John Lewis Partnership halves losses; OpenAI’s valuation ‘set to hit $150bn’ – business live

Good morning, and welcome to our rolling coverage of business, the financial markets and the world economy.

The John Lewis Partnership has declared it is on track to deliver “significantly higher profit” this financial year, as it tries to put a troubled period behind it.

In its latest financial results, John Lewis has reported that its losses halved in the first half of its financial year.

The company, which owns Waitrose as well as the John Lewis department stores, has made a pre-tax loss of £30m in the six months to 27 July, down from £59m a year earlier.

Strip out ‘exceptional items’, such as the cost of strategic restructuring and redundancy programmes, and losses are down by 91% to just £5m.

Nish Kankiwala, CEO of the John Lewis Partnership, says the company has achieved a “marked improvement” compared with two years ago.

These results confirm that our transformation plan is working and we expect profits to grow significantly for the full year, a marked improvement from where we were two years ago.

We continue to invest heavily in quality, service and value, and customers are responding well - with more people shopping with us and customer satisfaction increasing. While we have much more to do, we’re well set up for a positive peak trading period and on target to significantly improve our performance for the full year.”

Looking across the company, Waitrose grew its sales by 5% in the first half of the year, but sales at its John Lewis department stores fell 3% – blamed on “a slower external environment for general merchandise”.

John Lewis returned to profit in the last financial year (to late January) after three years of losses.

Kankiwala says:

While we have much more to do, we’re well set up for a positive peak trading period and on target to significantly improve our performance for the full year.

The company is hoping that bringing back its “never knowingly undersold” price promise will help it win sales in the crucial Christmas period approaching soon…

The agenda

• This morning: Chancellor Rachel Reeves to meet with UK bank bosses

• 9.30am BST: UK’s Office for Budget Responsibility to release its OBR Fiscal Risks and Sustainability Report

• 1.15pm BST: European Central Bank interest rate decision

• 1.30pm BST: US weekly jobless claims

• 1.45pm BST: European Central Bank press conference