Christmas trading updates are still on the menu long after the last of the turkey has been scoffed.
WH Smith (LON:SMWH) is the most widely viewed announcement on one popular news site as it said it had seen an improvement in sales trends, particularly at its outlets located in airports.
The newsagent seems to have been in a state of managed decline for years now in terms of sales, so an improvement in sales trends may just be a case of sales not declining as fast as they had been.
Pubs group JD Wetherspoon (LON:JDW) no doubt wishes it could be Christmas everyday (notwithstanding the fact that pubs close on Christmas Day in the evening).
Like-for-like sales rose 6.7% in the 12 weeks to January 19, with total sales up 10.6%. That compares with a like-for-like increase of 8% in the 11 weeks to January 13 the year before.
The group has been attracting publicity after opening the first motorway pub. The Hope & Champion pub off Junction 2 of the M40 in Buckinghamshire was opened at a cost of £1.1mln in a move described by the RAC as “risky and frankly unnecessary,” though it was unclear whether this view was a verdict on the meals sold in 'spoons pubs.
Among the big beasts of the Footsie, BHP Billiton's (LON:BLT) half-year operational review is getting a lot of eyeball time from people who like poring over tables of figures.
BHP Billiton maintained strong momentum in the December 2013 half year as production increased by 10%. The Anglo-Aussie behemoth has left full-year production guidance for its petroleum, copper, iron ore and coal businesses.
AstraZeneca (LON:AZN) and US peer Bristol-Myers Squibb said that Xigduo, their jointly developed treatment for type 2 diabetes, has been granted marketing authorisation by the European Commission.
It is the first regulatory approval for a sodium-glucose co-transporter 2 (SGLT2) inhibitor and metformin hydro chloride fixed dose combination treatment in a press statement that tried hard to use all the tiles in the Scrabble box.
At the small caps end of the market Leni Gas & Oil (LON:LGO) shares are changing hands at a furious rate, with more than 41mln shares traded by 9.30.
The group has got the green light to start development drilling on its Goudron field in Trinidad. The Certificate of Environmental Compliance (CEC) has been granted by the Environmental Management Agency of Trinidad and Tobago.
Another hot share this morning, with almost 16mln shares traded, is W Resources (LON:WRES) after it declared itself delighted with better than expected final concentrate grades at its La Parrilla tailings project in south-west Spain.
On the message boards, the lurkers and work-shirkers are still discussing the impressive supply deal announced yesterday by potash development company Sirius Minerals (LON:SXX).
We do not know who the multi-year take-or-pay offtake agreement was with, but we do know it was with a major US-based Fortune 500 agri-business.