Weekly review

The FTSE 100 ended the week down 314.11 points to 5,912.44.

Equity view

Sports Direct International tumbled after saying it is no longer confident of meeting its adjusted underlying core earnings target for the full year due to deteriorating trading conditions on the high street and unseasonal weather over Christmas.

BHP Billiton said on Friday that the amount of mining waste spilled as a result of the dam burst at its Samarco joint venture iron ore mine in Brazil last November was a lot less than previously thought.

Private hospital group Spire Healthcare reiterated its guidance for 2015 on Friday and said it expects revenue for this year to grow

Sainsbury's has come out to deflect rumours that a major shareholder may block the supermarket's attempt to acquire Home Retail Group

Former Tesco boss Sir Terry Leahy and US private equity firm Clayton Dubilier & Rice are reportedly mulling a possible bid for Home Retail Group to rival Sainsbury's.

Walgreens, the new parent of chemist chain Boots, got off to a mixed first quarter, beating earnings forecasts but missing sales targets.

Rathbone Brothers posted a positive fourth quarter, though it did report a mixed 2015 in a trading update on Thursday.

Gold mining company Centamin has produced a set of mostly positive production results for the fourth quarter at its Sukari Mine in Egypt.

After BT and TalkTalk appealed against telecom regulator Ofcom's ruling on superfast broadband charges, the matter has been referred to the the Competition and Markets Authority

Sales at the John Lewis Partnership rose 41% to £181bn during the festive trading period, helped by another of its heartwarming Christmas advertising campaigns.

Card Factory has appointed Karen Hubbard as the company’s new chief executive, taking over from Richard Hayes later in the year.

WPP Group - through its wholly-owned Grey Group subsidiary - expanded its Asia operation on Wednesday, with the purchase of a majority stake in Vinyl-I Co.

In its much anticipated post-Christmas trading update, Next revealed sales were below expectations but said profits were within the range of guidance after the clothing retailer held back from discounting until Boxing Day.

Bwin.party ended its financial year on a high, ahead of its final results and takeover by GVC Holdings.

Medical tech business Smith & Nephew has completed the acquisition of surgical robotics business Blue Belt Technologies.

HSBC has hiked its target price for AstraZeneca shares after the pharmaceutical giant's acquisition of cancer specialist Acerta Pharma a week before Christmas.

UBS has estimated net losses of £150m to £308m from storms Desmond, Eva and Frank at RSA Insurance, Direct Line and Aviva, equivalent to 3%, 2% and 1% of market caps respectively

Diageo was ringing in 2016 on Monday with the completion of the sale of its major wine interests.

RSA Insurance has completed the sale of its business in Italy to ITAS Mutua following the receipt of regulatory approval.

Economic news

A lower bill for oil imports helped to reign in the UK’s trade deficit in November, but strength in sterling, especially against the euro, continued to weigh on exports amid already weak global demand

A cocktail of negative factors and wily shoppers left a hole in High Street retailers’ pockets last Christmas, BDO’s survey of retail trends revealed.

Data from Halifax has supported the notion that strong UK house price growth returned in December after November's blip.

UK new car sales rose to a record high last year, SMMT revealed on Wednesday.

Bank of America Merrill Lynch has shifted back its Bank of England rate hike call from May to November 2016

The Markit/CIPS services purchasing managers’ index nudged down to 555 in December from 559 the previous month

The UK construction sector rebounded in December from a seven-month low, led by commercial building activity.

The UK economy finished strongly in 2015, driven by growth in business services, according to the Confederation of British Industry (CBI) on Monday.

Growth in the UK manufacturing sector slowed in December, missing economists’ expectations.

International events

The non-farm payrolls report showed US employers added 292,000 jobs in December, smashing estimates of 200,000. November was revised to 252,000 from a previous estimate of 211,000. The unemployment rate held at 5% last month, as expected. However, average hourly earnings rose less than anticipated.

Saudi Arabia's state oil company, Aramco, confirmed it has been studying various options to allow broad public participation in its equity through the listing in the capital markets of "an appropriate percentage" of its shares and/or the listing of a bundle of its downstream subsidiaries.

China's central bank indicated it had plans to liberalise interest rates further on Friday, as Beijing officials worked to calm markets after a week of painful volatility.

The Shenzhen and Shanghai stock exchanges on Friday suspended the new stock ‘circuit breaker’ rule that came into place on Monday. China's stock markets closed early for the second time this week on Thursday as a 7% fall in the first 15 minutes of trading set off the new ‘circuit breaker’ mechanism.

Initial weekly unemployment claims in the US fell by 10,000 over the week ending on 2 January to reach 277,000, according to the US Department of Labor.

Eurozone economic confidence unexpectedly improved in December, according to official figures released by Eurostat.

Retail sales in the Eurozone unexpectedly fell in November, figures released by Eurostat showed.

The World Bank has cut its global economic growth forecast for this year to 29% from a 33% estimate in June, pointing to weak growth in major emerging markets.

American factory orders shrank slightly in November following a large rise in the prior month, as coal and oil product orders declined.

The US private sector added more jobs than expected last month, data released on Wednesday showed.

Activity in China's services sector cooled in December as new orders from clients nearly flattened out

US crude stockpiles fell sharply in the latest reference week, according to fresh estimates from the Energy Information Administration, but those of distillates and gasoline easily dwarfed that contraction

Levels of activity in US services cooled slightly in December according to the most widely-followed gauge for that sector

Eurozone consumer prices rose less than expected in December, figures released by Eurostat showed on Tuesday.

Markit’s US manufacturing PMI came in at 512 in December, down from 528 in November and a flash estimate of 513, hitting its lowest level since October 2012.

Factory activity in Asia’s largest economy slowed down in December, mainly as a result of weakness overseas, but analysts pointed to improvements in local conditions as reasons for optimism.