All the day’s economic and financial news, as UK retail heavyweights report their Christmas trading figuresTesco and M&S shares dropTesco: A record Christmas, but below City forecastsM&S: Food and clothing sales fallJohn Lewis: Sales up, but inflation hits profitsIntro: Separating the Christmas crackers from the turkeysFull details: The UK Christmas retail winners and losers 1.45pm GMT An influential billionaire investor has warned that US government debt has entered a bear market — just like your average man.Bonds, like men, are in a bear market.For both, it’s hard to say when it all began. There was no Helen Reddy “I Am Woman” moment back in June 2012, and then again in July 2016 when the 10 year Treasury double-bottomed at 1.45%, but then in retrospect it should have been obvious that for bonds, like men – “their time was up”. “Bonds, like men, are in a bear market”That, whatever it means, is from Bill GrossOprah shouted, “Their time has come”. The bear bond market’s time has come as well. Many would say, including yours truly – “It’s about time”.I didn’t think Gross would ever top “PIMCO will not go down at the Somme”, but “bonds, like men, are in a bear market” is right thereActually most of the world’s problems would go away if men just stayed home, watched football and learned to talk to their partners during commercial breaks. There are certainly enough of them.Wait. What?https://t.co/1COUepBLMa pic.twitter.com/Mhlt6DOSskPeople forget how good war is, says Bill Gross. https://t.co/Pk2VDkuyCi pic.twitter.com/aCaXNpjjQv 1.01pm GMT Jewellery maker Pandora has added to the anxiety in the retail sector today by missing its sales targets for the last year.Pandora missed its own 2017 sales forecasts on Thursday and warned of thinner margins ahead, putting shares in the world’s largest jewellery maker on course for their worst day in more than six years. In a trading update, Pandora said it aims to generate around half of its revenue from rings, earrings and necklaces by 2022 and would increase its annual collections to 10 per year from seven. Continue reading…
Via: Tesco, M&S and John Lewis report Christmas trading results – business live
Categories: English News