News & Insight • Weekly Newsletters

10 October 2025 | William Buckhurst

That Was The Week That Was

MACRO NEWS

The US Government shutdown continues due to political standoffs.

President Trump posted on social media that China was “becoming very hostile” with imposing export controls on rare earth metals. This led Trump to potentially cancel the meeting with President Xi in a fortnight and introduce more trade tariffs.

Caretaker finance minister Roland Lesecure stated France was on track to meet its budget promises with the EU, even though outgoing – 27 day – Prime Minister Sebastian Lecornu said it would keep the deficit within 5% of economic output, although this would be wider than the 4.7% he had previously targeted.

Halifax UK house price data contrasted from earlier data from Nationwide, as it indicated that UK house prices fell from all-time highs in September, declining 0.3% to £298,184. The North East and North West saw the strongest house price growth.

Opec+ announced that it had agreed to revive some barrels, with the move coming despite reported differences of opinion between Saudi Arabia and Russia, as the IEA predicts that supply will exceed demand by a record margin next year.

Japanese stocks saw profit taking after a higher-than-expected reading for the producer price index inflation, which came in at 2.7% v 2.5% expected.

Gold hit all-time highs of $4,000/oz. Silver is finally there too as it rose to $51/oz, Copper also moved higher due to a cut in production guidance from a producer ironically called Teck.

COMPANY NEWS

Novo Nordisk agreed to acquire drug developer Akero Therapeutics for $5.2bn to expand its portfolio in metabolic dysfunction-associated steatohepatitis, or MASH, a liver disease linked to obesity.

HSBC closed down on the week after announcing plans that it was taking its Hong Kong subsidiary Hang Seng Bank, in which it already owns a 63% stake, private by spending around $14bn buying back shares that it doesn’t already hold and representing a 30% premium to its last closing price. CEO Georges Elhedery stated that the purchase “delivers greater shareholder value than buybacks” and that the deal had nothing to do with the bad debt situation at Hang Seng and was “very much” an investment for growth.

Shell’s shares strengthened on results after issuing a trading update with most sections performing well.

TSMC reported a 30% increase in sales during the third quarter, as major US tech firms continue ploughing funds into the AI industry.

Constellation Brands, which owns beers such as Modelo and Corona, bubbled higher after reporting earnings slightly better than expected as beer depletions declined 2.7% vs the 3.9% estimated.

ABB announced that it had agreed to sell its robotics division to Softbank for $5.4bn, abandoning its intention to spin off and IPO, but adding to its “M&A firepower”.

Shares in Pepsi finished the week higher after only slightly beating consensus estimates. The company stated that it still expected full year organic revenue growth in the low single digits whilst also announcing that current CFO Jamie Caulfield would be replaced by Steve Schmitt, from Walmart.

Fast Retailing, the Japanese owner of Uniqlo, rose on results as operating profits were up 12.6% year on year to £2.76bn. It was the fourth year in a row for record sales and that new shops had been “hugely successful”.

Lloyds Bank shares also fell after warning that it was likely to take fresh provisions related to car financing.

COUSINS COLLISION

It amazes us that the CEO’s of the world’s prominent chip designers, AMD and Nvidia, are first cousins once removed.

Shares in AMD rose 23.7% as CEO Lisa Su announced an agreement with OpenAI build AI infrastructure and to deploy 6 gigawatts of AMD GPUs over multiple years, worth tens of billions. As part of the deal, OpenAI has the right to buy 10% of the company. The deal follows a similar agreement between OpenAI and Nvidia last month.

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang gave an interview to CNBC noting that demand for their new Blackwell chip was “really, really high” and that for every gigawatt, one needs around $50-$60bn worth of compute – the shop is open! He also noted that the US was “not far ahead” of China on AI.

HANDBRAKE SLIDE

Further crashes as auto companies reported with shares in Aston Martin, BMW and Ferrari skidding lower.

Aston Martin finished 10.1% lower after cutting guidance again. The company stated it expected earnings to be below consensus due to heightened challenges in global economic markets along with the ongoing impact of tariffs.

BMW finished 8.3% lower after cutting guidance. The company stated that it now expected margins lower and free cash guidance was halved to €2.5bn. Management stated that growth in China remained below expectations.

Ferrari unveiled new details regarding its first all-electric vehicle, the Elettrica, along with updated mid-term targets, which were below estimates sending the shares 15% lower.

THE WEEK AHEAD

• The FOMC minutes are announced on Wednesday and Fed Chairman Jerome Powell is expected to give a speech on Thursday.
• US banks kick off the quarterly earnings season as JP Morgan Chasereports on Tuesday.
• Having released a sales update last week, TSMCreleases full third-quarter results. 
• In Europe, all eyes will be on ASML as it updates investors on demand for its advanced chipmaking tools amid a string of target price upgrades by analysts.
• Other quarterly results from Johnson & Johnson, Proctor & Gambleand American Express and in the UK, Whitbread. 

THE WEEK IN HISTORY

1973: The Yom Kippur War. Egypt and Syria’s surprise attack on Israel sets in motion the 1973-1974 oil embargo, a supply shock that hammered global equities and economies over subsequent months.

1979: On a Saturday evening, Federal Reserve Chair Paul Volcker holds an unscheduled press conference, dubbed the "Saturday Night Special," to announce a major shift in Fed policy to combat high inflation. The Fed moved to control the money supply, rather than interest rates, and announced an immediate one percentage point increase in the federal funds rate to 12%.