Rising online sales for Black Friday and a tumultuous few days for Bitcoin topped this week’s commercial news. However, there has been some good news for the pound after a Brexit breakthrough. We could be closer to electric commercial planes than we think as Airbus, Rolls-Royce, and Siemens plan to develop a hybrid electric plane by 2020. Finally, Palmer & Harvey has gone into administration and 2,500 of its staff have lost their jobs.
You might have noticed that the shops were a little quiet for Black Friday this year. Analysis firm Springboard shows that footfall was down 3.6% this year. However, a huge £1.4 billion was spent online on Friday, up 11% on last year, as more people chose to do their shopping at home.
Bitcoin had a turbulent week as it made it over $11,000 for the first time, but then plunged back down to around $9,000. Critics of the digital currency say this volatility is due to the fact that it is not properly regulated.
After it was reported that the deadlock on the Brexit divorce bill had been broken on Tuesday, the pound rose sharply in a matter of minutes against the euro. It has been confirmed that an ‘agreement-in-principle’ has been reached ahead of Theresa May’s meeting with Jean-Claude Juncker next week.
Manufacturing giants Airbus, Rolls-Royce, and Siemens have teamed up to develop a hybrid electric plane. By 2020 they aim to fly a demonstrator version of the aircraft which will have one of four jet engines replaced by an electric engine.
The wholesaler Palmer & Harvey has gone into administration and 2,500 jobs have been lost within the company. Around 900 further employees are at risk of redundancy. The wholesaler said that this was a result of a failed attempt to restructure the business and the current challenging trading conditions.
Also in the news:
- Supreme Court to travel to Northern Ireland to hear ‘gay cake’ case
- No UK judge on International Court of Justice for the first time
- Minimum price for alcohol sales backed by UK Supreme Court
