Retail giant JD Sports Fashion has issued a trading update for Q2 and the first half and while like-for-like (LFL) sales dipped in both periods, ‘organic’ sales rose (organic for JD refers to currency-neutral sales factoring out acquisitions). Importantly too, it said its new giant Manchester store is performing strongly.

And while many headlines chose to focus on the negatives, it’s perhaps significant that the firm’s share price rose almost 3% as the markets opened.

The company itself chose to focus on the improved LFL sales trend for Q2 in North America but said Europe and the UK combined were affected by "tough prior year comparatives” due to last year’s Euro 2024 football tournament (clearly the Women’s Euros this year didn’t have the same impact).

But it said it saw a good per

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