News & Insight • Weekly Newsletters

28 January 2022 | William Buckhurst

That Was The Week That Was

MACRO

• In the US, the latest employment cost index (ECI) report, which tracks wages and benefits paid by US employers, jumped 4% over the year
• US GDP rose by 6.9% on an annualised basis over the fourth quarter, ahead of economists’ forecasts
• Argentina agreed a deal with the IMF to restructure $44.5bn of bail-out debt

COMPANY NEWS

Despite the disappointment of Netflix last week, large technology companies impressed on their quarterly earnings releases:

• Microsoft revealed their first $50bn quarter as sales continued to race ahead
• Apple too posted a record quarter and said that supply constraints were beginning to ease
• LVMH said it was confident it can continue its fast-paced growth after reporting fresh sales and profit records driven by booming demand in the US and China
• Diageo reported higher operating profit and net sales of slightly above consensus estimates. Management commented that supply productivity savings and price increases were more than offsetting the impact of cost inflation whilst they see organic net sales momentum continuing through the second half and further improvement in margins
• However, AT&T finished the week lower after reporting fourth quarter results. Despite beating on earnings and sales, HBO and HBOMax domestic subscribers came in below consensus and management guided lower after very strong mobile performance in 2021

TECH NEWS

An activist investor with “grave concerns” has called for Peloton to sell itself. In a letter to the embattled at-home fitness equipment maker, Blackwells Capital demanded that directors fire the company’s CEO, co-founder John Foley. Although the pandemic drove its recent growth Blackwells described it as having “high fixed costs, excessive inventory, a listless strategy, dispirited employees and thousands of disgruntled shareholders.”

SMALL-CAP NEWS

ITM Power reported a sharp rise in half-year revenue to £4.2m but a larger loss on increased overheads. It also said that it has agreed the sale of a 24MW electrolyser for use at a plant in Norway and continued to show an impressive tender backlog

THIS WEEK IN HISTORY

1848: New Jersey mechanic James Marshall discovers gold at Sutter’s Mill in lower Sacramento Valley in California. The California Gold Rush is underway

1984: a young Steve Jobs recites the second verse of the timeless Bob Dylan classic, “The times they are a-changin'” as he unveils the first Apple Mac computer

RE-OPENING TIMES

Skims, the shapewear company co-founded by Kim Kardashian, has doubled its valuation to $3.2bn in a new round of funding

Spotify is hiring staff to help Prince Harry and Meghan, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, produce more podcasts to fulfil the terms of their $30m content deal

MARKET DATA

 As at 28^th January 2022. Source: Financial Express

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