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A cautiously positive Christmas trading update will provide some relief for Marks and Spencer (MKS) as the company tries to move on from a disastrous cyber attack incident last year.

The prospect of feeding multiple family members, even grudgingly, was enough for shoppers to splash out on the company’s premium food ranges, even as consumers have otherwise spent cautiously this festive season.

Like-for-like food sales rose well ahead of inflation at 5.6 per cent, though slightly lower compared with last year. The importance of food, when set alongside the gently declining fashion retail side of the business, cannot be emphasised enough; food now has a 65 per cent share of total group sales, or ÂŁ2.7bn, when the contribution from Ocado (OCDO) via its joint venture is excluded. Indeed, M&S total food market share for November was a record 4 per cent.

Tesco (TSCO) now expects to deliver full-year adjusted operating profits at the upper end of the ÂŁ2.9bn-ÂŁ3.1bn guidance range it issued in October, while free cash flow is predicted to land within the medium-term guidance range of ÂŁ1.4bn-ÂŁ1.8bn.

The positive news on profits was contained within its Christmas/third quarter trading update, which also revealed that the grocer achieved its highest market share for over a decade, with the 12-week market share up 23 basis points to 28.7 per cent. Growth here accelerated through the Christmas trading period, marking “32 consecutive 4-week periods of year-on-year gains”.

Like-for-like sales at the home & clothing segment were up by 2.1 per cent, while core retail sales at the Booker wholesale unit were down by 0.4 per cent. In common with industry rivals, Tesco’s fresh food business was the standout performer, which, in turn, underpinned a double-digit increase in online traffic.

Greggs (GRG) shares fell 7 per cent in early trading after the group told the market that it expects no profit growth in 2026.

Chief executive Roisin Currie called out “subdued consumer confidence” in the FTSE 250 company’s latest trading update, lamenting a tough UK food-to-go market. The pasty maker reported slower like-for-like sales growth of 2.9 per cent in the fourth quarter.

The group also pointed to “extreme weather” as driving lower demand. Greggs had previously blamed a warm summer for putting people off their hot sausage rolls. 

After a year of heavy investment in new stores, the company said it expects to end the year with net cash of £47mn, a chunky drop from last year’s £125mn. The group opened 207 new shops over the year, although the board highlighted that “we are now past the peak of our capital expenditure programme”.

Greggs is currently the UK market’s most shorted stock. The company will report its preliminary full-year results on 3 March 2026.

UK house prices barely moved during 2025, according to data from mortgage lender Halifax. The average house price increased ÂŁ952, or 0.3 per cent, during the year to ÂŁ297,755. 

December prices fell 0.6 per cent from November levels. 

The annual rate of growth slowed significantly during the course of the year, as economic uncertainty took hold. However, this uncertainty “should now be starting to unwind,” said Amanda Bryden, head of mortgages at Halifax, supporting growth this year.

“Mortgage rates are already reducing following the latest Base Rate cut and there are an increasing number of lending options available for those borrowing at a higher loan-to-value,” she added. 

Halifax is forecasting a “modest rise” in house prices during 2026 of between 1 per cent and 3 per cent.

Shell (SHEL) will likely have to lean on debt to keep up with its $3.5bn (ÂŁ2.6bn) in quarterly buybacks after a fourth quarter hit by higher costs and taxes. The energy giant released an update before its full Q4 results, which said upstream production would be better than previous guidance but so would operating costs and taxes.

The marketing, chemicals and products units will see lower earnings than Q3 and the latter two, grouped in one division, will report adjusted earnings “below break-even”, the company said. Its shares dropped 2.5 per cent on the update.

RBC Capital Markets analyst Biraj Borkhataria said the updated guidance would “weigh on Q4 earnings estimates” and the working capital build would “push Shell well above its 40-50 per cent cash flow from operations payout ratio this year”.

“The question is whether the board/management team is willing to look beyond a particularly weak quarter and hold the line on the buyback at $3.5bn given a strong balance sheet or break away from the ever-smaller group of companies holding distributions flat into 2026,” he added.

Shell will report its Q4 results on 5 February.