ocado are making double-digit percentage gains on news of a partnership with Japan’s biggest supermarket Aeon Co.

This just goes further in cementing Ocado’s place as a technology service provider after its previous deals in the US and Europe. This is the UK firm’s biggest foray into Asia and we’d expect the continent to be a big target for future growth.

The huge jump in the shares today is not just about the extra sales from Japan. It is about the multiple investors are willing to pay for a high growth tech firm over a retailer. The more tech deals Ocado can ink, the higher we would expect its P/E ratio to go.

And finally, we have Eurozone unemployment figures showing that the jobless rate fell slightly from 7.6% to 7.5% in October.

That is in line with economist expectations.

More from the Bank of England stats:

Borrowing by businesses slowed year-on-year, signalling that companies are still holding off from major investments due to continued Brexit (and general election) uncertainty.

Borrowing by SMEs rose just 1%, down from 1.1% in September. Large business borrowing rose 5.3%, compared to 5.5% a month earlier.

Altogether, banks lent businesses around £700m last month, which is less than the six month average of £1.9bn.

Phil Smeaton, chief investment officer at Sanlam UK says:

Once the results of the election are revealed, we will receive clarity around future fiscal stimuli and investment spending.

If a majority is secured in parliament, we can expect investment, which has been weak, to bounce back as we ride a wave of increased confidence and stability.

Black Friday is failing to whip up excitement for retail stocks with many trading in the red this morning:

• Marks & Spencer +0.2%
• BooHoo +0.7%
• Next -0.1%
• JD Sports -0.1%
• ASOS -0.4%

Russ Mould, investment director at AJ Bell, said:

In reality, Black Friday isn’t always the major earner for retailers as some people might think. Yes it can help to drive up revenue, but investors care more about profits. The challenge throughout the year for retailers is to sell as much as possible at full price.

Black Friday can be used as a way of luring people in to shops or websites with the hope that they buy full price products as well as discounted ones. Whether that happens remains to be seen.

ASOS is offering up to 70% off everything on its website and BooHoo has gone even further with a promotion for part of the day offering up to 75% off its products. That’s a huge giveaway.

Consumers hooked on a diet of discounts tend to rebase their expectations for pricing going forward and it can be very hard for retailers to get them to pay higher prices later on. By offering such generous discounts they are creating major problems for the future.

Some slightly better news from the GfK consumer confidence survey, with respondents less pessimistic about the state of the economy over the coming year.

Don’t get too excited, though. While the score rose 3 points, that still leaves us with a reading of -34.

Nonetheless, GfK reckons consumers may feel more secure once the general election is over and done with.

Joe Staton, client strategy director at GfK, said:

The score for the general economy over the coming year has ticked up three points and this is possibly an indication that some consumers believe the imminent general election might clear the Brexit deadlock, even though this sub-measure is still in deeply negative territory at -34.

The general election is potentially an opportunity to move us out of the doldrums – but for this to happen there must be a clear result.

A hung parliament could be very damaging for consumer confidence and would surely deepen the obvious malaise that we see month after month.

For those of you on the hunt for Black Friday deals , my colleague Martin Belam has you covered with a dedicated live blog.

Crucially, he’s looking out for ethical and sustainable ways to mitigate the environment impact of one of the most hyped-up shopping days of the year:

Europe’s stock markets have opened and are not off to a great start:

• FTSE 100 down -0.5%
• Germany’s Dax down -0.5%
• France’s CAC 40 down -0.3%
• Italy’s FTSE MIB down nearly -0.6%