The 10 biggest business stories on Wednesday January 13

Sainsbury's has reported a 0.4% fall in like-for-like sales; Netflix CEO has started a new philantropic fund

Sainsbury's has reported a 0.4% fall in like-for-like sales (Sainsbury's)

1. Sainsbury's has reported a 0.4 per cent fall in like-for-like sales excluding fuel in the three months to 9 January compared with a year earlier.

2. China's crude oil imports hit a record 7.82 million barrels a day in December, customs data showed, as the world's second biggest oil consumer took advantage of low crude prices to fill strategic reserves, but also increased its exports of refined fuels to an all-time high. Crude imports for December were 33.19 million tonnes, up 21.4 per cent on the month and 9.3 per cent on the year, well above earlier estimates by Thomson Reuters Oil Research and Forecasts.

3. Shop Direct, UK’s second biggest online-only retailer, says sales grew 6 per cent in the seven weeks leading up to Christmas, compared with the same period last year and on target for record profits this year.

4. Sports Direct says it has bought an 11.5 per cent stake in US firm Iconix Brand Group, which owns Umbro, and a 2.3 per cent part of retailer Dick's Sporting Goods.

5. David Bowie's final album soared toward the top of the charts Tuesday after the music legend's death from cancer stunned the world, with the details still shrouded in mystery two days on.

6. Martin Morgan, chief executive for the Daily Mail and General Trust, plans to step down at the end of 2016, the company has announced. The CEO joined the publisher in 1989.

7. General Motors Chief Executive Mary Barra and other top executives will make presentations on the year ahead at the 2016 Global Auto Industry Conference hosted by Deutsche Bank in Detroit on Wednesday.

8. Hacker collective Anonymous has taken responsibility for taking down auto maker Nissan’s Japanese website on Wednesday morning in protest against the country’s whale hunting.

9. Netflix CEO Reed Hastings is starting a new $100 million philanthropic fund that will focus on education, he announced on Tuesday.

10. Uber has announced “Uber Trip Experiences” in a bid to make your rides more entertaining. Uber Trip Experiences allows developers to integrate apps into the main Uber application so that passengers can use them during their journey.