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Finance

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Finance

M&S boss bemoans last week’s budget as ‘whole lot of nothing’

Stuart Machin hits out at Labour but welcomes expected UK-EU food deal as retailer reveals half-year results The chief executive of Marks & Spencer has called John Healey’s first budget as chancellor a “whole lot of nothing” and bemoaned an “onslaught of taxation and regulation” from the Labour government despite welcoming an expected deal on EU border checks. Stuart Machin said he was disappointed at last week’s budget statement, adding that it “didn’t really address the issues we need to focus on growth”. He said the chancellor’s “real terms” freeze on business rates, for example, would lead

The Guardian
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Finance

BMW warns on profits as it counts cost of plan for 8,000 job cuts

German carmaker slashes profit margin to between -0.5% and 0.5% this year in face of competition from China The German carmaker BMW has issued its second profit warning in a year, blaming the costs of a restructuring programme including significant job losses in the face of continuing competition from China. The company is the latest to issue a profit downgrade in the German car sector, after Mercedes-Benz last week cut its profit outlook. Western automakers have struggled to keep pace with lower-cost Chinese rivals, which has led to reduced sales in China and a rise in Chinese exports to Euro

The Guardian
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Finance

Britain’s housing market unlikely to recover until 2028, says Savills

House prices forecast to fall by 1.5% next year as Middle East war keeps mortgage rates higher for longer Britain’s sluggish housing market is not expected to recover until 2028 as higher mortgage rates linked to the war in the Middle East deter buyers and weigh on prices. The property firm Savills said average house prices were expected to drift lower during the rest of 2026 and fall by 1.5% in 2027, as the prolonged conflict undermines buyers’ confidence and keeps mortgage rates higher for longer. Continue reading...

The Guardian
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Finance

Hackers behind $6.3bn Binance heist ‘used malware and bogus job interviews’

Firm reveals details about how its cryptocurrency exchange was compromised, saying operation began in June The hackers behind the $6.3bn (£4.7bn) Binance heist used bogus job interviews, malicious software and an internal AI tool, the company has revealed. The world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange was compromised in an operation that began with an inadvertent download of malware in June, led to a recruitment scam in September and then a raid last week of “hot wallets” where billions of dollars worth of crypto-assets were taken. Continue reading...

The Guardian
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Finance

Primark lacks fizz as it approaches its go-it-alone moment

After a profits dip, the chain’s demerger from its sister food company still makes sense but is unlikely to reveal tons of value Primark brings forward home deliveries plan by two years as profits slide The business logic for demerging Primark from Associated British Foods’ greater Ovaltine-to-Twinings empire – an event due to happen by the end of next year – is impeccable. Read this year’s results statement and you wonder why the controlling Weston family took 20 years to get behind the idea. One paragraph can be about a yeast plant in India or the impact of high gas prices on sugar-refining

The Guardian
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Finance

Protect Poundland from predatory capitalism, MPs tell government

Budget retailer and 12,000 jobs at risk after US owner fails to accept buyout offers MPs have called on the government to protect Poundland and other high street stores from “predatory capitalism” and asset-stripping. The fate of the retail chain and its 12,000 staff remains uncertain after it filed a notice of intention to appoint administrators at the high court last Thursday. Continue reading...

The Guardian
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Finance

Datacentres are deeply unpopular – so the geniuses at OpenAI are rebranding them | Arwa Mahdawi

These resource-guzzling centres drive up utility bills and are hated across the political spectrum. Cue a clunky, but potentially influential, new name for them Jesus may have turned water into wine, but Donald Trump has done one better: he turned Lake Ontario into Lake America and the Gulf of Mexico into the Gulf of America. And then, for his next trick, he insisted we all stop talking about artificial intelligence (AI) and call it superintelligence (SI) instead. Those, of course, are only a few of the name changes the president has ushered in. When he’s not golfing or commenting on senators’

The Guardian
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Finance

Primark brings forward home deliveries plan by two years as profits slide

Retailer acquires robot-assisted warehouse and intends to have UK service up and running before end of 2027 Primark is to begin making home deliveries by the end of next year as it aims to win new shoppers after a slide in profits. George Weston, the boss of the cut-price fashion chain’s owner Associated British Foods (ABF), said it had brought forward the launch of Primark’s home delivery plans by about two years. Continue reading...

The Guardian
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Finance

Snap and crackle but no pop: Rice Krispies reformulated due to lack of rice

Kellogg’s substitutes ingredient with rice flour, as climate crisis affects availability of some grains They will snap and they will crackle, but they may no longer pop, as Kellogg’s has removed rice from its Rice Krispies and Coco Pops cereals due to “changing weather conditions”. Rice Krispies has been reformulated to use rice flour instead of rice, while Coco Pops now contain a blend of rice flour and corn flour instead of rice in order to maintain consistent quality. Kelloggs’ said the shift reflected how the climate crisis had affected the quality and availability of some rice and grains

The Guardian
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