The Retail Sector in 2019: Can Debenhams follow the strategy of Next? Companies in the retail sector have not been at their best lately, with major names such as toys retail giant Toys R’ Us officially closing down last year. Following a disastrous end in 2018 for the entire sector, where the General Retailers Index…

Half-year boosts for traditional banks and more woes for challengers It’s been an interesting week for banking, as half-year results have been posted and the battle between traditional and challenger banks and lenders, wages on. Barclays announced its highest profit for nine years, in H1, despite the sharp fall of the pound and the undercurrent…

We have been seeing a lot of speculation on how the rates would be cut by the US Federal Reserve (FED) in their July meeting. Will it be 50bps or 25bps? Yesterday, the Fed announced first rate cut of 25 basis points in over a decade. The US is the world’s biggest economy and thus…

Whilst the new British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has been reaching out to the four corners of the UK, the PM’s trips to Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland coincide with economic news that the likelihood of a no-deal Brexit is affecting the pound. The Bank of England has given a one in three chance of…

Are Next this year’s retail success story? High street chain Next has defied the retail gloom to raise its profit expectations by 3.6% over its financial year following a surge in full-price sales. The fashion chain saw a 4.3% sales increase in the previous half-year, largely through a rise in online sales. Shares in the…

This week we have seen some massive moves in UK 100 companies.  Vodafone is one that got me thinking.  This is a share that has fallen 9% since the beginning of the year, even after a 9% bounce today! Vodafone jumped today on the back of their quarterly trading update.  Next week sees a plethora of…