WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW
More of the same from M&S. The retailer's full-year pre-tax profits fell 20 per cent to £67.2m and it has recorded £212.8m in costs and stock write-downs linked to coronavirus. Read today's full story.
The doctor will see you now. AstraZeneca’s Lynparza treatment has been approved in the US for patients with a type of metastatic prostate cancer. Find out what to do with its shares.
Am I covered for this? Aviva has bumped up non-executive George Culmer to the role of chairman, four months after the insurance giant announced Sir Adrian Montague would step down this year. This is what we said in our recent update.
Should we throw the book at them? Bloomsbury Publishing anticipates that in a ‘severe but plausible’ downside scenario, print revenues could drop by 60 to 65 per cent for the three months of expected global restrictions to July 2020 and gradual recovery through to March next year. Here's our latest update.
A solid debut. Two months after its spinoff from Investec, asset manager Ninety One has today released its first full-year results as a standalone company.
CHARTING UK HOUSEHOLD INCOMES
IHS Markit’s UK Household Finance Index – which monitors perceptions of financial wellbeing – gave a reading of 37.8 in May, up slightly from April’s eight-and-a-half year low of 34.9. Any reading below 50 signals a contraction. Workplace activity dwindled and the decline in income from employment was the “sharpest ever seen” since data was first collected in 2009. People’s perceptions of job security also remained gloomy during April and May. But household debt levels “held stable”, helped by a significant contraction in consumer spending.
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- The Roosevelt Moment: Mr Bearbull looks at whether the developed world's re-emergence from lockdown will be sufficiently confident to justify the resilience of the world’s equity markets these past several weeks, or whether it will stutter and falter as to force equity markets to realign themselves with what the macroeconomic data is saying.
- Compass points the way for retail investors: Alongside publication of predictably harrowing half-year figures, Compass Group announced details of a £2bn share offer via an accelerated placing, involving both institutional and retail investors. Mark Robinson reports on an emergency fundraising for the embattled caterer could herald new opportunities for retail investors.
- Dangerous recovery stocks: While it's tempting to go looking for recovery stocks, Chris Dillow says we should be wary of succumbing to this temptation because while there are big potential gains there are also big dangers.
