Retail sales beat expectations as Christmas shopping starts early

Good early morning.

We kick off with some optimistic numbers for stores, as sales in November outstripped anticipations.

Retail sales grew 1.4pc final thirty day period — well in advance of the .8pc growth forecast. This was driven by a change to before Christmas shopping, as well as Black Friday bargains.

But the outlook is fewer rosy for brick-and-mortar stores, with the spread of the new Covid variant threatening to continue to keep customers absent around the upcoming few months.

five points to get started your day 

1)  Just Eat joins quickly grocery race with Asda deal  Takeaway team performs catch-up with rivals Deliveroo and Uber Eats in offer with fourth-largest grocery store

2) Mobile masts takeover ‘threatens better bills’  Opposition and Marketplaces Authority probes Cellnex’s proposed £9bn acquisition of 24,000 web pages from A few operator CK Hutchison

3) Nicola Sturgeon’s governing administration may have provided illegal subsidies to metal plant  Scottish ministers accused of ‘amateur hour’ around offer with Sanjeev Gupta, whose firms face inquiry

four) Brace for additional constraints, warns cinema chief  Vue chief Tim Richards claims further steps to deal with omicron will arrive ‘sooner alternatively than later’

five) Harrods Boxing Day sale to get started ten days early as omicron bites  Coronavirus variant is hammering footfall in London’s West Stop

What took place overnight 

Asian equities mainly fell on Friday, pulling back from the preceding day’s rally. Tokyo, Singapore, Wellington, Manila and Jakarta all dropped into the purple while Sydney, Seoul and Taipei edged up.

Coming up right now

• Corporate: No scheduled FTSE 350 reporters
• Economics: GfK client confidence (United kingdom), retail sales (United kingdom), providers PMI (United kingdom), client value index (EU), Ifo enterprise confidence (Ger)