The 10 biggest business stories on Tuesday January 12

Morrisons sales up for the first time in four years; Boohoo.com revenues grew by 45% in the last four month

A general view of atmosphere at boohoo US Launch (Getty Images for boohoo)

1. Crude oil fell 3 per cent on Tuesday, heading towards $30 per barrel and levels not seen in over a decade, with analysts scrambling to cut their price forecasts and traders betting on further declines.

2. Supermarket chain Morrisons has posted better-than-expected Christmas sales compared with a year earlier. Sales at stores, excluding fuel, rose 0.2 per cent in the nine weeks to 2 January, Analysts had predicted like-for-like sales to fall 2 per cent.

3. Debenhams, Britain's second department store chain, beat analyst expectations in the Christmas trading period, helped by bumper online shopping and clever management of its stock of winter coats during unseasonably warm weather.

4. Bakery and food-to go retail Greggs said full year like-for-like sales are up 4.7 per cent sales but slowed to 2.3 per cent in final quarter as Greggs came up against stronger comparatives.

5. Direct Line Insurance Group said it estimated total claims of between £110 million and £140 million (about $160-$203 million) from the three storms that hit Britain in December.

6. Skyscanner, an Edinburgh-based online travel site, has received £128 million from new investors in a move that sees the website enter the club of British ‘unicorns’ — private technology companies worth more than $1 billion, the Financial Times reports.

7. Rupert Murdoch, the 84-year-old owner of News Corporation, announced his engagement to former model Jerry Hall in an advertisement published in the Times on Tuesday.

8. Boohoo.com, the online clothing retailer, said revenues grew by 45 per cent in the last four month. Total revenues are now at £73.7 million ($107 million), up from £50.8 million ($73.8 million) over the same period last year.

9. HSBC is likely to stay based in London rather than move its headquarters to Asia, according to Martin Gilbert, chief executive officer of one of the British bank’s biggest shareholders, Bloomberg reports.

10. Cadbury has suffered a Creme Egg sales slump of £6 million after making a change to the chocolate recipe last year. The company is gearing up for a spring offensive as it appears to lose dominance in the Easter egg market in the UK, the Telegraph reports.

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