Business week in pictures

Christmas retail updates came thick and fast this week, with high street names counting the cost of the snow disruption in December. HMV caused the biggest stir with a profit warning and news that it would close 60 stores after a sharp fall in sales Photograph: Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images

Next also put a figure on the weather disruption, saying it had lost £22m in sales over the period. But it still maintained that full-year profits would be on target Photograph: Dominic Lipinski/PA

Mothercare rushed out its trading update a week early, admitting that UK like-for-like sales had fallen by 5.8% in the 12 weeks to 1 January. Chief executive Ben Gordon said that Mothercare's out of town stores had been particularly hit by the weather disruption, with sales of toys down sharply. Other profit warnings came from Games Workshop, Clinton Cards, and Theo Fennell Photograph: Peter Macdiarmid/Getty Images

But Britain’s love for wine appears to have been undiminished by the grim weather, with Majestic Wine defying the rash of profit warnings spreading across the retail sector this week. (Pictured, hundreds of beer and wine bottles left at a recycling centre in Dublin, after Christmas and New Year) Photograph: Niall Carson/PA

And John Lewis enjoyed a bumper Christmas, with online sales soaring during the heavy snowfall in December. iPods, iPads and Kindles, along with iPod speaker docks, TVs and digital cameras were big sellers. Beauty put in a good performance with brands such as Molton Brown, YSL and Liz Earle selling well. In toys, Lego was in great demand, as were micro-scooters, along with Biscuit the dog and Butterscotch the pony Photograph: Matthew Lloyd/Getty Images

Also doing well in the Big Freeze was Domino's Pizza, which has once again smashed City expectations by posting a double-digit rise in sales, partly due to social media sites and its new iPhone application Photograph: Jim Holden/www.alamy.com

Starbucks' familiar chunky white mugs will disappear from its British stores this year as part of a major rebranding exercise that will also see the American company drop its name from its well-known logo. The revamp will make the face of the woman who appears in the logo – known as the 'Starbucks siren' – bigger and dispense with the white-on-green lettering that surrounds her Photograph: Walter Smith Photography

Soaring prices of sugar, grain and oilseed drove world food prices to a record in December, surpassing the levels of 2008 when the cost of food sparked riots around the world, and prompting warnings of prices being in 'danger territory' Photograph: Mast Irham/EPA

Oil prices are entering the 'danger zone' and threaten to derail the fragile global economic recovery, according to Fatih Birol, chief economist at the International Energy Agency. The Paris-based government policy adviser calculates that the oil import costs for the 34 countries that make up the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) soared by $200bn over the past year to reach $790bn by the end of 2010 Photograph: Wang Jianwei/AP

Shares in the German sports car firm Porsche have soared after a US judge threw out a securities fraud lawsuit that threatened to block a planned merger with its rival carmaker Volkswagen. Last week a judge dismissed the case brought by two hedge funds claiming more than $2bn (£1.3bn) in compensation after Porsche secretly bought up a large stake in VW Photograph: Johannes Eisele/Reuters

Detroit ended 2010 on a high note as the US motor industry finally appeared to be getting out of reverse. All the 'big three' US carmakers reported strong sales figures for the month of December, while Ford even took the top sales slot from Toyota for the month. The good news will be a major boost for the industry, and for the wider US economy, as executives prepare for the annual International Auto Show in Detroit, the biggest car event of the year Photograph: Carlos Osorio/AP

Spain announced a series of economic agreements with China in an attempt to shore up the country's beleaguered finances. With 4 million unemployed and borrowing costs near eurozone highs, Spain will welcome the multimillion pound Chinese investment, which is likely to include olive oil, ham and wine exports to the world's second-largest economy Photograph: Dani Pozo/AFP/Getty Images

The oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico was an avoidable disaster caused in part by a series of cost-cutting decisions made by BP and its partners, the White House oil commission has concluded. In a preview of its final report, due next week, the national oil spill commission said systemic management failure at BP, Transocean, and Halliburton caused the blow-out in the Gulf of Mexico, and warned that such a disaster would likely recur because of industry complacency Photograph: Gerald Herbert/AP