M&S revenues fall in third quarter, Barratt signals restart to dividents

London open

The FTSE 100 is expected to open 22 points higher on Friday, having closed up 0.22% at 6,856.96 on Thursday.

Stocks to watch

Food and clothing retailer Marks & Spencer reported a fall third quarter revenue as it warned the latest UK Covid lockdown would hit sales and the Brexit trade deal “significantly impact” some of its European operations. Like-for-like revenue in the 13 weeks to December 26 fell 7.6% to £2.5bn with a 4.4% rise on food sales over the festive period was offset by a 24.1% slump in clothing and homewares. “The free trade agreement with the EU means we will not incur tariffs on our core UK sales. However potential tariffs on part of our range exported to the EU, together with very complex administrative processes, will significantly impact our businesses in Ireland, the Czech Republic and our franchise business in France which we are actively working to mitigate,” M&S said on Friday.

Barratt Developments said it planned to restart dividends as the housebuilder reported strong trading in the first half. Forward sales in the six months to the end of December rose 14.3% to 13,588 homes from a year earlier at a value of £3.2bn - up 19.4%. Barratt said if there is no material change in the market the board expects to resume dividends with its first-half results.

Foam and composites company Essentra said on Friday that fourth quarter revenue was down 1.1% on a like-for-like basis in its fourth quarter, maintaining the trend of steady quarterly improvement since the 9.8% fall it saw in the second quarter. The FTSE 250 firm said it was expecting to deliver 2020 operating profit in line with the consensus forecasts. It also said the improved like-for-like revenue trends seen through the second and third quarters had been maintained in the fourth quarter for uts components operations.

Newspaper round-up

Boeing has been fined $2.5bn by the US justice department after being charged with fraud and conspiracy in connection with two fatal crashes of its 737 Max airliner. Boeing’s employees chose “the path of profit over candor by concealing material information” from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), the US’s top airline regulator, David Burns, the acting assistant attorney general of the justice department’s criminal division, wrote in a release. - Guardian

International travellers will need to show a negative Covid-19 test before being allowed into the UK, the government has announced, in a significant toughening of border controls to try to stem the spread of new coronavirus variants. The new rules will take effect next week and apply to returning UK nationals as well as foreign citizens. Passengers will need to produce a test result taken less than 72 hours before boarding planes, boats or trains to the UK, and could be fined £500 in border spot checks without a negative result. - Guardian

As many as a quarter of British employees could end up working from home for good, bosses anticipate, as companies plan for permanent changes after Covid. Almost every chief finance officer - 97pc - surveyed by Deloitte expects more flexible and home working in the long-term. This is expected to lead to a five-fold increase in the number of people clocking in from their spare room or kitchen table, taking the share of remote workers up from 5pc in 2019 to about 25pc in 2025. - Telegraph

Audit firm Grant Thornton is being sued for £200m by liquidators of cake seller Patisserie Valerie which collapsed in 2019 following a major accounting scandal. Liquidators FRP Advisory told creditors they had been advised that Grant Thornton was negligent in the preparation of Patisserie Valerie’s financial statements between 2014 and 2017. - Telegraph

Bill Gates, the co-founder of Microsoft, could join forces with Blackstone, one of the world’s biggest private equity firms, to make a £3 billion takeover bid for Signature Aviation, a provider of services to private jet owners. Cascade Investment, a vehicle which manages part of Mr Gates’ personal wealth, and Blackstone were last night close to agreeing the basis on which they would make a joint offer for Signature, according to Sky News. - The Times

US close

Wall Street stocks finished in positive territory on Thursday, after Joe Biden was confirmed by Congress as the 46th President of the United States, hours after a mob incited by the incumbent stormed and occupied the Capitol building.

At the close, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 0.69% at 31,041.13, the S&P 500 added 1.48% to 3,803.79, and the Nasdaq Composite was 2.56% firmer at 13,067.48.

The Dow closed 211.73 points higher, despite a large number of pro-Donald Trump protestors gathering outside the Capitol turned violent overnight, making their way through security barricades and entering the building.

The violence broke out following a Senate run-off race in Georgia, with the Democrats needing to win both seats to take the balance of power from the Republicans

Multiple media outlets had called winners for both seats for the Democrats, with Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff beating Kelly Loeffler and David Perdue, respectively, giving both parties 50 seats in the Senate, meaning vice president-elect Kamala Harris would have a tie-breaking vote.