Updates from Associated British Foods, Standard Chartered and Volkswagen
Moribund Monday they might have called it. The FTSE 100 moved just 0.71 of a point yesterday, remaining at 6,361.8. Glencore managed to shift itself 2.7% higher to 115.60p with 2.2% and 2% gains from AshteadGroup and TravisPerkins respectively (to 1022p and 1954p). However Hikma Pharma's revenue warning yesterday saw it slump more than 5% to 2052p.
US shares were rather more bullish with the Dow up more than 165 points to 17,828.7. Energy and healthcare stocks gained, once again, with Chevron and Pfizer, up 4.5% and 3.6%, the main winners. Visa, though, slumped more than 3%.
We start with Primark owner Associated British Foods (ABF). The bad news is a 30% dive in full year pre-tax profits, to £717m. That compares poorly with more than £1bn made this time last year (though Primark Profits were up modestly).
Much of the blame was pinned on deflation in major commodities, making growth in revenues difficult, plus the strengthening of sterling and the US dollar - and a weakening of the euro and emerging market currencies.
Chief exec George Weston said the challenges of food commodity deflation and exchange rates continued to make life tricky. "We expect the currency pressures to lead to a modest decline in adjusted operating profit and adjusted earnings for the group for the coming year."
More unhappiness from Standard Chartered: the bank claims 15,000 jobs are to go globally as it restructures its business. Total costs of the re-shaping are estimated to come in at $3bn it says.
There's also a $139m loss from latest quarterly earnings. Though Standard Chartered previously said there was no need to issue new shares, it has changed its mind in an effort to re-boot its balance sheet.
"We will be taking assertive actions," said the bank in a statement this morning, "to manage costs to create investment capacity, reallocate capital to drive stronger returns and improve the Group's risk profile."
Lastly, the VW diesel emissions scandal takes another lurch, this time to sister brands Audi and Porsche. US authorities claim excessive emissions levels have been detected in three litre engines used by prestige and sport models including the Cayenne and Touareg.
The US Environmental Protection Agency is continuing with tests though VW, so far, has claimed that the vehicles fingered by the US agency don't contain the "cheat" devices.
Shares in the German car maker suffered again yesterday, down almost 2% to €123. Recently British transport secretary Patrick McLoughlin told the House of Commons that VW may have to compensate owners who lose out when they come to sell their vehicle.
Breaking news: BMW says pre-tax profits have climbed 12.8% to €2.2bn for the three months to September
