CHECKOUT COUNTER

1. Now Musk’s a sun king

Elon Musk’s solar roof panels have been installed on the roof of his own house. By selling Tesla products to employees first, the founder hopes to eliminate kinks in the sales and installation process before they are sold to the wider public. Tesla opened its online store in May and is already taking US$1,000 deposits for the glass roof tiles that are virtually indistinguishable from high-end roofing.

2. Toyota, Mazda link-up

Toyota and Mazda have joined forces to build a $1.6bn assembly plant in the US and Toyota will also take a 5% stake in its smaller rival. The plant will be capable of producing 300,000 vehicles a year and will employ 4,000 workers. The two Japanese carmakers will also pool resources on new technology by jointly developing technology for electric cars and safety technology.

3. Hot sales for Next

Hot weather in the UK in June and July triggered a surge in online sales at fashion retailer Next, and also slowed what has been a period of decline in sales affecting stores. Next’s shares are at about half their value of two years ago, but the news last week caused its stock to climb 10%. The improvement was not felt in Scotland and northern England, where it wasn’t quite as warm.

4. Sales up, profits down

The cost of establishing a physical retail presence is behind Amazon’s quarterly profit drop of 77% even as sales jumped. The retailer spent on new warehouses and delivery capacity for its new retail business and data centres for its cloud services business. It reported its smallest quarterly profit — $197m in profit on $38bn in sales — in nearly two years.