Author: Press Room

BUY: EasyJet (EZJ)Stronger winter trading means full-year profits should beat expectations at the budget airline, writes Michael Fahy.Ryanair’s daily flight numbers last week were at 114 per cent of pre-pandemic levels, but EasyJet has been slower off the mark. Its daily flight numbers last week were only at 63 per cent of 2019 levels, according to Eurocontrol.Not all of this is its fault, and the airline has been unlucky in that two of its main hubs — London Gatwick and Amsterdam — imposed capacity restrictions last summer to cope with the ramp up in activity. Amsterdam’s limits are still in…

The UK faces recession and despite positive trading updates from some companies this month, new data from the Office for National Statistics showed that retail sales fell unexpectedly in December, following a small contraction the month before. But the wife of N Brown’s biggest shareholder must feel optimistic, having just bought over £3.7mn of shares in the online clothing company. Lady Homa Alliance — who is married to Lord Alliance, the Iranian-born entrepreneur who chaired N Brown between 1968 and 2012 — bought almost 13mn shares over seven days, paying between 25.9p and 30p a share. N Brown’s share price…

A gang leader is accused of organising the 2022 murders of Indigenous expert Bruno Pereira and journalist Dom Phillips.Federal police in Brazil have identified a Colombian fish trader and gang leader as the mastermind behind the dual murders of British journalist Dom Phillips and Indigenous expert Bruno Pereira, a crime that drew international attention to the Amazon rainforest. On Monday, Alexandre Fontes, the head of the federal police for the Brazilian state of Amazonas, said that his investigators had a “strong conviction” that Ruben Dario da Silva Villar was behind the June 2022 slayings. Pereira, 41, and Phillips, 57, were…

Health Canada is recalling a line of gas stoves due to a “risk of carbon monoxide poisoning.” The recall notice says the issues involve the oven compartment of ZLINE gas stoves with model numbers RG30, RG36 and RG48. Model numbers are displayed on the label on the back of the machine.“The oven of the gas ranges can emit dangerous levels of carbon monoxide (CO) while in use, posing a serious risk of injury or death from carbon monoxide poisoning,” the recall notice warns.There have been 44 reports of carbon monoxide emission in other countries, including three reports of users seeking…

Chancellor Jeremy Hunt has insisted the High Speed 2 railway will finish in central London as officials at the project connecting the capital and northern England examine measures to prevent a further surge in costs.The estimated price tag for Britain’s biggest infrastructure scheme has soared from £33bn to more than £100bn since it was first conceived a decade ago, prompting alarm within the Treasury where ministers are determined to prevent further cost escalation. As a result, senior figures inside the Department for Transport and HS2 have discussed solutions ranging from dropping the surviving stretch of the eastern second leg of…

Get it, girl! Ashley Park didn’t let an ankle injury stop her from getting glammed up for Haute Couture Fashion Week in Paris. The Emily in Paris star, 31, arrived at the Valentino and Rahul Mishra fashion shows on Wednesday, January 25, in style — and on crutches. LAURENT BENHAMOU/SIPA/Shutterstock She donned two fabulous looks for the soirée. For the Valentino show, she wore an oversized blazer dress with a sheer Valentino catsuit underneath. The California native added a pop of color to the ensemble with blue dangly earrings. Although she had to wear a brace around her ankle, she…

Wall Street stocks rose on Friday after the Federal Reserve’s preferred measure of inflation inched higher in line with expectations, while consumer spending declined for the second consecutive month.Wall Street’s benchmark S&P 500 added 0.4 per cent and the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite gained 0.7 per cent. Shares in Intel fell 7.5 per cent after the chipmaker said revenue in the current quarter was forecast to come in about $3bn below analysts’ expectations. Oil major Chevron slipped 4 per cent despite announcing record earnings for 2022, dragged lower by cooling fourth-quarter profits, while credit card company American Express jumped by a…

The rate of subway crime in the Big Apple has declined since the launch of a new safety plan in October, Mayor Eric Adams and Gov. Kathy Hochul announced Friday. During a joint appearance at the Fulton Transit Center in Lower Manhattan, officials unveiled NYPD figures that showed subway crimes occurred at a rate of 1.7 incidents per 1 million riders during the first three weeks of this year, down from 2.3 incidents per million in 2021 and 2022. The rate is now nearly at the same level of 1.5 incidents per 1 million riders before the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, during…

The Justice Department has charged three men as part of an Iran-backed plot to kill an Iranian American author and activist who has spoken out against human rights abuses, officials said Friday.The men, Rafat Amirov, 43, of Iran, Polad Omarov, 38, of the Czech Republic and Slovenia and Khalid Mehdiyev, 24, of Yonkers, New York, were charged with money laundering and murder-for-hire in a superseding indictment unsealed in federal court in New York. The three men were in custody and one was awaiting extradition to the U.S.Though authorities didn’t identify the alleged target by name, the circumstances described in court…

Starting with a London corner shop in 1963, Sir Anwar Pervez built Bestway into one of Britain’s largest wholesaling business. That underpins the expectation that some industrial logic lies behind the family-owned company’s surprise acquisition of a £200mn holding in Sainsbury’s on Friday. Announcing the 3.45 per cent stake, Bestway stated that it had no plans to launch a takeover but looked forward “to supporting the executive management team”. Shares in Sainsbury’s rallied up to 5 per cent in response.A purely passive financial investment might have some merit. Sainsbury’s recently raised its full-year guidance after strong Christmas trading. Its tilt…