Weekly review

Equity view

Sports Direct founder Mike Ashley has been linked with a possible rescue bid for collapsed music and film retailer HMV.

Aerospace engineer Meggitt on Monday said it had signed a $750m (£582.6m) 10 year deal with Pratt & Whitney to continue the supply of engine parts for the F-22 Raptor and F-35 Lightning II aircraft.

GlaxoSmithKline said chairman Sir Philip Hampton was stepping down and the board had started the process to find a successor.

Patisserie Holdings has called in the administrators after directors failed to get support from the cafe chain's lenders.

Shares in UBS and other European banks fell on Tuesday, after the Swiss group missed analyst expectations for the fourth-quarter and adopted a cautious tone for the current year.

EasyJet updated the market in its trading for the quarter ended 31 December on Tuesday, saying it delivered a “good” performance, with robust customer demand driving passenger and ancillary revenue which is in line with expectations.

American healthcare giant Johnson & Johnson has reported better-than-expected fourth-quarter numbers – but forecast below-estimate sales growth for 2019.

Collapsed café group Patisserie Holdings could face potential legal action from disgruntled investors, it emerged on Wednesday.

Spanish bank Santander said it was cutting around 140 branches which would put 1,270 jobs at risk.

Healthcare giant Johnson & Johnson is pursuing an acquisition of surgical robotics specialist Auris Health, according to reports on Wednesday.

Pub chain JD Wetherspoon backed its full-year expectations on Wednesday but said first-half profit will be lower than a year ago due to rising costs.

Vodafone announced on Wednesday that itself and Telefónica UK, trading as O2, have entered into non-binding heads of terms intended to strengthen their existing network sharing partnership.

Unilever, Tesco, Nestle, Proctor & Gamble, PepsiCo and more companies are joining together with TerraCycle to launch Loop, a new global recycling service that will collect empty packaging from households.

British Airways owner IAG has pulled out of the race to buy budget long-haul carrier Norwegian Air Shuttle.

Viagogo could face another trip to court if it fails to address "serious concerns" about its website's failure to adhere to a court order intended to protect consumers, according to regulators.

Troubled UK domestic airline Flybe on Thursday sought to reassure investors as it said it had already received the first £10m of funding as part of its buyout by the Connect Airways consortium, which is comprised of Virgin Atlantic, Stobart Group and investment firm Cyrus Capital Partners, as one investor reportedly threatened to block the deal.

Pharmaceutical company Indivior said the New Jersey District Court had granted it a temporary restraining order (TRO) that prevents rival Alvogen from launching generic versions of its opioid addiction treatment.

London Pride is turning Japanese, as Fuller, Smith & Turner surprisingly decided to flog its entire 200-year old brewery business to Japan's Asahi.

The Competition and Markets Authority said on Friday that Rentokil Initial will need to sell several large supply contracts to satisfy the regulator's concerns about its merger with Cannon Hygiene.

Vodafone managed to keep underlying growth positive in the third quarter as it stemmed some of the customer losses in Italy and Spain, though it could not provide much needed reassurance over a number of ongoing investor concerns.

Economic news

New data from energy industry group Energy UK showed a record number of Britons switched energy suppliers in 2018, with one in five customers reportedly choosing a new energy supplier during the year.

The UK property market suffered its slowest start to the year this January since 2012, according to the latest Rightmove survey, which said house prices rose by 0.4% on the month this month.

The number of people in work in Britain has risen to its highest level since record began in 1971, official data showed on Tuesday, with wage growth at a 10-year high.

Rents across the UK fell in 2018 for the first time in ten years revealed new data from the Deposit Protection Scheme.

Sentiment in the UK manufacturing sector deteriorated a lot more than expected in January amid uncertainty over Brexit, according to the latest quarterly industrial trends survey from the Confederation of British Industry.

Airbus's CEO said the government’s handling of the Brexit process was a “disgrace” and threatened to move wing production from the UK if it resulted in no deal.

Approximately 70,000 jobs were recorded lost in the retail sector over the course of 2018, according to the industry's trade body.

UK finance minister Philip Hammond on Friday said a no-deal Brexit was “a default that we could find ourselves in” as MPs prepared for another vote on the Withdrawal agreement next Tuesday.

Northern Ireland’s Democratic Unionist Party has secretly decided to support Theresa May’s Brexit “Plan B” next week if there is a clear time limit to the Irish backstop, according to a newspaper report.

The Treasury has been forced to rule out an online sales tax that would have helped save the UK high street from its crisis, as official felt it would have broken European Union rules.

International events

The US and China failed to make headway over allegations of intellectual property theft during three days of trade talks.

China's economy last year grew at its slowest rate since 1990, as gross domestic product growth cooled in the fourth quarter.

An attempted revolt against the Venezuelan government of President Nicolás Maduro by 27 members of the country's National Guard has been quashed, according to the defence ministry.

The United States is expected to proceed with formal extradition proceedings for Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou, who was recently detained in Canada under accusations of violating US sanctions on Iran.

Eurozone consumer confidence improved less than expected in January, according to flash figures released by the European Commission on Wednesday.

Senate leaders have agreed to hold votes this week on proposals that could lead to a reopening of the government and provide relief for 800,000 federal workers.

Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro cut ties with US after President Donald Trump recognised opposition leader Juan Guaidó as self-declared interim president.

China will have "in-depth" trade talks with the US next week as Vice Premier Liu He visits America.

However, America's Commerce Secretary said on Thursday that the US and China remained miles away from a reading trade deal, but did not close the door to an extension of the 2 March deadline on US tariffs.

The US Senate failed to gather enough support on Thursday for two proposals backed by White House and by Democrats that would reopen the government after a 34-day impasse.