High street giants to reveal festive figures

and Marks & Spencer will reveal whether it was a merry Christmas across their operations in festive trading updates week.

Both and Marks & Spencer will give their verdict on Christmas trading on Tuesday and Thursday, respectively.

is expected to cap another solid year of trading, having recently upped its guidance once again, saying it expects sales over the festive quarter to be significantly higher than previously predicted.

The fashion, and beauty retailer said at the end of October it expects full price sales to grow by around 7% in the quarter to January, increasing its guidance from 4.5%.

However, it has repeatedly cautioned over the consumer backdrop and will be watched closely for further on how consumer spending is holding up.

Fellow retail bellwether Marks & Spencer will be hoping for a solid festive performance to help “draw a line under what has been a tough 2025”, according to Aarin Chiekrie, equity analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown.

A cyber attack in April hit online sales hard after M&S was forced to suspend all website sales for six weeks, leading to a plunge in first half profits.

With a lingering but smaller impact of the hack in the second half, it will be looking for this to be offset by strong demand for its festive food and fashion ranges.

"The worst looks to be behind M&S now, but the group has some work to do to rebuild investors’ confidence," said Chiekrie.

Tesco and Sainsbury’s will also reveal their festive trading updates week.

The supermarket chains have been battling it out to win over shoppers with their Christmas advertising campaigns and beat off ever-increasing competition from discounters Aldi and Lidl.

Figures from Tesco on Thursday will show how it fared in the so-called golden quarter, having hiked its earnings guidance in October to between £2.9 billion and £3.1 billion.

Sainsbury’s figures on Friday also come after it recently increased its earnings outlook, saying it is now set for retail earnings of more than £1 billion after a better-than-expected half-year performance.