Sports Direct Share News (SPD)

LONDON (Alliance News) - Stocks in London ended sharply lower on Friday amid concerns over the global growth outlook after downbeat economic data from the continent. In addition, the US yield on the benchmark ten-year note fell below the yield on the three-month bond - for the first time since August 2007 - which is seen by many as a reliable harbinger of a recession.Moreover, the US Federal Reserve's decision to move away from plans to continue raising interest rates this year has been described by some analysts as an effort to keep the stock markets afloat amid an expected contraction in first-quarter earnings.The central bank has also been accused of bowing to pressure from US President Donald Trump, who has claimed US economic growth would be even stronger if the Fed had not raised rates last year.Chair Jerome Powell has continually touted the Fed's independence, however, the dovish tone on Wednesday could also reflect legitimate concerns about the economic outlook."An inversion of the three-month/ten-year yield curve has been taken as a sign that a recession may be on the horizon, although not upon us yet. Combined with weaker US PMIs and some truly dreadful figures from the eurozone this morning, it has been enough to spark another swift, but substantial, move to the downside. It has been a whipsaw week for equities, which is an indication of how conflicted investors are at present," said IG Group's Chris Beauchamp. The FTSE 100 index closed down 147.72 points, or 2.0%, at 7,207.59, ending the week 0.3% lower.The FTSE 250 ended 349.12 points lower, or 1.8%, at 18,998.46, ending the week down 2.5%, and the AIM All-Share closed down 12.80 points, or 1.4%, at 909.97, ending the week down 0.9%.The Cboe UK 100 ended down 2.1% at 12,232.43, the Cboe UK 250 closed down 1.5% at 17,033.51, and the Cboe Small Companies ended down 0.4% at 11,195.10.In Paris the CAC 40 ended down 2.0%, while the DAX 30 in Frankfurt ended down 1.6%. "The FTSE 100 was haemorrhaging 2.0% on a toxic combination of its commodity and banking losses, and a rather remarkable rebound from the pound," said Spreadex analyst Connor Campell. On the London Stock Exchange, Pearson ended as the best performer, up 1.7% after JPMorgan upgraded the education publisher to Overweight from Neutral over the group's improved business model, which the bank thinks will drive growth over the longer term. "We expect top-line growth to accelerate from negative 1.0% in 2018 to 3.0% in 2022 driven by US Higher Education and structural growth activities that represent 36% of revenues. We upgrade our longer-term earnings before interest and taxes by 25% to 30% as a result of stronger Higher Education growth and better operational gearing," the US bank said. J Sainsbury closed up 0.1% after the supermarket chain, alongside Walmart Inc-owned Asda, offered to sell up to 150 stores as part of their effort to address competition concerns about their proposed merger, a document published on Friday showed.Furthermore, Sainsbury's and Asda reiterated their belief that the tie-up will allow for price cuts to be passed on to consumers. The two had on Tuesday committed to delivering GBP1 billion annually in cost savings through lower prices by the third year post-merger, reducing prices by 10% on everyday items.Conversely, heavyweight mining stocks weighed on the large cap index amid concerns about the global growth outlook.Antofagasta, Glencore, BHP and Rio Tinto closed down 4.1%, 2.4%, 2.0% and 1.2%, respectively. Smiths Group closed down 0.9% despite the engineer laying out plans to demerge its Smiths Medical business and separately list it in the UK, with the process expected to complete in the second half of 2020. The firm has already began searching for a Smiths Medical CEO and explained it "does not foresee any potential roadblocks in executing the demerger".For the six months ended January, the company's pretax profit narrowed 13% to GBP174 million from GBP200 million the year prior, despite revenue rising 2.0% to GBP1.57 billion from GBP1.54 billion. Profit performance was hurt by a rise in exceptional costs to GBP42 million from GBP18 million the year prior, due to GBP29 million in one-off additional pension costs.Elsewhere, Debenhams closed down 45% after the troubled depertment store chain responded to Sports Direct International's offer to buy its Danish business for GBP100 million by saying the proposal does "not address the company's funding and restructuring requirement".The offer for Magasin Du Nord comes with the condition that Sports Direct Chief Executive Mike Ashley is put in charge of the rest of Debenhams. Sports Direct ended the day down 0.8%.Debenhams also launched a consent solicitation with its bondholders in order to seek permission to raise GBP200 million by amending the terms of its loan notes. So far, Debenhams said noteholders with around 30% of the notes are supporting of the company's proposed changes and have agreed to vote in favour of them.The amendments to the notes will allow the company to secure new money providing liquidity headroom for Debenhams' future funding needs and delivering stability, the retailer said. It will also allow the company to secure new money providing liquidity headroom for Debenhams' future funding needs and delivering stability, the retailer said. The pound was quoted at USD1.3207 at the London equities close, sharply higher against USD1.3048 at the close Thursday.UK Prime Minister Theresa May returned to face the fury of Tory MPs after EU leaders agreed to delay Brexit to give her a final chance to get her deal through Parliament.Following late-night talks in Brussels, May said the plan would enable the UK to leave in an "orderly manner" in little over eight weeks time.But amid signs her authority is crumbling, there were open calls for her to quit as MPs voiced their anger that Brexit will not go ahead on Friday next week as planned.One backbencher warned next week would be a "defining moment" for her premiership and urged her to consider her position. It followed reports that the chairman of the backbench 1922 Committee, Graham Brady, visited the prime minister in No 10 on Monday to inform her of the discontent after being "bombarded" with texts calling for her to quit.Meanwhile, pro-EU MPs have launched a fresh attempt to take control of the Commons business in a bid to secure a "softer" Norway-style Brexit.Under the plan set out at the EU summit, leaders agreed to extend Brexit to May 22 if the PM can finally get MPs to back her deal in a third Commons "meaningful" vote.However, if May fails the UK will have to set out an alternative way forward by April 12, which could mean a much longer delay - with the UK required to hold elections to the European Parliament - or leaving without a deal at all."Sterling was back in the USD1.32 region as a no deal Brexit was successfully averted and amid growing expectations that May will have to resign next week if her deal doesn't make it through Parliament on its third attempt. A resignation from May would almost certainly result in a long delay for Brexit, the prospect of which sent it bounding higher towards the weekend," said City Index analyst Fiona Cincotta. The euro stood at USD1.1283 at the European equities close, down from USD1.1346 late Thursday, following disappointing PMI readings from the continent.The eurozone is on course for only modest growth in the first quarter of 2019 after manufacturing output worsened in March, IHS Markit said.The flash eurozone composite output Purchasing Managers' Index fell to 51.3 in March from 51.9 in February, though did remain above the line of 50 which separates expansion from contraction. The March reading was the third-lowest since November 2014, IHS Markit noted.Service sector activity slipped to 52.7 from 52.8 - still expansion - while manufacturing sector decline steepened considerably, with the flash PMI coming in at 47.6 in March from 49.3 in February.This fall in manufacturing dragged down the composite reading, said IHS Markit, and while the services sector showed "resilience", it remained around its worst growth pace since late 2016.In addition, IHS Markit showed German manufacturing activity slumped further in March as the country's composite output index tumbled to a near six-year low.The flash German composite output Purchasing Managers' Index fell to 51.5 in March from 52.8 in February. Though the score fell from the previous month and represented the slowest growth in 69 months, any reading above 50 indicates expansion, while one below signals contraction.The flash manufacturing PMI slumped to a 79-month low of 44.7 in March from 47.6 in February."Despite a recent improvement in sentiment indicators, the shockingly bad German manufacturing PMI for March (at its lowest since 2012) was a timely reminder that the European industrial sector continues to be dominated by worries and potential negative shocks, including the outcome of the Brexit negotiations, trade concerns and problems in the auto industry" said analysts at Oxford Economics. Stocks in New York were lower at the London equities close amid lingering uncertainty about trade talks between the US and China, ahead of another round of high-level negotiations next week.The DJIA was down 1.7%, the S&P 500 index down 1.8% and the Nasdaq Composite down 2.2%.Shares in Nike were down 5.6% in New York after the sportswear giant late Thursday reported third-quarter earnings that exceeded analyst estimates, but weaker than expected North America sales growth.Brent oil was quoted at USD66.32 a barrel at the London equities close, down from USD67.88 at the close Thursday."Oil is the red as traders took some money off the table in light of the disappointing manufacturing numbers from France and Germany. Multi-month highs were reached this week so the poor economic updates were a good excuse for traders to trim their positions ahead of the weekend," said CMC Markets analyst David Madden. Gold was quoted at USD1,312.05 an ounce at the London equities close, up from USD1,305.78 late Thursday, amid a sell-off in global equities. A light economic events calendar on Monday has German IFO Business sentiment at 0900 GMT. The UK corporate calendar on Monday has annual results from real estate investment trust Hansteen Holdings and marketing analytics firm Ebiquity. Water company Pennon Group will issue a trading statement.