Smurfit Kappa Q3 beats it expectations, M&S swings to loss

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The FTSE 100 was called to open 27 points lower at around 5,760.

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UK retailer Marks & Spencer swung to a half-year loss as coronavirus lockdowns hit its clothing division.

The company posted a pre-tax loss of £87.6m from a profit of £159m a year earlier.

“There remains significant uncertainty regarding the near-term outlook in relation to both Covid and Brexit. Trading in the first four weeks of the second half has continued at similar rates to the end of Q2, with F=food revenue up 3%, C&H revenue down 21.5% and International revenue up 7.4% due to the timing of shipments,” it said.

Smurfit Kappa said performance in the third quarter exceeded its expectations. The packaging company said it expected to report annual earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation between €1.46bn and €1.48bn and that it would pay a second interim dividend of 27.9 cents a share.

Newspaper round-up

The number of people in the UK earning below the minimum wage has risen more than fivefold to 2 million since the start of the coronavirus pandemic, according to official figures, as the lowest-paid workers in Britain suffer the most financial damage. The Office for National Statistics said there were 2,043,000 jobs where employees aged 16 or over were paid below the legal minimum in April 2020, more than four times the 409,000 jobs a year earlier. - Guardian

Another 18,000 high street premises could be left empty in 2020, almost double the number in 2019, as the coronavirus pandemic hammers retailers, restaurants and leisure businesses. As England prepares to enter a month-long second high street lockdown from Thursday, analysts at the Local Data Company warned “vast numbers” of leisure and hospitality businesses could close up for good. - Guardian

Pub and brewery chiefs want taxpayers to pay for 7.5 million pints of beer that will be poured down the drain because of the second lockdown. Hospitality leaders are demanding Rishi Sunak offers a fresh round of handouts to the sector amid fears any hopes of a recovery will be skewered by four weeks of restrictions. - Telegraph

Supermarkets are under mounting pressure to pay back £3 billion in business rates after a leading retail entrepreneur questioned why their bills had been waived while customers queued “around the block” to shop. Julian Richer, chief executive of Richer Sounds, the television and hi-fi seller, said he was “really annoyed” that grocers had benefited from an industry-wide holiday as Covid-19 paralysed much of the retail sector. - The Times

US Close

Wall Street closed well into positive territory on Tuesday, as Americans headed to the polls for the US presidential election.

At the close, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 2.06% at 27,480.03, the S&P 500 added 1.78% to 3,369.02, and the Nasdaq Composite was ahead 1.85% at 11,160.57.