The list of successful British retailers that have cracked America can be counted on the fingers of one foot.
That has not stopped Dixons Carphone (LON:DC.) deciding to give it a crack, albeit in partnership with US telecoms giant Sprint.
Dixons said its connected world services (CWS) arm had signed an agreement to supply mobile phone retail services and expertise for about 20 stores stateside.
In the initial phase, Dixons Carphone will supply mobile phone retail expertise and, some might say, the ability to sell a warranty the customer does not really want.
If the venture succeeds, the pair will launch a second phase involving CWS investing equally with Sprint in a joint venture to roll out 500 stores.
In other news relating to famous names from the high street, the government has lobbed out another pile of shares in Lloyds Banking (LON:LLOY).
HM Treasury sold around 691mln shares in the state-controlled lender, reducing the government's stake from 16.9% to 15.9%.
The funds raised will go towards paying the unemployment benefits of the 635 Lloyds' employees the bank intends to turf onto the dole as part of its restructuring programme.
The job cuts are in addition to the 9,000+ redundancies Lloyds announced late last year, as it responds to the changing banking landscape, which has been dramatically altered by the rise in mobile banking.
Parts of Jaguar Land Rover were once state-owned but it is unlikely that during those times the car maker had to contract out manufacturing of its vehicles because its UK plants were running at full pelt; however, that's what the current owners are doing, calling on Austrian contractor Magna Steyr to pick up the slack.
The tabloids are not going to like this, and neither are the local papers in the Midlands, but Ralf Speth, the company's chief executive, said the deal would allow the company to expand its range of models.
On the day house builder Persimmon (LON:PSN) revealed its average selling price in the first half of the year was 4% higher at around £195,000, the Nationwide building society has released figures that suggest the annual rate of house price growth fell to a two-year low last month.
That comes as something as a surprise, as there was supposed to be an uplift in the market following the General Election, as prices at the upper end – i.e.. several hundred thousand pounds above Persimmon's average selling price – had been depressed in the run-up to the poll by the possibility of a Labour government introducing a windfall tax on properties that have massively increased in value.
The Nationwide reports house prices were 3.3% higher in June 2015 than they were in June 2014, when prices were up 11.8% year-on-year.
Meanwhile, yesterday the Bank of England warned that the buy-to-let boom could pose a risk to financial stability, as lenders fall back into bad old habits of lowering the deposit required to gain a mortgage.
In the small cap world, private investors have been following the story of intellectual property (IP) commercialisation specialist Imperial Innovations (LON:IVO), which has sunk £4mln into Impression Technologies, an aluminium forming technology business.
Like a lot of the technology backed by Imperial Innovations, the IP has been developed at Imperial College in London; the clue's in the company name, really.
Lastly, the wonderfully named Vast Resources (LON:VAST) said this morning it is on track to commence first gold production at the Pickstone-Peerless mine in Zimbabwe.
Engineers have been having a blast at the open cast pits, and ancillary facilities such as the lab, accommodation and office facilities have been completed, and first production is scheduled for next month.