News & Insight • Weekly Newsletters

18 February 2022 | William Buckhurst

That Was The Week That Was

MACRO

• In the UK, new data showed that wage growth at 3.7% (excluding bonuses) continues to lag behind inflation
• Headline US retail sales were up 3.8% on the month vs an estimate of only 2% as the consumer continues to show resilience in the face of higher inflation
• The Fed minutes released this week had a slightly dovish tone but pre-dated some of the more recent inflation and jobs data

VERMEER PODCAST – The Art of Investment

We were delighted to have Rob Brewis from Aubrey Capital Management join us this week on the podcast as we discuss why the emerging market consumer story is such an appealing one for investors

COMPANY NEWS

• Barrick Gold beat expectations and announced a $1bn share buyback
• Nestlé results showed good execution and the 5% organic growth target set for this year looks conservative
• Walmart fought off supply chain issues and rising costs to announce their strongest ever holiday-season sales
• Cisco revenues were up around 5% and margins continue to be strong
• Nvidia revenues, profits and guidance were well ahead of expectations

SMALL-CAP NEWS

Ocean Outdoor, the out of home advertising specialists that run The Piccadilly Lights amongst others, have released a pre-close that confirms a stronger than modelled performance in 2021 at both revenue and EBITDA, with £124.4m and £18.6m respectively, on the back of a strong recovery through H2. Q4 2021 was noted to be comfortably ahead of 2019. Outlook comments note a strong start to 2022, with management confident that performance for the year will be ahead of 2019

THIS WEEK IN HISTORY

• 1898: The US Battleship Maine is sunk near Cuba after hitting a mine. US markets would decline 16% over the next four weeks as fear of war spread and by April the US was at war with Spain
• 1933: Michigan declares an eight-day banking holiday as banks struggle to remain open. By early March, 36 states had banks closed

IN OTHER NEWS

Following on from Dr Dre’s performance at the NFL Superbowl Half Time show wearing Tom Ford, Jay-Z has added to his estimated US$1.4bn business empire, by joining with US retailer Fanatics to buy the 118-year-old sports brand merchandiser Mitchell & Ness for about US$250m. Jay-Z said “I was an early adopter of this brand, as well as a part of a departure from athletic wear”

MARKET DATA

 As at 18^th February 2022. Source: Financial Express

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