Wall St up as Fed signals no rate hike hurry – New York Report January 7, 2015 US STOCKS rebounded yesterday from five straight sessions of losses after strong private sector jobs data and as minutes from the most recent Federal Reserve meeting reassured investors the bank was in no hurry to start raising interest rates. The Dow Jones industrial average rose 212.88 points, or 1.23 per cent, to 17,584.52, the S&P [...]
Eurozone deflation: Who are the winners and losers? January 7, 2015 Deflationary death spiral There's good and bad deflation. malign or benign deflation. "Malign deflation, the kind that accompanied the Great Depression, is a consequence of shurnken spending, corproate earnings, and payrolls … prices aren't falling due to abundant goods & services but because there's less money to go around." Benign deflation … results from improvements [...]
Sainsbury’s Christmas sales slip as outlook remains “challenging” January 7, 2015 Festive cheer failed to save supermarket Sainsbury's as it reported third quarter sales which were the worst in a decade. Like-for-like sales in stores open for more than a year fell 1.7 per cent in the 14 weeks to January 3, excluding fuel. Despite this, sales actually beat expectations, with analysts forecasting a drop between [...]
Record trading brings festive cheer to retailer House of Fraser January 6, 2015 HOUSE of Fraser has posted a record Christmas, buoyed by Black Friday and strong online sales, lifting expectations for the department store group’s full-year results. Like-for-like sales for the six weeks to 3 January rose eight per cent, with online sales up 31.2 per cent while sales from bricks and mortar stores rose 4.2 per [...]
Supermarket price wars: Sainsbury’s and Asda kick off new cost-cutting battle January 6, 2015 Asda and J Sainsbury fired the latest salvo yesterday in the supermarket price war, with Tesco also expected to launch a round of price cuts tomorrow as the big four battle it out to win over shoppers’ loyalty. Walmart-owned Asda pledged to spend £300m lowering prices in the first quarter of 2015 as part of [...]
Retailers expect 2015 to be yet another year of falling prices January 6, 2015 Britain’s retailers expect shop prices to continue to fall throughout this year, having dipped during every month of 2014. Together with falling energy costs, lower prices in the UK’s shops would put more downward pressure on inflation. As a consequence, real wages are expected to rise further, and the Bank of England could be tempted [...]
LondonMetric buys Tesco dark store as online demand expands January 6, 2015 LondonMetric has stepped up its exposure to the UK’s fast-growing online retail market by acquiring a Tesco distribution centre in south London for £21m. The property company said yesterday it has bought the Croydon warehouse from CBRE Global Investors in a deal reflecting an initial yield of 5.5 per cent. The 173,000 square feet online [...]
Peppa Pig maker Entertainment One splashes cash on US deal as finance boss Giles Willits talks expansion plans January 6, 2015 Giles Willits is sitting in the boardroom of Entertainment One’s offices in west London with a family of Peppa Pig cuddly toys gazing up at him. The British TV phenomenon – Peppa Pig, that is – is one of the production group’s most successful exports. But today pigs are forgotten and the group’s jolly finance [...]
High street stores lose sales to Black Friday and good weather January 6, 2015 BLACK Friday led to a slump in December’s retail sales, according to the latest BDO High Street Sales Tracker. Mid-market retailers saw sales drop by 1.4 per cent year-on-year, the fashion sector taking the biggest hit with a 6.1 per cent reduction in the last week of 2014. Sales of lifestyle goods went up by [...]
More bad news for retailers: Consumers to send back £223m-worth of unwanted Christmas presents January 6, 2015 Retailers have started to report their Christmas performances, and while online growth is something that many of them will trumpet proudly, the rise of etail presents a growing challenge for the sector. This year will see record levels of unwanted gifts being returned to retailers, with one estimate putting the total amount being sent [...]