Author: Lucas

Four months after closing all of its till-free grocery stores in the UK, Amazon is testing a super-fast delivery option insteadNew Amazon Now service offers thousands of grocery lines(Image: No credit)Online giant Amazon has begun its own ultra-fast grocery deliveries in under 30 minutes.Households will be able to pick from thousands of groceries and household essentials, from milk and eggs to nappies and medicines.By doing so, Amazon is going head-to-head with supermarkets that already have tie-ups with delivery firms offering the same sort of super-fast services.It comes after the company admitted defeat last September and confirmed plans to close all…

In a single trading session, the global flight to safety has been laid bare. Gold has smashed through the $5,000-per-ounce barrier for the first time, a historic moment that underlines just how little faith investors now have in the weakening US dollar – and, strikingly, how far traditional assets are outpacing the likes of Bitcoin and Ethereum.The landmark move comes at the end of a frantic 24-hour period for markets. The gold price has surged past the $5,000-per-ounce mark, setting a historic benchmark for the precious metal. As of this writing, Gold is trading for $4,987 after establishing an intra-day…

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.The Bank of Japan’s governor has warned that yields on Japanese government debt were rising “rapidly” and that the central bank might increase its bond-buying operations, underlining concern over market movements after a heavy sell-off this week.Kazuo Ueda’s comments on Friday triggered an hour of extreme volatility in currency markets. The yen initially fell 0.5 per cent before surging as much as 0.7 per cent. Traders said the abrupt move appeared to have been triggered by rumours that Japan’s finance ministry had…

This follows the company, which was founded in 1995, revealing in December that it enjoyed its busiest-ever sales day on Cyber Monday, despatching more than 14,000 orders that day. In a trading update for the three months to December 31, the company said: “Very strong revenue growth continued through the peak seasonal trading period.” UK revenues increased 27 per cent, to £37.8million, from £29.7million in the same period last year. Europe and Rest of the World revenues increased 39 per cent, from £19.3 million to £26.8million. The total increase was 32 per cent from £49.0million to £64.6million. RECOMMENDED READING: Gross…

WASHINGTON – Venezuelan oil seized by the United States is already being processed at American refineries, according to President Donald Trump.In a Jan. 23 interview with the New York Post, the president said the oil was “coming into the refineries in Houston, in various places.””Let’s put it this way,” he said. “They don’t have any oil. We take the oil.”1 / 0Oil and gas executives talk Venezuela at the White HousePresident Donald Trump hosted a meeting of oil and gas industry executives at the White House on Jan. 9, 2026 to discuss Venezuelan oil, following the U.S. capture of the…

India’s central bank has proposed linking BRICS countries’ digital currencies to ease cross-border payments in trade and tourism, potentially reducing reliance on the US dollar, according to Reuters. The RBI wants this on the agenda for the 2026 BRICS summit, which India will host.But why is India pushing for this now? The answer lies in a bigger shift happening in global finance.India’s central bank has a problem. Around the world, companies are discovering they can move money across borders using stablecoins at a fraction of the cost and time of traditional banking. Stablecoins are digital tokens pegged to the dollar…

Fuel oil worth nearly Tk 14 crore has allegedly disappeared during the unloading of two crude oil consignments destined for Eastern Refinery Limited (ERL), triggering serious concerns over possible irregularities in Bangladesh’s state-run fuel supply chain. The consignments were transported to Bangladesh aboard two foreign vessels – Nordic Freedom and Nordic Skier – from the United Arab Emirates in March and October 2025. According to Bangladesh Shipping Corporation (BSC), an “abnormal short landing” was detected when the crude oil was transferred from the ship to shore tanks, far exceeding internationally accepted loss limits. BSC records show that the two vessels…

UK residential property transactions rose in November, with seasonally adjusted figures reaching their highest level since March, despite signs of slowing activity as the year end approached, figures from HMRC showed. The provisional seasonally adjusted estimate for UK residential transactions in November 2025 was 100,350, up 8% from a year earlier and 1% higher than October. By contrast, the non-seasonally adjusted figure stood at 103,330, down 3% year on year and 12% lower than in October. According to official data, the increase in seasonally adjusted activity reflected a rise from 99,060 transactions in October to 100,350 in November. This marked…

South Africa’s Valterra Platinum said on Friday it expects its annual profit to rise by as much as 106%, on the back of a record rally in platinum prices and operational cost reductions. Valterra said that, under its updated outlook, it expects headline earnings between 15.6 billion rand and 17.3 billion rand ($965.71 million and $1.07 billion) in the year ended December 31, up from 8.4 billion rand the previous year. The earnings for the period were boosted by a 26% increase in prices for the platinum group metals (PGM) basket as well as 5 billion rand worth of operational…

London’s stock market has spent much of the past decade nursing a bruised ego, watching promising companies look westward to New York while domestic listings thinned out. This week’s sweeping reforms to the UK’s capital markets are intended to change that mood. The changes are being billed as a serious attempt to make the City competitive again after years of falling short against global rivals. The need for reform has been hard to ignore. The London Stock Exchange has suffered an historic drought in new listings. Only nine companies floated in the UK over the past year, and IPO fundraising…