Burberry Group Projects FY Group Revenue To Decline By 10% – 11%

Burberry Group (BRBY.L), on Friday, issued trading update ahead of its financial year ending March 27, 2021. The company announced that it continued to see a strong rebound and now expects revenue and adjusted operating profit to be ahead of consensus expectations.

Comparable store retail sales growth for the fourth quarter are expected to be in the range of 28% – 32% higher than the same period of last year.

For the full year, the company projects group revenue to decline by 10% – 11% and the adjusted operating margin to be in the range of 15.5% – 16.5%.

UK economy shrinks by monthly 2.9% in January

Britain's economy shrank by a less severe than expected 2.9% in January from December as the country went back into a coronavirus lockdown, official data showed on Friday.

Economists polled by Reuters had expected a contraction of 4.9%.

Britain's economy is likely to shrink by 4% in the first quarter of 2021, due mostly to the latest lockdown but also because of disruption caused by new, post-Brexit rules for trade with the European Union, the Bank of England said last month.

"The economy took a notable hit in January, albeit smaller than some expected, with retail, restaurants, schools and hairdressers all affected by the latest lockdown," Jonathan Athow, an Office for National Statistics statistician, said.

"Manufacturing also saw its first decline since April with car manufacturing falling significantly. However, increases in health services from both vaccine rollout and increased testing partially offset the declines in other industries."

Britain's economy shrank by 1.7% in the three months to January, stronger than a median forecast of a contraction of 2.5% in the Reuters poll.

The economy was 9.2% smaller than in January last year, the Office for National Statistics said.

Russia reports 9,794 new COVID-19 cases, 486 deaths

MOSCOW (Reuters) – Russia reported 9,794 new COVID-19 cases on Friday, including 1,610 in Moscow, taking its total case tally to 4,370,617 since the pandemic began.

The government coronavirus task force also said that 486 people had died in the last 24 hours, pushing its death toll to 91,220.

Daimler to recall 2.6 million Mercedes-Benz cars in China

German luxury automaker Daimler will recall 2.6 million Mercedes-Benz vehicles in China due to a software design issue, the country's market regulator said on Friday.

Software may fail to communicate a vehicle's correct location in the event of a crash, China's State Administration for Market Regulation said in a statement. Daimler declined to comment further on the recall.

Last month Mercedes-Benz USA said it was recalling 1.29 million vehicles sold since 2016 for a similar reason.

Oil Prices Flat To Lower In Cautious Trade

Oil prices eased on Friday but held near recent highs on optimism about a recovery in demand.

Brent crude futures for May settlement were little changed with a negative bias at $69.62 a barrel, while U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude for April delivery were down 0.2 percent at $65.96.

Investors are treading cautiously as a fresh spike in U.S. Treasury yields sent ripples through financial markets.

The 10-year U.S. Treasury yield crept back above 1.6 percent after the release of better-than-expected jobless claims data.

In a monthly report released on Thursday, the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) said demand will rise by 5.89 million barrels per day (bpd) in 2021, or 6.5 percent, up slightly from last month.

“Total oil demand is foreseen to reach 96.3 million bpd with most consumption appearing in the second half,” the group said.

OPEC’s crude oil production fell by 650,000 barrels per day (bpd) in February, due to the extra cut from top producer and de facto leader Saudi Arabia.

Deutsche Bank CEO 2020 pay up 46% as bank turns profit

Deutsche Bank paid Chief Executive Christian Sewing 7.4 million euros ($8.8 million) in 2020, a 46% increase from a year earlier, as the bank eked out a profit after years of losses.

Bonuses for the entire bank were up 29%, with the bank rewarding staff for a pandemic-related trading boom.

The disclosure in the bank's annual report on Friday came as Deutsche said revenues would be "marginally lower" this year.

Last year marked an important milestone for Sewing, who took up his post in 2018 to turn Deutsche around after embarrassing and costly regulatory failings, including over money laundering.

The bank has lost 8.2 billion euros over the last 10 years. Deutsche's net profit attributable to shareholders for 2020 was 113 million euros, compared with a 2019 loss of 5.7 billion euros in 2019. A surge in investment banking earnings offset a weaker showing in its other businesses.

The rise in the so-called bonus pool to 1.9 billion euros brings it to about the same level as 2018 after a dip last year.

Deutsche handed out bonuses as workers at call centres strike over demands for higher wages. Some of those workers earn as little as 12 euros an hour, according to union officials.

Schools and hairdressers in Wales to reopen from Monday