Business
Minister blames ‘shifting sands’ amid criticism of pre-Budget ‘fiscal fandango’
A Cabinet minister has defended the pre-Budget process, saying it has taken place on “shifting sands” amid fears about the economic impact of the weeks of speculation about what it will contain.
Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander also declined to deny that the Chancellor is planning a pay-per-mile scheme for electric vehicle (EV) drivers, even as she boosts a grant that cuts the upfront costs for buyers.
Speaker of the House Lindsay Hoyle has criticised what he called the “hokey cokey” Budget and called out ministers for leaking key announcements ahead of the Chancellor’s statement on Wednesday.
Rachel Reeves abandoned expected plans to hike income tax rates after a press conference and behind-the-scenes briefings aimed at preparing the country for the manifesto-busting move.
The apparent U-turn was said to have come about because of improved economic forecasts.
Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander, when asked on the BBC’s Sunday With Laura Kuenssberg programme whether speculation about tax rises has damaged the economy, said: “The review that the Office for Budget Responsibility have done about the productivity forecasts has meant that this whole process has really taken place on shifting sands to start off with, and we’ve got a very challenging global economic environment.”
Former Bank of England chief economist Andy Haldane said the “fiscal fandango” of the past months had caused “paralysis” among businesses and consumers.
“Next week, we need a decisive action that puts to bed and beyond reproach any notion of further tax rises,” he told the programme.
Ms Alexander declined to reveal Budget details, but did not deny that drivers of electric vehicles could face a pay-per-mile charge as the Chancellor adds £1.3 billion to a grant cutting upfront costs for buying EVs.
She said: “We need a fair vehicle taxation system for all motorists, because EVs, like drivers of petrol and diesel cars, they’re driving on roads that require maintenance.”
The Chancellor has pledged to get a grip on the cost of living in her Budget next week.
Making people better off is a “fundamental precursor to economic growth”, she wrote in The Sunday Times.
“There is an urgent need to ease the pressure on households now. It will require direct action by this Government to get inflation under control,” she wrote.
But at the same time Ms Reeves is widely expected to raise taxes in an effort to bridge a multibillion-pound gap in her spending plans.
Ms Reeves is grappling with weak economic growth, persistent inflation and an expected downgrade to official productivity forecasts as she prepares her statement.
The Treasury said she would raise £1.2 billion by March 2031 by extending a crackdown on fraudulent and mistaken universal credit payments via the targeted case review (TCR) scheme.
In an example of one move aiming to ease the pressure on people’s finances, rail fares are to be frozen for the first time in 30 years, saving commuters on more expensive routes more than £300 a year.
But an extension of the freeze on income tax thresholds is also among rumoured measures and would see more people dragged into paying tax for the first time or shifted into a higher rate as their wages go up.
Tory leader Kemi Badenoch said the Chancellor should “have the balls” to admit that such a move would breach Labour’s manifesto promise not to raise taxes on working people.
Ms Reeves is also expected to scrap the two-child benefit cap, in a move that could cost more than £3 billion.
The Conservatives, who put the cap in place, are against the move.
Shadow chancellor Mel Stride told Sky News’s Sunday Morning With Trevor Phillips programme: “I want to see the Chancellor stand up and explain how she is going to control public spending, particularly welfare, in order to make sure that we’re not having to put up taxes and she’s not going to be breaking all these promises that she’s made.”
Reform UK’s Zia Yusuf said the Chancellor was “prioritising foreign nationals” by raising taxes on UK nationals.
“We have laid out £25 billion of savings that could be made by this Chancellor, and by choosing not to do that, Trevor, and choosing to raise taxes on people in this country, she is prioritising foreign nationals over UK citizens,” he told the programme.
Green Party leader Zack Polanski has said scrapping the two-child benefit cap in the Budget would be a “victory” but urged the Chancellor to go further and “tax the rich”.
“When are we going to see tough choices for multi-millionaires and billionaires? It’s time to tax the rich,” he told Kuenssberg.
Funding of £48 million for 350 new planners to boost Government efforts to build 1.5 million new homes is also reported.
A Treasury source said the Chancellor is expected to announce all care leavers would be guaranteed full student loan support, worth up to £13,500 each.
Other measures expected include £5 million for secondary schools to buy more books for their libraries, an £18 million scheme to revamp playgrounds in England, and a crackdown on shops selling illegal vapes.
Business
Nike tops earnings estimates but shares fall as China sales plunge, tariffs hit profits
A shopper carries Nike bags in San Francisco, California, US, on Wednesday, Dec. 17, 2025.
David Paul Morris | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Nike on Thursday posted quarterly earnings and revenue that topped Wall Street’s estimates, as strength in North America helped to offset a plunge in China sales.
The company’s stock slid more than 6% in extended trading Thursday, as investors digested the weakness in China and the sustained hit Nike is taking from higher tariffs.
Here’s what Nike reported for its second fiscal quarter of 2026, according to consensus estimates from LSEG:
- Earnings per share: 53 cents vs. 38 cents expected
- Revenue: $12.43 billion vs. $12.22 billion expected
The athletic apparel retailer said sales in North America rose 9% to $5.63 billion. But revenue in its Greater China market dropped 17% to $1.42 billion.
The sneaker company is just over a year into CEO Elliott Hill’s turnaround strategy, focusing on regaining its growth and market share, clearing out old inventory and investing in wholesale relationships.
“Fiscal year ’26 continues to be a year of taking action to rightsize our classics business, return Nike digital to a premium experience, diversify our product portfolio, deepen our consumer connection, strengthen our partner relationships and realign our teams and leadership,” Hill said on a call with analysts. “And I say we’re in the middle inning of our comeback.”
“We’re nowhere near our potential,” he added.
Hill said Nike’s improvements in its China market are “not happening at the level or the pace we need to drive wider change,” though he said the country remains one of the company’s most powerful long-term opportunities.
Nike expects fiscal third quarter revenues to fall by a low single digit percentage, with modest growth in North America. It also anticipates gross margins will drop 1.75 to 2.25 percentage points – including a 3.15 percentage point hit from tariffs.
The company said wholesale revenues climbed 8% to $7.5 billion during the quarter. But direct sales — which were a focus for Nike in the years before Hill took over and moved away from the strategy — fell 8% to $4.6 billion.
Nike has also been feeling the impact of tariff increases. It said Thursday that its gross margin decreased by 3 percentage points and inventories dropped 3% primarily due to higher tariffs.
The sneaker company has been reporting weakness in its Converse brand, too. In its first fiscal quarter, Nike said Converse sales dropped 27% – on Thursday, it reported a 30% drop in revenues for the sneaker brand.
Despite the weakness in some parts of Nike’s business, the company highlighted some areas of strength and new initiatives ahead. CFO Matt Friend said on the call that Nike.com posted its best Black Friday ever this year, partially driven by its Air Jordan “Black Cat” launch.
Nike also plans to launch a new footwear platform in January called Nike Mind, which aims to help athletes prepare for performance and competition, Hill said on the call.
Nike has been making larger internal changes under Hill.
Earlier this month, Nike underwent leadership changes to “remove layers,” according to Hill. Under its “Win Now” strategy, the company announced that Chief Commercial Officer Craig Williams would leave the sneaker giant.
Hill called the shakeup a move “about growth and offense.”
“Collectively, these changes amount to us eliminating layers and better positioning Nike to continue to have an impact the way only Nike can,” Hill said in a statement at the time.
Nike shares have dropped more than 13% this year as of Thursday’s close.
Business
Trump signs executive order reclassifying cannabis, opening door to broader weed access
U.S. President Donald Trump sits in the Oval Office to sign executive orders, at the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., Dec. 18, 2025.
Evelyn Hockstein | Reuters
President Donald Trump signed an executive order Thursday directing federal agencies to reclassify marijuana, loosening long-standing restrictions on the drug and marking the most consequential shift in U.S. cannabis policy in more than half a century.
The order, once finalized by the Drug Enforcement Administration, moves cannabis out of Schedule I classification — the most restrictive category under the Controlled Substances Act, alongside heroin and LSD — to a Schedule III classification, which encompasses substances with accepted medical use and a lower potential for abuse, such as ketamine and Tylenol with codeine.
“This action has been requested by American patients suffering from extreme pain, incurable diseases, aggressive cancers, seizure disorders, neurological problems and more, including numerous veterans with service-related injuries, and older Americans who live with chronic medical problems that severely degrade their quality of life,” Trump said from the Oval Office on Thursday.
Also on Thursday, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, led by Dr. Mehmet Oz, is expected to launch a pilot program in April enabling certain Medicare-covered seniors to receive free, doctor-recommended CBD products, which must comply with all local and state laws on quality and safety, according to senior White House officials. The products must also come from a legally compliant source and undergo third-party testing for CBD levels and contaminants.
Shares of cannabis conglomerates were down following the announcement, likely from worries of new compeititon from international companies.
Trulieve’s stock finished the day down about 23%, Green Thumb Industries fell more than 16% and Tilray Brands fell about about 4% as of close on Thursday. The AdvisorShares Pure US Cannabis ETF, which tracks American operators, slid almost 27%.
“Millions of registered patients across the United States, many of them veterans, rely on cannabis for relief from chronic and debilitating symptoms. We commend the administration for taking this historic step. This is only the beginning,” Ben Kovler, founder and CEO of Green Thumb, said in a statement to CNBC.
The reclassification is viewed by many analysts as a financial lifeline for the cannabis industry. The move exempts companies from IRS Code Section 280E, allowing them to deduct standard expenses like rent and payroll for the first time. It also opens the door for banking access and institutional capital previously sidelined by compliance fears.
Many on Wall Street also expect the changes and the Medicare pilot to draw major pharmaceutical players into the sector to chase federally insured revenue.
While CBD has surged in popularity in recent years, with infused consumer goods ranging from seltzers to skin care, the Food and Drug Administration has stopped short of granting the compound its full backing.
Studies have found “inconsistent benefits” for targeted conditions, while FDA-funded research warns that prolonged CBD use can cause liver toxicity and interfere with other lifesaving medications.
Currently, the FDA has only approved one CBD-based drug, Epidiolex, for rare forms of epilepsy.
“I want to emphasize that the order … doesn’t legalize marijuana in any way, shape or form, and in no way sanctions its use as a recreational drug,” Trump said.
Experts and industry insiders told CNBC this week that a reclassification could pave the way for more research into the effects of CBD use.
Business
SHANTI shields N-plants from safety oversight: Experts – The Times of India
NEW DELHI: The new nuclear energy bill, which was passed in Rajya Sabha by voice vote after a four-hour discussion while rejecting many amendments moved by opposition to send it to a parliamentary panel for scrutiny, marks a decisive shift in India’s nuclear governance, embedding safety oversight in law across the lifecycle of an atomic plant, unlike the existing framework that relied largely on executive discretion and post-accident accountability.Sustainable Harnessing of Nuclear Energy for Transforming India (SHANTI) Bill will allow private participation in India’s tightly controlled civil nuclear sector as the country seeks to meet its clean energy goals by 2047. As opposition raised safety and liability concerns, officials said it establishes a statutory safety regime that ensures continuous compliance rather than reliance on one-time permissions. It seeks to provide for a “pragmatic civil liability regime for nuclear damage and confer statutory status to Atomic Energy Regulatory Board (AERB)”.Officials said unlike the previous law – in which nuclear safety oversight was shaped largely by broad executive authority and administrative rules – SHANTI fundamentally recasts the framework by shifting to a “statutory, lifecycle-based regulatory regime”. Govt manages radiation risks and radioactive waste, but does not mandate separate safety authorisations or legally bind safety obligations to each phase of a nuclear plant’s life. AERB’s stage-wise consent process for construction, commissioning and operation existed only as an administrative practice. Civil Liability for Nuclear Damage (CLND) Act, 2010 further reinforced a post-accident approach by focusing on compensation and insurance rather than prevention.“These laws (Atomic Energy Act and CLND Act) treated safety primarily as a post-damage responsibility, rather than a proactive governance requirement,” said an official. SHANTI separates “permission to operate” from “permission to operate safely”, requiring both a licence and an independent safety authorisation. Any activity involving radiation exposure risk – including construction, operation, transport, storage, decommissioning, or waste management – will now require explicit safety approval.It also consolidates regulation, enforcement, civil liability and dispute resolution within a single statute, reducing legal complexity and compliance uncertainty. “It grants a clear statutory authority to AERB to inspect facilities, investigate incidents, issue binding directions, and suspend or cancel operations that do not meet safety standards. Regulatory action is no longer dependent on executive discretion. Accident prevention is significantly enhanced by legally recognising serious risk situations as nuclear incidents, even without actual damage,” said the official. Core functions such as fuel enrichment, spent-fuel reprocessing, and heavy water production will remain exclusively under Centre’s control.Anujesh Dwivedi, partner at Deloitte India, said continuing with the existing legal framework would make it difficult for nuclear energy to replace thermal power in the long run. “Over decades, India added only about 8GW of nuclear capacity. Scaling this up to 100GW by 2047- and potentially 300GW or more by 2070 – required major reforms, which these regulations seek to address,” he said.Meanwhile, PM Modi said passing of the bill marks a “transformational moment for our technology landscape”.
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