DiscoverIE buys US-based Magnasphere, Asos appoints Google exec to board

London open

The FTSE 100 was expected to open 20 points higher on Thursday, having closed up 1.72% at 7,497.32 on Wednesday.

Stocks to watch

Electronics maker discoverIE Group said it had bought US-based Magnasphere Corporation for $22m (£19.1m). Magnasphere makes magnetic sensors and switches for industrial electronic applications. DiscoverIE said the acquisition is expected to be immediately accretive to group underlying earnings and underlying operating margin. The business, which is currently majority owned by management, is based in Waukesha, Wisconsin, with manufacturing facilities in Goshen, Indiana.

Online fast-fashion retailer Asos has appointed a senior Google executive to its board as it works to boost corporate governance. Marie Gulin-Merle was on Thursday named as a non-executive director. Currently Google's a vice-president of advertising marketing, based in New York, she also held various executive positions such as chief marketing officer of Calvin Klein, chief digital officer of PVH and group CMO of L'Oreal USA. Gulin-Merle will join the Asos board on February 1, 2023 and will serve on the remuneration committee, amongst others, the company said in a statement.

Newspaper round-up

Rishi Sunak is under growing pressure to offer more help to older workers who have fallen out of the workforce due to ill health, as official figures show a sharp increase in the rates of long-term sickness in every region of the UK except London. Highlighting deep regional divisions, figures from the Office for National Statistics show economic inactivity due to long-term sickness has increased most among 50 to 64-year-olds outside the capital since the Covid pandemic. – Guardian

More than three-quarters of firms say the government’s post-Brexit trade deal with the EU has not helped them to expand their business in the last two years despite promises that it was an “oven-ready” deal. A survey by the British Chambers of Commerce (BCC) has prompted the business lobby group to present the government with five urgent recommendations for enhancing the agreement, which has left many exporters struggling to sell into the EU under the current terms. – Guardian

Pret A Manger is axing almost all of its vegetarian-only stores as the novelty of meat-free branches wears off. The sandwich chain is to shut or rebrand 75pc of its Veggie Pret stores six years after they first launched. – Telegraph

Sir Tom Hunter, the billionaire investor and philanthropist, has reaffirmed his commitment to THG, insisting that Matt Moulding’s struggling beauty-to-nutrition retailer has been a “a real success story” (Greig Cameron writes). Hunter, 61, has had a business relationship with Moulding, 50, since 2009 and been a vocal supporter even as THG — formerly The Hut Group — has stumbled. – The Times

Sharan Pasricha, the wealthy entrepreneur behind Gleneagles and the trendy Hoxton hotel chain, has collected an estimated €260 million by selling the underlying assets of the hotels in Amsterdam and Paris. The near €1 million per room paid by Schroders, the buyer of the two properties, is thought to be the biggest per-room price ever paid in Europe for a hotel without suites. – The Times

US close

Wall Street stocks closed in positive territory on Wednesday, as traders refused to give up hope of a possible Santa rally.

At the close, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 1.8% at 33,376.48, as the S&P 500 added 1.49% to 3,878.44, and the Nasdaq Composite was ahead 1.54% at 10,709.37.

The Dow closed 526.74 points higher on Wednesday, extending the gains it recorded on Tuesday.

Wednesday's primary focus was the Conference Board's consumer confidence index, with data revealing Americans consumers were unexpectedly more upbeat at the end of 2022.

The consumer confidence index jumped from a reading of 101.4 for November to 108.3 in December - its highest reading since the previous April and well ahead of expectations for a print of 101.