ABF posts bumper sales over Christmas, Saga reiterates half-year profit guidance

London open:

The FTSE 100 was seen starting the day 20 points higher at 7,804.

Stocks to watch:

Primark owner Associated British Foods on Tuesday posted a 20% rise in sales during the Christmas period as consumers continued to hunt for bargains amid the cost-of-living crisis. The company, which also has agriculture, sugar and food ingredients operations, said revenue in the 16 weeks to January 7 rose to £6.7bn, with Primark sales up 18% to £3.1bn. Group full-year expectations remain unchanged.

Saga reiterated its guidance for half-year profits as sales in Cruise and Travel continued to recover from the pandemic. Nonetheless, chief executive officer Euan Sutherland described conditions in the UK motor insurance market as still "challenging", adding that there had been "some pressure" on the company's underwriting business. Despite the latter, Saga's Retail Broking unit was expected to deliver results in line with expectations. Underlying profits for the six months to 23 January were seen coming in at between £20-30m on sales up by 40-50% in comparison to the year-earlier period.

In the press:

Google staff are overpaid and the tech giant must cut thousands more jobs, a British activist investor has said. Sir Chris Hohn, who previously donated to Extinction Rebellion, wrote in a letter dated January 20 that Google's 12,000 layoffs did not cut deep enough to reduce bloat at the tech giant. The billionaire founder of The Children's Investment Fund Management (TCI) , who holds a $6bn stake in Google-parent company Alphabet, wrote to chief executive Sundar Pichai, warning: "Ultimately management will need to go further." – Telegraph

BT is facing a fresh investigation into whether it obscured inflation-busting price rises in its contracts, as customers brace for a sharp increase in their bills. Ofcom said it will examine whether the telecoms giant had failed to provide clear warning of upcoming price increases to customers of its broadband subsidiary Plusnet. – Telegraph

The companies running Britain’s four remaining steel blastfurnaces have been offered £600m in government support to help fund the switch from coal and invest in lower-emissions technology. The chancellor, Jeremy Hunt, is expected to confirm £300m each for British Steel and Tata Steel in an announcement as soon as this week, although the timing will depend on them accepting the offers. The BBC first reported the government offer to both companies. – Guardian

US close:

Wall Street stocks closed higher on Monday as market participants looked ahead to a busy week of earnings.

At the close, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 0.76% at 33,629.56, while the S&P 500 advanced 1.19% to 4,019.81 and the Nasdaq Composite saw out the session 2.01% firmer at 11,364.41.

The Dow closed 254.07 points higher on Monday, extending solid gains recorded in the previous session.

Investors will be zeroed in on the Federal Reserve throughout the course of the week, with many weighing the possibility that the central bank may be close to slowing the pace of its inflation-fighting rate hikes after Governor Christopher Waller said he was in favour of a 0.25% rate increase at Fed's next meeting.