Hollywood Bowl revenue rises, Bunzl flags adjusted operating profit growth

Stocks to watch

Hollywood Bowl reported a rise in annual revenues, but took a £5m impairment on its mini-golf operations which hit profits. The bowling centre operator on Tuesday said sales rose 7% to £230m while pre-tax profit fell 5.2% to £42.8m. It also expects a £1.2m hit from extra taxes introduced in the last Budget, but was “well placed” to mitigate the extra costs.

Bunzl flagged 2024 revenue growth of about 3% at constant exchange rates on Tuesday, driven by acquisitions despite slight declines in underlying revenue, with adjusted operating profit set to show strong growth. The FTSE 100 firm said in a trading update that for 2025, it anticipated robust revenue growth and a stable operating margin, supported by higher-margin acquisitions and modest underlying gains, while continuing its £700m annual investment strategy and expanding its share buyback programme. It noted its recent acquisitions, including the UK-based C&C Group and France's Comodis, as strengthening both its pipeline and regional market presence.

Newspaper round-up

Thousands of workers at Amazon are threatening to strike at the company after giving the company a deadline of 15 December to agree to begin negotiating a first contract with the union representing employees. The strike threats, which started in New York, have now spread to Chicago and Atlanta. They come during Amazon’s peak holiday season and after the company experienced record sales during its 2024 Black Friday and Cyber Monday events. – Guardian

Almost 90% of the UK workforce at the telecoms company Lycamobile have been told they could lose their jobs, the Guardian has learned, in an announcement that leaves more than 300 staff fearing for their roles shortly before Christmas. The company, owned by the multimillionaire Tory donor and British-Sri Lankan businessman Allirajah Subaskaran, sells pay-as-you-go sim cards popular with low-paid workers wanting to make cheap phone calls to family overseas, as well as in the UK. - Guardian

Rachel Reeves may be forced to announce emergency tax rises in the spring if the economy continues to deteriorate, analysts have warned. Economists warned that a “quirk” in Ms Reeves’s new tax and spending rules meant she might be required to announce measures to balance the books in March. – Telegraph

Bill-payers face levies of up to £520 to pay for controversial carbon capture schemes under Ed Miliband’s plan for clean power. A string of projects backed by the Government are expected to cost £21.7bn over the next 25 years, including schemes that will store the emissions of new gas-fired power plants and some factories. – Telegraph

Eight years ago, hundreds of small investors took a long-odds bet on what was then a little-known financial technology company called Revolut — and now they have been turned into near millionaires after the rules were changed to allow them to crystallise some of their profits. Investors using the Crowdcube platform are due to have made 404 times their original investment when they sell a portion of their Revolut shares in the next few days. – The Times

US close

US stocks put in a mixed performance on Monday ahead of this week's Federal Reserve policy meeting, with the Dow falling for the eighth straight day and the Nasdaq surging to a new record high.

A strong performance in the tech sector lifted the Nasdaq 1.2% higher to 20,173.89, topping an earlier peak set last Wednesday. The index has now risen by nearly 37% so far this year.

In contrast, the ongoing slump on the Dow continued, falling 0.3% to 43,717.48. The index has now fallen nearly 3% since hitting a record on 4 December – marking its longest losing streak since 2018.

Meanwhile, the S&P 500 gained 0.4% to 6,074.08, and now sits just below record highs seen earlier this month.

This week's primary focus will be the Federal Open Market Committee's monetary policy meeting on Wednesday, with market participants widely expecting to see the central bank cut its benchmark overnight interest rate by a further 25 basis points.