Markets struggle for Santa Rally as Omicron fears recede – Business Live | Business

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8.55 AM GMT 08:55

Tees of the season … Try your luck with the Guardian Christmas Quiz. Good luck and God bless you!

8.21 am GMT 08:21

Photo: Reuters

Consumer giant Reckitt Benckiser has agreed to sell its E45 skincare brand for £200m as its focus shifts to higher growth areas.

The Slough-based company, which also owns brands including Dettol and Durex, told investors this morning that it is set to sell the company to Swedish group Karo Pharma.

E45 cream, which can soothe dry, itchy skin and help treat eczema, was created in 1952 by Reckitt’s Crookes Healthcare company and was initially available only in hospitals. Increased demand and positive results led the brand to move into traditional retail.

In the financial year ended December 2020, the E45 brand and related sub-brands generated a combined net profit of £43 million.

The proposed sale is the latest move by Reckitt to shift its portfolio in an effort to focus on the higher growth areas of its operations. Earlier this year, it sold its infant formula and baby nutrition products in China and its Scholl foot treatment brand.

Reckitt has benefited from rising sales of Strepsils and Nurofen this fall, as the lifting of the global lockdown has resulted in more people catching coughs, colds and flu. But it has also been hit by rising costs due to a bloated supply chain.

CityAM

Reckitt Benckiser earns £200m for E45 skincare brand as it transforms from ‘brand-led’ to category-led growth strategy’ https://t.co/lt9ZaVHyJF pic.twitter.com/oO9puVAm0n

December 24, 2021

Updated at 8.21 AM GMT

8.08 am GMT 08:08

It’s not a huge rally.. but the UK’s leading stocks opened slightly higher in today’s short session.

The FTSE 100 was up 7 points, or 0.1%, at 7,380 points, heading for a 21-month high in November.

Airlines group IAG, which owns British Airways, topped the list of gainers, up 1.6%, with conference coordinator Informa up 1% and hotel operator Whitbread up 0.9%.

FTSE 100 Index Picture: Refinitiv

Updated at 8.25am GMT

8.03am GMT08:03

Selfridges sells another chapter in the luxury brand’s rollercoaster history

Sarah Butler

The Selfridges deal is the latest piece in the brand’s roller coaster history founded by a retail legend, as retail reporter Sarah Butler writes:

After more than 20 years rising through the ranks of the Marshall Field department store in Chicago, in 1906 American businessman Harry Gordon Selfridge arrived in the United Kingdom with one intention: to create a large department store.

By some accounts, he was tempted by Liverpool’s Samuel J. Waring, Jr., who had built a chain of furniture stores in London and wanted someone to run a store adjacent to the new Waring and Gillow outlets on Oxford Street.

It was initially meant to be called the Selfridge-Waring Store, but Selfridge took over when his partner ran into financial difficulties and opened the new store in March 1909 under his own name alone.

From the start, Selfridge embraced the retail theater and was adamant that his store would be “a civic hub, where friends can meet and purchase is just a secondary consideration”. On opening day, which drew massive crowds, the store wowed shoppers with live music, plentiful flower shows, and copious lighting in its airy halls.

Selfridges of Selfridges on Oxford Street, London, 1931. Photo: Selfridges/PA

The store sold a wide range of merchandise, but out of respect for its first business partner, it wasn’t the food or the furnishings. It housed a library, a ladies’ rest room, a picture gallery, and a restaurant connected to a rooftop garden.

Selfridges set a new standard for supermarkets in the UK, abandoning the tradition of housing staff above the store and opting for modern large windows that more closely resemble advertising than the practice of stacking as many goods as possible.

When the store acquired one of the blue plaques from English Heritage in 2003, the charity said: “It is largely thanks to Selfridge that Oxford Street remains the commercial heart of the West End.”

More here:

7.54am GMT07:54

Selfridges sold to Thai and Austrian groups in a £4 billion deal

The good news in the morning is that UK-based supermarket chain Selfridges has been acquired in a £4 billion deal by Thai Central Group and Signa Group, an Austrian real estate group.

The deal will see the return of former head of the luxury store Vittorio Rades.

The companies bought the group from the Canadian Weston family, and are believed to have beaten out competitors from the Qatar Investment Authority, which owns Harrods, and Lyn Crawford, a Hong Kong department store owner.

The Thai group, which started with a single store in Bangkok run by Tiang Chirativat in the 1950s, last year listed part of the business on the Thai Stock Exchange, and has other interests in department stores, malls and hotels. Signa is owned and operated by René Benko, one of Austria’s richest men.

The deal with Westons includes four UK stores for Selfridges – in London and Birmingham and two in Manchester – as well as Brown Thomas and Arnots in Ireland and de Begenkorf in the Netherlands. It also covers around £2 billion of the chain’s major real estate assets, including the freehold of its flagship store registered on Oxford Street in London.

Here is the full story:

Updated at 8.02am GMT

7.24am GMT07:24

Introduction: Santa drove the S&P 500 Rally to record trader Michael Bestello Jr’s record high in a ceremonial jacket on the trading floor of the New York Stock Exchange yesterday. Photograph: Andrew Kelly/Reuters

Good morning, and welcome to our renewed coverage of the global economy, financial markets, the eurozone, and business.

Only one trading day in town until Christmas, and investors are trying hard to see signs of the legendary Santa rally.

US stocks rebounded last night, as traders took comfort from mounting evidence that the Omicron variant of the coronavirus is more benign. The S&P 500 closed at a record high – it’s 68 this year – and European markets staged their rally Thursday.

As Kent Engelk, chief economic strategist at Capitol Securities Management, told Morningstar:

“Today, it comes down to economic optimism that this alternative won’t be as bad as Delta and the original virus.”

A British government study last night showed that the risk of hospitalization is up to 70% lower for people with Omicron compared to those with delta.

The Australian stock market joined the holiday cheer, with the ASX up 0.4% in the Christmas Eve session, with financial stocks, mining, gas and technology stocks among the gainers.

Victoria Scholar (@VictoriaS_ii)

Santa Claus rallies better later than ever closing S&P 500 at all-time high 🎅🏼🎅🏼🎅🏼

December 23, 2021

Markets usually rebound around Christmas (according to the news…), and OANDA’s Jeffrey Haley says it has arrived:

Fortunately, journalists stopped asking me if we were going to make a Santa Claus rebound in the stock markets, as it already did.

Wall Street surged again overnight after a strong flurry of data and US markets convinced themselves even more, that Omicron is a mildly symptomatic storm in a teacup.

Charliebilello

The S&P 500 closes at an all-time high for the 68th time this year. Only 1995 reached its highest level ever in a single calendar year. $SPX pic.twitter.com/92dcWbtg3s

December 23, 2021

But in the UK, concerns about growing financial distress on the high streets and at hospitality companies are setting the mood.

My colleague Sarah Butler explains:

More than 35,000 British retailers and 20,000 bars and restaurants are facing major financial hardship, according to new data, while shoppers are expected to spend nearly a quarter more in physical stores on this Boxing Day than before the pandemic.

If fashion, footwear, furniture companies and other ‘non-essential’ retailers are allowed to stay open from 26 December, £3.94 billion is expected to be spent in stores and online on that day, 10% less than before the pandemic and 1% Less than last year.

Spending in physical stores alone is expected to decline 23% compared to 2019 as many shoppers avoid major streets, malls and retail parks amid fears of the coronavirus Omicron variant.

Yesterday, the FTSE 100 hit its highest closing level in six weeks, close to its highest since the pandemic crash in March.

But it could be a weak start today, as the blue-chip index is expected to fall slightly. Might be a quiet session, with trading ending early at lunchtime (hurrah).

IGSquawk (IGSquawk)

European Opening Calls: #FTSE 7363 -0.14% #CAC 7105 -0.02% #AEX 792 -0.02% #IGOpeningCall

** Reminder ** – Half a day on all of the above today.

December 24, 2021

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