JD Wetherspoon expects H1 loss, Burberry Q3 sales rise

London pre-open

The FTSE 100 was being called to open 48.7 points lower ahead of the bell after closing 0.63% lower in the previous session at 7,563.55.

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Pub chain JD Wetherspoon said on Wednesday that it will swing to an interim loss in its current trading year after like-for-like sales decreased 11.7% in the 25 weeks to 16 January, while total sales fell 13.3% when compared to the equivalent period in the 2020 trading year.

The FTSE 250-listed firm highlighted that sales in the second quarter had been impacted by the UK's Plan B restrictions, announced by the government in December, with like-for-like sales decreasing 15.6% in the 12 weeks to 16 January and total sales dropping 16.6%.

Fashion retailer Burberry reported a 5% rise in third-quarter revenues driven by an acceleration in full-price sales.

Burberry said revenues for the 13 weeks ended 25 December came to £723.0m when compared with £688.0m a year earlier and guided for current year adjusted operating profits to grow around 35% at constant exchange rates and maintained medium-term guidance for high single-digit top line growth and "meaningful margin accretion".

Newspaper round-up

Unilever has been warned that buying GlaxoSmithKline's consumer products arm is likely to substantially swell its debt pile and could trigger a "multi-notch downgrade" to its credit rating. Ratings agency Fitch said Unilever would not be able to keep hold of its current A rating with a stable outlook beyond 2024-2025, and would be cut to BBB, if it were to acquire GSK's consumer products division or another large business. - Guardian

Together Energy has become the latest supplier to go bust weeks after the struggling council-owned company assured its customers that the business was stable despite record-high gas market prices. The energy regulator, Ofgem, will appoint a new supplier to take on the 176,000 households affected by the collapse of Together Energy, and its subsidiary Bristol Energy, which are part-owned by Warrington borough council. - Guardian

A data intelligence firm partly owned by an influential Tory backbencher has won a government contract to monitor foreign takeovers of British companies, under new laws to curb Chinese and Russian influence. Tom Tugendhat, the chairman of the foreign affairs select committee, is a shareholder in Business Funding Research Ltd, which trades as Beauhurst. - Telegraph

Letters and parcel deliveries are subject to unprecedented delays as Royal Mail struggles with thousands of staff absences, demand for Covid-19 tests and a deluge of Christmas returns. Around 15,000 - or one in seven - of the postal service's workers were sick or isolating as the omicron variant spread in the first week of January. The figure still stood at 13,000 last week, double the normal level for this time of year. - Telegraph

A luxury penthouse flat on the edge of Regent's Park in London is at the centre of a $131.0m legal battle between Barclays and the tycoon behind two FTSE 350 companies that collapsed amid a fraud scandal. The property off Prince Albert Road is among assets belonging to Bavaguthu Raghuram Shetty, the founder of NMC Health and Finablr, over which the bank has been granted a worldwide freezing and asset disclosure order. - The Times

US close

Wall Street stocks closed sharply lower on Tuesday as market participants digested more corporate earnings and kept one eye on government bond yields that were now at pandemic-era highs.

At the close, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 1.51% at 35,368.47, while the S&P 500 was 1.84% weaker at 4,577.11 and the Nasdaq Composite saw out the session 2.60% softer at 14,506.90.