Dr Martens trading as expected, Barratt ends year with adjusted profit in line

London open

The FTSE 100 is expected to open four points lower on Thursday, having closed up 1.83% on Wednesday at 7,416.11.

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UK bootmaker Dr Martens said trading since the start of the current financial year had been in line with expectations, adding that progress had been made rectifying the US warehousing fiasco that led to a series of profit warnings. In a statement ahead of its annual shareholder meeting, the maker of the famous lace-up boots with chunky soles said direct-to-consumer operations had seen “very good growth in both EMEA and Asia-Pacific, with continued strength in retail as traffic recovers post-Covid, and good ecommerce growth.

Barratt Developments reported a decrease in full-year net private reservations per active outlet per week on Thursday, to 0.55, from 0.81 year-on-year, although there was an increase in reservations for the private rental sector and social housing. The housebuilder said total home completions for the year ended 30 June slipped to 17,206 from 17,908. It said it was expecting adjusted profit before tax to meet market expectations, while maintaining a strong balance sheet with net cash of around £1.07bn.

Newspaper round-up

Billions of pounds of taxpayer cash spent on one-off cost of living support has proved an expensive and ineffective “sticking plaster” that would have been better used to raise the value of benefits, the Institute for Fiscal Studies has said. Britain’s foremost economics think-tank said the government’s cost of living payments scheme, introduced by Rishi Sunak while he was chancellor, had cost the exchequer almost £19bn over two years. – Guardian

The steep rise in mortgage interest rates and anxiety about the prospect of an economic downturn sent new house buyer inquiries to an eight-month low in June, according to a survey of estate agents. A fall in the number of buyers marked “a renewed deterioration in UK home sales”, said the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (Rics), which carried out the survey. However, the market was in better shape than the period after Liz Truss’s disastrous mini-budget last autumn. – Guardian

Twitter faces legal action over allegedly owing around $500m (£385m) in severance pay promised to thousands of workers sacked by Elon Musk. The lawsuit has accused Twitter of handing staff at most one month of severance pay, with many not receiving anything at all. Mr Musk has fired more than half of Twitter’s 7,500-strong workforce since acquiring the social network for $44bn last year. – Telegraph

The new chairman of Thames Water was accused of sexism last night after suggesting that its former chief executive had quit because she was unable to cope with the strains of the role. Sir Adrian Montague, who was parachuted into the crisis-hit water company after Sarah Bentley’s resignation last month, told MPs that he thought Bentley, 51, had “got to the point, perhaps, of feeling the burdens of office were quite considerable”. – The Times

Lenders are under further pressure to improve rates for savers after a warning shot was fired at the industry by the governor of the Bank of England. Andrew Bailey’s remarks will intensify the scrutiny of banks, which have faced calls from the chancellor already to improve the interest paid on deposits. The Financial Conduct Authority is also monitoring the issue. – The Times

US close

Wall Street stocks ended in positive territory on Wednesday, spurred on by the release of a softer-than-anticipated inflation report, easing investor concerns over the cost of living in the United States.

At the close, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was ahead 0.25% at 34,347.43, as the broader S&P 500 climbed 0.74% to settle at 4,472.16.

The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite saw the day's most substantial gains, jumping 1.15% to close at 13,918.96.

In currencies, the dollar was last down 0.03% on sterling at 76.98p, while the it dropped 0.07% to trade at 89.79 euro cents.

The greenback did, however, edge up by 0.08% against the yen, last changing hands at JPY 138.61.