Seven days in the Square Mile

The euro hit its strongest level against the pound in eight years, rising above 92p on Wednesday on the back of a flurry of better-than-expected EU indicators reflecting the diverging economic outlooks of the eurozone and Britain. There was better news on the household front: according to ONS estimates, the average household saved 8.4% of their income in 2015 – much higher than the 6.5% previously thought, indicating that the savings crisis may not be as acute as feared. WPP, the world’s largest advertising group, suffered its largest share fall since the financial crisis. Shares fell 11% after its second sales warning this year. Investors fear that the print advertising slump has now spread to ad agencies. The Danish group A.P. Moller-maersk sold its oil business to Total of France for $7.5bn; investors welcomed the move but hundreds of North Sea oil jobs may be at risk. The German grocery discounter Lidl overtook Waitrose as the UK’S seventh largest supermarket: sales rose 18.9% in the quarter to August making it Britain’s fastest-growing grocer. Fellow German discounter Aldi struck a food delivery deal with Instacart, the Silicon Valley unicorn, in an attempt to crack the US grocery market ahead of Amazon’s tie-up with Whole Foods. Dominic Chappell, the former boss of retail chain BHS, is to be prosecuted by the Pensions Regulator for failing to provide data and documents relating to the chain’s sale.