Welcome to Today in Business - Powered by Spark for Business, an experimental AI podcast by the New Zealand Herald. Each weekday, we bring you five stories, the best of the New Zealand Herald business journalism, summarised and delivered by an AI voice as an easily digestible recap. It's Thursday, September 26, 2025, and here are five stories you should know about. Fashion retailer Hallenstein Glasson has posted a 14.4 percent rise in net profit to 39.4 million dollars for the year ending August 1. Group revenue reached 470.7 million, up 8.1 percent from 435.6 million a year earlier. Gross profit rose 7.9 percent to 279.3 million, with margins steady at 59.3 percent. Glassons Australia led growth, lifting sales 15.3 percent to 251.5 million and profit to 22.5 million. Two new Australian stores opened last year. The company was recently impacted by the resignation of chief executive Chris Kinraid. In early trading this year, group sales rose 12.9 percent. Overseas, Donald Trump has signed an executive order outlining a proposed deal for a United States version of TikTok. The plan reduces Chinese ownership to 20 percent, with control shifting to investors including Larry Ellison, Michael Dell, and Rupert Murdoch. Firms Silver Lake and An-Dree-Sin Horro-wits are also involved. Trump says the arrangement protects national security while keeping TikTok available to 170 million American users. The deal follows legislation requiring owner ByteDance to divest. Trump's order extends the compliance deadline by 120 days, moving the enforcement date to January 23. The app's algorithm will be domestically managed. Meanwhile, consumer confidence improved in September according to the ANZ-Roy Morgan survey, rising 2.6 points to 94.6. That reversed the August 10-month low. Two-year inflation expectations stayed at 4.8 percent, while house price expectations slipped to 2.5 percent, their lowest since July 2024. ANZ economist Sharon Zollner says survey responses dropped sharply following weak second-quarter GDP data, averaging 77 versus 96 beforehand. Confidence in personal finances rose 11 points to negative 13 percent, while economic outlook over 12 months fell three points to negative 23. The index for current conditions jumped six points to 88.1, while forward-looking measures remained unchanged. Elsewhere, Elon Musk's artificial intelligence company xAI has accused Open AI of stealing trade secrets through former employees. Court filings in California allege two engineers and a senior executive transferred source code and business strategies to Open AI after leaving xAI. The complaint claims a coordinated effort to undermine the company, which Musk founded in 2023. Open AI responded in a statement saying it has no interest in confidential material and called the lawsuit harassment. The case follows earlier disputes involving Musk and Open AI, which he co-founded and later left. xAI also alleges one former worker admitted copying its entire code base. And Starbucks will close more than 100 stores in North America and some in the UK as part of a one-billion-dollar restructuring plan. Chief executive Brian Niccol outlined the move in a letter to staff, saying closures target outlets failing to meet financial or customer service goals. Starbucks operates over 500 company-owned stores in the UK, where sales dropped to 526 million pounds last year, posting a 36.2 million-pound loss. Global sales fell 2 percent in the June quarter. The company says it will also open 80 new UK stores this year while investing in improving existing locations. That was Today in Business - Powered by Spark for Business - your NZ Herald daily business summary. For the best in business, subscribe to Herald Premium at nzherald.co.nz.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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