News & Insight • Weekly Newsletters

22 August 2025 | William Buckhurst

That Was The Week That Was

MACRO

A dovish tone from Chairman Powell at Jackson Hole on Friday (citing a weaker labour market) saw US equities rally (snapping a 5-day losing streak) while 10-year bond yields fell by around 10bps to 4.26%.

Powell’s comments helped solidify hopes that the Fed will resume cutting after leaving the policy rate on hold at 4.25% to 4.5% since December – much to President Trump’s well publicised ire.

UK Inflation rose to 3.8% in the year to July, the highest since January 2024, the latest figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) showed. While the inflation figure was slightly higher than experts expected, the Bank of England predicts it will reach a peak of 4% in September.

COMPANY NEWS

In an extraordinary level of intervention – marking a reversal of free-market capitalism that investors have long felt sacrosanct apart from in times of war or extreme economic crises – President Trump sealed a deal that gives it a nearly 10% stake in Intel. The $8.9bn investment will be funded by grants from the US Chips and Science Act and Secure Enclave Program and is part of an unconventional bid to boost domestic chip demand.

Shares in Novo Nordisk closed higher on the week after the company announced that it got US approval for its weight loss drug Wegovy to treat MASH, a serious liver condition that affects around 5% of adults in the US. Separately it was announced that Novo was offering its diabetes drug Ozempic at a lower price of $499 to eligible patients in the US.

Target shares continue to fall as the company reported a revenue decline for the third straight quarter.

Walmart’s quarterly earnings report showed that it continues to grow its top-line; but the shares fell as the company noted a higher than usual impact to profits from workers’ compensation claims.

Shares in the Danish renewable energy company, Orsted, took another dive (now down 90% from their peak) as US officials halted construction of their $1.5bn wind farm off Rhode Island. 

WH Smith shares fell by more than 40% as it revealed an unexpected accounting error in its US business.

THE WEEK IN HISTORY

1970: Wal-Mart makes its debut on the New York Stock Exchange closing at $33 on its opening day. Though the shares tumbled nearly 77% over the following two years, a $1,000 investment at IPO would have grown to approximately $38m by now.

2015: China’s “Black Monday” as Chinese stock markets fall around 8% in a day and another 8% the following day. Triggered primarily by proposed new regulations around shadow-banking, after years of a debt-financed property boom, the SSE Composite Index fell by around 50% in just over two months, having almost doubled over the previous year.