Marks and Spencer is cutting its sales growth targets by £1.1 billion after reporting its first fall in profits in three years. 

A few years ago one of King Carol's stamps turned up at a London auction and sold for almost £60,000, smashing the Stanley Gibbons catalogue price at the time.

Analysts believe Tesco is “fixable” after the supermarket giant posted a dip in UK profits and committed itself to a £1 billion turnaround plan for its domestic stores.

Tesco's widely reported "big price drop" will be remembered more as reflective of the performance of the company's shares rather than for the products it offers. So says Richard Hunter, head of equities at Hargreaves Lansdown.

As Christmas brings some optimism for the retail sector, Proactive Investors looks at the sector's outlook - where uncertainty still persists around consumer spending power and the economy in general.

Brokers' views of Marks & Spencer ranged from ‘buy’ to ‘hold’ this morning after the firm reported a slight rise in sales and a larger fall in pre-tax profits

SGI tracks the movement of the stamp market using the GB 30 Rarities Index, which has never had a down year since 1970. Indeed, since 1995, stamps have outperformed quite comprehensively other popular asset classes such as shares, property and gold.

Shares in the firm tumbled after it revealed sales at its Argos division fell by 7.6 per cent during the six months to August 27

The tables were turned on Tesco today as it unveiled a second quarter of declining sales, which contrasts sharply with performance of Sainsbury, which posted an creditable increase underlying revenues.

Britain's largest grocer revealed yesterday it would invest £500m from next week to slash prices on thousands of items, including bread and milk, and remove its double Clubcard points promotions. Proactive Investors looked at some of the analyst comment today.

Home Retail Group's second quarter results next week are likely to show there has been no respite in the tough trading conditions experienced by the Argos and Homebase owner over its first three months.  Recent general UK economic data, including consumer confidence readings, alone suggests to broker UBS that demand for big ticket items across the group has “remained weak and promotional”.

Analysts at Nomura say the UK's retail sector is exposed to slow trends and low expectations. It rates the sector as "neutral" though acknowledges that, in the face of what has been, a global sell-off, the sector has performed better than others.

Amid the carnage of the last few days there are many bargains to be had for opportunists willing to nose around London’s markets, according to analysts

Respect Your Universe, or RYU, is not just a run-of‐the‐mill fledgling sportswear business. It is an international brand building exercise, led by former Nike and Adidas execs, with a core focus on the rapidly expanding sport of mixed martial arts (MMA).

Stamp experts Stanley Gibbons published interim results today and revealed that £0.7 million of its sales of rare Chinese stamps in the period had been to international investors and £0.5million of sales had been to Chinese customers.

Stanley Gibbons (LON:SGI) is renowned worldwide for its philatelic expertise and acumen. With its new retail site up and running smoothly and a trading platform on the runway, it is looking very placed to extend the reach of its highly regarded brand.

The nation’s retailers have endured a tough old start to the year as the coalition’s austerity cuts, tax hikes and rampant inflation have forced shoppers into hibernation. The earnings alarm has been sounding with monotonous regularity as Mothercare, Dixons and Argos owner Home Retail Group have been forced to issue profits warnings.

Stanley Gibbons boss Michael Hall tells us about his recent eye-opening trip to China and reveals how you can beat the market hands down by investing in rare stamps.

The collectables specialist is not disappointing investors: first-half sales area up 24% at £11.9m, and its foray into the Chinese market is reaping the first benefits - with 1m worth of orders secured for the current year.

Tesco has been in the news this week, as it is rumoured to be interested in the assets of French hypermarket Carrefour in Singapore, Thailand and Malaysia.

It's hard to dislike luxury brand retailer Mulberry Group, which continues to defy gravity – both from a revenue and share price perspective.

It’s been a torrid six months for bulls in FTSE 250 video games retailer Game Group; since November shares in the company have fallen more than 50%

The current year will see the launch of the long-awaited rare stamp investment fund and possibly inroads into what the company views as the biggest emerging collectables market by far - China

Next is currently trading on a forward PE of 11.2x earnings, which is marginally cheaper than main rival Marks & Spencer that trades on a respective 12x earnings.

Following the sizeable rally at Marks & Spencer, the shares currently trade on forward earnings of 14.1x, which puts them on a hefty premium to the sector.

Tesco the shares have risen around 28% since the March lows and now appear to be rolling over...

Having overseen the eighteenth successive quarter of sales growth at supermarket giant J Sainsbury (LSE, SBRY), it is little wonder that group CEO Justin King is being labelled the Fabio Capello of the retail world.

The CEO of HMV, Simon Fox is two years through a three year turnaround program and appears to be doing an excellent job.

ASOS has been a phenomenal growth story, the fundamentals remain extremely attractive and the technical analysis suggests that this could be a good opportunity to buy the shares