Speaking at the G7 meetings in Washington, Rishi Sunak attempted to reassure those who have expressed concerns over supply chain issues in the run-up to Christmas.

A shortage of lorry drivers and a logjam of shipping containers have led to widespread concerns of shortages.

“We’re doing absolutely everything we can to mitigate some of these challenges. They are global in nature, so we can’t fix every single problem, but I feel confident there will be good provision of goods for everybody. I’m confident there will be a good amount of Christmas presents available for everyone to buy,” said Sunak on Thursday.

“Today we have collectively agreed to work closely over the coming months – and together we will build a strong and resilient recovery,” he added.

Shoppers and motorists have been urged not to panic-buy as the effects shortage of lorry drivers hit supplies of goods and fuel.

Dunelm has reported a rise in sales in the 13 weeks to September 25.

Sales were up by 8.3%, which is lower than the 36.7% increase in the same period a year earlier during the lockdown.

The group has warned over UK and global supply chain issues. Whilst there are some concerns over the its outlook, Dunelm recently increased profit guidance for the year.

 “The macro outlook remains uncertain, in particular regarding supply chain disruption and inflationary pressures from freight and driver shortages,” said the group in a statement.

“Whilst we are not immune to the challenges being widely reported, we feel well placed relatively to manage them.

“In particular, we have good stock levels across our stores, warehouses and supplier partners, a low proportion of seasonal ranges within our product offer, and also benefit from a higher propensity for customers to substitute products within homewares categories, given our broad range.”

Domino’s has posted strong results for the third quarter, whilst also revealing plans to hire 8,000 new driver roles.

The group reported a 9.9% increase in like-for-like sales in the quarter to £375.8m. The pizza company’s total earnings this year are now £1.1bn.

“We have built on our strong performance through the pandemic as restrictions have been lifted, with our collections business continuing its recovery and our total order count growing in a profitable and sustainable way,” said Dominic Paul, the Chief Executive Officer of Domino’s.

Commenting on the big recruitment efforts ahead of the Christmas season, Nicola Frampton, Operations Director, said: “While 2021 has been a busy year for us so far, we still have our busiest period just around the corner. We’re really keen to hear from those wanting to join the Domino’s team.”

The company has plans to open a further 30 stores this year, which it is on track to complete.

The UK’s housebuilders staged a rally on Wednesday morning but failed to spark a FTSE 100 rebound from weakness in prior sessions.

Barratt Developments was up over 5% in midmorning trade following the release of a positive trading update that highlighted strong forward sales. The FTSE 100 was down 0.3% to 7,108.

“Housebuilders enjoyed a boost from Barratt Development’s latest update, putting that stock at the top of the FTSE 100 risers and lifting Persimmon, Taylor Wimpey and Berkeley Group in the process,” said Russ Mould, investment director at AJ Bel

Taylor Wimpey, Persimmon and Berkeley Group were up between 2.5%-4% as investors jumped on the coat tails of Barratt’s update.

“Forward sales have been good at Barratt and the company remains upbeat. There had been some nervousness towards the housebuilding sector that it would be negatively impacted by ongoing inflation in raw material prices and more recently from elevated energy prices,” said Mould.

Markets remain nervous

“Equity markets look to have stabilised after a patchy showing earlier this week, however it does feel as though investors remain slightly nervous,” said Russ Mould, investment director at AJ Bell.

“The FTSE 100’s biggest fallers in index point terms were a mixture of defensive and cyclical stocks, so investors are clearly not falling on one side of the fence. Pharmaceuticals, consumer goods and miners were among the stocks in negative territory.

Iron ore is down around 10% over two days making the miners some of the worst performers on the day. Rio Tinto and BHP Group were big drags of the FTSE 100 down 2.6% and 1.9% respectively in early trade on Wednesday.

The FTSE 100 was negative for the second day in a row meaning the FTSE 100 has now formed as series of lower highs at 7185, 7160 and now 7148 which could signal technical weakness in the index.

Barratt Developments has said that it is confident in meeting targets for the year after steady demand over the past quarter.

Between 1 July and 10 October the group delivered 27 new developments and 281 net private reservations per week.

“This is particularly encouraging given the significant year on year reduction in Help to Buy reservations and the ending of the stamp duty holiday,” commented chief executive David Thomas.

“We continue to work closely with our suppliers and sub-contractors and have not experienced any significant disruption to our build programme as a result of the challenging supply chain environment.”

In a statement, Barratt said “The group is in a very good position. We have both a substantial net cash balance and strong forward sales, as well as an excellent land bank and a continued focus on delivering operational improvements across our business, alongside our ongoing commitment to deliver high quality, sustainable homes across the country.”

Laura Hoy, Equity Analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown, commented: “The housebuilders have found themselves in somewhat of a sweet spot. While pent-up lockdown demand is starting to wane, people are still motivated to move and that’s driven house prices higher. According to Barratt, that’s been enough to offset build cost inflation, and the group’s not expecting to deliver any downside surprises this year.”

Analysts also pointed to Barratt largely shacking off the impact of the end of stamp duty holidays and changes to Help to Buy.

“Shareholders in housebuilders have been looking on nervously, as the stamp duty land tax break has ended and the rules for Help to Buy continued to change but Barratt’s trading statement offers welcome reassurance,” said AJ Bell Investment Director Russ Mould.

“The net reservations rate in its new financial year may have dipped slightly compared to 2020 but it has exceeded the level seen at this stage in 2019 by 18%, even though Help to Buy has represented only a fifth of house purchases compared to more than half in the first three months of the last financial year (and just under 40% for the year as a whole).

Marston’s sales tumbled 22% this year as lockdown restrictions hit the business.

The pub group sales stood at £402m and the 1,500 pubs were only open for just over half of trading days for the year ending in October.

Since April, the group has been trading at 94% of pre-pandemic levels, resulting in the groups’ chief executive to say that they were “encouraged by the trading momentum which we have experienced since April and pleased to be trading robustly and above 2019 levels again.”

“Our business benefits from an optimally balanced pub estate of food and wet led pubs that are predominately suburban, community-based and well located for the changes in consumer behaviour that we are seeing,” said Andrew Andrea.

Marston’s share price remained flat on the trading update.