I have been a bit of a fanboy of Headlam Group (HEAD) – Europe’s leading floorcoverings distributor, providing the channel between suppliers and trade customers of floorcoverings – for a while now. So what did its ‘trading and ESG update’ say today?

Back in March I observed that I wanted to see the building products supplier and facilitator Breedon (BREE) attempt to cut the price of its deal to buy the UK assets of global behemoth Cemex. Since then the company pushed out some numbers where it may have given no guidance but it noted ‘there is significant pent-up demand to be satisfied in both housing and infrastructure, reinforced by the substantial programme of investment confirmed by the Chancellor’…and remained optimistic about the deal. Well get those calculators out again as today the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) ‘raises competition concerns in the supply of building materials in some parts of the UK’…

I see Next (NXT) has only gone and done it again. As I observed three months ago, if you want a serious, thorough and grown-up view of how to think about the current range of very clear corporate challenges then I suggest you look at today’s regulatory news disclosure by the leading clothing retailer…

I have not been a fan of consumer staples giant Unilever (ULVR) for a while, including noting a month ago that 'there is better value in other parts of the market'. Well too right judging by today's trading update…

Lots of numbers and comments out today...

I see the housebuilders got another share price stuffing yesterday on fears that the Help to Buy policy (which I have lampooned on this website recently here) might come to an end. I see the updates today from Barratt Developments (BDEV) and Berkeley Group (BKG) have hardly reignited the shares despite all sorts of 'record results' comments from the former. Well when the average house price is around six times income (and a way higher multiple in London) then value there is not. However...