City morning headlines: UK economic growth expected to have slowed

We are 100 days from May's general election and will start the countdown with the latest reading of economic growth - something that could impact the Conservatives, who are making the economic recovery a central plank of their campaign.

The fresh figures will cover in the final three months of last year and are expected at 09:30am.

The forecast is for growth to have slowed 0.6% in the fourth quarter and while that would mark the second successive quarter of slowing growth, it would leave the economy a respectable 2.6% bigger across 2014.

With lower oil prices putting more money in people’s pocket, could the economy stay in this sweet spot until the election?

You may have been disappointed this morning if you woke up hoping to check in on what the Kardashian clan were up to while you were sleeping as Instagram and Facebook suffered an outage earlier.

Dating app Tinder was also down.

It’s not clear what caused the problem, but the three are now back online.

After some early drama on Monday, financial markets seem to have become fairly sanguine on Greece and left-wing party Syriza’s election victory and European shares are expected to open higher.

There could be some reaction to rating agency S&P’s decision to cut Russian debt to junk status, but much like the Greek election, the move was well-flagged to investors and may well have been priced in already.

Sports Direct’s Mike Ashley has given Rangers a £10 million no interest loan to help it keep its head above water.

Half of the loan will be available as immediate working capital, while some of the remainder is earmarked for repayment of a £2 million loan Ashley previously gave, BBC Sport reported.

In return, Ashley gets security over the Scottish Championship club's Murray Park training ground, registered trademarks and other properties, but Ibrox Stadium is not included in the latest deal, the BBC said.

Willie Walsh and International Airlines Group have won over Irish flag carrier Aer Lingus’ board, which has accepted their increased £1 billion bid.

Walsh now has to face the not so small task of convincing the Irish Government to approve the deal.

He has suggested that Aer Lingus will operate separately to the rest of the gorup, which includes airlines British Airways and Iberia.

EasyJet has seen its first half losses dramatically reduced, after it pulled in more business passengers.

Estate agents Foxtons final quarter saw revenues fall 2.4% as sales in London dried up. The firm’s profits were down, but it will be paying a special dividend.

Pub group Marston’s outdid its rival Wetherspoons and reported that sales climbed 2% in the previous quarter, with margins also higher. It had a bumper Christmas Day with sales surging 12.5%.