The 10 biggest business stories on Friday October 16
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Version 0 of 1. 1. Eurozone inflation and trade balance figures are due at 10am. Economists are hoping for an improvement in month-on-month figures, rising from 0 per cent to 0.2 per cent. 2. Goldman Sachs reported third-quarter earnings that missed both top and bottom lines. Revenue was $6.86 billion (£4.44 billion), against analysts' forecasts of $7.12 billion (£4.6 billion). 3. The market for cars in the European Union grew 9.8 per cent in September, according to the latest figures from the European Automobile Manufacturers Association. Spain saw the strongest growth, with registrations jumping 22.5 per cent. Volkswagen reported an 8.4 per cent rise in sales compared with a year earlier. Those figures can't really tell us if VW sales have been affected by the emissions scandal, as the full extent of VW's cheating did not emerge until the end of the month. 4. Dozens of major websites including Netflix, Uber and the BBC went down simultaneously on Thursday in some areas of the US, but were soon up again in most cases. The cause of the crashes remained unclear, but some could have been connected to trouble at a cloud service. 5. Starbucks is in talks with an Italian partner to open branches in Italy, one of the few major markets where it has yet to make an entrance. Corriere della Sera newspaper reports that the US company is negotiating with Italian businessman Antonio Percassi to bring the Starbucks brand to Italy. 6. Under a third of female employees (29 per cent), receive any form of bonus as opposed to 44 per cent of men. Furthermore, a greater number of women (37 per cent) are reliant on company performance to earn a bonus compared to men (27 per cent), new survey reveals. 7. Profit at the casino and hotel operator Wynn Resorts has fallen after a sharp slowdown at its Macau operations. Wynn said its net income for the three months to September was $73.8 million (£47.6 million), compared with $191.4 million a year earlier. 8. The Bank of England is relaxing rules on "ring fencing" of banks' retail and investment bank arms. The Financial Times reports that banks will be able to transfer capital from their retail arms to other parts of their businesses in the form of dividends. 9. Nestle cuts outlook for the year as sales growth slowed in third quarter. 10. A fall in the sales of the Barbie doll has hit earnings at the US toymaker Mattel. Net income at the company fell to $223.8 million (£145 million) in the three months to September, down from $331.8 million a year earlier, while Barbie doll sales fell by 4 per cent. The company has been struggling as children increasingly turn to electronic games and tablets. This is the eighth consecutive quarter of declining sales for the 56-year-old Barbie brand. |