News & Insight • Weekly Newsletters

14 January 2022 | William Buckhurst

That Was The Week That Was

MACRO

• In the UK, November GDP figures came in better than expected which will have nudged the UK economy beyond its pre-Covid high
• A growing number of Federal Reserve officials and economists said this week that they would be open to more than the forecast three interest rate rises this year 
• Chinese trade data for 2021 showed a record surplus based on a huge surge in exports

THE POLITICAL WEEK

Ukraine said it had evidence that a cyber-attack on Friday was likely to have been carried out by Russia, amid fears that Moscow may be planning military action against the country after talks with the US and NATO failed

COMPANY NEWS

• Reports in the press that Unilever may bid for Glaxo’s £50bn consumer health arm
• JP Morgan Chase reported a sharp slowdown in its trading division and a rise in expenses over the fourth quarter
• Tesco raised guidance following a strong Christmas trading period
• Illumina guidance was way ahead of expectations and the shares were up 17% in a day
• Persimmon reported that increases in costs were being broadly offset by higher sales prices

IN OTHER NEWS

More challenges for Elon Musk’s Starlink - not only is he seeking FCC approval to launch an additional 30,000 satellites but Chinese authorities have reported their astronauts and space station having to dodge existing ones in orbit. Back on earth, whilst cats seem more positive (they use the dishes, set to “snow melt mode”, to keep warm) they are also interrupting internet connectivity in the colder months

SMALL-CAP NEWS

Like the large caps, some of the “Covid winners” have been clobbered. One particular example was Avacta who admitted their AffiDx LFT Covid tests in their diagnostics division weren’t performing as well with the Omicron variant. The sensitivity was not matching other variants but they also suggested that other LFT’s could be suffering from the same problem

THIS WEEK IN HISTORY

1922: Insulin was first used in a human to treat diabetes. Leonard Thompson, a 14-year-old boy with type 1 diabetes, became the first person to receive an injection of insulin

2007: the first iPhone was announced by Steve Jobs at the MacWorld Conference and Expo in California

RE-OPENING TIMES

The New York Times reports that the London interbank offered rate, a number that spent decades as a central force of international finance and was used in setting interest rates on everything from mortgages to student loans, has died after a long battle with regulators. It was 52. “The problem with Mr. Libor is, for a time, he had it all,” said Mr. Giancarlo, a former chairman of the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission. Libor was once “on top of the world,” he said, but became a “disreputable, tottering old geezer at the end.”

MARKET DATA

 As at 14^th January 2022. Source: Financial Express

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