JD Sports buys 80pc of Greek chain Cosmos, Sainsbury's ends talks over bank sale

Stocks to watch

JD Sports Fashion on Friday said it had bought 80% of family-owned Greek firm Cosmos Sport for an undisclosed sum. Cosmos operates 57 stores in Greece and three in Cyprus under a variety of retail banners and associated trading websites and is 70% owned by the Tsiknakis Family with EOS Capital Partners holding a 30% stake. EOS have disposed of their entire holding in this transaction.

UK supermarket chain Sainsbury's said it had ended talks over the sale of its banking operation, claiming the potential bid did not offer good value for shareholders. “We continue to make progress strengthening and simplifying our Financial Services business in line with our strategy and we remain comfortable with consensus profit forecasts for the division,” the company said in a statement.

Newspaper round-up

The troubled property company China Evergrande Group has come up with the money to pay a $83.5m bond interest payment that it missed in September, according to reports. The company, which has debts of around $305bn, wired the $83.5m payment and noteholders will receive it before Saturday, China’s state-backed newspaper Securities Times said on Friday, citing relevant channels, according to Bloomberg. - Guardian

Britain’s foremost business lobby group has warned Rishi Sunak that his tax and spending plans risk undercutting government ambitions for a green, high-wage economy by discouraging the necessary investment. Ahead of the chancellor’s budget next week, the Confederation of British Industry (CBI) said there were fundamental inconsistencies in the government’s economic strategy that needed urgent attention. - Guardian

A digital lateral flow test that sends results to health authorities via a smartphone app is the first to receive certification, its British backers have claimed. The test reads the result using artificial intelligence and sends the findings directly to a body such as Public Health England. The user is emailed a Covid certificate within minutes. - Telegraph

The furlough scheme cost taxpayers £69 billion over an 18-month period, making it the biggest intervention in the UK jobs market in peacetime. Official figures published by the Office for National Statistics yesterday revealed the final cost of the scheme, which finished at the end of September and was a key part of the government’s efforts to prop up the economy during the pandemic. The bill rises to £97 billion when grants to the self-employed are included in the calculation. - The Times

The City regulator wants to extend the reach of rules aimed at holding bosses to account by widening them to cover payments firms and credit rating agencies. The Financial Conduct Authority said yesterday that it was seeking to broaden the senior managers’ regime, a set of rules created after the 2008 banking crisis to impose accountability on individual executives. About 47,000 financial services firms, including banks, insurers and asset managers, are subject to the regime. - The Times

US close

Wall Street stocks were mixed early on Thursday as weekly jobless claims surprised to the upside.

At the close, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 0.02% at 35,603.08, while the S&P 500 was up 0.3% at 4,549.78. and the Nasdaq Composite was ahead 0.62% at 15,215.70.

The Dow closed 6.26 points lower on Thursday, taking a small bite out of gains recorded in the previous session when the blue-chip index closed just shy of its all-time high.

Thursday's primary focus, as always, was this week's US jobless claims report from the Labor Department, which revealed that jobless claims had continued moving lower in the seven days ended 16 October.

According to the Department of Labor, initial weekly jobless claims fell by 6,000 to 290,000, defying forecasts for a rise to 300,000.