Sales growth of 4.2% in the year to date fell to 1.5% last month, but the group's finance director, Nicholas Cadbury, cautioned against reading too much into one month's data.
Public borrowing for the 2013-14 financial year to date fell to £96.1bn in December - £4.8bn lower than the same period a year ago.
Those statistics, "combined with low European and U.K. forward price-to-earnings ratios and the euro's year-to-date fall against the dollar, leave U.S. corporations well positioned to pursue European acquisitions," say the analysts at S&P.
McDonald's shares, up 26% year-to-date, fell 47 cents, or 0.6%, to $78.83 Monday morning.
The S.& P. is down 28.7percentt year to date, after falling 13percentt in 2001 and 10.1percentt in 2000.
Shares in Navient have fallen about 5percentt since Congress unveiled its plan on Dec. 16, bringing its total year-to-date drop to about 45percentt.
The bank said: Year to date the shares have fallen by 35% despite the positive progress being made on the merger and [US] anti-trust immunity.
But excluding London and the South East, prices in the rest of the UK only rose by 0.8% in the year to date, and prices are falling in Scotland, Wales and northern England.
—Nationals: For the year to date national newspaper ad revenue fell 11percentt, but that improves to a six percent fall in Trinity's H209 to date.
However, year to date, the Russell 2000 has fallen only 18% while the S&P 500 has fallen 22%.
Trinity's regionals revenue fell 32percentt in the year to date, although in the second half to date the fall is 27percentt, signaling some hope for the sector.
