Source: Sharecast
STOCKS TO WATCH
Landscaping supply group Marshalls said it expected to report annual earnings in-line with market expectations despite subdued end markets and “prolonged” pre-Budget uncertainty during the second half which saw revenues come in flat. Marshalls added that the outlook for 2026 "continues to be uncertain" but was confident that cost cutting last year would deliver an improved financial performance.
Travel retailer WH Smith appointed Leo Quinn to the role of executive chairman on Monday, with effect from 7 April. Quinn will succeed current chair Annette Court, who will step down at the end of WH Smith's annual general meeting on 2 February.
Workspace Group has announced that chief executive Lawrence Hutchings will leave the company after just 14 months in the role. He will be replaced by Charlie Green, the former CEO and co-founder of The Office Group, who will join at the start of next month.
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Scottish Power has been ranked Britain's worst energy supplier for customer service in a survey from a leading consumer body that placed many of the UK's biggest suppliers at the bottom of the league table. British Gas and EDF Energy were just above Scottish Power at the foot of the annual Which? rankings. These are based on a satisfaction survey of almost 12,000 energy customers and a Which? assessment of each supplier's customer service. – Guardian
Thousands of residents across Kent are still dealing with water supply issues after yet more outages from the under-fire operator, South East Water. The water supply of more than 5,500 households was affected on Sunday evening due to a treatment works fault, a power outage and two burst mains. A major incident was declared earlier this week when 30,000 homes in Kent and Sussex were left without water for days. South East Water has faced heavy criticism from MPs and the public after a similar outage before Christmas left 24,000 people in Tunbridge Wells without drinking water for two weeks. – Guardian
Rachel Reeves is preparing to inject tens of millions of pounds into an Oxford self-driving car pioneer as Labour gets ready to unleash autonomous vehicles on Britain's roads. The £28bn National Wealth Fund, which is backed by the Treasury, is nearing a deal to plough taxpayer cash into Oxa, the driverless car start-up founded by experts from Oxford University. – Telegraph
Elon Musk is seeking damages of up to $134bn from OpenAI and its long-time backer Microsoft, claiming he deserves the "wrongful gains" both companies received from his early support. In a federal court filing on Friday, Musk's lawyer claimed the ChatGPT owner gained between $65.5bn and $109.4bn from Musk's contributions when he co-founded OpenAI with its chief executive Sam Altman in 2015, while Microsoft, which has a 27% stake in OpenAI, gained between $13.3bn and $25.1bn. – The Times
A government-backed campaign to kickstart retail investment in corporate bonds is to be launched on Monday with the introduction of a kitemark system set up to reassure novice investors. Direct investment in the bonds by individuals has collapsed in recent years after EU rules effectively prevented any single investment of less than £100,000. That floor has now been scrapped, allowing bond transactions to start at as little as £1. – The Times
US CLOSE
Major indices struggled for direction on Friday, finishing marginally lower as investors refrained from taking on too much risk ahead of the long weekend, with markets shut on Monday for Martin Luther King Jr Day.
At the close, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 0.17% at 49,359.33, while the S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite both closed 0.06% weaker at 6,940.01 and 23,515.39, respectively.
Reporting by Iain Gilbert at Sharecast.com