Poor sales figures over the weeks leading up to Christmas and New Year epitomised a tough year for retailers as shoppers were forced to prioritise spending in the middle of a massive inflationary wave.   

The Office for National Statistics said December headline UK retail sales fell 1.0% on the month, a major miss versus the expected 0.5% increase and well under the downwardly revised -0.5% mark in November. Annually, sales fell 5.8%, which was well below the forecast of a 4.1% decline and last month’s decrease of 5.7%.   

Excluding fuel, monthly sales dropped an outsized 1.1% in December compared with an expected rise of 0.4% and November’s 0.3% decrease. On the year, sales were off 6.1%, worse than expectations of a 4.4% decline and below November’s upwardly revised slide of 5.6%.   

Sales volumes currently sit 1.7% below pre-coronavirus (Covid-19) February levels. (LiveSquawk - Continue Reading)

Central bankers from around the advanced world warned against complacency about the fading of the global inflation shock, saying they’ll keep raising interest rates to ensure their job is done. 

Amid a collective sigh of relief among the business and political elite in Davos, monetary officials there and elsewhere cautioned that falling headline consumer-price gauges might yet prove a false dawn. They cited threats ranging from China’s reopening to resurgent wages. 

“‘Stay the course’ is my mantra,” European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde told the World Economic Forum on Friday, while her Swiss counterpart Thomas Jordan said “we should not underestimate the second-round effects that are already on the way.” 

Over in the US, Federal Reserve Vice Chair Lael Brainard reminded investors that “inflation remains high, and policy will need to be sufficiently restrictive for some time.” Her New York colleague John Williams added that “monetary policy still has more work to do.”

The central bankers’ admonishments and words of determination about rate hiking sought to quell a sense of burgeoning optimism in global markets after half a year of consistently slowing headline inflation in the US, with the euro zone following albeit with a lag. (Bloomberg - Continue Reading)

Alphabet Inc.’s plan to reduce headcount by more than 6% — about 12,000 roles — is adding to mass job cuts that are accelerating at technology companies around the world. 

The tech sector announced 97,171 job cuts in 2022, up 649% compared to the previous year, according to consulting firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas Inc. Disclosures about cuts at Google’s parent company, Microsoft Corp., and Amazon.com Inc. have added another 30,000 positions in January.

Big tech companies like these benefitted from a boom in e-commerce spending and remote work that kicked off during the Covid-19 pandemic lockdowns in 2020. Now, many of these businesses are reporting disappointing growth rates and dealing with sagging share prices as customer behavior returns to normal. Their leaders are saying they expanded too quickly, with Alphabet Chief Executive Officer Sundar Pichai writing that he takes “full responsibility for the decisions that led us here,’’ in an email to employees on Friday. (Bloomberg - Continue Reading)