British shoppers hit London's Oxford Street on Christmas Eve - but fewer were out two days later (Credit: AP Photo/Petros Karadjias)
Britons slipping out of the Boxing Day buying habit
Rainy weather made Boxing Day a wash-out for any retailers needing a late Christmas bonus from UK shoppers, according to preliminary figures. Market researchers Springboard noted that morning footfall was down 10.6 percent compared to the previous year.
Traditionally signifying the start of the post-Christmas sales, 26 December has long been crucial to retailers, but its value is diminishing. "Boxing Day is indisputably a less important trading day than it once was," said Springboard's insights director Diane Wehrle, citing November's Black Friday and the increase in online shopping as the reason for the decline.
The preliminary figures come after Barclaycard predicted Britons would spend $4.8 billion in the post-Christmas sales, down $261 million on last year. "Savvy shoppers have been planning their large purchases throughout the entire festive sales period, which begins long before December," said Barclaycard Payments chief executive Rob Cameron.
It's green for go on London's FTSE (Credit: AP Photo/Matt Dunham)
Optimistic FTSE gains for 11th successive day
The FTSE 100 started Friday strongly, continuing a run of rises which has lasted for 11 trading sessions - its the best streak in three years.
The markets were reacting partly to the positive signals that the United States and China could soon sign a first-phase trade deal, having agreed preliminary terms earlier this month.
Milan's stock exchange isn't on the market (Credit: AP Photo/Luca Bruno)
Borsa Italiana not for sale, says its CEO
The London Stock Exchange (LSE) will not sell the Borsa Italiana, according to Raffaele Jerusalmi - the Milan bourse's CEO and an LSE board member. Interviewed by Italian newspaper Il Sole 24 Ore, Jerusalmi insisted that the LSE would not be selling any assets in the wake of the $27 billion takeover of data analysts Refinitiv.
LSE shareholders last month backed the Refinitiv deal, which is intended to broaden the LSE's business by making it a major data provider. Jerusalmi says there are no current plans to merge the MTS bond platform, controlled by Borsa Italiana, with Refinitiv's Tradeweb.
Incoming ECB president Christine Lagarde could face a tough 2020 (Credit: AP Photo/Francisco Seco)
Economists predict further, harsher eurozone slowdown in 2020
Political instability, trade uncertainties and car-industry disruption will slow the eurozone economy for a third successive year in 2020, according to a Financial Times poll of 34 economists.
The European Central Bank (ECB) has also predicted reduced growth, of 1.1 percent. However, the 34 analysts were more cautious, predicting that growth will average between one percent and ranging all the way down to zero growth.
"With no end to global trade uncertainty in sight, the tug of war between global investment headwinds and pockets of domestic resilience, underpinned by easy ECB policy, will continue to make for uncomfortable eurozone GDP readings," said G+ Economics chief economist Lena Komileva.
Read more Juliet Mann's review of the year in European financial markets
US borrowers have flocked to the euro (Credit: AP Photo/Frank Augstein)
"Reverse Yankees" quadruple US firms' borrowing in euros this year
New research has shown how US companies are fundraising by flooding into the euro debt market, quadrupling their presence in the sector to take 25 percent market share. The big attraction of the "reverse Yankee" - named in contrast to Yankee bonds, sold by foreign companies in the US - is the very low borrowing cost in the euro zone, where interest rates are at minus 0.5 percent.