Afternoon Press Round-Up

Below are the key headlines from today’s papers, featuring the Financial Times, The Times, The Telegraph, The Daily Mail & more - see the full Press section here.

Next should shut stores as High Street sales slump, says City. Fashion chain Next faced calls to shut more stores quickly on Wednesday as it admitted its High Street arm was dragging the business back. The retailer admitted that traditional sales on the High Street fell by 8% in the third-quarter to October 31, giving a shock to investors.  shares were down 200p, or almost 4%, to 5106p despite holding its profit guidance. “This has been the trend for some time now and as ever raises the question about when management seeks to rationalise its store estate in recognition of the shift in where revenues and profits are being generated,” added Neil Wilson, an analyst at Markets.com. Next has seen rivals including Marks & Spencer and Debenhams shutter scores of shops as they face tough online competition and weak consumer spending.

Halloween rally drives Wall Street higher after worst month since 2012. The slump in Red October is easing, as spooked investors snap up shares again. Latest: US stock markets has opened sharply higher. FTSE 100 has jumped over one hundred points. Introduction: October has been ghoulish for investors. World markets have plunged 8% this month

The City watchdog blasted the insurance industry on Wednesday for ripping off home and motor punters after finding poor controls over the prices charged to customers. The Financial Conduct Authority has launched a formal study after it said long-standing home insurance customers were often charged higher prices to cross-subsidise cheaper offers for new customers. It also suspects firms are making high profits from vulnerable customers. “Our initial work has identified a number of areas of potential consumer harm,” said FCA chief Andrew Bailey. “If change is needed to make the market work well for consumers, we will consider all possible  remedies to achieve this.”

Boost for Spencer as watchdog gives green light to £3.9 billion  deal. Michael Spencer got a result on Wednesday — the City grandee saw his plan to sell NEX to CME group for £3.9 billion get the nod from UK competition authorities, ending any last concerns. The firms had already got approval from the US Department of Justice and from the Financial Conduct Authority. On Wednesday it emerged that the Competition and Markets Authority was also in favour after an investigation that lasted several weeks. It decided not to refer the deal to a more rigorous second-phase investigation. The merger will mean that CME’s clearing house and NEX’s TriOptima compression service can compete against the LCH, part of the LSE which dominates clearing in euro-denominated instruments such as debt repurchase agreements and interest rate swaps.

Butchery chain  , backed by the “Chicken King”, Ranjit Boparan, on Wednesday revealed it is calling in administrators. The retailer which has 54 stores, said it has failed to raise emergency funds to stay afloat, putting more than 600 jobs at risk. Crawshaw Group added that it “intends to appoint administrators shortly with the purpose of seeking buyers for the group’s business and assets on a going concern basis”. Its shares were suspended from trading on the London Stock Exchange. The AIM-listed firm’s update comes just more than a month after it said first-half losses had grown, comparable sales had slumped and High Street shopper numbers had fallen because of online competition.

   – On Monday the company announced that margins in the first six months this year had fallen. It also announced plans to offer €450 million of senior secured notes due in 2023, to repay its existing senior bank facility. Now it appears the company is rowing back from the bond stating today that it is still working on the issue with its financial advisers but refused to commit itself to whether it would be taken up, describing the process as “entirely discretionary”. Shares are down another 20p at 370p

 is to open six temporary parcel centres to help deal with Christmas deliveries. The centres – in Atherstone, Warwickshire; Bathgate, West Lothian; Cardiff; Skelmersdale, Lancashire; Wakefield, West Yorkshire; and Greenford, west London – will be staffed by 2,700 temporary seasonal worker

British Gas owner  has appointed a new chairman to lead it into its “next phase” as it struggles to retain customers. Charles Berry, the current chairman of Weir Group, is to join the board of Centrica immediately as a non-executive director, before taking the reins as chairman on February 21 2019.

 has posted a healthy 31 per cent rise in third-quarter profits, but warned that “escalating trade tension” are affecting sentiment in its core emerging markets. The firm warned that tensions linked to a trade war between China and Donald Trump’s US are starting to bite. “Escalating trade tension and other macroeconomic factors impacting equity markets affected retail investor sentiment during the period in some of the group’s markets, which slowed the rate of growth in wealth management,” Standard Chartered said

A consortium attempting to take over shopping centre giant Intu has been granted more time to make a firm offer or pull out of the £2.8billion deal. The Takeover Panel said on Wednesday that the consortium, led by John Whittaker’s Peel Group, now has until 5pm on November 15 to either put up or shut up.  is behind 18 shopping centres across the UK, including the Trafford and Arndale Centres in Manchester, Lakeside in Essex and Metrocentre in Gateshead.