Global Financial – Week 7-8

The majority of the world’s major indexes finished the period up thanks to strong earnings reports by companies. However, there is worry that inflation might not have been beaten after all with US inflation data increasing to 3.4% annually making experts believe the FED will be keeping interest rates higher for longer with the latest announcement keeping rates at 5.5%.

Index performance

FTSE 100: 4.27%

FTSE 250: 3.98%

CAC 40: -0.18%

DAX: -2.3%

SSE: 1.47%

Hang Seng: 13.92%

Nikkei: 3.20%

ASX 200: 0.82%

Dow Jones: 2.34%

NASDAQ: 5.02%

S&P 500: 3.23%

Events

Tesla’s stock rose significantly after it announced plans for cheaper models. Later in the week it also announced it has partnered with Baidu to implement Full-Self Driving technology in China.

The FTSE 100 index recorded one of its best times achieving a new all-time high as the strength of the pound weakened against the dollar. The drive for this growth has been strong earnings and a newfound faith in the British financial markets as several companies get acquired by international rivals further helping the index.  

A weak demand from China had hit the French index fund as Kering reported an 18% drop in recurring income in its flagship brand Gucci.

IBM missed out on earnings targets even after the company announced it would purchase HashiCorp for $6.4 billion.

Alphabet, Google, saw its stock jump 14% after a strong earnings report that came with its first-ever dividend payment as well as a $70 billion buyback. It has also been revealed in DOJ antitrust documents, that Alphabet paid Apple $20 billion in 2022 to make Google the default search engine for Safari, making up 17.5% of Apple’s operating income in 2020.

 Snapchat beat expectations by 21%, leading its stock to soar 25%.

Like Google, Microsoft also saw a strong earnings report with revenue hitting $61.86 billion and $2.94 per share. This performance was enhanced by its 31% increase in Azure cloud services.

The Yen, which has fallen more than 10% this year, has been worrying traders who have hinted that the Japanese government may need to interfere to prop up the country’s currency. This is the lowest the Yen to the Dollar has been in 34 years.

Amazon follows all of America’s major companies by beating earnings forecasts causing the stock to surge 5% with the 16% growth in the company’s AWS service.

Apple announced a huge $110 billion share buyback plan and $90.75 billion in revenue.

Upcoming Events

May 9^th: Bank of England’s interest rate decision. (Predicted to stay at 5.25%)

May 15^th: Gross Domestic Product for the EU.

May 16^th: Gross Domestic Product for Japan.

Dividend payments for Major companies

May 6^th: Kering (Euro 9.50), Universal ($0.80)

May 9^th: Mastercard ($0.66)

May 10^th: American Express ($0.70), General Dynamics ($1.42)

May 13^th: MPLX ($0.85)

May 14^th: Mercedes (Eruo5.30)

May 15^th: Sanofi (Euro3.76), KBC Groep (Euro 3.15), Procter & Gamble ($1.01), Hasbro ($0.70), Morgan Stanley ($0.85), Realty Income ($0.26)

Earnings of major companies

May 6^th: Palantir Technologies, Realty Income, AESI Holdings

May 7^th: Disney, UBS Group, Duke Energy, Ferrari, Nintendo, GEO Group, Corsair Gaming, ClearPoint Neuro.

May 8^th: Energy Transfer, Toyota Motor Corporation, Duolingo, TKO Group Holdings, LANXESS

May 9^th: Warner Bros Discovery, Scorpio Tankers, Guardant Health

May 14^th: Tencent, Alibaba, Rheinmetall

May 15^th: AST SpaceMoblie

May 16^th: Walmart, JD, KBC Groep

P.S.: Do not take this as financial advice; make your own decisions and do further research before investing in the markets, as your capital is at risk.