A new dawn?

Has Marks & Spencer turned the corner? Investors in the troubled UK retailer, which will update the market on its second-quarter trading next week, seem to think so. M&S’s stock is up by just under 10% since mid-September, and is now higher than it was when Philip Green, the retail entrepreneur, tried to buy the group in 2004. On the face of it, this vote of confidence comes at an unlikely time. The idea that Green might come back waving a huge cheque looks less and less plausible. Meanwhile, ...