‘This sort of shopping centre is our bread and butter really’

Middleton Shopping Centre is under new management after a sale was confirmed on Friday.

Middleton’s main shopping complex was put up for sale last month with an asking price of £8.5m. AG Retail – a subsidiary of the Adhan Group – are the purchasers of the site for an undisclosed fee.

The giant shopping centre comprises 324,078 sq ft of retail space across 87 units, supported by a 430‐space multi‐storey car park.

The new owners’ main priority is to get the shopping centre full again and sorting some building works for new retailers coming in.

Following weeks of rumours locally, it has been confirmed that retailer BOYES will move into the closed down Wilko store in the shopping centre. Jon-Paul Hardman, the asset manager speaking on behalf of AG Retail, added that B&M will move into the Poundstretcher store.

He added that Poundstretcher and TG Jones in the shopping centre may not leave entirely though following their recent financial troubles.

Mr Hardman said: “We tried to buy Middleton Shopping Centre three years ago but we were unsuccessful. It works for our retail model.

“This sort of shopping centre is our bread and butter really. Our first priority is to fill the centre again, that is the main plan.”

The Adhan Group is one of the largest retail owners in the north west, with a large portfolio of shopping centres. They run Golden Square Shopping Centre in Warrington, The Mall Blackburn, Belle Vale in Liverpool and Rochdale Exchange Shopping Centre – to name just a few.

According to Knight Frank, who put the shopping centre on the market, it has an annual footfall of around four million people. The estate agents added that it has a gross income of £2,332,168 per annum and an annual net income of £995,719.

This is happening at an exciting time for the town, with the Metrolink tram service planned for the area as part of a wider investment strategy – the Middleton Development Corporation.

This forms part of the overarching Northern Gateway scheme, bringing with it 20,000 jobs, Metrolink to Middleton, 1,200,000 square metres of employment floorspace, 3,000 new homes and better public areas, roads and pathways.

To find all the planning applications, traffic diversions, road layout changes, alcohol licence applications and more in your community, visit the Public Notices Portal.

Nike shares slipped ​nearly 4% in premarket trading on Wednesday, ​as investors fretted over the slower-than-expected turnaround at the world’s largest sportswear maker, ​nearly two years after Elliott Hill took the helm to revive growth.

While the company posted a modest beat in fourth-quarter revenue on Tuesday, sales in China slumped 17% and it expects sales to continue to decline in the first half ‌of fiscal 2027, underscoring ⁠the uneven ⁠nature of its recovery and raising doubts about the pace of its turnaround strategy.

“The Nike turnaround is progressing slowly,” Telsey ​Advisory Group analyst Cristina Fernandez said, adding that sales trends remain weak in large parts of the business such as ​sportswear and in international markets, and are unlikely to rebound before fiscal 2028.

Shares of European peers Adidas and Puma dropped about 1% each.

Nike has been struggling to regain momentum after losing market share to rivals such ​as Anta, Li Ning and Hoka. The stock has already fallen ⁠about 35% ‌this year.

Under Hill’s plan, the company is refocusing on sports, accelerating product innovation ​and rebuilding wholesale partnerships.
“Launched ​a year and a half ago, CEO Elliott Hill’s “Win Now” plan has brought ⁠cost reductions, more efficient inventory management, and a reorganization to align product ​development and marketing around athletics. However, improvement in results has been limited,” Morningstar ​analyst David Swartz said.The sportswear giant’s fourth-quarter revenue fell 4% to $10.97 billion. It also projected a low-to-mid-single digit percentage drop in revenue in the first half of fiscal 2027.

CHINA WEAKNESS PERSISTS Nike expects sales in China to remain under pressure as it works with retail partners to clear excess inventory, outgoing finance chief Matthew Friend said.

Greater China, which accounts for roughly 15% of Nike’s annual revenue, is ‌its third-largest market after North America and Europe, the Middle East and Africa.

Still, some analysts said there were early signs that Nike’s efforts to reset the business in ​the region were ​gaining traction, as evidenced by a ⁠smaller decline in fourth-quarter sales compared with the company’s earlier forecast of a roughly 20% drop.

Hill also said Nike plans to launch more than a dozen new footwear styles, though he cautioned that it would ​take time for the products to deliver sustained growth.

The company said stronger World Cup-related marketing, a faster pace of product launches and a rebound in soccer demand after a slowdown in April were proof of improving momentum. It also forecast a slight expansion in first-quarter gross margin.

“Sportswear and Jordan Streetwear remain an overhang and will take time to recover, but the core business is stabilizing,” Jefferies analysts said.

The Justice Department and attorneys general from 17 states announced proposed settlements Tuesday with three of the nation’s largest egg producers after alleging they coordinated to manipulate a key pricing benchmark that inflated egg prices for consumers nationwide.

Federal officials simultaneously filed a civil antitrust lawsuit against Cal-Maine Foods, Hickman’s Egg Ranch and Versova while lodging the proposed settlements, which – if approved by a federal court – would prohibit the companies from engaging in the alleged conduct going forward.

According to New York Attorney General Letitia James’ office, the companies agreed to pay a combined $3.3 million to participating states and donate approximately 53 million eggs to food banks and nonprofit organizations. The settlements also require the companies to adopt antitrust compliance measures and end the alleged coordination.

HOW YOUTUBE TV AND DIRECTV STREAM SUBSCRIBERS CAN GET A PAYOUT FROM DISNEY’S $50M ANTITRUST SETTLEMENT

The Justice Department alleges the companies manipulated daily price quotations published by Urner Barry, an industry benchmark that influences wholesale egg prices nationwide. 

According to the complaint, the companies coordinated bidding activity to create the appearance of stronger demand and artificially inflate prices for billions of eggs sold each year.

CALIFORNIA FOOD CHAINS MUST POST MENU ALLERGEN WARNINGS STARTING JULY 1

The complaint also alleges benchmark prices fell significantly after the companies learned of the federal investigation and were instructed to preserve documents in March 2025.

“No product more quintessentially represents affordability than the price Americans pay for eggs,” Associate Attorney General Stanley Woodward said in a statement. “These actions prove this Department’s continued commitment to protecting competition and providing real relief for everyday Americans’ pocketbooks.”

BELOVED GAS STATION PIZZA CHAIN CEO REVEALS 400-STORE EXPANSION PLAN AS FOOD BUSINESS BOOMS

Cal-Maine, the nation’s largest egg producer, denied wrongdoing in a statement, saying it “was not assessed any fines or penalties” under the agreement. The company said it will pay $1.5 million to participating states and donate 30 million eggs to food banks and nonprofit organizations while implementing certain compliance and reporting measures.

Mantiqueira USA, the joint venture that acquired Hickman’s Egg Ranch in November 2025, said the conduct described in the complaint occurred before its acquisition of the company.

“This settlement fully resolves the allegations against Hickman’s Egg Ranch related to that period,” the company said.

The proposed settlements remain subject to court approval following a 60-day public comment period required under the Tunney Act.

CLICK HERE TO GET FOX BUSINESS ON THE GO

FOX Business reached out to Cal-Maine Foods, Hickman’s Egg Ranch and Versova for additional comment.

Reuters contributed to this report. 

Intel shares fell sharply Wednesday, declining more than 7% in a session of heavy profit-taking that pulled back one of the stock market’s most dramatic turnaround stories of the year, even as the broader context for the company’s recovery over the past 12 months remained extraordinary by nearly any measure.

Shares of the Santa Clara, California-based chipmaker were trading at $129.38 as of 10:44 a.m. EDT, down $10.25, or 7.34%, on the day. The pullback follows a run that has taken Intel from a 52-week low of just $18.97, reached on August 1, 2025, to a 52-week and all-time closing high of $141.45 hit on June 22, a gain of more than 645% over less than 12 months that ranks as one of the most stunning single-stock recoveries in the semiconductor sector’s recent history.

Wednesday’s decline represents the stock pulling back from that all-time high after a remarkable sprint higher, consistent with what several technical analysts had flagged as a likely correction point. Chart watchers had noted a double-top formation developing near the $140 to $142 zone over the past week, with a bearish engulfing candlestick pattern on the weekly chart suggesting the kind of rejection at resistance that often precedes a consolidation phase, particularly in a stock that had appreciated as rapidly and as dramatically as Intel has over the past several months.

The stock’s six-month return stands at approximately 273%, while its year-to-date gain through the end of June was roughly 270%, making Intel one of the standout performers not just within the semiconductor sector but across the entire S&P 500 for the first half of 2026. CNBC reported that record chip stock gains in the second quarter added $2 trillion in combined value to Micron, Intel and AMD.

That extraordinary run has been driven by a combination of a broader AI semiconductor boom and company-specific catalysts tied to Intel’s restructuring under Chief Executive Lip-Bu Tan, who took over the company in March 2025 following a turbulent period of leadership transitions and strategic uncertainty. Tan inherited a company that had lost significant ground to rivals TSMC and AMD in the foundry and client computing markets, respectively, and whose stock had fallen to historically low levels by mid-2025 amid persistent revenue declines and doubts about whether the company’s next-generation manufacturing processes could be executed on schedule.

The recovery began in earnest following Intel’s first-quarter 2026 results, which showed the company’s turnaround plan gaining traction. Revenue for the quarter came in at $13.57 billion, modestly below the prior quarter’s $13.67 billion but within range of analyst expectations, while the company reported ongoing progress on its 18A manufacturing process node, a key technology milestone that management has framed as critical to Intel’s ambitions in the contract foundry market. Intel’s Intel Foundry division, formerly known as Intel Foundry Services, signed new customers during the quarter and advanced existing commitments with major technology companies that had agreed to test the 18A process for potential high-volume production.

Cantor Fitzgerald analyst C.J. Muse raised the firm’s price target on Intel to $150 from $90 and maintained a Neutral rating, noting the AI infrastructure buildout as the primary driver of Intel’s improved positioning. Muse also said Intel has a cost advantage over key rivals in certain segments, a factor that had contributed to Intel stock surging on word of that cost advantage over a key competitor.

Beyond the foundry narrative, Intel has continued to expand its presence in the AI accelerator market, where the company’s Gaudi 3 chip has won incremental customer commitments from cloud service providers and enterprise customers looking for alternatives to Nvidia’s dominant GPU lineup, particularly in cost-sensitive deployments where the performance-per-dollar calculation favors Intel’s offering. The company has also continued to build out its AI PC product line under the Intel Core Ultra brand, positioning itself to capture a wave of consumer and enterprise PC upgrades driven by the increasing integration of AI capabilities directly into device hardware.

TipRanks reported that Intel is taking advantage of America’s 250th birthday promotional opportunities in AI and robotics production, with commentary describing the current moment as “a pivotal moment for the nation” and Intel’s positioning within domestic AI semiconductor manufacturing as central to its near-term narrative.

A note of caution, however, came in a report citing ByteDance racing to mass-produce custom AI chips by 2027, cutting out both AMD and Intel from certain Chinese AI workloads. That development, combined with broader investor concerns about the pace of AI infrastructure capital spending and the increasingly competitive landscape for data center processors, has contributed to some erosion in the bull case for Intel’s AI revenue growth assumptions in recent analyst commentary.

Intel’s next major milestone is its second-quarter 2026 earnings report, scheduled for after the close of trading on July 23. That report will give investors their clearest view yet of whether the first-quarter momentum in foundry customer wins and AI chip revenue has continued into the second quarter, and whether management’s guidance for the back half of the year reflects the kind of acceleration that would justify the stock’s current premium valuation relative to where it sat less than a year ago. The stock currently trades at a normalized price-to-earnings ratio of approximately 245, a figure that reflects how far forward investors are looking rather than any near-term profitability milestone, given that the company is still in the early stages of its foundry buildout and is not expected to generate the kind of earnings that would support that multiple on a near-term basis.

For now, Wednesday’s pullback appears to be a healthy, technically driven consolidation following one of the sharpest runs in the stock’s multidecade history, rather than a fundamental shift in the investment thesis. Whether the stock can recover back toward its all-time highs in the weeks ahead will likely depend on how Intel’s earnings report later this month addresses the outstanding questions about the pace of foundry customer adoption, the competitive standing of the Gaudi AI accelerator lineup and the broader trajectory of the 14A manufacturing process that management has targeted for the 2028 to 2029 timeframe as the next step beyond its current 18A node.

While Wall Street prepares for the prospect of a more aggressive Federal Reserve, Bank of America CEO Brian Moynihan has a reassuring message for anxious investors.

Despite Bank of America’s issuing the most hawkish forecast on Wall Street — predicting three interest rate hikes under Federal Reserve Chair Kevin Warsh — Moynihan insists a recession is nowhere in sight.

“The [U.S.] president thought it was going to be rate cuts. Now we’re talking about rate hikes. Will that lead us into a recession?” FOX Business’ Maria Bartiromo asked Moynihan on the New York Stock Exchange floor Wednesday.

SUPREME COURT RULES ON TRUMP’S ATTEMPT TO FIRE FED GOVERNOR LISA COOK

“No, because at the end of day, that’s the balance the Fed has to have, is they’re trying to keep the inflation from getting out of control, price stability,” Moynihan responded. “And Chairman Warsh made it clear that’s what he stands for.”

“He’s focused on that, that’s their job. But you also have to be mindful of the other side, which is, recession means unemployment goes up, and you have to stabilize unemployment. So they’ve gotta mind that,” he added. “The U.S. economy is growing better than most. The inflation is higher than people want it to be, but if you talk to people who are in the positions Kevin’s in… they could never get inflation back. They’re sort of saying, ‘Wait, we can never get the economies to recover fast enough.’ I think it’s easier to bring it down carefully than it is to get it going, and so you want to air a little bit to the upside.”

During their latest meeting, the Federal Reserve announced that it would hold interest rates steady due to concerns about elevated inflation amid the war in Iran, as Warsh’s tenure leading the central bank begins in earnest.

Fed policymakers voted 12-0 to leave the benchmark federal funds rate unchanged at its current range of 3.5% to 3.75%. The move follows the central bank’s decisions to hold rates steady in January, March and April after three consecutive 25-basis-point rate cuts in September, October and December of last year.

Moynihan argues that higher interest rates shouldn’t be feared but rather celebrated as a sign of a strong U.S. economy.

GET FOX BUSINESS ON THE GO BY CLICKING HERE

“We have a great research team… They’ve also put three Fed raises on the table, meaning that the inflation is going to be stickier, go[ing] all the way through ‘27 into ‘28, largely just to deal with the aftermath of the oil price shock,” the CEO said. “But at the end of day, the economy has grown a little faster now than they thought it was going to grow a few months ago.”

“Inflation will take a while, rates will be higher. But everybody argues for rates to be high or low. At the end of it, rates are an outgrowth of a very strong economy in the United States and a need to keep inflation in check.”

READ MORE FROM FOX BUSINESS

FOX Business’ Eric Revell contributed to this report.

The smallest of the three breweries based in Tadcaster, it is also an unlimited company which allows it to maintain financial privacy.

Smith introduced many changes when he took control as chairman including turning tenants into managers, directly employed by the brewery.

It enabled the business to dictate the policies it is known for and, as its website states, its pubs are “havens from the digital world”.

Sweeting said: “Mr Smith had his standards, Mr Smith had his reasons and a lot of people understood.

“Mr Smith was also a man of principle and there would have been a reason for regulations in the pubs.

“A lot of people were quite happy for those regulations because we respected him.”

Councillor Kirsty Poskitt, who represents Tadcaster on North Yorkshire Council, said her family had close ties with the brewery and that she had found Smith to be passionate about local history.

“He was very well-known, not just in Tadcaster, but across the country and probably throughout the world. It’s impacted lots of people.

“It’s a sad day. He obviously had quite a lot of influence on the town itself, just in terms of its structure and how it is. His legacy is vast and varied.”

Speaking about the company’s ownership of land and property in the area, she said: “He is a very intrinsic part of why Tadcaster is like it is today. I think everyone’s reflecting on what he has meant to the town.”

Poskitt regularly met with Smith in her role as a councillor and said he was a “kind and fascinating man”.

“He was quite eccentric, but he was a really interesting man. He was passionate about history. I was always grateful for time with him and enjoyed speaking to him.”

Her father and grandfather both worked at the brewery, the latter as a cooper, and Smith remembered them both.

“Throughout Tadcaster there are an awful lot of people that were employed by the brewery and who live in houses that belong to the brewery.

“I’ve been here pretty much my whole life and he was a controversial figure in lots of people’s eyes, and but those that did interact with him and those that did know him would make positive statements about him and would acknowledge that he was an intelligent man with big family and his heart was in the right place.

“He always acted in the best interests of the town. He was incredibly private. For me he is a very big part of Tadcaster’s history and leaves a huge legacy.”