JD Sports full-year profits fall, Just Eat reports another quarter of order growth

London open

The FTSE 100 is expected to open 20 points lower on Tuesday, having closed down 0.39% on Monday at 6,889.12.

Stocks to watch

JD Sports Fashion reported a fall in full year profits, largely supported by a strong performance in the US, as it reinstated dividend payments and forecast 2021/22 profits of £475m - £500m. The company on Tuesday said pre-tax profits fell to £324m from £348m on revenues of £6.17bn, up from £6.11bn a year earlier. The total dividend was lifted to 1.44p a share from 0.28p.

Just Eat Takeaway’s quarterly order growth accelerated for the fourth consecutive quarter, it announced on Tuesday, with the company processing 200 million orders in the first three months of 2021, representing a 79% increase over the same period in 2020. Gross merchandise value amounted to €4.5bn (£3.89bn) in the period, up 89% on a constant currency basis. It said the UK was the fastest-growing segment and its main growth driver, with Just Eat UK processing 64 million orders in the first quarter of 2021, which was 96% higher year-on-year.

Babcock cautioned investors to expect impairments and charges worth £1.7bn for the full year ending 31 March following a contract profitability and balance sheet review. Nevertheless, the "vast majority" of those charges would be one-off and non-cash affecting in nature. Changes in the defence engineer's operating model meanwhile were expected to result in annual savings of roughly £40m. Asset disposals worth at least £400bn were also on the table. Management expressed caution about the 2022 financial year, because it was expected to be one of transition, yet the aim was to return the firm to strength without recourse to an equity issue.

Newspaper round-up

The cybersecurity provider Darktrace has warned that the fraud allegations against its founding shareholder, the former Autonomy chief executive Mike Lynch, threaten its prospects as it gears up for a £3bn stock market debut. In documents published as part of the formal process that must be followed before a London float, Darktrace admitted that the criminal and civil charges against Dr Lynch "could result in a material adverse effect" on its business and prospects. - Telegraph

Extending the retirement age to cut down on pension costs risks backfiring by piling more pressure on the NHS, new research warns. Economists found the rise in the state pension age “substantially” reduced the informal care provided to elderly parents by older workers, threatening to worsen Britain's mounting social care pressures. - Telegraph

Growing awareness about the environmental impact of “fast fashion” could result in sales of cheap clothing dropping by as much as 30 per cent in the next five to ten years, according to a leading investment bank. As customers formed long queues to get into Primark shops reopening yesterday, analysts at UBS said the retailer’s owner Associated British Foods could be one of the worst-hit stocks if shoppers abandoned their love affair with “throwaway” clothing. - The Times

Last month much of the traditional art world had not heard of Mike Winkelmann. Then the digital artist sold a piece that only exists online for £50 million at a Christie’s auction. Beeple, as he is professionally known, is now the third most expensive living artist in terms of auction prices, after Jeff Koons and David Hockney. The sale of Winkelmann’s computerised collage of 5,000 images — which include a pregnant cyborg Michael Jackson and a Buzz Lightyear with breasts — has catapulted the digital art scene into the spotlight. - The Times

Liberty Steel has missed deadlines to file accounts for some of its biggest British businesses, in the latest sign of the struggles facing Sanjeev Gupta’s industrial empire. Gupta is listed as director of 15 companies whose accounts are overdue at Companies House, including those that operate the Liberty Steel works in Rotherham and Stocksbridge in South Yorkshire.- Guardian

US close

Wall Street stocks closed lower on Monday as investors awaited the beginning of the first-quarter earnings season and the release of some key inflation data later in the week.

At the close, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 0.16% at 33,745.40, while the S&P 500 was 0.02% weaker at 4,127.99 and the Nasdaq Composite saw out the session 0.36% softer at 13,850.00.

The Dow closed 55.20 points lower on Monday, cutting into gains recorded in the previous session when the index closed at yet another fresh record.

Market participants will be focussed on corporate earnings throughout the week, with expectations set for mostly positive news thanks to a recovering US economy amid the White House's ongoing Covid-19 vaccine rollout. Some of the country's largest banks, such as Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan Chase, will report results this week.

Comments from Federal Reserve chairman Jerome Powell that central bank wanted to see inflation rise above its 2% for an extended period before officials move to raise interest rates and reports that President Joe Biden, along with other Democrats, was set to meet with a bipartisan group of lawmakers to try to convince Capitol Hill to back his $2.0trn infrastructure package were both also in focus throughout the session on Monday.