Dr Martens swings to loss, Ocado gets more capacity at Erith centre

Stocks to watch

Troubled footwear maker Dr Martens swung to a loss for the half year but said trading since the start of the autumn/winter season had been “encouraging” and held guidance for the 2025 fiscal year. Pre-tax losses came in at £28.7m for the six months to September, compared with a £25.8m profit a year earlier. Revenue fell 18% to £324.6m.

Grocery logistics tech group Ocado has announced that Morrisons is to cease deliveries from its customer fulfilment centre (CFC) in Erith, giving Ocado Retail extra network capacity over the near term. Morrisons said it has decided to process a greater share of its online deliveries through Ocado’s Dordon CFC and with in-store fulfilment.

Newspaper round-up

The owner of Vauxhall told investors that it was “confident” it would meet the UK’s rules on electric vehicle sales just two months before it blamed them for the decision to close a factory in Luton, the Guardian can reveal. Stellantis cited the UK’s zero-emission vehicle (ZEV) mandate when it announced the closure of its van factory in Bedfordshire on Tuesday, putting 1,100 workers at risk of redundancy or relocation to its factory making smaller vans in Ellesmere Port. – Guardian

Not a single Whitehall department has registered the use of artificial intelligence systems since the government said it would become mandatory, prompting warnings that the public sector is “flying blind” about the deployment of algorithmic technology affecting millions of lives. AI is already being used by government to inform decisions on everything from benefit payments to immigration enforcement, and records show public bodies have awarded dozens of contracts for AI and algorithmic services. A contract for facial recognition software, worth up to £20m, was put up for grabs last week by a police procurement body set up by the Home Office, reigniting concerns about “mass biometric surveillance”. – Guardian

The proposed sale of The Observer to a loss-making start-up must be paused to protect Britain’s “fragile” liberal journalism, former Guardian editor Alan Rusbridger has said. Mr Rusbridger, who was editor-in-chief of The Guardian from 1995 to 2015, is one of six former editors to warn that the deal would result in The Observer being “cast off to an uncertain future”. – Telegraph

Car production in the UK has fallen for an eighth consecutive month, intensifying pressure on the industry as it struggles with the transition to an electric future. Manufacturing output declined 15.3 per cent in October to 77,484 units, figures from the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) show, leaving output down by a tenth so far this year. – The Times

Britain’s biggest wealth manager St James’s Place is in effect abandoning commercial property as an asset class after deciding to wind down three funds with £1.84 billion invested in office blocks, shopping centres and other real estate. The company, which manages investments for one million people in the UK, said the decision was taken after what it called “a challenging period for the sector as a whole”. – The Times

US close

Wall Street closed lower on Wednesday as market participants digested a slew of economic data, including the Federal Reserve's preferred inflation gauge.

At the close, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 0.31% at 44,722.06, while the S&P 500 lost 0.38% to 5,998.74 and the Nasdaq Composite saw out the session 0.60% weaker at 19,060.48.

The Dow closed 138.25 points lower on Wednesday, reversing gains recorded in the previous session.

Wednesday's primary focus was October's personal consumption expenditures index, which revealed Americans continued to spend freely last month amid a slight pick up in price pressures.

According to the Department of Commerce, personal consumption expenditures grew at a month-on-month pace of 0.4% in October and personal incomes by 0.6%.