Bloomberg British consumers are reining in unnecessary purchases after a leap in energy prices ate into their discretionary spending, forcing people to cut back on new clothes, evenings out and lunches out. Barclaycard, which manages about half of the nation’s credit and debit card transactions, said outlays on non-essential items in rose 1% from a year ago in September, …

  Bloomberg Johnson & Johnson (J&J) reported third-quarter earnings that beat analyst estimates as revenue grew in its drugs and medical-device businesses despite pressure from the stronger dollar. The diversified health-care company, which is in the process of separating out its consumer division, reported sales results that were roughly in line with Wall Street’s estimates for the pharmaceutical and medical-device …

  Bloomberg A surge in bad loans awaits UK banks as higher interest rates saddle homeowners with an estimated £52 billion ($58.6 billion) of added mortgage payments over the next three years, an analyst warned as he downgraded his ratings on several lenders. The jump in costs will help push the personal debt service burden towards about 10% of post-tax …