Weekly review
The FTSE 100 ended the week down 142.4 points to 7,198.44.
Equity view
FTSE 250 merchant bank Close Brothers expressed confidence over its full-year results as it reported growth in its loan book.
National Express has appointed Chris Davies as group finance director, succeeding Matthew Ashley, who has been appointed chief executive of the transport company’s North American division, its largest business.
Pets at Home posted a rise in group revenue for the third quarter as it said the profit outlook for the year remains in line with expectations.
Price comparison website Moneysupermarket. com expects revenue to increase 12% for the year, aided by a 20% growth in the final quarter of 2016.
Anglo-Australian miner BHP Billiton and its Brazilian iron-ore joint venture with Vale SA, Samarco Mineracao, have set a 30 June deadline with federal prosecutors in Brazil to settle a $47. 5bn claim related to a dam failure in November 2015 which killed 19 people.
Acacia Mining delivered strong fourth quarter gold production, which resulted in forecast-beating full year production at its Tanzania mine with costs towards the bottom of expectations.
Halfords surged on Thursday as it announced the payment of a special dividend following strong sales over the retailer’s key Christmas quarter and said it has bought a minority stake in mobile tyre fitting company TyresOnTheDrive.com.
N Brown made strides over the festive period, with revenue growth accelerating at the specialist-fit clothing retailer in its third quarter.
Dwindling volumes of letters to Father Christmas and other festive missives saw Royal Mail deliver flat revenues for the nine months to 25 December, with increased "business uncertainty" hitting volumes particularly in advertising and business mailings.
FTSE 100 information services company Experian reported a 4% rise in third-quarter organic revenue as it maintained its guidance for the full year.
Sales slowed and profit margins narrowed at JD Wetherspoon in the second quarter but while the pub group remained cautious its expectations full year results have "slightly improved".
Boosted by a return to growth for the Asia Pacific region but with the Americas still in decline, Burberry grew underlying retail sales 4% in the third quarter.
Shares in Premier Foods tanked after it warned that trading profit for full-year 2016/17 will be 10% lower than previously anticipated due to weaker-than-expected third-quarter sales and higher costs, as it announced a cost saving and efficiency programme.
HSBC will need to move roughly 1,000 London jobs to its Paris office due to Brexit, the bank's chief executive Stuart Gulliver confirmed on Wednesday.
Mining giant Rio Tinto hailed a strong operational performance in 2016 with an on-target increase in iron ore production.
AstraZeneca has rejigged the target of clinical trials for its immuno-oncology treatment for non-small cell lung cancer after "strong efficacy" of its durvalumab drug shown in recent internal and external data as well as "significant opportunities in the competitive landscape".
As a result of several acquisitions veterinary pharmaceutical Dechra’s half year revenue surged, while it gained regulatory approval in the US for its generic antibiotic.
FTSE 250 baker Greggs said on Tuesday that its full-year results are likely to be slightly ahead of previous expectations following particularly strong sales over the Christmas period.
Hotel Chocolat Group’s quarterly revenue rose during the Christmas period due to an increase in footfall for the chocolatier and sales of higher priced items, though investors seemed disappointed about what that implied for like-for-like growth.
Burberry has confirmed that new chief executive Marco Gobbetti will join the fashion retailer at the end of this month, sending its shares to an 18-month high.
Emerging markets focused fund manager, Ashmore revealed that relatively minor outflows and negative market performance combined to put a $2. 4bn dent in assets under management in the second quarter, but that for 2017 it expects "further strong performance".
Denying some media reports on Monday, the London Stock Exchange has stressed that as part of its agreed merger with Deutsche Börse it will not move its clearing business from London to Frankfurt.
Shares soared in WANdisco as the big data software firm announced it made record bookings in the fourth quarter due to new channel partnerships with Amazon, IBM and Oracle, while it operated at near cash flow break-even.
Economic news
UK retail sales in December fell the most since April 2012 as an increase in average store prices deterred shoppers, official data revealed on Friday.
Britain’s housing market “stuttered” in December as price growth slowed and the number of sales fell, according to RICS.
Prime Minister Theresa May told world leaders on Thursday that a post-Brexit Britain will be a leader in trade and that the country would “step up to a new leadership role” after it leaves the European Union.
UK wage growth climbed as the unemployment rate was supported by a rise in inactivity, according to official data released on Wednesday, and the more timely claimant count measure dropped unexpectedly.
House purchasing lending in the UK rose 5% to £11bn in November from a month ago as prices continued to rise, according to the Council of Mortgage Lenders on Tuesday.
UK house prices rose in November for the first time since July, according to the Office for National Statistics on Tuesday.
Theresa May confirmed the UK will seek a new free-trade agreement rather than membership of the European Union's single market when it leaves the European Union, but said the final Brexit deal will be put to a vote in both houses of parliament.
UK inflation surged more than expected to 1. 6% by the end of December, according to official data published on Tuesday, the highest level since July 2014.
International events
Letting the US economy run "too hot" would be risky and unwise, Federal Reserve chair Janet Yellen said, while reiterating her support for a gradual removal of the then current lax policy settings. Separately she said interest rates might rise towards 3% by the end of 2019.
China´s economic expansion accelerated slightly at the end of 2016, official government data revealed, but more timely figures for December appeared to point to a slowdown in activity, in part as the fiscal stimulus put in place by the authorities faded, economists said.
Giant investment bank Goldman Sachs plans to move 1,000 of its City of London traders and bankers to Frankfurt when the UK exits from the European Union, according to reports in Germany on Thursday.
Initial US unemployment claims fell by 15,000 to reach 234,000 over the week ending on 19 January, according to the US Department of Labor.
US consumer prices rose in December, driven by gains in prices for energy, second-hand autombiles and medical care commodities.
US industrial production jumped at the tail-end of 2016 as utilities output soared, albeit amid downwards revisions for data from prior months.
Christine Lagarde, the head of the International Monetary Fund, has said that the middle classes of the global economy are close to crisis.
Inflation in the 19 countries that share the euro rose as expected in December, according to final data released by Eurostat on Wednesday.