Thank you for your participation. Next has pledged not to raise selling prices this year, buoyed by lower factory prices.
The company also increased its full-year profit guidance by £20m to £905m, up 4% on the previous year.
5 things to start your day
1) Elon Musk’s Chinese rival topples Tesla – now it’s coming to the UK | BYD’s rising popularity raises new concerns about China’s dominance in auto manufacturing
2) “We are losing a lot of businesses and if we don’t do anything the UK market will decline.” | Peel Hunt warns government must stop chronic undervaluing of British companies
3) Airbus plans to buy French cybersecurity business for 1.8 billion euros | Negotiations to acquire aerospace giant Atos amid growing interest in digital defense
Four) Thurrock council staff investigated after bankruptcy | Local authority left with £500m budget black hole after high-risk investment
Five) Matthew Lynn: The Bank of England is about to put the final nail in the Tory coffin | The city’s financial costs are falling, but one group remains unconvinced
what happened overnight
Asian stocks fell, continuing a sluggish start to 2024 on Wall Street as Japan’s markets reopened.
At least 77 people were killed and dozens of others are missing in Monday’s massive earthquake, and Tokyo markets reopened from the New Year’s holiday with a moment of silence instead of the New Year’s Eve bell, but the mood in Tokyo remained somber. It drifted.
At the ceremony, which usually features women wearing colorful kimonos, officials in dark suits bowed their heads. Japan’s benchmark Nikkei Stock Average fell 0.5% to close at 33,288.29, while the broader Topix index rose 0.5% to 2,378.79.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index fell 0.4% to 16,574.36, and the Shanghai Composite Index fell 0.4% to 2,946.15.
Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 fell 0.4% to 7,494.10. South Korea’s Kospi fell 0.8% to 2,586.02. Meanwhile, India’s Sensex rose 0.6%.
The S&P 500 fell 0.8% to 4,704.81, reflecting a red ink day for UK and eurozone stock markets on Wednesday.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average, which is made up of the top 30 US companies, also fell 0.8% to 37,430.19. The Nasdaq Composite Index fell 1.2% to 14,592.21.
The yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note fell to 3.91% from 3.94% late Tuesday after the Federal Reserve released minutes of its December interest rate meeting.
The minutes gave no direct clues as to when interest rates would begin to be cut in the United States, but there was a growing sense that inflation was under control and that “overly restrictive” monetary policy was driving the world’s largest economy. It showed growing concern about the risks posed to major powers.
Paul Ashworth, chief North American economist at Capital Economics, said the minutes were “slightly more dovish than we expected, and more hawkish post-meeting comments from many participants than Jerome Powell.” “It was consistent with the message the chairman conveyed at the press conference.” That’s what other Fed officials said. ”