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Richard E. Grant (pictured) returned from a trip to South Africa just as new Covid-19 restrictions were imposed on the country, says The Mail on Sunday. The actor’s quarantine in a Holiday Inn at Gatwick cost him £228 a night, yet the food was “grim”, he tweeted, posting pictures of a tuna and cucumber sandwich and a sausage casserole. A “non-quarantine” Holiday Inn nearby was charging just £89. “You do the maths, as I am confounded.” US billionaire Michael Steinhardt, who ran a successful hedge fund in the 1970s and 1980s, has been obliged to surrender 180 stolen artefacts worth $70m in total, reports CNBC. He has also been banned for life from buying antiquities ,following a four-year investigation by the New York district attorney. Prosecutors said the pieces had…

“The decades-long, trillion-dollar love affair between China and Wall Street is coming to an end”, say Alexandra Stevenson and Paul Mozur in The New York Times. Ride-hailing giant Didi Chuxing is to delist from New York and move to Hong Kong (see page 9). Didi’s New York flotation drew strong opposition from Chinese regulators. It won’t be the last: 250 Chinese firms are on US exchanges. Wall Street once granted Beijing “access to the halls of global finance and political power”, but “China doesn’t need it anymore”. Some of China’s “corporate crown jewels” are listed in America, notably Alibaba, says Jane Li for Quartz. For Chinese firms, access to US capital markets was once deemed a “hallmark of success”, but today Beijing is thought to be on the verge of…

China’s housing boom is outstripping the 1982-1991 Japanese property bubble and the 1996-2006 US subprime bubble. That is alarming: the former caused Japan to lose decades of economic growth, while the latter triggered the global financial crisis, says Barclays Research. Collectively, Chinese homes are worth an estimated $60trn; last year real estate accounted for roughly one-quarter of the country’s GDP. There are “real risks” of a crash, but it is not the most likely outcome. Leverage is much lower than during the US subprime bubble, with Chinese households making far higher downpayments to get on the property ladder; meanwhile, an ongoing government clampdown is cooling prices.…

Tech investors excited by the “metaverse” have neglected Nintendo this year, says Connor Smith in Barron’s. Yet the video-game sector’s original player has rarely looked more appealing. Animal Crossing, its pandemic hit, is in fact “a mini metaverse in itself”: the game boasts a virtual currency and online features allowing players to interact with each other on “personally curated tropical islands”. Meanwhile, its Switch console, which allows gamers to play via a television or in handheld mode, remains popular, and the group has some big game releases coming up in 2022. The stock is trading on just 15 times forward earnings, far below the five-year average of 23.…

This week, the government announced its new ten-year drugs strategy, with Boris Johnson “shamelessly dressed up as a cop”, says Kojo Koram in The Guardian. This “purportedly ground-breaking” new strategy admits that the current policy isn’t working, then promises more of the same. Indeed, this is at least the sixth new drugs strategy to be announced in the past 25 years. During that time, notes Simon Jenkins in the same paper, British deaths from drug misuse have nearly doubled to record rates, three times those of the EU. Yet now we have another “war on drugs” in which a modest increase for “treatment and rehabilitation” for those who “repent” is accompanied by a “bloodcurdling crackdown” with expanded police testing and confiscation of driving licences and passports to deter recreational users.…

The contest for the French presidency, which takes place in the early spring, began in earnest this week when the centre-right Republicans selected Valérie Pécresse, who heads the Île-de-France region around Paris, as their candidate, say Sarah White and Victor Mallet in the Financial Times. Pécresse, who easily beat National Assembly member Éric Ciotti in the final part of the primary, had surprised by beating better-known contenders Xavier Bertrand and Michel Barnier. She joins a growing list of candidates who have declared, including Marine Le Pen and Éric Zemmour on the right and Socialist Anne Hidalgo. The rise of Pécresse has “thrown a spanner in the works” for Macron’s strategists, who had hoped that he’d be able to make “short work” of whoever emerged as the Republican candidate, says Charles…

A fierce battle for top traders at multi-manager funds has driven their pay “sky high”, says Laurence Fletcher in the Financial Times. This corner of the hedge-fund industry has been one of the biggest winners in the pandemic, thanks to market volatility, and new recruits are in short supply. Millennium, a $57bn New York fund, has opened offices in sunny Florida to attract talent. Trading is often brutal and losses seldom tolerated. But for proven traders, many firms are adopting an “eat what you kill” model, where traders keep up to 25% of the profits they generate, on top of their $250,000-$400,000 salaries. If a fund wants to poach traders, often they have to compensate them for accrued bonuses they are leaving behind and lost earnings. Payments now sometimes reach…

US housing may be near the peak after a rapid run-up in value during the pandemic, says Ivy Zelman, who made her name by calling the top of the last bubble shortly before the collapse in 2007. Don’t expect a nationwide crash this time, she tells Bloomberg. But iBuyers (instant buyers – real-estate firms that use algorithms to value, buy and sell houses), investors in rental properties and builders bidding up land values have distorted the market in cities from Phoenix in Arizona to Austin, Dallas and Houston in Texas. Housing bulls argue that America has a housing shortage, but underlying demand isn’t that strong. “We don’t believe we are in a shortage,” says Zelman. The pace of growth in new households was the slowest on record over the past…

■ “The trend of the London market remaining unloved since Brexit shows little sign of abating,” says Jeremy Gordon on Citywire. Investors have withdrawn a total of £8.1bn from UK equity funds in the first ten months of 2021, according to data from Morningstar. The latest figures follow outflows of £11.6bn in 2020 and £1.9bn in 2019. In total, UK equity funds have seen net outflows in five of the six years since the referendum on leaving in the EU in 2016. “The exodus… has continued despite valuations remaining lowly compared with other markets and signs of a robust economic recovery… two factors that fund managers had said might finally turn the tide.” Outflows from equity-income funds in particular look “to have become entrenched”, with £4.6bn withdrawn from the sector…

Too few small businesses keep unnecessary costs to an absolute minimum. Here are six ideas that might pay for a Christmas bonus. Claim tax breaks Many small firms do not realise they can claim valuable tax breaks. Consider tax credits for research and development (R&D): you can set anything you spend on eligible R&D against your corporation-tax bill, plus another 130% of the spending. This doesn’t have to mean conducting breakthrough research – the criteria are broad. You may qualify if you have taken a risk by attempting to “resolve scientific or technological uncertainties”. That might mean creating new products, but it could just mean changing what you currently do. Bear down on bills Too few small businesses shop around. It’s not just a case of finding the cheapest energy…

The fight against climate change is likely to be the defining issue of our generation. Governments, corporations and individuals continue to race towards a net-zero economy (when the amount of greenhouse gas produced and the amount removed from the atmosphere balances out). Against this backdrop, we seek to invest in businesses that emphasise, or benefit from, the efficient use of resources and are working to reduce their environmental footprint. “We seek to invest in firms that benefit from the efficient use of resources” We also apply strict criteria when it comes to quality and value, seeking out stocks with enduring assets that generate long-term, predictable, minimum-risk cash flow. These businesses must benefit from high barriers to entry (enduring competitive advantages that prevent rivals from gaining a foothold in their market)…

£20.68, justerinis.com If you’re looking to keep the cash under control while drinking world-class wines this month, then look no further than these fine Bordeaux blends. Firstly, the extraordinary 2017 Capbern. Back in early 2018, during En Primeur week, winemaker Vincent Millet explained there were no problems with frost in Saint-Estèphe, so the yields were perfect in 2017 while others suffered. The blend is 55% cabernet sauvignon, 39% merlot, 3% cabernet franc and 3% petit verdot. When the wine was “born”, the fruit was smooth, clean and forward with classic Saint-Estèphe hallmarks of earthiness balanced with black fruit juiciness, and I strongly tipped it to blossom early in its life. Only a few years down the track, my predictions have come true – this is a stunning wine with amazing plumminess…

If you’re wanting to minimise screen time for the children this Christmas then look no further than Lego’s Super Mario Bros. 64 Question Mark block set. Construction will take around ten hours with some help from Mum or Dad, and will be especially rewarding for those parents looking to relive their own childhood. £159.99, lego.com Help your child start the new year on a roll with Pashley’s Robin tricycle. It is sturdy, handles well and will help youngsters not yet able to ride a two-wheeler have fun tearing up the tarmac a . £445, pashley.co.uk Every purchase of these adorable WWF Critically Endangered Baby Socks helps pull endangered creatures back from the verge of extinction. They sport charming designs in the style of the various animals that need our help,and…

Viral The Search for the Origin of Covid-19 Alina Chan and Matt Ridley Fourth Estate, £20 Ever since the first reports of what is now known as Covid-19, theories about the origins of the virus “have been steeped in controversy”, says Mark Honigsbaum in The Guardian. Officially the Chinese government still claims that the first outbreak came from bats sold in a seafood market in Wuhan. But the fact that Wuhan is 900 miles away from the bats’ natural habitat has generated scepticism. Alina Chan and Matt Ridley argue that an accidental laboratory leak from the nearby Wuhan Institute of Virology, where researchers had been “exploring caves in search of bats that harbour Sars-like viruses and isolating genetic material from their saliva, urine and faeces”, is a more likely explanation.…

Since the Money Madness began in earnest in March 2020, consumer spending – as measured by real retail sales – has gone up 13.5%. That’s due to the feds’ stimulus cheques, non-repayable loans and other claptrap. According to Say’s Law, real demand (purchasing power) comes from output. In other words, you gotta have something to spend. And you get it by having something to sell (labour, product, etc). In the same period, real output (real personal income less transfer payments) went up, too – but by less than 1%. So demand (based on phoney money-printing, not output) rose more than 13 times faster than supply. “Bonner’s Law is that, when the money goes, everything goes” What would you expect to happen under these circumstances? Prices should rise, which is exactly…

Usama Malik, ex-chief financial officer at biotech company Immunomedics, and his former partner, Lauren Wood, who had also previously worked at the firm, have been charged with insider trading, says David Smagalla in The Wall Street Journal. The Securities and Exchange Commission regulator, and the New Jersey US attorney’s office claim Malik and Woods were living together in April 2020 when Malik learned that the US drugs regulator – the Food and Drug Administration – would allow Immunomedics to halt aclinical trial for a breast-cancer drug, after data showed that the drug was effective. A trading blackout barred him or anyone in his household from buying the company’s stock. But according to court papers, it is alleged that Malik passed the information to Wood, who bought around $64,000-worth of shares,…

Have markets learnt to stop worrying and love Omicron? After a nervy fortnight, traders regained confidence early this week. On Tuesday, the FTSE 100 returned to the levels it had reached before news of the variant triggered a mini-meltdown at the end of November. Other world markets have also rallied. Brent crude oil hit $76 a barrel, although it remains short of its pre-Omicron level. Much remains unknown about the new variant, but investors have been reassured by early reports from South Africa suggesting that while Omicron is highly transmissible, it may cause less severe illness than previous variants of Covid-19. The Fed turns hawkish Yet below the surface all is not well. As John Authers notes on Bloomberg, the CBOE VIX Volatility index, the US stockmarket’s “fear gauge”, spiked…

Six to buy DS Smith The Sunday Telegraph “Just over a quarter of retail sales in Britain now take place online,” but consumers are increasingly demanding an end to unnecessary plastic wrapping with their deliveries. This FTSE 100 packaging giant provides paper-based packaging that can also be recycled. The shares have slipped by 17% over the last three months, perhaps because higher inflation is driving up input costs. However, the latest trading update shows that it is managing to pass those costs on to users, protecting margins. On a price/earnings(p/e) ratio of 15.5 the shares are reasonably priced for the growth prospects and also yield 3.2%. 373p McColl’s Retail Group Interactive Investor This convenience-store and newsagent operator has announced plans to convert 450 of its 1,200 sites to the “Morrisons…

Saudi Arabia’s stock-exchange operator Saudi Tadawul Group Holding launched an initial public offering (IPO) this week. It sold a 30% stake with the shares priced at 105 riyals (£21) , raising 3.87bn riyals (£778m) and valuing the company at 12.6bn riyals (£2.5bn). The listing, the biggest for a stock exchange since the €1.2bn IPO of Euronext in 2014, had been planned for several years, and was facilitated by the gradual opening of the exchange to foreign investors. Saudi Arabia has also floated ACWA Power International – an energy provider and desalinated water producer – and Saudi Telecom’s internet-services unit this year.…

Last Friday shares in DiDi Global, China’s answer to Uber, underwent “extraordinary” swings before ending the day down by 22%, says Bloomberg. The moves were triggered by DiDi’s announcement, seemingly on the orders of Beijing, that it would switch its listing to Hong Kong from New York just five months after floating. To make matters worse DiDi’s 127-word statement was widely criticised for leaving investors “groping for answers” by providing “few details on the mechanics of changing its listing and the potential implications for shareholders”. The de-listing is the latest twist in a “fast fall from grace” for acompany “once hailed as an innovator and disrupter in China’s staid transportation sector”, says Alexandra Stevenson and Paul Mozur in The New York Times. Its listing seems to have incurred the wrath…

The recent revelations over what did or didn’t happen in Downing Street last Christmas have scrambled the betting markets. With £48,350 matched on Smarkets, the Liberal Democrats are now slight favourites to win next week’s North Shropshire by-election at 1.95 (50.5%). The Conservatives are in second place at 2.02 (49.5%). Labour is way out in third. The best odds you can get from traditional bookmakers are evens (50%) on the Lib Dems from Unibet and 10/11 on the Conservatives (52.8%) from Ladbrokes. Even before the recent bombshell, some Tories were worrying about the closeness of the result, so it seems logical that the Lib Dems should now be considered slight favourites. However, an internal poll by the Lib Dems released a few days ago suggest that the Tories still have…

For the last 20 years just about every major retail chain has had a web presence of some sort. They have met with varying degrees of success. Some are full-scale e-commerce sites that have their own customers, brand and presence. Others are click-and-collect options for customers who don’t want to spend time browsing in the actual shop. Others are more like extended advertisements: you can see what the shop has to offer before heading off to a branch. Now a few are starting to see those websites as separate units. US department store Saks started the trend in March this year when it announced that it planned to separate out its department stores and its web unit. In the spring Saks online was expected to be worth about $2bn. That…

The hunt for ways to beat the market means that the investment industry has an enormous appetite for data on how different types of stocks have performed over time. The problem is that the data we have is more limited than you might expect. It’s quite decent for US stocks back to the 1920s, for example, because in the aftermath of the crash of 1929 and the Great Depression, American researchers began collating more financial and economic information. There are also long-term stock prices for many other countries, but there’s a shortage of long-term fundamental data. “Findings that are only tested in sample may be misleading” This is an issue when you want to know whether a pattern of returns you have found only holds true for the limited amount…

UK investors looking for a single fund giving them access to different geographies, sectors and styles within equity investing are spoilt for choice in the listed investment-trust sector. There are 21 funds that are classified as diversified closed-ended global equity funds, according to broker Numis, including famous names such as Scottish Mortgage. However, two of them stand out for a particular style of management: Alliance Trust (LSE: ATST) and Witan (LSE: WTAN). These funds invest in a wide variety of listed equities from the developed and developing world. Both are happy to move back and forth between value and growth styles of investing. Both have an avowed dividend income policy, with Alliance Trust’s yield running at 1.6% and Witan’s slightly higher at 2.3%. And both are multi-manager funds, choosing active…

Is the City heading for extinction? Paul Marshall Financial Times The UK stockmarket is becoming a “backwater”, says Paul Marshall. The US and China do benefit from more “expansive hinterlands”, with leadership in so many of the industries driving stockmarket performance, from renewables to artificial intelligence. But beyond these advantages, the US boasts far higher trading volumes and valuations than any of its international peers. Tesla alone trades $21bn aday compared with total trade of just $6.1bn on the London Stock Exchange. Companies may eventually decide a single New York-based global exchange trading 24/7 is preferable. But there are other “homegrown reasons” for the UK’s decline, none more “peculiar” than income funds. By prioritising dividends over other kinds of return, these funds penalise growth. Take Scottish and Southern Energy, which…

“Warren Buffett’s mentor Benjamin Graham highlighted the trade-off between quality and price” Investment strategists generally posit that the higher the quality of a business, by which we mean the more profitable it is likely to be in future, the more it is worth paying for the shares. This is because future profits belong to shareholders, who will receive this future profit as dividends – or the profit will be invested back into the business to earn even more profit in the future. Investors can make above-average returns if they can find shares whose prices do not reflect their potential. The goal of most investment analysis is to assess how much a company is worth, with a view to buying the shares for less. This is challenging in today’s markets, because…

The bandwagon for fast-growing payment-processing stocks has come to a screeching halt this year. Mastercard, Visa, PayPal and Square have all slipped, while US stocks overall are up by 22%. But the jitters appear overdone. Investors are losing sight of what made – and still makes – some of the top payment companies attractive in the first place. Short-term headwinds There is certainly plenty of short-term uncertainty facing the sector. Established card networks are under pricing pressure, with Visa credit cards (and their fees) no longer welcomed by Amazon in the UK, for example. And people aren’t travelling nearly as much as they used to: new Covid-19 variants keep delaying the return of big international transaction fees and fat foreign-exchange profits. In the meantime, analysts have detected a shift to…

DiscoverIE (LSE: DSCV) designs, manufactures and supplies electronic components for industries ranging from renewable energy to medicine. The company “proved resilient” throughout the pandemic, says Investors’ Chronicle, as its well established customer base ensured recurring revenue. Sales increased by 21% year-on-year in the six months to October. The firm also boasts a record period-end order book of £198m, up by 71% from last year. There is more scope for growth as the group seeks to expand its horizons past its core European client base. The shares have jumped by 63.3% in a year.…

1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) was originally set up as a development fund for the Malaysian state of Terengganu in 2008. The idea was that the state would issue bonds backed by future oil revenues, with the money raised invested to create an income that could be used to fund government spending and economic development. A year after it was set up the fund was taken over by the Malaysian finance ministry, which argued that the money should be used to benefit the whole of the country, rather than just one region. What was the scam? Under the direction of the then Malaysian president, Najib Razak (pictured), 1MDB borrowed by issuing bonds backed by the government, then diverted large sums into personal accounts controlled by Razak and his associates, some of…

£44,355 The minimum annual salary – along with a 17-minute commute, 29 days’ holiday, a 30-hour work week, an office with a view and a boss who enjoys a drink – are what makes, on average, for a dream job for British workers, according to office supplier Raja Workplace. £1.5m How much the average Briton can expect to spend over a typical lifetime of 80.7 years, with raising children accounting for £169,159, according to Atom Bank. In 1971, the total figure stood at £81,453, and by 2071, it is projected to have grown to almost £19.2m. £1,700 How much a typical family’s household costs are set to rise by next year, according to a study by the Centre for Economics and Business Research for the BBC’s Panorama. Higher energy and…

Alexander McLeish of Massachusetts, US, was recovering from open-heart surgery at home when he received a get-well card from a friend. Inside were some state lottery scratch cards in the form of a crossword game. McLeish scratched the letters off one to reveal his initials, and then the word “heart”. The card yielded a $1m prize at odds of a million to one. “Everything is moving forward in the right direction”, he told The Washington Post. Belfast-based activists the Array Collective have won the prestigious £25,000 Turner Prize 2021. Their art installation takes the form of an Irish drinking den, or síbín, adorned with banners advocating social justice. It feels “deeply traditional”, says the BBC’s David Sillito. “But [a deeper look]... reveals hidden political messages about sexuality and identity.” Four…

“Venture-capital investment in supply-chain technology has gone through the roof this year... investment exceeded $7bn [in the US and Europe] for the third straight quarter. That’s... double the investment made in the fourth quarter of 2020... This explosion in capital is exactly what one would expect in a free-market system experiencing a crisis... people are upset... with skyrocketing shipping costs [so] there’s a lot of money to be made in solving the problems... Plenty of these investments won’t pan out [but] the sheer volume of investment means there are lots of chances for breakthroughs... Trucks, trailers, trains, tracks, ships, port terminals, airplanes, and the information systems they all run on are privately owned... The influx in... investment... is a cause for optimism... market signals are reaching the people they need…

The Daily Telegraph Shares in vaccine makers have soared as Omicron has emerged, but drugs giant AstraZeneca has been left out in the cold. The stock’s pullback gives investors a chance to buy into a business with plenty of strings to its bow beyond Covid-19 jabs (8,276p). The Mail on Sunday Shares in Irn-Bru maker AG Barr have fallen by 40% since a profit warning in 2019, but things are looking up: full-year profits are set to eclipse expectations. Brokers see significant upside, so new investors may wish to “grab some stock” at this price (520p). Shares Food and drink wholesaler Kitwave Group is shrugging off the HGV-driver shortage as it has its own in-house fleet of delivery vehicles. A strong update last month confirms that it is “emerging from…

• The £7.5bn merger of Boots with drug-distribution giant Alliance Unichem in 2005 was to herald a “bold new chapter”, says Ben Marlow in The Daily Telegraph. But with Walgreen Boots Alliance now set to sell the UK pharmacy chain, it’s “hard to argue” that it did. The shops are “shabby” and the online arm has been “neglected”: a “missed opportunity” in lockdown. Some expect “a swoop from one of the supermarkets looking for new sources of growth”. But this could mean Boots jumps “out of the frying pan into the fire”, especially if the grocer itself is owned by private equity. • A consortium led by asset manager BlackRock and Saudi investment group Hassana is to pay $15.5bn for 49% of a 20-year lease over oil giant Saudi Aramco’s…

• Will Shu (pictured), founder and CEO of Deliveroo, sold £47m-worth of stock in the takeaway delivery app last week in order to pay a tax bill, says the Daily Mail. He sold the 16.9 million shares at 278p each, well below the 390p price at which they were floated on the London Stock Exchange at the end of March. Shu had been handed £62.5m in stock. Finance chief Adam Miller also sold £1.9m-worth of shares for tax purposes. The share price dropped 9.5% to 262.6p on news of the sale, valuing the company at £4.6bn. • Microsoft’s CEO Satya Nadella has sold just over half his stake in the software giant, says Barron’s. Nadella offloaded 838,584 shares last month for around $285m in total. That leaves him with about…

A factor is a characteristic that has been shown to contribute to a stock, bond or other security outperforming the market. Research into factors was originally driven by academics trying to figure out why certain stocks tended to generate higher returns than theories about efficient markets would have predicted. Widely accepted factors include size (the observation that small companies tend to beat large firms over time); value (cheap companies beat expensive ones); yield (high-yielding stocks do better than low-yielding ones); and momentum (stocks that go up just keep on going up). These factors will not always beat the market over any given time period, but they have generated superior returns in many different global markets over the long run. Factor investing has become increasingly popular in recent years, as the…

Energy group SSE’s plans to boost spending on renewables haven’t placated Elliott Management, reports the Financial Times. The activist hedge fund began lobbying SSE to split into separate listed renewables and transmission networks earlier this year. However, SSE rejected the idea at its annual update last month, saying that Elliott’s proposal would make it more difficult for the renewables business to fund large projects. Instead, it plans to sell a25% stake in the networks arm and cut its dividend to increase investment. Elliott described the latest update as “perfunctory”, “opaque” and “deeply flawed”, while SSE said its strategy is the outcome of “a rigorous process involving constructive engagement with shareholders”.…

“I was offered $35m for one day’s work for an airline commercial, but I talked to Amal [Clooney, the human-rights lawyer he married in 2014] about it and we decided it’s not worth it. It was [associated with] a country that, although it’s an ally, is questionable at times, and so I thought: ‘Well, if it takes a minute’s sleep away from me, it’s not worth it.’” Actor George Clooney (pictured), quoted in The Guardian “As if I am stupid to let someone have all my money? Not that he would ask for it.” Singer Adele on speculation that her ex-husband pocketed most of her £145m fortune, quoted in Metro “The BBC find it really hard to compete. They have a very set income and television inflation is far above…

Say goodbye to the “loyalty penalty”. From next month insurers will be banned from penalising long-time customers. Consumers have long complained that renewal quotes for car and home insurance rise every year unless customers switch. Insurers profit from consumer inertia. Figures from comparison site Compare the Market show that “over half of households saw their insurance premiums rise at renewal in the past 12 months by an average of £81”, reports Grace Gausden for ThisisMoney. Customers who switch save an average of £262 on car insurance and £113 on home insurance, compared to those who auto-renew. The estimated 46% of vehicle and home policy holders who stick with their insurer are paying a steep price for their loyalty. The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), the City regulator, wants to put a…

Recent results from the $330bn card-processing giant were initially well received. Earnings eclipsed expectations and comments from the company revealed an encouraging pick-up in income from recovering cross-border travel. The very recent emergence of the Omicron variant has inevitably dented travel as restrictions are reimposed. Still, the rebound in this key source of sales has been delayed, not cancelled. The company upped its dividend by 11% and announced an $8bn distribution to shareholders via a share-buyback programme. Its recent partnership with cryptocurrency specialist Bakkt means Mastercard can offer its clients the ability to issue bitcoin payment cards and promote crypto-reward programmes. This is likely to be a bigger draw than old-style reward points and, crucially, engages younger consumers. Similarly, the launch of “Mastercard Installments” as a platform for building BNPL…

NBrown Group (LSE: BWNG) is a digital retailer of clothing and footwear. The company’s share price has fallen by around a third over the last 12 months, thanks largely to its legal spat with Allianz Insurance. Allianz is seeking compensation from N Brown subsidiary JD Williams, which sold payment-protection insurance (PPI) to its customers several years ago. Allianz underwrote the insurance and wants redress for large payouts it made. It is asking JD to reimburse a “potentially significant” amount that could harm its bottom line, says Joshua Warner on City Index.…

Oliva Von Halle Lila Sia Silk Pyjama Set Cosying up for a Christmas lie-in needn’t be a slobby affair. In a set of these silk pyjamas from Selfridges, you can laze in the lap of luxury. The cat-print PJs are made from 100% silk and will make you feel full of the kind of winter welfare that only chocolate and snowball cocktails before lunch can afford. Soft to the touch and saliently elasticated, Von Halles’ designer nightwear is perfect for a Christmas in decadent comfort. £460, selfridges.com Bang and Olufsen Berluti Beoplay H95 Wireless Headphones If you’ve given up trying to stop your teenaged family members donning their headphones and ignoring you all Christmas, you can at least ensure they are having a superlative listening experience. Bang and Olufsen’s Berluti…

A practitioner’s guide to the art of investing Richard Oldfield Harriman House, £19.99 It’s always useful for investors to look back at their past predictions. In 2007, noted value investor Richard Oldfield wrote Simple But Not Easy, a guide for investors that argued for a value-orientated approach. This updated edition combines a reprint of his original text with a 40-page afterword assessing whether his advice still stands in light of what has happened in the intervening 14 years. One of Oldfield’s points was that, while shares could be volatile in the short term, they almost always outperform in the long run. Events since 2007 vindicate this. As he points out, despite a global financial crisis – and more recently a pandemic – shares have still produced returns that are not…

• It will be interesting to see how the BBC’s new drama, A Very British Scandal, transforms Margaret, Duchess of Argyll, from a “scandal-bucket brimming with bad manners and rich white privilege” into a “feminist icon for our times”, says Jan Moir in the Daily Mail. The duchess, played by Claire Foy (right), was no stranger to scandal, falling pregnant at 15 by an 18-year-old David Niven. She was engaged to a penniless earl, amarried millionaire and Lord Beaverbrook’s son, before marrying US businessman Charles Sweeney. During their divorce after 14 years, infamous photos were produced, and it was claimed she had more than 80 lovers. The judge said she was a “promiscuous woman whose sexual appetite could only be satisfied with a number of men”. Well, “if that is…