News & Insight • Weekly Newsletters

09 April 2021 | William Buckhurst

That Was The Week That Was

MACRO

• The IMF upgraded their global growth forecasts from 5.5% to 6%
• In the US, more dovish comments from the Federal Reserve who state that they see the chances of unexpectedly high inflation being roughly equal to inflation remaining stable for the foreseeable future
• The Greensill scandal keeps on running as Rishi Sunak releases text messages he sent to David Cameron

POINT OF VIEW

JP Morgan chief Jamie Dimon’s influential annual newsletter released this week predicts “the U.S. economy will likely boom.” A combination of excess savings, deficit spending, a potential infrastructure bill, vaccinations and “euphoria around the end of the pandemic,” Mr. Dimon wrote, may create a boom that “could easily run into 2023.”

COMPANY NEWS

• Toshiba said that it had received a $20bn buyout proposal from private equity giant CVC
• US life sciences company Illumina increased its full year revenue guidance from +17-20% to +25-28% driven by record orders of around $1.4bn
• Royal Dutch Shell said it expected to make a profit in its upstream oil business this quarter in another signal that the oil industry is recovering from its disastrous 2020

FUNDS

An interesting new form of finance as BlackRock disclosed on a regulatory filing this week that the cost of its new five-year credit facility is linked to its ability to achieve certain diversity targets such as the number of women in senior leadership roles and the level of Black and Latino employees in its workforce

SMALL-CAP NEWS

Vin Murria OBE announced she owns 13% of a cash shell called Advancedadvt, Avacta signed a distribution deal with Abcam for their Affirmer reagents and ITM Power were announced as the preferred supplier of the electrolysis equipment for hydrogen fuelling station and electrolysis plant for AGR in Herten, Germany. The electricity will come from AGR's waste-to-energy thermal power plant, where municipal and commercial waste with a biogenic content of around 50 percent serves as the primary fuel source. We mention the latter in our latest podcast

THIS WEEK IN HISTORY

1933: FDR signs Executive order 6102, outlawing the ownership of gold. US Citizens would have until May 1^st to exchange their gold for $20.67 per ounce in cash

2000: After a court rules that Microsoft was a monopoly, the NASDAQ plunges, falling from 4,283.45 to 3,649.11 or 14.7% in a day

RE-OPENING TIMES

As the unseasonably cold weather in the UK continues, not boding well for our pubs and restaurants hoping to attract “al fresco” diners, spare a thought for the French wine trade. Amid growing fears that frost may have caused significant damage to vineyards, many winemakers have lit candles and controlled fires next to rows of vines in order to help protect the emerging 2021 crop from a sudden drop in temperatures. Some producers also launched helicopters to fly above their vineyards, a method that can help to prevent frost by encouraging warm air to circulate

MARKET DATA

 As at 9^th April 2021. Source: Financial Express

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