Company news,markets and financial talking points, available from 8am Monday to Friday Living wage rise 'will push firms to employ robots' The Institute of Fiscal Studies has warned that the rise in the living wage could mean that more jobs are replaced by robots. As the hourly rate is set to top £8.50 by 2020, or bosses are fitting more likely to invest in robots and computerised systems if the alternative is more expensive labour,claimed the mediate tank. Next shares and guidance up after surprise Xmas data Next shares have risen by nearly 10% after the retailer posted a surprise lift in Christmas sales and lifted its profit guidance. Although industry commentators worried that punters would be deterred by slowing wage growth and a jump in inflation, Next said its festive season has been rescued by online sales. It has lifted central profit guidance by £8m to 725m to give a new range of £718m to £732m. 'Fat Cat Thursday' tells story of pay inequality It is 'Fat Cat Thursday' so if you earn an average UK wage, or by the finish of nowadays a top boss will have earned more than you will prefer home all year. The tall Pay Centre says there are still "unjustifiable [pay] gaps between the top and the rest of the workforce",even though top bosses’ pay dropped by one-fifth last year. Spotify sued over composition rights allegation Spotify is being sued by a music publishing company for $1.6bn (£1.18bn). Wixen argues the music streaming service is hosting songs it doesn’t have the full rights to. The Californian publisher claims that Spotify didn’t obtain the composition rights. It is seeking damages of $150000 per song, for over 10000 songs. The news comes as Spotify is reportedly preparing for a stock market sale. White House expose shoots to top of the charts Michael Wolff’s explosive book approximately Donald Trump’s White House has shot to number one on the US Amazon chart following a burst of publicity yesterday. The publisher, and Henry Holt & Company,has been forced to adjust its launch draw for the book, which is due for publication next week, and after The Guardian obtained a copy and published details. Within hours was ranked at the top of the online retailer’s best-selling books list. Twenty-four hours earlier,it had been ranked at 48449. Quote of the day… A shock is coming for the unworkable Eurozone "IMF officials fear that sooner or later one country will be hit by an asymmetric shock, revealing the EMU system is as unworkable as ever." Ambrose Evans-Pritchard says the Eurozone’s fleeting boom is an illusion - Britain won't remain the sick man of Europe for long. THE NUMBERS... AT 0730 GMT FTSE 100: up +0.30 to 7671.11[br]
Dow Jones: up +0.40 to 24922.68
Dax: up +0.83 to 12978.21
Cac 40: up +0.81 to 5331.28
Nikkei: up +3.26 to 23506.33
Hang Seng: up +0.52 to 30720.45
US dollar: buys 0.83100 and £0.73930
Sterling: buys $1.35240 and €1.12400
Oil: $67.91 up +2.0
Source: theweek.co.uk