Rolling coverage of the latest economic and financial newsAssociated British Foods, the owner of discount clothing chain Primark, has posted a 43% rise in pre-tax profits for the last year.ABF’s CEO, George Weston, says Primark achieved “good sales growth this year” (up 6%, or 1.2% on a like-for-like basis) and managed to increase its profit margin (it rose to 11.7% in the last year, up from 8.2% in 2023).“We think that Christmas is going to be good.”Lower sales in our compound feed businesses reflected reduced commodity prices and continued soft demand in the UK and China.Market conditions in the UK remained challenging due to reduced herd sizes and excess feed production capacity and in China the market was depressed by the economic environment and low farm profitability.Democrats currently hold a 51-49 advantage in the Senate. Thirty-four seats are being contested this year and Democrats hold 23 of those seats while Republicans hold 11 which gives the GOP a numerical advantage in the ability to gain seats.With the retirement of Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV), Republicans are likely to gain that seat and are well positioned to flip Sen. Jon Tester’s seat (D-MT). This would give the GOP 51 seats and the majority. Ohio is the GOP’s next best pick-up opportunity and while there are several other close races (Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin). We think Democrats will likely (but not definitely) retain those seats.Regardless of which party wins the House, we think the majority will be less than 10 seats which will make governing challenging (again)