News & Insight • Weekly Newsletters

01 April 2022 | William Buckhurst

That Was The Week That Was

MACRO

• Further lockdowns in China who said it would lockdown half of the city of Shanghai in turns for four days for mass COVID testing
• Oil prices fell as the US announced it would release up to 180mn barrels from its strategic reserves
• The US recorded strong jobs growth in March as higher wages lured more workers back to the labour force

COMPANY NEWS

• Brewin Dolphin received a £1.6bn takeover approach from Royal Bank of Canada
• Lululemon closed up sharply as earnings beat consensus and revenue rose 23% year on year. Management also announced a new $1bn share buyback programme
• Barclays finished the week down after it stated that it expected to take a £450mn hit and delay its buyback after issuing around $15bn more structured notes than it had registered for sale with US regulators in August 2019. The error will require Barclays to repurchase the affected securities at their original price
• Walmart said it would stop selling cigarettes in some stores
• Tesla announced their second stock split in two years

POLITICAL WEEK

Although relatively symbolic and a request to Congress, President Biden released his budget on Tuesday. Noteworthy items: a 'Billionaire's Minimum Income Tax' aimed to raise $2.5tn over the next 10 years; stock buybacks are discouraged; a request to increase defence spending by 10%; and more support for climate change initiatives to be increased

SMALL CAP NEWS

Following on from Will Smith’s clout on Chris Rock, S4 Capital, the latest company run by Sir Martin Sorrell, lost more than a third of market value on Wednesday as it announced that the business had been slapped down by its auditor, PWC, who wouldn’t be able to publish its results, just hours before they were due to be published

THIS WEEK IN HISTORY

1867: Russia sold Alaska to the US for $7.2mn

A WEEK IN FUNDS

A group of crypto enthusiasts bought a 1.1 square mile private island between Australia and Fiji called Vanuatu — to be renamed Satoshi Island after the founder of Bitcoin. Parcels on Satoshi Island will be sold as NFTs. Over 50,000 people have applied to live there so far. Three reasons (amongst others) being: 1. No capital gains tax 2. No withholding tax 3. No death tax

IN OTHER NEWS

Trading firms in Shanghai called staff into the office before 5am on Monday and asked some to stay the night so as to be able to stay in the office during new lockdowns

MARKET DATA

As at 1^st April 2022. Source: Financial Express

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