Asda to invest in price cuts to battle drop in sales and market share

Asda is to invest “a pretty significant war chest” in cutting prices and putting more staff on the shop floor as the supermarket chain battles a decline in sales and market share.Allan Leighton, the chair of the privately owned group that runs more 580 supermarkets, almost 500 convenience stores and 769 petrol forecourts, said there would be a “material reduction in our profit” for the year ahead as the group aimed to invest in order to regain its crown as the UK’s lowest-price traditional supermarket.“This is an investment warning, not a profit warning,” said Leighton, who returned to Asda in November after a two-decade gap to attempt a second turnaround of the chain where he was previously chief executive. “It is not because we are doing badly but investment for the mid and long term and that’s going to cost.“The only way we have got to rebuild profit is through sales growth

UK economy shrinks unexpectedly in blow to Rachel Reeves

The UK economy contracted by 0.1% in January, dealing a blow to Rachel Reeves before the spring statement later this month.In a surprise to City economists, who had expected 0.1% growth in January, the Office for National Statistics data showed the services sector failed to offset a decline in the industrial sector and maintain growth from the previous month.Manufacturing output fell by 1

Shrinking economy offers unhelpful backdrop for Rachel Reeves’s growth push

For a government that has made growth its overriding mission, the 0.1% decline in GDP in January signalled by the Office for National Statistics will be depressing news.As Rachel Reeves prepares to announce her spring statement on 26 March, the economy appears to be going in the wrong direction – underlining the fact that the Office for Budget Responsibility is likely to have presented her with notably weaker forecasts than in October.The monthly data is more volatile than the closely watched quarterly growth rates and can often be revised, but it appears the UK was stagnating even before Donald Trump began tearing up the global trading system.As Suren Thiru of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales put it: “The UK’s economic performance may have been similarly downbeat in February, with any boost from consumer spending amid strong wage growth and lower interest rates weakened by the brake on business activity from this torrent of global uncertainty

S&P 500 falls more than 10% below recent high as markets rattled by Trump

The S&P 500, a key US stock market index, closed in correction territory on Thursday as the volatility of Donald Trump’s trade wars rattled investors.The index closed more than 10% down from its 19 February peak as Wall Street approaches the end of a second week of pressure.The technology-focused Nasdaq Composite also closed in correction last Thursday, while the Dow is over 9% down from its peak in December.On Thursday, after Canadian and EU leaders hit back on American tariffs on steel and aluminum imports, the US president threatened a new 200% tariff on European alcohol, in response to a 50% EU tariff on American bourbon imports.“This will be great for the Wine and Champagne businesses in the US,” Trump wrote on Truth Social

Mothers demand justice as London case over Brazil dam collapse concludes

With tears in their eyes, mothers of children who died in Brazil’s worst environmental disaster – the 2015 Mariana dam collapse – demanded justice for their loved ones as submissions in their London lawsuit came to an end on Thursday.Nineteen people were killed when the Mariana dam in south-eastern Brazil collapsed and unleashed a wave of toxic sludge, leaving thousands homeless, flooding forests and polluting the Doce River.The dam was owned by Samarco, a joint venture between the Brazilian mining firm Vale, and the Anglo-Australian BHP, the world’s biggest miner by market value.“It was the day that destroyed my life … the day that took away my son,” Gelvana Silva, 37, said outside the high court in London. She lost her seven-year-old son, Thiago, in the flood

Ex-Barclays boss claims his marriage is at risk after admitting in court to sex with Epstein employee

The former bank boss Jes Staley has claimed his honesty in court has “put my marriage at risk” after his lawyer complained that forcing him to disclose he had sex with a member of Jeffrey Epstein’s staff had resulted in “public humiliation”.The ex-Barclays chief executive capped off three and a half days of cross-examination by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) by suggesting his willingness to endure scrutiny showed he had no interest in misleading the regulator, which alleges he lied about the depth of his relationship with Epstein.Staley is trying to overturn the FCA’s 2023 ruling that led to a lifetime ban from the City and the loss of £18m in pay and bonuses from Barclays.Speaking at the Upper Tribunal in London on Thursday, he said: “On my own costs, I crossed the Atlantic to be in the tribunal to be open and honest. I could have stayed at home