is it a good time to snap up debenhams? since he took his interest in debenhams, he is taken an interest in other things and that has pushed up his death. his own share price has gone down. day -- bly has rued the mark: got a stake in the u.k. business. as a call -- does he toss a coin? >> i think it will be who is trading worse. mark: someone said it is a race to the bottom. is it about that? >> i don't think it is that bad, but they both have gotten similar issues. it is interesting the u.k. department stores seemed to be cut of suffering at the moment, as much as if not more than the u.s. ones. common.ey have that in andrea, thank you for filling us in on the woes at debenhams. coming up on the european close, a matter of minutes away, we're following stocks. less than 35 minutes until the end of the session. twodays of gains hasn't happened in almost a month. globalhe synchronized upswing today. this is bloomberg. ♪ . mark: 11:00 a.m. in new york, 4:00 p.m. in london, midnight in hong kong. from european headquarters, i

debenhams disappointing. what do you think about some of the challenges facing the uk retail sector this year? is it a sector you want exposure to if so, what are the criteria you're looking for >> it's a great question the difficulty looking at uk retail, the problems are obvious. the consumer is suffering a wage cut that should abate over the course of this year, but the back drop is tough for consumption and you have that competitiveness of amazon and the like, making price competition extremely keen with all the uk-specific stories, i think for investors, you have to pick carefully the uk economy is entering darker territory you know, consumption will be softer because of that real wage cut. investment looks softer, too so be very careful there is value out there but you have to pick carefully >> devil in the detail so one of the main stories yesterday was the federal reserve minutes. so the federal reserve officials expect tax cuts to boost consumer and business spending that's according to minutes from

i think in much the same way we are seeing with debenhams.much the same way we are seeing with debenhams. one of the problems is that although they have got a good range of own brands, and designer brands, i think it is beginning to look a little dull. debenhams issued a profit warning earlier this week and said like—for—like sales have tumbled 25% in the 17 weeks to december 30, despite the fact that it has slashed prices to try to boost flagging sales. house of fraser, debenhams, we all run the talking only for five yea rs we all run the talking only for five years ago about the demise of british home stores, and at the time we we re british home stores, and at the time we were saying, is the department store as a high—street concept dead. should we be asking those questions again in the light of these sorts of figures? i don't think it is right to lump british home stores in with debenhams and house of fraser, it was a different business. i don't know if there is any reason why the british department store should be dead. john lewis has pe

that is putting pressure on the high street retailers like debenhams and marks & spencer ‘s, who are theirgame in spencer ‘s, who are now having to up their game in terms of their online offering. it's pretty telling that if you look at the latest debenhams boss, he was actually recruited from the ranks of amazon executives, which tells you about the direction retailers going in. another story that's getting a lot of interest on the bbc website is the story of fat cat thursday — that's today, the day that, around lunchtime the average chief executive of the average ftse 100 company can reckon he or she has made as much as the average worker will make — ina year. £28,758 if you're wondering. you can find out more on the website. the music streaming company spotify has reportedly filed papers with us regulators to list its shares publicly on the new york stock exchange. not officially confirmed yet but it's though the firm will launch its shares in the first three months of the year. in the us shares in tesla, the electric car maker are down between 2—3% after it said production target

the way that many are combatting it, i know that debenhams said that they wa nted i know that debenhams shopping, as it is called? we have good figures from shopping that retail theatre, retail entertainment, what you and i call events and information and great places to be, as put of our social retail. that is how we want to shop so we retail. that is how we want to shop so we don't have to go into the stores anymore. that creates an increase in profits, however the retailers, they are beasts of organisations, it is a big turn around, it takes a long time. there are smaller, quicker—moving, faster—moving brands nipping at the heels, doing it better and gaining traction. kate very good to talk with you. sales of new cars have fallen for the first time in six years according to new data from the society of motor manufacturers and traders, car sales fell by 5.6% last year to 2.54m vehicles, while diesel sales fell i7.i%. earlier we asked mike hawes from the smmt, whether this is down to people switching to electric vehicles — or holding off from buying altogether. there's a small amount s

cost of debenham's margin and asa at the cost of debenham's margin and as a result, they are tellinge and more worryingly, even after that discounting, the boxing day sales we re discounting, the boxing day sales were disappointing at the debenhams as well. mountain warehouse are saying the colder weather has given them good figures. what kind of christmas has it been generally across the retail sector? it is very ha rd to across the retail sector? it is very hard to say. retail is very seasonal, a warm autumn defers purchases into december. we know that last year was tough for the consumer because we had rising inflation and weak wage growth, we do not have a full picture as yet of how the consumer has really treated christmas. it looks like people still went out and bought their christmas essentials. aldi has done quite well. going for lower—priced goods. what about online? across the board is the key winner for the christmas sales period and continues a trend that has been going on for a long time. people preferring to do shopping on their mobile phone or at home rather than going

debenhams is closing stores, amadeus is closing stores.—— m&s is closing stores. most consumers are not buying as many material goods. we are expending money and experiences instead. —— we are spending money. instead. -- we are spending money. thank you. lots of stories on this on the bbc business live website. yes, more detail on that. marks & spencer food, the bright light yes, more detail on that. marks & spencerfood, the bright light dims is the headline. the food sales have a lwa ys is the headline. the food sales have always kept its earnings higher. but these figures are disappointing in food and online business as well. that is according to hargreaves lansdown. a that is according to hargreaves la nsdown. a lot that is according to hargreaves lansdown. a lot of detail on there. take a look when you have time. discounters doing very well in the run—up to christmas. more detail on the bbc app. you're watching business live — our top story. britain's prime minister theresa may is set to meet business leaders from the uk's financial se

i would think that next christmas will be the first time we'll see any real signs of progress in debenhams >> another big bellwether name comes up next week, what are you thinking about mms from here >> they have announced recently they will reposition their food business and we don't have a lot of detail on that yet presumably they're doing it in response to something they know and we have not seen yet there will be a lot of focus on the food figures i think they will have found it difficult to deal with the volatility of demand i think it will not be a knockout christmas but slightly disappointing. >> we have not discussed online yet. when you think about the outlook for a lot of these names, how significant is their online presence in your valuation >> i think online is the most important thing happening in retail at the moment the growth of online and the way it impacts on traditional stores you're seeing a lot of traditional retailers struggling in a big way to cope with the rapid growth of online next, for example, had much better results than debenhams because it has a much bigger o

not been a great christmas. 0n the one hand a great christmas for next but a profit warning from debenhams they will possibly have to close stores as well. a mixed picture bus far. as january progresses we will get a fuller picture but we don't think it has been that great, community demand for nonessential items have been soft, rents going up in the cities and the south—east and online, the constant challenge, especially for the likes of debenhams. joe lynam, thank you very much. the east of england ambulance service has apologised to the family of a pensioner who died after waiting nearly four hours for paramedics to arrive. the 81—year—old woman rang 999 complaining of chest pain at 8pm on tuesday. paramedics arrived three hours and 45 minutes later, by which time the woman had stopped breathing and could not be saved. the ambulance service offered its sincere condolences, and said it was stretched, with pressures on staff and the nhs as a whole. 0nline casino operators are failing to prevent money—laundering and protect problem gamblers, according to the gambling commission. it express

similarly, debenhams has seen their share price fall because of it as well.ause the businesses with a big online presence tend to do better than those which don't, and the big department stores like debenhams, which are on high streets, which have struggled, have seen their sales be hit as well. but looking at the figures, food sales were up by just over 4% but non—food sales were down by nearly 4%. so it shows that that has really impacted the fact that has really impacted the fact that our food has cost a lot more, meaning we don't have as much money for everything else. five men and a woman have been charged with being members of the banned neo—nazi group national action. they will appear before westminster magistrates later today. national action became the first far—right group to be banned in the uk, in december 2016, after the home secretary, amber rudd, said it was promoting violence and acts of terrorism. a uk—wide ban on the manufacturing of cosmetics and care products containing microbeads has come into force today, in an attempt to cut down on the

usually a bright spot for marks & spencer, went into reverse, and there have been profit warnings at debenhams. things are certainly more challenging here on the high street. take house of fraser, a business under pressure. it saw another fall in sales today. and you don't have to go far to see how the gap between the weaker and the stronger players is widening. here atjohn lewis, it's had no problem pulling customers in. it's one of the winners today. there's a sort of slight air of caution about people's attitudes, for all sorts of perfectly understandable reasons, but there is demand there. you just have to go and find it, and you have to create the conditions where people want things, and of course that comes down to having fabulous product. and it actually means you have to be outstanding at online and shops. this small but fast—growing online retailer is doing very nicely without shops. and is expecting to grow sales by 90% this year, but some are predicting problems for the high street ahead. this is going to be the year of retail distress. we've already seen bits of distress percolatin

debenhams have had disappointing results.rs since may 2015, what is driving it up? short-term we have had a cold snap in the us. that has given the oil price and uplift in the short term. over the longer term, we have seen two factors, one in the supply side, where supply in the emirates looks as if it is a bit more troubled. if they cut production, it has a positive impact on the share price. and in demand, we have seen global growth and global gdp very positive, particularly china, which accounts for a quarter of the world's consumption of energy. on both sides, supply and demand, it has contributed to a buoyant oil price. thank you for your time. markets... are here. you can see it is all green. this big global rally has not stopped. we might have the january blues but investors have not. i have not got the january blues. technically, the markets have shut now. the dow broke through 25,020 minutes after the bell rang this morning, it is up by half a percent. the nasdaq is also hitting fresh highs. the global rally does not

next came out with good figures, debenhams had a bad time. particular weeks did badly. it was the post christmas sales did badly. they expected to get £83 million worth of profit, it looks like 5—60 million. shares are down about 20%, what will it do about it? they have a strategy for new format for the store, they are putting out an experimental stage, to get it better but at the moment we can't see any immediate a nswer to moment we can't see any immediate answer to that. the question of course over whether black friday an impact on the sales. yes, whether the spending power has run out by the spending power has run out by the time you get to christmas day. there is a warning on low pay from the ifs. it is talking about a minimum wage goes up, that more firms will use robots to replace people. it sound grim. looking at the ones that are most vulnerable to ta ke the ones that are most vulnerable to take over, taking over by robot, they are saying wholesale and retail trade and manufacturing obviously, the least interesting it is the other en

morrisons and next seem to have done well, or at least better than expected — but debenhams and mothercareail sales were a bit higher in december compared with the previous year, up almost one and a half percent — but there is a noticable split with growth in food sales, and a fall of li% in sales of non—food items. rachel lund, head of retail insights and analytics at the british retail consortium welcome. how do you explain this split between food and non—food sales? as he said before, what is happening is consumers have found their income is consumers have found their income is being squeezed, and it means we have less money to spend on everything. more of their budget is taken up on essential. a lot of those are focused within the food sector and as a result, they have had less to spend on non—food products. we have a food and non—food split and a high street and online split? we have. there has been an ongoing trend for four or five years or longer of spending more and more online, and as a result, spending less installs. we talked about overall sales in this period before christmas c

usually a bright spot for marks & spencer, went into reverse, and there have been profit warnings at debenhamse challenging here on the high street. take house of fraser, a business under pressure. it saw another fall in sales today. and you don't have to go far to see how the gap between the weaker and the stronger players is widening. here atjohn lewis, it's had no problem pulling customers in. it's one of the winners today. there's a sort of slight air of caution about people's attitudes, for all sorts of perfectly understandable reasons, but there is demand there. you just have to go and find it, and you have to create the conditions where people want things, and of course that comes down to having fabulous product. and it actually means you have to be outstanding at online and shops. this small but fast—growing online retailer is doing very nicely with shops. very nicely without shops. and is expecting to grow sales by 90% this year, but some are predicting problems for the high street ahead. this is going to be the year of retail distress. we've already seen bits of distress percolating

shares in the department store debenhams have fallen by 20%, the leader of the council in windsor has he calls "aggressive begging" before the wedding of prince harry and meghan markle in the town in may. simon dudley said some people begging were not in fact homeless, and had made a "voluntary choice" to live on the streets. adina campbell is in windsor. well, this letter has got lots of people talking here in windsor, and it has proved to be very controversial. some homeless charities say they are sickened by the details in this letter, while others say there is a problem with begging and it needs to be tackled. earlier, i was speaking to some of the homeless people here, and windsor is set to get a lot busier over the coming months with the royal wedding being an may the 19th. it may be one of the country's most affluent areas, with a prime tourist attraction, but nestled among the expensive shops and the is poverty, and those begging on the streets in this town have now been targeted by the local council leader, who once then gone before the royal wedding. it's a royal borough, sa

usually a bright spot for marks & spencer, went into reverse, and there have been profit warnings at debenhamse on the high street. take house of fraser, a business under pressure, it saw another fall in sales today. and you don't have to go far to see how the gap between the weaker and the stronger players is widening. here atjohn lewis, it had no problems. pulling customers in. it's one of the winners today. there's a sort of slight air of caution about people's attitudes. they're not coming in for all sorts. for perfectly understandable reasons. but there is demand there, you just have to go and find it and you have to create the conditions where people want things and of course that comes to down to having fabulous products. and it actually means you have to be outstanding at online and shops. boohoo is a small but fast—growing online retailer, which is doing very nicely without shops. ...and is expecting to grow sales by 90% this year. but some are predicting problems for the high street ahead. this is going to be the year of retail distress. we've already seen bits of distress percolatin

rival chain debenhams is also struggling and it issued a profit warning this week after disappointingkate ha rd castle sales. we can now speak to kate hardcastle who runs the retail consultancy insight with passion. shejoins us from consultancy insight with passion. she joins us from wakefield. what do you make of this? is it a worrying sign? you make of this? is it a worrying sign? i think it is very honest look at where the retail environment sits. this time last year house of fraser were issuing warnings, saying it had been a very challenging, difficult yearfor them. and in it had been a very challenging, difficult year for them. and in the 12 months following that, there has been no real change in their marketplace. their consumers are still tight on budget, there is still tight on budget, there is still more entrants coming into the marketplace. we have moved from one in seven pounds spent online to one in six. and we buy more experiences and lesmo on food items, so this is all eating away at house of fraser. house of fraser has tries to move online, hasn't it? it has, all of the

usually a bright spot for marks & spencer, went into reverse, and there have been profit warnings at debenhamser, a business under pressure. it saw another fall in sales today. and you don't have to go far to see how the gap between the weaker and the stronger players is widening. here atjohn lewis, it's had no problem pulling customers in. it's one of the winners today. there's a sort of slight air of caution about people's attitudes, for all sorts of perfectly understandable reasons, but there is demand there. you just have to go and find it, and you have to create the conditions where people want things, and of course that comes down to having fabulous product. and it actually means you have to be outstanding at online and shops. this small but fast—growing online retailer is doing very nicely without shops. and is expecting to grow sales by 90% this year, but some are predicting problems for the high street ahead. this is going to be the year of retail distress. we've already seen bits of distress percolating through even before christmas, and i think that the weaker players are going to f

amadeus, debenhams are closing stores.5% higher. black friday was the biggest ever sales they injohn lewis' history. i will have more on that after eight o'clock. time now to get the news, travel and weather where you are. good morning from bbc london news. i'm sara orchard. london's economy will suffer from brexit for at least the following decade says research published today by the mayor. the analysis suggests the worst impact will be from a hard brexit, and leaving the single market and customs union without a deal will make the capital £11 billion by 2030. it also found that certain sectors, like construction and hospitality, will struggle because of a dependence on eu workers. a 19—year—old man is in a critical condition in an east london hospital after being stabbed in a fight in stoke newington last night. yesterday evening police were called to lordship road where a group of men were involved in an altercation. there were also unconfirmed reports of a firearms discharge. london luton airport has submitted a planni

this is the short interest for debenhams.hristmas really quite dramatically, so while this morning the stock is trading down, there are plenty of people out there or some people out there that are making money because the short interest has absolutely skyrocketed ahead of october into november/december sure that is an indication the markets were anticipating the spirit this morning, if you are short the stock, you're having a good day. if you are not, quite a difficult session if you are long what is happening with hams --s -- dim and devobenham's. pointed tomembers robust growth that was going to get further boost from tax cuts. the most policymakers backing continual gradual rate hikes. richard jones joining us from berlin. the inflation story could be when the fed has to deal with an 2018. that there isnk an element of seasonality to those breakevens, so i'm not sure i would read too much into it. i think the investor take on inflation is for the past 10 years, core pce has averaged 1.6 percent. when the fed started hiking

debenhams are plunging today.gs will be less than expected after a week holiday. their post christmas sales fell 1.3% despite aggressive markdowns. the world's biggest chipmakers and software companies are having to deal with a widespread problem that leaves computers and smartphones open to hacking. a feature in computer chips could give hackers access to sensitive data. google, intel, and others have issued statements assuring customers and shareholders. that is your bloomberg business flash. francine: thank you so much. .his is a significant story i got briefed on it by nate lanxon. the concern is that it took a little bit of a long time for intel to say if they are vulnerable to a hack, how do you replace it? do you replace the chip? it is costly and will take a long time. you have to look in asia and the chinese semiconductors to see if they can come in and get market share. tom: eurasia group had a technology angle to it that was extraordinary. let us turn to the markets. leslie wants to know what to do with

that is what mike ashley, the largest shareholder in debenhams, faced yesterday.ggest shareholder lost 13 million quid. value of shares. the biggest shareholder lost 13 million quidm isa paper shareholder lost 13 million quidm is a paper loss. i have a lot on jose mourinho. pieces because he lives in a hotel in manchester, it does not mean he is not committed long—term. —— he says. staying in the hotel for all those weeks on end. he says he does it because he is lazy and he likes living in a hotel. he says if the fans wanting to be comfortable. sad guys don't work well. and as somebody is making your bed view. he never struck me as being a sad person. not a case, to use a cliche, but it is in the air. they want players to have more mental and psychological resilience. they have hired an australian. working with the australian swimming team. doctor pepper grange. she is renowned forgetting into the players heads. look out for her. here is how it works. let's hope it does. one of the meetings i enjoy about our team is that there is often a box of biscuits in the new