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Bookies Paddy Power Betfair has reported a 2016 statutory loss of £5.7m, primarily due to expenses from the merger of its businesses.

It said underlying results were a better indication of how it's doing, given that its statutory results "only reflect the contribution from the Betfair business from the merger completion date." Underlying earnings were up 31% to £400m.

The insurer, Direct Line has take a hefty hit, related to the change in the way that compensation for personal injury is calculated.

For 2016 it reported a pre-tax profit, external of £353m down 30%, from £507m in 2015. 

The company said it did not expect this year's results to be affected by the change in compensation calculations.

The sale of Vauxhall and Opel to PSA Group receives plenty of attention in the newspapers.

The Times says current Vauxhall workers "are likely to take a significant cut to their pensions". The report says workers are likely to be switched from a final salary scheme to a defined contribution scheme, which means no guaranteed pension.

The Telegraph and the Financial Times say that in the event of a hard Brexit,  PSA would be likely to expand in the UK. In particular more components would be sourced from the UK.

The Daily Mail is more pessimistic. It quotes one industry expert who expects job losses for Vauxhall.

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According to the Entertainment Retailers Association (ERA), 80p in every pound spent on entertainment last year was spent online, with subscriptions making up more than half of the spending.

So how fair is the criticism from some artists such as Taylor Swift (pictured) that they make significantly less money out of subscription services,  Kim Bayley of ERA is asked?

"I think it [the criticism] is completely unfair," says Ms Bayley. "It's two different models. If you think about the old CD model, Taylor Swift would have received all her money upfront as that product was sold. In the subcription world you kind of drip-feed the artist with payment each time someone streams... they're just receiving that money over a longer time period."

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Retailers have seen their first quarterly fall in non-food sales in more than five years, according to the British Retail Consortium (BRC).

Non-Food sales in the UK fell by 0.2%, the first decline since November 2011 in the four weeks from 29 January to 25 February, the BRC said.

Saker Nusseibeh, the chief executive of Hermes Investment Management, says this could be an early sign that rising inflation is hitting consumers.

"One has to be cautious because the numbers might be affected... because Mother's Day is a bit delayed this year, but I think it's more than that."

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British consumers are showing signs of caution says Helen Dickinson, chief executive of the British Retail Consortium.

Its data for February showed that like-for-like sales fell by 0.4%, the second month in a row to register a fall.

Surprisingly strong consumer spending has been supporting the UK economy, so the slowdown is significant.

Ms Dickinson said that food and furniture saw increasing sales last month, "but pretty much everything else did worse". 

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The Australian dollar inched higher against the US dollar after the central bank there - Reserve Bank of Australia, external  - decided to keep its key lending rate unchanged, at a record low of 1.5%. 

Following the announcement the Australian dollar rose by as much as 0.5% against the US dollar to around $0.7602. As for markets, the benchmark S&P ASX 200 inched up 0.2%. 

Elsewhere in Asia, markets in Tokyo and Shanghai traded lower, tracking the falls in the US market after concerns about President Donald Trump's economic policies.

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Jim Farley, the European boss of Ford, told BBC business editor Simon Jack, says of the PSA deal: "We'll see how it works out. Consolidation isn't new in our industry. If it's a better company that's stronger, a Peugeot that's more competitive, that gives customers better choice... that's good for our industry, that's good for customers."

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BBC business editor Simon Jack is at the Geneva Motor Show today. Simon says that everyone is talking about the PSA deal .

"A huge momentous moment. General Motors has been in Europe for a hundred years. It has decided it has had enough, whereas PSA has decide to double down on Europe and thinks that they can make a profit out of this. Now the general news view from here is that for the industry, this is good, this kind of consolidation means you can put it together and strip out cost and overcapacity, which is what has beleaguered the industry for a long time now. What's good for the industry is not necessarily good for workers... job losses and some cutting is inevitable in the fullness of time."

It was a big day for the UK motor industry yesterday after PSA, the owner of Peugeot and Citroen, agreed to buy GM's European operations , including Vauxhall, for £1.9bn.

Expect more commentary on that deal today, plus British Retail Consortium sales and results from the likes of Direct Line and Paddy Power.