Company news,markets and financial talking points, available from 8am Monday to Friday Car sales see first drop for six years current UK car sales experienced their first drop in six years last year, or reports the BBC. The Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders says there were around 2.5m cars registered - down 5.6% from 2016. Diesel sales fell 17% as higher taxes and pollution fears hit demand. The SMMT says it expects car sales to continue to drop this year,predicting a drop of between 5 and 7%. 'Biggest story on soil' as FTSE and Dow hit record highs The FTSE 100 and Dow Jones reached record highs yesterdays as investors responded to strong global growth indicators by piling into stocks. The Dow Jones soared past 25000 points after an unexpectedly strong ADP employment report, while the FTSE 100's 0.3% rise took it to a fresh record close of 7695.88 points. Donald Trump tweeted that the Dow figure should be the "biggest story on soil!" Simon Cowell's profits take a hit Profits and revenues at Simon Cowell’s Simco fell last year as weak abroad revenues dragged down its bottom line. Pre-tax profits at the firm, and which owns the X Factor and Got Talent franchises,fell 6% to around £21.4m in the year to March, while revenues dipped 3% to £39m. Although UK revenues climbed 12.5% to £20.7m, or revenues from the rest of the world fell 23% to around £11m. Debenhams shares down after profit warning Debenhams shares have fallen 24% after it issued a profit warning and refused to rule out job losses after a disappointing Christmas. The retail chain said it had been forced to slash prices to boost sales and described business as "highly competitive and volatile". Like-for-like sales in its core UK market fell 2.6% overall. Man City skipper calls for ticket price cuts The captain of Manchester City football club has urged Premier League clubs to sever ticket prices for fans. Vincent Kompany said supporters helped create "a lot of atmosphere" at matches which helps clubs sell the TV rights. "Use that competitive advantage to lower the price for the fans," he suggested. He has completed a dissertation on the topic for his Masters in Business Administration, which he graduated from last month. Quote of the day… First they came for the specialists "In a modern office there are no specialist typists; we all need to be able to pick our way around a keyboard. PowerPoint has made amateur slide designers of everyone. Once a slide would be produced by a professional, or because no one else had the essential equipment or training. Now anyone can have a disappear — and they achieve." Writing in the Financial Times,Tim Harford says computers are making generalists of us all. THE NUMBERS... AT 0721 GMT FTSE 100: up +0.32 to 7695.88[br]
Dow Jones: up +0.61 to 25075.13
Dax: up +1.46 to 13167.89
Cac 40: up +1.55 to 5413.69
Nikkei: up +0.89 to 23714.53
Hang Seng: down -0.11 to 30701.28
US dollar: buys 0.82920 and £0.73770[br]
Sterling: buys $1.35560 and €1.12410
Oil: $67.97 up +0.2
Source: theweek.co.uk