News & Insight • Weekly Newsletters

19 September 2025 | William Buckhurst | Charlie Todd

That Was The Week That Was

MACRO NEWS

No “jumbo” cut, but as expected the Federal Reserve reduced interest rates by 0.25% to 4%. One member voted for 0.5% – they do not reveal who, but it would not be beyond the realms of imagination to think it might have been Trump’s recent appointment Stephen Miran. Chair Powell indicated that the Fed now believes that the impact of inflation from tariffs is likely to be one off in nature but omitted the infamous word ‘transitory’!

As expected, the Bank of England and Bank of Japan both left interest rates unchanged, with both committees voting 7-2. The UK maintained rates at 4% and stated that any future cuts would be “gradual and careful”, whilst the BoJ noted that growth and inflation moderating in the coming months. The BOJ also confirmed that it would begin the process of selling its holdings of ETFs and REITs at a rate of about $2.2bn per annum. 

UK government borrowing was a lot worse than expected in August coming in at £18bn, far higher than the £12.5bn forecast. The government has now borrowed £11.4bn more this financial year than the OBR predicted putting more pressure on the Chancellor ahead of the Autumn Statement on the 26^th of November. Other economic data in the UK was not much better with unemployment staying at 4.7% and house prices rising by only 0.4% month on month and declining 0.1% year on year.

President Trump made his second state visit to the UK.

COMPANY NEWS

Chinese tech stocks are performing well in reaction to them using and producing their own AI chips. Alibaba is up 92% this year. Baidu, which some say is the Chinese Google, rose 18% following reports that it has begun using its Kunlun P800 chip to train its Ernie LLM.

Nuclear linked companies reacted positively to comments from US Energy Secretary Chris Wright that the US should boost its strategic uranium reserve to provide a buffer against Russian supplies and to increase confidence in nuclear power generation.

Shares in Novo Nordisk finished higher after data showed that 60,000 patients who took Ozempic were 23% less likely to have a heart attack, stroke or die than people on Eli Lilly’s Trulicity. The comments come after Eli Lilly stated earlier in the week that its experimental pill Orforglipron prompted greater weight loss and better blood sugar control than Novo’s Rybelsus, a pill version of Ozempic, in a head-to-head study.

Further weakness in the UK consumer was shown in the results from Next and Pets at Home. Next is well run and beat expectations but the market wanted another upgrade. The company left sales growth guidance unchanged due to the UK economy. Shares in Pets at Home fell 15.5% after issuing a profit warning as the pet retail market had remained subdued.

Spanish airport operator Aena‘s capex requirement will be higher than expected and so the stock fell. 

AJ Gallagher announced there are still 18,000 small independent brokerages that can be consolidated.

Tesla finished 6.9% higher following news that CEO Elon Musk had increased his stake in the company by buying $1bn worth of shares. One way to hit his board targets…

Sainsbury’s have called off their divestment of Argos to JD.com as the latter tried to “materially revise” the deal.

S4 Capital, the company led by Sir Martin Sorrell, closed down 21.1% after announcing another profit warning. Shares are down 97.7% from the highs in 2021.

Adnoc, the Abu Dhabi oil company, withdrew its bid for Aussie company Santos, citing a combination of factors. 

BOXING HEAVYWEIGHTS

Netflix announced that 41m viewers tuned into the streaming service to watch last week’s Canelo Alvarez-Terence Crawford fight which the latter won. Live sport is a new leg to the streaming business model with boxing aficionados saying there has been a lost generation of potential customers by sticking behind pay per view walls.

Even bigger numbers are expected when Netflix airs the next Jake Paul fight on 14th November.  According to Netflix, the Tyson-Paul match last year drew an estimated 108m live global viewers and peaked at 65m concurrent streams, making it the most-streamed sporting event ever; that’s inching towards Super Bowl numbers, with the last one watched by 128m people across all platforms.

INTEL ON INTEL

The MAGA trade (Making American Great Again) was on full show as Nvidia announced a $5bn stake in Intel hot on the heels of the US Government taking a 10% position.

Both firms would co-develop chips for PCs and data centres. Intel stated that it would use Nvidia’s graphics technology in upcoming PC chips and would also provide its processors for data centre products built around Nvidia hardware. However, there was a lack of detail around timelines.

The shares reacted positively, sending the shares of Intel up 24%, and therefore adding billions to the government’s stake. Other companies with government backing include US Steel and Boeing so (cynically) we look out for further business transactions.

THE WEEK AHEAD

• Global PMI Data.
• US GDP, Housing and Personal Spending Data.
• Following the UK rate decision the committee members are out of the blackout period and will be making speeches – Governor Bailey on Monday, Huw Pill on Tuesday and Megan Greene on Wednesday.
• Quarterly results from Micron, Costco, Accenture, AutoZone and CarMax.

THE WEEK IN HISTORY

1873: Jay Cooke and Co., a major US bank that heavily financed the Northern Pacific Railway, collapses. The panic led to commercial bankruptcies and unemployment so severe that the downturn was called the Great Depression at the time. It lasted so long that it is now known as the Long Depression.

2014: Chinese internet giant Alibaba raised $25bn in its share flotation on the New York Stock Exchange, making it the largest initial public offering (IPO) in history. The shares opened more than 30% above its $68 IPO price.