UK petrol prices: Sainsbury’s, Morrisons and Asda kick off war at the pumps February 9, 2018 A UK petrol price war has kicked off with three of the big four supermarkets slashing prices at the pumps. In the last few minutes, Sainsbury’s mirrored an earlier move by Asda and Morrisons this morning to knock 2p off a litre of petrol and diesel. Sources at Tesco said a decision had yet to [...]
Wall Street closes in correction territory as stocks tumble February 8, 2018 US stock markets confirmed they were in correction territory today after a week of wild swings. The Dow Jones Industrial Average and the benchmark S&P 500 were both more than 10 per cent lower than their record highs last month, closing down 4.2 per cent and 3.8 per cent, respectively. The tech-heavy Nasdaq ended the [...]
‘Supermarket giants doomed’ – no, just history repeating February 2, 2018 Investors, analysts, journalists or other market commentators often become convinced some scenario or trend definitely will or will not play out. Check back a few years later, however – always anyone bothers – and that certainty may prove unwarranted. Three or four years ago, for example, many were arguing it was ‘game over’ for supermarket [...]
Public Register: Investors have published their FTSE naughty list of companies with the angriest shareholders December 19, 2017 This year has been punctuated by shareholder rebellions in businesses from WPP to Persimmon to the boardroom battle currently raging over the ousting of London Stock Exchange boss Xavier Rolet. But now shareholder anger at FTSE bosses’ pay packets has been dragged into the spotlight again, after the Investment Association launched its “naughty list” of [...]
UK inflation hits 3.1 per cent December 12, 2017 Inflation hit 3.1 per cent in November, meaning Bank of England (BoE) governor Mark Carney must write to the Treasury with an explanation for the rise. November’s consumer price index (CPI) reading was expected to remain unchanged at three per cent for the third month in a row. CPI has been above the Bank of [...]
US non-farm payrolls: The US added 228,000 new jobs in November ahead of crucial Fed meeting December 8, 2017 The US added 228,000 new jobs in November. The data comes ahead of an important Federal Reserve meeting, scheduled for next week, where it is expected to raise rates to their highest level in more than nine years. The consensus expectation was for November non-farm payrolls to increase by 198,000, which would represent a significant [...]
Just Eat faces a tall order – it needs to keep delivering for its investors if it’s to be number one in the £9.9bn takeaway sector December 1, 2017 Just Eat delivered more than just takeaways last month. It not only set a new Guinness world record for the largest human image of a pizza but also received the green light to gobble up rival Hungryhouse. But the cherry on the cake for Just Eat was joining the FTSE 100 this week with a [...]
Bricks or clicks? Rumours of the high street’s demise have been greatly exaggerated November 28, 2017 The way we shop may have changed markedly over time, but the nation’s appetite for shopping is as voracious as ever. This was shown, once again, in the frenzy around Black Friday and Cyber Monday, now important landmarks in the retail calendar. Early estimates suggest that spending exceeded £7bn. The fundamental shift has been driven [...]
Kantar figures: Lidl maintains position as UK’s fastest growing grocer as Sainsbury’s outpaces Big Four November 14, 2017 Lidl has kept its crown as the UK’s fastest growing grocer for a fifth quarter in a row, as Sainsbury’s becomes the best performing of the Big Four. Figures published by Kantar Worldpanel this morning show that sales were up 15.1 per cent at Lidl in the 12 weeks to 5 November, with 10.6m households [...]
Marks and Spencer turnaround: Retail veteran Steve Rowe must make M&S tills jingle all the way during Christmas period November 9, 2017 Marks and Spencer started this week on a cheery note with the launch of its Christmas advert – but the festive feel didn’t last long for the high-street stalwart. The new advert sent Twitter into a tizzy on Tuesday with some viewers convinced that one of the characters was mouthing a swear word in a [...]