China US trade deal, Domino’s Pizza, Facebook, UK house prices: your commercial news round-up

It might be freezing cold outside at the moment, with parts of the US experiencing temperatures of up to -37C this week, but this collection of commercial news stories is sure to keep you warm and light a fire of business excitement within you (LCN cannot be held accountable for physical warmth caused by business news). So pull up a chair, grab a cup of tea, and catch up with the financial world.

• The tariff war between China and the US continues as officials from both countries are meeting again, this time in Washington, in an attempt to strike a deal. Last year President Trump’s government imposed $250 billion worth of tariffs on Chinese goods, with China hitting back to impose $110 billion worth of US products with duties. Recent charges filed by the US against Chinese company Huawei have added to the political tension, with the US threatening to increase the tariff rate on Chinese goods from 10% to 25% if a deal isn’t reached by March.
• Pizza delivery firm Domino’s Pizza is expected to make a loss of £3-£4 million for 2018 as a result of weaker sales and problems faced integrating its business in Norway. However, sales in the UK and Ireland were strong, with 59 new stores opening last year.
• Results posted by Facebook on Wednesday show a strong fourth quarter of 2018 – a record profit of $6.88 billion led to a revenue rise of 30% to $16.64 billion. These results are particularly interesting in relation to Facebook’s frequent scandals from last year, and just this week the business was in trouble again for paying users as young as 13 to install an app that gave the company access to their data. Mark Zuckerberg spoke about the firm’s plans for the future, which includes integrating messaging platforms WhatsApp, Instagram and Facebook Messenger.
• House prices in the UK grew in January at the slowest rate for nearly six years, with prices up by just 0.1% from the previous year, according to Nationwide. The bank stated that this slow growth in the market is due to “the impact of the uncertain economic outlook on buyer sentiment”. We reported earlier this month that the outlook for the housing market over the next three months is the worst for 20 years.
• Shares of Royal Mail have crashed, as it announced this week that letters by volume dropped 8% over the nine months to 23 December, with letter revenues down 6%. The company also predicted a drop in group underlying earnings, attributing the fall partly to the impact of GDPR and “business uncertainty” in the run up to Brexit.

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