Retail spending picked up sharply in January as consumers flocked to post-Christmas sales, offering some relief to a sector hit by a subdued festive period and rising employment costs.

Figures from the British Retail Consortium (BRC) and KPMG showed that retail sales increased by 2.7 per cent year-on-year last month, up from growth of just 1.2 per cent in December.

The improvement suggests that many shoppers delayed spending before Christmas and instead waited for deeper January discounts.

Helen Dickinson, chief executive of the BRC, said: “A drab December gave way to a brighter January as retail sales picked up pace. Many shoppers had held off Christmas spending and waited for the January sales, with the start of the new year showing the strongest growth.”

Linda Ellett, UK head of consumer, retail and leisure at KPMG, said discounting proved decisive. “January sales enticed consumers to spend, with personal electronics, furniture, and children’s clothes and toys among the best-performing categories,” she said.

She added that New Year resolutions had also driven spending in health-related categories, including wellness-focused food and drink.

Food sales rose by 3.8 per cent compared with January last year, up from annual growth of 2.8 per cent previously. Non-food sales increased by 1.7 per cent year-on-year.

However, the data will provide limited comfort to retailers concerned about margins. The reliance on heavy discounting to stimulate demand suggests that underlying consumer confidence remains fragile.

According to the Office for National Statistics, retail sales volumes are still 1.5 per cent below pre-pandemic levels. Official figures showed sales rose by only 0.4 per cent in December.

Consumer spending is a major driver of UK economic growth, and weakness in retail demand has weighed on GDP since the pandemic, as households grappled with rising living costs and higher borrowing rates.

Financial markets expect the Bank of England to cut interest rates two or three times this year, potentially beginning as early as March. Rates were reduced four times in 2025 to 3.75 per cent, their lowest level in three years.

The Bank’s latest forecasts indicate inflation is likely to return to its 2 per cent target by the spring. However, the central bank also expects unemployment to rise to 5.3 per cent this year, a post-pandemic high, potentially dampening consumer confidence.

Retailers are also contending with higher operating costs following the Labour government’s £25 billion increase in employer national insurance contributions and further rises in the minimum wage.

With official GDP data for the final quarter of last year due later this week, January’s rebound offers tentative signs of resilience — but the sector’s recovery remains closely tied to interest rates, household incomes and the strength of consumer confidence in the months ahead.

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The WA Police Force has flagged a multi-million-dollar plan to redevelop the old East Perth lockup into a museum.

An application lodged with DevelopmentWA shows a proposal to demolish the western side of the East Perth building and reuse the eastern portion for a museum and café.

The building on Adelaide Terrace was a corrective institution that has been unoccupied since 2013.

Partial demolition and adaptive reuse of the building will cost about $14.5 million, according to the development application.

The application also shows other options WAPOL has explored, including a $39 million plan to retain the existing building and undergo remediation works.

A WA Police spokesperson told Business News a not-for-profit entity has been set up to operate the museum, while the police force retains ownership.

The spokesperson said WAPOL forecasts the museum to be partially open by March 2027, to coincide with the World Police and Fire Games in Perth.

If approved and built, the WA Police Museum in East Perth will replace the existing exhibition in Highgate.

“The current museum volunteer Historical Society facility in Highgate is undersized, technologically outdated, and lacks adequate teaching, learning, and storage facilities,” the application read.

“It is also unable to properly display or preserve the artefacts and exhibits currently in [Western Australia Police Force’s] possession. 

“Although the WAPOL Historical Society operates independently, the new museum will provide a dedicated public facility to showcase WA Police history and heritage, integrating the historical society’s collection with WAPF’s own under the direction of a newly appointed WAPF museum curator.”

The application said the proposed museum would be a catalyst for the future growth and expansion of the police force’s collection and public outreach programs.

“The proposal is supported by an extensive building program of structural repairs, including the building’s concrete frame, roof, and services infrastructure,” the document read. 

‘As noted in the engineering report, the eastern portion of the building, while in disrepair, remains structurally viable, whereas the western portion is beyond repair within foreseeable financial capacity.”

President Donald Trump claimed in a new interview that outgoing Chair of the Federal Reserve Jerome Powell is “incompetent,” and even “corrupt,” in his handling of renovations underway at the Federal Reserve building.

“It’s the most expensive construction job ever built anywhere in the world per square foot. It’s crazy. They’re either corrupt, which somebody’s corrupt has to be, or grossly incompetent. Now we know he’s incompetent, but the question is, is he corrupt?” Trump said during an appearance on “Kudlow.”

“I would have been able to do that job for $25 million, and it would have been much better than what they’re ending up with,” the president added, estimating that the project’s total cost was up to $4 billion, nearly double the price tag given in Fed documents.

Documents on the Fed’s website maintain that renovation costs are $2.5 billion, not $4 billion, as Trump said.

TRUMP SAYS HE WILL NOT DROP DOJ CRIMINAL PROBE INTO FED CHAIR JEROME POWELL

When Trump visited the Fed in July 2025, he clashed with Powell over the cost of the renovations, with the president saying the cost was up to approximately $3.1 billion at the time. As Trump told the press that the cost had gone up from $2.7 billion to $3.1 billion, Powell said he was “not aware of that.” 

The president said the figures “just came out” and proceeded to give Powell a document purportedly from the Fed. When the chairman pushed back, saying the document had included a project that had been completed five years earlier.

While Trump has already tapped Kevin Warsh to replace Powell, a federal investigation is delaying the transition. FOX Business host Larry Kudlow asked the president if it was “worth holding up the Warsh nomination” to pursue the case against Powell, and the president said it was unclear.

“I don’t know. I mean, we’ll have to see what happens,” Trump said. “Look, I’ve been fighting Tillis for a long time — so much so that he ended up quitting — so let’s see.”

Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., a member of the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs, has said that he would “oppose the confirmation of any Federal Reserve nominee, including for the position of Chairman, until the DOJ’s inquiry into Chairman Powell is fully and transparently resolved.” Despite his determination to block Wash’s nomination, Tillis did not seem to have a problem with Trump’s pick, calling him a “qualified nominee with a deep understanding of monetary policy.”

TRUMP VS THE FEDERAL RESERVE: HOW THE CLASH REACHED UNCHARTED TERRITORY

The costs of the renovations at the Fed have become central to a Justice Department criminal investigation opened in January into Powell’s congressional testimony about the project.

On Jan. 11, Powell released a video message regarding the criminal probe, calling it “unprecedented” and saying that it “should be seen in the broader context of the administration’s threats and ongoing pressure.”

“This new threat is not about my testimony last June or about the renovation of the Federal Reserve buildings. It is not about Congress’s oversight role; the Fed through testimony and other public disclosures made every effort to keep Congress informed about the renovation project. Those are pretexts. The threat of criminal charges is a consequence of the Federal Reserve setting interest rates based on our best assessment of what will serve the public, rather than following the preferences of the president,” Powell said in the January video.

“This is about whether the Fed will be able to continue to set interest rates based on evidence and economic conditions — or whether instead monetary policy will be directed by political pressure or intimidation,” he added.

Earlier this month, the president doubled down on the probe, saying the DOJ would not drop its criminal investigation. Speaking to reporters in the Oval Office, Trump said Jeanine Pirro, the U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, will “take it to the end and see.” He also said he “feels badly” for Warsh, who “may not have an office for four years,” referring to the overhaul of the Fed’s buildings.

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Trump nominated Powell during his first term, something that he recently told Kudlow was “a mistake.” He also said Powell was a “runner-up.” The president told Kudlow that “my secretary of the Treasury wanted him so badly,” likely referring to Steven Mnuchin.

The president also expressed his confidence in Warsh, saying he believes the nominee could help the U.S. reach his goal of 15% economic growth.

Fox Business reached out to the Federal Reserve for comment.

Fox Business’ Amanda Macias contributed to this report.

Mahindra & Mahindra’s latest quarterly performance came broadly in line with market expectations, but a closer look at the internals suggests some areas of concern, particularly on margins and market share, according to Ashwin Patil from LKP Securities.

Speaking to ET Now, Patil said investors are accustomed to M&M delivering results that beat expectations. This time, however, the performance was more muted. He pointed out that average selling prices (ASPs) declined slightly, largely due to the company’s recent product launches, including the 3XO, which is positioned in a lower price bracket.

“Typically, M&M reports numbers that are ahead of expectations, but this time they have come up quite in line. I would not be very happy with the numbers because there is a slight reduction in ASPs. The launches that the company has done, especially the 3XO, are in the lower range, and that is why ASPs have fallen a bit. At the top line, the numbers are slightly below our expectations,” Patil said.

He also flagged some pressure on market share, particularly in the tractor segment. According to Patil, M&M appears to have ceded a bit of ground in farm equipment, even as margins in that segment showed some improvement.

On profitability, Patil noted that operating margins could have been better. Rising raw material costs have weighed on margins, resulting in weaker-than-expected operating leverage.

“If you see the margins as well, we could have seen slightly better margins, but because of the raw material cost market, which has slightly firmed up, that has resulted in slightly lower kind of margins. The growth in margins is not that strong,” he said.
At the bottom line, Patil highlighted that one-off expenses related to labour code implementation impacted reported profit. Excluding this exceptional item, profit after tax showed healthier growth. Still, he said overall operating performance did not fully meet expectations.“On the bottom line, definitely the one-off expense of the labour code — if we remove that, then the PAT has grown much better. But overall, at the operating level, I had better expectations from the company. Nevertheless, the stock remains a buy for us, so we need to revisit our numbers and look at how much upside we get from these,” Patil added.

Breaking down segment-wise performance, ET Now highlighted that auto EBIT margins stood at 9.5%, while farm equipment margins came in at 20.3%. Patil said autos were a mild disappointment, while tractors offered some positive offset.

“On the auto numbers, we were expecting slightly better margins; however, on the tractor side, the margins have come slightly better. So, it is like offsetting each other. But autos definitely — as I said — the launches which the company had done this quarter with the low-ticket 3XO are the reason why we have seen sub-10% kind of margins on the auto side. We were expecting maybe close to 10%, maybe around 10.1% kind of margins, so it is slightly disappointing on auto margins, but on the tractor side, the company has surpassed our expectations,” he said.

Overall, while M&M’s numbers did not throw up major negative surprises, the results lacked the usual outperformance investors have come to expect. With pressures on ASPs, autos margins, and some market share loss in tractors, analysts are likely to reassess earnings assumptions even as long-term investment calls remain intact.

A company boss has told MPs the industry is ‘teetering on the brink’

The Government has “two months to save the UK steel industry”, a director of the country’s biggest steel firm has warned. Russell Codling, director of markets business development at Tata Steel UK, warned MPs on Tuesday that the sector is “teetering on the brink” and needs urgent state support.

He told Parliament’s Business and Trade Committee that the sector is at threat due to fears of further cheap Chinese imports flooding the market.

“At the moment to date, whilst the UK Government is working very hard on this, we are not in a position to be protecting the UK industry, which is putting the UK steel industry at severe threat,” the boss said.

He called on the Government to follow the footsteps of the EU and US, with import tariffs designed to benefit regional steel sectors.

Currently, there are safeguards in place imposing a 25% tariff on specific imported steel products, but this expires in June.

Tata called for immediate action from the Government to announce a replacement system or extent the current safeguards.

Mr Codling added: “Frankly speaking, the UK Government has two months to save the UK steel industry because this is a death knell for the industry at large and its supply chains.

“If the UK doesn’t act we won’t have a steel industry not many months from now.

“We need action, we need action now, that needs to be in position by July 1.”

India is poised to benefit from a broad-based revival in the global industrial cycle, with improving exports, rising capacity utilisation and a strong pipeline of capital expenditure likely to support growth over the coming quarters, according to Chetan Ahya, from Morgan Stanley.

Speaking to ET Now, Ahya said recent data points suggest that the industrial cycle has turned not just in Asia, but across major developed economies as well.

“So, we have seen a turn in the region’s industrial cycle, but it is also not just the region. We have seen that turn in the US industrial production, European industrial production. So, we think that this is a sort of global industrial cycle revival and something similar is happening in India data as well,” he said.

India’s own industrial production has begun to show signs of improvement, and Ahya believes the recovery has further room to run. A key driver, he noted, will be the revival in non-tech exports, which had been under pressure over the past year due to tariff-related issues.

“What we have seen in the last 12 months in the region is that tech exports have continued to do well, but non-tech has suffered because of the tariff situation. But now that the tariff situation is behind us even for India, and at the same time we are seeing that the US recovery is going to broaden out from tech to non-tech, that will help global trade and that will help Asia’s exports,” Ahya explained.

Beyond exports, he highlighted three major structural trends that are expected to reinforce the industrial upcycle. These include rising investment in AI-related infrastructure, increased defence spending across the region, and accelerating capital expenditure linked to energy transition.
“Number one, you are seeing everybody having to invest for AI-related infrastructure. We are seeing everybody in the region, for example, spending more on defence. So, Korea, Taiwan, Japan and then as you saw in India’s budget as well, the government has increased defence spending allocation by 18%, that will also fuel the industrial cycle,” he said.He added that energy transition will require substantial investment in supporting infrastructure, particularly power grids.

“If you are investing more in solar, the old grid system will not work, so you have to invest in the grid system. So, there is an additional ancillary capex that is emerging. So, yes, a combination of a number of factors we think is bringing this revival of industrial cycle.”

Benign Inflation, No Rate Hike Expected in 2026
On the inflation and monetary policy outlook, Ahya said that while improving growth and exports will lift capacity utilisation, inflation is unlikely to become a concern in the near term.

“Inflation is still not going to be a concern anytime soon because the starting point of inflation is still very low. And if you think about the labour market as one source of potential inflation pickup, the labour market starting point is also that there is a significant amount of slack,” he said.

As a result, he does not expect the Reserve Bank of India to raise rates in the current calendar year.

“So, we do not have a rate hike in calendar year 2026. We have it only in 2027. So, yes, next few quarters we should have a benign environment where growth is strong and inflation is still just heading towards normal levels rather than getting to a point which forces the RBI to think about rate hikes.”

Virtuous Cycle for India’s Capex and Industrial Output
Ahya reiterated that India stands to benefit from the same tailwinds driving Asia’s recovery, particularly as exports pick up and corporate capital expenditure responds.

“If India’s exports pick up, we have always seen that that has an implication for corporate capex in the region as well as in India. So, it will trigger an additional improvement in capex which in turn drives industrial production. So, there is going to be a virtuous cycle that unfolds for India too,” he said.

He added that investments in AI infrastructure, defence and energy transition will further strengthen this cycle for the Indian economy.

India Well-Placed Amid Potential Upside in US Growth
With expectations of stronger US growth, Ahya said Asia — including India — could see additional support, even though India is less export-dependent than some of its regional peers.

“India is definitely less dependent on exports than the rest of the region, but it is a part of the driver for India’s economy too,” he said.

At the same time, he pointed out that India’s current positioning among global investors creates a potentially attractive setup over a 12-month horizon.

“Foreign investors’ positioning in India is at a 25-year low. The long-only investors’ position in India is at a 25-year low. Hedge fund investor positioning in India is at a 15-year low. And amongst the emerging markets, they are maximum underweight on India,” Ahya noted.

Given the weak recent earnings and revenue growth, he believes any turn in fundamentals could offer a differentiated opportunity for India.

“We think actually on a 12-month forward basis, India offers a unique opportunity where investors are sitting very bearish and we see a turn in fundamentals in terms of the corporate revenue growth and normal GDP growth.”

Ring founder Jamie Siminoff said Tuesday that Ring does not store deleted doorbell footage without a subscription, as questions continue over how law enforcement recovered previously inaccessible video evidence in the disappearance of Nancy Guthrie.

Siminoff addressed the issue during an appearance on “The Bottom Line,” where hosts Dagen McDowell and Brian Brenberg asked about subscription storage, privacy concerns and the reported recovery of doorbell video by federal authorities.

“I do know with Ring specifically, if you delete a recording or if you don’t want a recording, you don’t have a subscription. We do not have it stored. I know that because I built the systems with my team,” Siminoff said.

Siminoff cautioned against speculating about the specifics of the Guthrie investigation and noted that different companies build their systems differently.

SAVANNAH GUTHRIE ISSUES DESPERATE PLEA AS SEARCH FOR MISSING MOTHER ENTERS DAY 10

“I wouldn’t want to speculate,” he said. “Maybe they’re also, maybe we’re wrong, and that she did have some sort of subscription. You know, again, we’re getting a lot of, in the sort of in these cases, I’ve found that a lot of the things that we’re hearing are not always correct, and we find out later what’s actually happening.”

He reiterated that Ring does not retain deleted footage without an active subscription.

“If you delete a recording or if you don’t want a recording, you don’t have a subscription. We do not have it stored,” Siminoff said.

MOTIVE BEHIND ALLEGED NANCY GUTHRIE ABDUCTION STILL UNCLEAR, FORMER HOSTAGE NEGOTIATOR SAYS

Federal officials said Tuesday that video was recovered from “residual data located in backend systems,” according to a statement posted on X by FBI Director Kash Patel.

Google cooperated with the FBI to retrieve the video, a federal source confirmed to Fox News Digital.

Asked how investigators may have been able to recover doorbell footage in the Guthrie case, Siminoff again cautioned against speculation and stressed that companies build their systems differently.

“I mean, definitely hard to speculate on something like this because, you know, everybody builds their systems differently,” he said.

He again declined to draw conclusions about what occurred in this case.

AMAZON’S RING EXPANDS AI-POWERED NETWORK TO HELP LOCATE LOST DOGS

“Again, I don’t want to speculate exactly like what happened or what subscription they had or whatever,” Siminoff said. “I think there’s a lot of probably information out there that we don’t know.”

Siminoff said the video evidence could be significant for investigators.

“It does seem like this video footage might be the best evidence so far,” he said, “and it shows why it is just so important to have these cameras.”

While avoiding details of the investigation, Siminoff said he was encouraged that authorities were able to recover video evidence.

“But again, I’m happy to see here that, you know, for whatever the reason was that they were able to with this camera, you know, recover this,” he said. “Because I do think this evidence is hopefully going to lead to the a solution here to this, this really just tragic case.”

Ticker	Security	Last	Change	Change %
RNG	RINGCENTRAL INC.	28.93	+1.57	+5.74%
GOOGL	ALPHABET INC.	318.58	-5.74	-1.77%

During the interview, Siminoff also responded to backlash surrounding Ring’s Super Bowl “Search Party” advertisement, which focused on a feature designed to help locate lost pets.

“It actually like is a completely built on privacy,” he said. “So what we do is you we like we look for a dog, someone post a dog, we find it, we say, you know, Jamie, this dog that’s lost in your neighborhood looks like this dog in front of your camera. Do you want to contact your neighbor?”

He said users retain full control over whether any contact occurs.

“If you say no, your privacy is protected. You’re totally fine,” Siminoff said. “If you say yes, then like I think most people would want to, you help return the dog.”

He added that the feature has helped reunite pets with their owners.

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“We’re returning over a dog a day,” Siminoff said. “And we’re doing it by keeping privacy and trust because that is very important.”

Keep up with the latest reporting on the Nancy Guthrie case with Fox Nation’s ‘Vanished: What Happened to Nancy Guthrie?’

Fox News Digital’s Emma Bussey contributed to this reporting.