Black Friday to kick off £42bn Christmas spree November 23, 2014 Britons are expected to splurge £42.4bn in the run-up to Christmas – £1.5bn more than last year – as retailers brace themselves for an American-style Black Friday shopping frenzy set to take over their websites and stores this week. Sales are forecast to rise by four per cent year-on-year in the period starting from today [...]
Mix it up: Fire up afternoon tea with some gin in your teacup March 3, 2015 Ritual is one of life’s pleasures. Whether it’s the morning coffee or the whisky before bed, familiarity breeds contentedness. The best thing about rituals is that they’re easily appropriated. Even if you’ve never celebrated Thanksgiving, Christmas or Holi, there’s nothing to stop you giving thanks or presents. Of course, some rituals are better than [...]
Dixons Carphone share price falls 5 per cent after JP Morgan broker downgrade makes it the biggest faller on the FTSE 100 January 27, 2015 Dixons Carphone's share price fell as much as 5.6 per cent in early afternoon trade today, making it the biggest faller on the FTSE 100, after a broker downgrade. Morgan Stanley slashed the stock's rating to "underweight" from "equal weight," saying the shares were significantly overvalued and that it was "not a growth business." "While [...]
Energy shares drag Wall St – New York Report January 12, 2015 US SHARES fell yesterday, led by a decline in energy stocks as oil prices tumbled about five per cent and concern grew ahead of corporate earnings season. Oil prices continued their downward march and weighed on equities. Brent was down more than five per cent to $47.43 and US crude down 4.7 per cent at [...]
Black Friday 2014: Christmas now “front of mind” for UK shoppers, says John Lewis November 25, 2014 Christmas is “now front of mind” for shoppers, John Lewis has said, with weekly sales reaching £114.2m as the business heads into the Black Friday weekend. Despite tough comparisons, John Lewis' sales rose 2.1 per cent year-on-year, and five per cent week-on-week. Last week was the first time this year that sales were above [...]
Destiny gamers have spent collective 100,000 years playing most-expensive game of all time December 23, 2014 Humanity has been walking and populating this earth for around 200,000 years. It has also spent roughly half that time playing Destiny, the video game released last September. According to the game’s developer Bungie, gamers have collectively spent over 872m hours ridding malignant aliens from the solar system in Destiny’s dense universe. That’s equal [...]
Rush hour Tube chaos with severe delays on the Central, District and Piccadilly lines as London Bridge woes continue January 8, 2015 Soggy rush hour commuters were forced to endure severe delays on three Tube lines this morning, as signal failures held up journeys. Transport for London said there were severe delays to all destinations on the Central line thanks to a signal failure between Queensway and Lancaster Gate, on the District line because of a signal [...]
Flight QZ8501 disappearance: AirAsia share price falls most in three years December 29, 2014 Shares in AirAsia closed 7.8 per cent down yesterday after the disappearance of flight QZ8501 on its way from Surabaya in Indonesia to Singapore. The fall is its largest single-day drop since September 2011. AirAsia was the most active stock on the Kuala Lumpur Stock Exchange, with 59.5 million shares traded during the day. That's [...]
City Link slips into administration threatening 2,727 jobs at Christmas December 26, 2014 Parcel delivery company City Link has gone into administration, putting 2,727 jobs at risk. Administrators Ernst & Young, called in by the Coventry-based company on Christmas Eve, said “substantial redundancies” would be made in the coming days. City Link’s owner, private equity firm Better Capital, had marked the company for sale after incurring “substantial losses” [...]
Asos share price rises following positive end to 2014 January 13, 2015 The figures British online fashion retailer Asos ended 2014 on a very positive note, with the Christmas period pushing sales up by 15 per cent in the six weeks to 9 January. The news caused shares to rise by 7.1 per cent to £26 when markets opened this morning, and they were still performing [...]