That was despite a very bearish note from Smith Barney, whose analysts were among those who went in to see the chief executive, Justin King, for breakfast yesterday They came away unimpressed. Having hoped for some strategic vision for reversing Sainsbury’s market share decline, Mr King “pleaded the fifth amendment” on most key questions, according to Smith Barney.Among the smaller retailers, Peacock, the discounter, was up a penny on talk of very strong trading. Up 14p to 214p, it was the FTSE 100’s best performer, and helped the index of blue-chip companies close up 20.3 points at 4,438.3.There was also big buying of Marks & Spencer amid vague talk that the beleaguered retail giant would fall prey to a bid. More ships are making more sailings as the industry responds to recovering demand, and bears of Carnival shares had previously argued that the company had moved too fast in a bid to grab market share.There was plenty of corporate news yesterday to occupy traders, which meant they had less time for fretting over the future direction of the economy.

The German-owned broker slapped a new “buy” recommendation on the stock, even though it cut profit forecasts in anticipation of Carnival’s next trading update, which will have to outline the extent of the fuel rises.Word of rising cruise-prices will come as relief to those who had feared that an increase in capacity would depress margins as the year goes on. The company, often described as a “bellwether”, said demand was improving, it was on track to meet all its financial targets, and the dividend policy remains intact. For those of a nervous disposition, a positive trading update from the economically-sensitive chemicals group ICI eased minds. Lazards and Greenhills will have to confine the whole thing to the filing cabinet marked “good, but obsolete, ideas”. Luxury cruises just got a little more expensive.

Word from the industry is that prices for sailings later this year have been pushed up by the big players, in a move that bodes well for results from Carnival, the US giant which swallowed P&O Princess Cruises last year

Luxury cruises just got a little more expensive. Cash offers from Centrica and ScottishPower for two of the stations has caused sponsoring banks to break ranks. This bizarre state of affairs dates back to the time when wholesale electricity prices were so depressed that they forced many generating companies into administration. Collectively, the banks still have about £5.5bn of debt tied up in the electricity generating industry. For some years now, they’ve been looking for a way out.The scheme dreamt up Lazard Brothers and Greenhills potentially offered a quite neat solution. The idea was to persuade bankers to crunch their unwanted power stations into a single company Much of the debt would be converted into equity. The scheme would have involved big write-offs, but a largish and potentially quite valuable generating company would have been created which eventually could have been floated on the stock market, allowing the banks to claw back at least some of their capital.