News & Insight • Weekly Newsletters

20 December 2024 | Charlie Todd | William Buckhurst

That Was The Week That Was

We wish all our clients and readers a Happy Christmas and Prosperous New Year!

MACRO

The Bank of England left interest rates at 4.75% but 3 of the 9-person committee voted for a 25bps cut.  The minutes suggested the Committee thought that the economy had performed worse than expected in the last quarter. The October three-month unemployment rate was in line (4.3%) and unchanged on the prior period with rolling quarterly employment rising 173,000

In the US, the Federal Open Market Committee cut interest rates by 25bps, largely as expected; but highlighted that they would probably cut rates twice in 2025 rather than the projected four times. In reaction, the dollar strengthened, bond yields rose and commodities and shares fell

The Bank of Japan left rates unchanged as the nine-member board voted 8-1 to maintain the status quo. Dissenting board member Naoki Tamura proposed raising rates a further 25 basis points to 0.5%

The cost of coffee/cocoa (which is the second most traded commodity after oil) rose to all-time highs due to a combination of droughts in Brazil and a drought followed by heavy rainfall in Vietnam

COMPANY NEWS

Following the rise in Broadcom’s shares the Magnificent 7 have a new member to the Trillionaire club with the new moniker being ‘Batmmaan’! (Broadcom, Apple, Tesla, Meta, Microsoft, Alphabet, Amazon, Netflix)

Shares in Novo Nordisk, recently the largest listed European company, announced a disappointing CagriSema data readout as the weight loss percentage came in lower than the 25% expected at 20.4%, sending the shares 20% lower

Nike results were slightly better than the low expectations but during the analyst call new CEO, Elliott Hill, talked down expectations of the speed of the turnaround, whilst reinvigorating the focus on sport

Accenture beat expectations across all metrics, sending shares 7% higher whilst raising its annual revenue growth forecast to a range of 4-7%, up from its previous 3-6% estimate. The company's GenAI segment recorded $1.2bn in new bookings ($500m sales in the quarter)

FedEx announced pretty poor results, but shares headed materially higher and it stated it would split out its Freight segment and become a new publicly-traded company within 18 months

Honeywell announced it was considering splitting off the aerospace division following calls from activist investor Elliott Management to break up the business

Hollywood Bowl shares fell 12% even after beating expectations as the future growth was questioned

Pfizer’s shares drifted higher after its 2025 guidance came in better than feared whilst also reaffirming this year’s numbers

Japanese carmakers, Honda and Nissan announced they are exploring a merger. Nissan shares rallied 23%, with Renault, who holds a 35.7% stake in Nissan, rising 5.2%. Honda shares fell 3%. In the same sector, Toyota shares rallied 2% whilst revealing better car sales data in the US

Shares in Micron, whose semiconductor chips are more focused on consumer goods, finished 16% lower after reporting disappointing results despite strong momentum in AI related products

Berkshire Hathaway disclosed further buying in Occidental Petroleum, Sirius XM and VeriSign