News & Insight • Weekly Newsletters

22 April 2022 | William Buckhurst

That Was The Week That Was

MACRO

• The pound dropped below the $1.30 mark after very weak UK retail sales figures for March (-1.4% on the previous month) and poor business and consumer confidence data
• Bond yields rose and tech shares continued to be weak after US Federal Reserve Chairman Powell started talking about a 0.5% rate hike next month

COMPANY NEWS

• Netflix shares crashed after they revealed that for the first time in a decade its number of subscribers has gone down
• ASML said that first quarter net sales came in at €3.5bn, the high end of their guidance, and they continue to see high demand
• Nestle said that it had raised it prices by 5.2% in the first quarter while organic sales rose by 7.6%, more than expected
• Johnson & Johnson beat guidance, increased their dividend, and said that its medical devices business led the company’s growth with an uptick in general and advanced surgery as well as orthopedics

SMALL CAP NEWS

Shares in Volex, the cabling specialists, reacted well (up 21% in a day) on the back of a trading statement where the management predicted revenue and profit would exceed expectations. This was on the back of strong trading, delivering robust organic revenue growth, including a significant contribution from the Electric Vehicles sector, where revenue has almost doubled

WEEKLY TECH NEWS

Netflix announced this week that it is losing subscribers for the first time in a decade, and it would be unlikely to reverse this trend in the short-term sending their shares down by over a third. New ‘with advert’ subscription models could be a solution to address the impact of increasing competition and widespread password sharing

THIS WEEK IN HISTORY

1720: Isaac Newton sells his shares in South Sea Company for a profit of 100%, or about £7,000. However he could not resist the urge to make more, when soon after he would buy back in and eventually lose £20,000, leading Newton to state: “I can calculate the motions of the heavenly bodies, but not the madness of people.”

1948: Polaroid sells its first camera. The shares would rise over 1000% over the next 20 years

IN OTHER NEWS

Post Covid-19, the stock market got very excited about “reopening trades” such as bars, restaurants, theme parks and hotels. It turns out that punters aren’t returning to Bingo Halls though, with Rank Group cutting guidance this week. Eyes down!

MARKET DATA

 As at 22^nd April 2022. Source: Financial Express

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