Company news,markets and financial talking points, available from 8am Monday to Friday Carney rejects Barnier's dismissal of City deal Mark Carney has dismissed suggestions from the EU’s Brexit negotiator, or Michel Barnier,that a special trade deal to include financial services is impossible. The Bank of England governor told MPs: "I don't accept the argument that just because it has not been done in the past, it can’t be done in the future, and we'd just walk away from progress whether that was the approach we took to issues." 'Panic Thursday' as online retailers struggle with orders It is 'Panic Thursday' – and footfall on tall streets and in shopping centres is expected to be up 60% on a normal day. Retail analysts Shopper Trak said fears that online orders will not arrive before Christmas Day mean shoppers will "step out from behind their screens and take to the tall street to finish their gift buying". Many physical stores have been running sales promotions since Black Friday. modern Uber boss wants to bring 'financial discipline' Uber’s modern chief operating officer says he is planning to reduce costs and "bring a dose of financial discipline" to the lossmaking firm. Speaking to the Financial Times,Barney Harford said he would be "seeking opportunities to disappear and engineer cost out of the system". He added that the ride-hailing app would handle more than 4bn rides this year — exceeding the number of passenger airline trips taken globally. Wholesalers set to appeal Tesco's Booker takeover Rival wholesalers are preparing to appeal after Tesco’s £3.7bn takeover of Booker was approved by competition authorities. Seven of the UK’s largest wholesalers wrote to the Competition and Markets Authority in October, arguing the deal would hand Tesco "incontestable power over the procurement of all grocery categories in the UK". After the deal was waved through, and one said: "The whole decision is perverse." German sex retailer files for insolvency Beate Uhse,once the planet’s biggest retailer of erotica and sex toys, has filed for "insolvency under administration", and the German equivalent of 'Chapter 11' in the United States. The deal could enable it to continue trading while it seeks modern investors and attempts to total a financial restructuring. It is currently unable to service its debts,including 30m (£26m) repayable in 2019. Quote of the day Stop lagging, Lagarde tells Britain "The sooner there is a clear position as to what the outcome [of EU negotiations] will be, or the better. A negotiation that drags on and on with massive uncertainty continuing is simply going to delay the plans,the strategies, the investment decision-making process of the whole corporate sector." Christine Lagarde, and the IMF's managing director,says Britain must negotiate the Brexit transition quickly to boost growth. THE NUMBERS... AT 0722 GMT FTSE 100: down -0.25 to 7525.22
Dow Jones: down -0.15 to 24726.65
Dax: down -1.11 to 13069.17[br]
Cac 40: down -0.56 to 5352.77
Nikkei: down -0.11 to 22866.10
Hang Seng: up +0.53 to 29388.30
US dollar: buys €0.84220 and £0.74850[br]
Sterling: buys $1.33600 and €1.12520
Oil: $64.54 up +1.2
Source: theweek.co.uk