News & Insight • Weekly Newsletters

27 June 2025 | William Buckhurst | Charlie Todd

That Was The Week That Was

MACRO

The rhetoric around the Iran-Israel peace deal was mixed with several broken ceasefires but progress was made.

President Trump and Secretary of Commerce, Howard Lutnick, alluded that the China trade deal was “very close” and that they would “deliver rare earth” metals to America. They also suggested ten other deals…let’s see.

Fed Chair Jerome Powell testified to the Senate Banking Committee and reiterated that the Fed was still struggling to determine the impact of tariffs on prices and repeated his message that officials were not in a rush to lower rates, citing the strong economy and uncertainty over inflation.

NATO formally agreed to increase members’ targeted defence spending to 5% of GDP. Along with the updated spending increases, NATO renewed its “ironclad commitment” to mutual security. Spending levels remain uncertain as Spain and Slovakia have raised doubts on allocating that amount to defence. President Trump commented that Spain “want a little bit of a free ride” and that “we’re going to make Spain pay twice as much.”

COMPANY NEWS

• Nike – as expected – reported significantly lower revenues than previous years. Revenues were down 12% on the year to $11.1bn, but ahead of the $10.8bn expected. Within that, direct to consumer revenue fell 14% while wholesale fell 9%. There are tentative signs that new CEO Elliott Hill’s plans are working: initiatives around womenswear and refocusing on sport. Tariffs will cost them about $1bn and they expect to reduce Chinese manufacturing from around 16% to 8%. In reaction, retailer JD Sports Fashion – who sell Nike trainers – rose 7.6%.
• Shell ruled out any bid for BP. Unilever said they would pay $1.5bn for male-grooming brand, Dr Squatch and Spectris finished higher (again) as the takeover with Advent was agreed at £3.8bn.
• Novo Nordisk cancelled the Hims & Hers contract after only one month but signed a new agreement with Weightwatchers to offer Wegovy at $300 per month – which appears to be quite a low price.
• Xiaomi Corp., now the third largest quoted company in China, rose to a record high after the smartphone maker drew strong initial orders for a $35,000 SUV intended to compete with Tesla’s Model Y in China. The latter finished higher in reaction to its launch of its robotaxi service in Austin. The New York Times also suggested that UBER were looking to buy the American subsidiary of Chinese company Pony.ai.
• Takeover rumours continued to circle the custodian bank, Northern Trust, with BNY Mellon interested.
• After its recent profit warning, Fiserv, has announced a slew of deals with transaction companies such as VISA and Mastercard particularly around the adoption of stablecoins – programmable blockchain based tokens. In the same sector things got even worse for Worldline who had a profit warning due to fraudulent activities.
• Sky News reported that Scottish Power, (owned by Iberdrola) is in talks to merge with Ovo Energy to become the third largest UK home energy supplier after Centrica (British Gas) and Octopus Energy

SPICY FOOD SUPPLY

Having just finished the fourth series of Clarkson’s Farm where the head chef at The Farmer’s Dog was lamenting the cost of UK grown black pepper, the thyming of results from herb and spice experts McCormick & Company could not have been better.

The shares rose 5.3% higher after quarterly results that were mint on both the top and bottom lines. Organic growth and margins cumin muted but guidance was good, as the sage management stated that most of their imports from Mexico and Canada were USMCA compliant. As well as the McCormick brand, the company also owns Cholula Hot Sauce, French’s, Schwartz and Tiger’s Milk.

NEW CLEAR PLANS

Like several Western politicians, it seems like the UK Government thinks that nuclear power should be part of the conversation with defence but also net zero.

Prime Minister Starmer was at the NATO summit and announced the purchase of 12 F-35A fighter planes which are made by Lockheed Martin (perhaps part of the UK-US trade deal and to Make America Great Again?). These can carry nuclear weapons and can work alongside the F-35Bs that the UK owns; but rather embarrassingly these planes are incompatible with the RAF’s refuelling aircraft.  

From a power point of view, British Gas owner, Centrica announced they are going to stump up for 15% of Sizewell C, reducing the UK Governments 84% position as part of the Final Investment Decisions due on the 21^st July. Centrica already owns that sort of stake in existing UK nuclear facilities but could also be joined by Brookfield Asset Management.  Total ticket size is around £40bn total build cost. There were also suggestions that Brookfield rival, Apollo might put some money into Hinkley Point C.

Overall, it sounds positive for the UK from an energy security point of view and could also boost infrastructure companies like Balfour Beatty and Breedon Aggregates.

THE WEEK IN HISTORY

1914: Archduke Franz Ferdinand is murdered in Sarajevo, an event that is widely agreed to have triggered the outbreak of the First World War. The US stock market is largely unperturbed when it opens the following day, falling by just 0.11 points

2016: A surprise referendum result shows the UK voting to leave the European Union. The UK stock market opens down sharply the following morning but had recovered most of its losses within a week