News & Insight • Weekly Newsletters

14 November 2025 | William Buckhurst

That Was The Week That Was

MACRO NEWS

UK politics remain slightly messy in the run up to the Chancellor’s Autumn Statement on the 26^th of November. Economic data was not much better as 3Q GDP growth was 0.1% vs 0.2% expected with annual growth of 1.3%. Worryingly September’s data was -0.1%, also below forecasts.  Manufacturing and Industrial Production were both weaker than expected but data was negatively impacted by the impact of the cyber-attack on Jaguar Land Rover which led to motor vehicles manufacturing declining nearly 30%, negatively impacting overall GDP growth by 0.17% in September.

UK unemployment rate increased from 4.8% to 5% vs 4.9% expected with employment declining 22,000, worse than forecast.  Average weekly earnings on a rolling annual quarterly basis increased 4.8% vs 5% expected. Data showed that the redundancy rate rose to 4.5 per 1,000 employees in the three months to September, the highest since January 2024 and the second highest since the pandemic in 2021.

It is rumoured that Switzerland is close to agreeing a 15% tariff rate on its exports to the US with a deal potentially reached in the next few weeks as President Trump confirmed that his administration was “working on a deal to get their tariffs a little bit lower.” Reports indicated that the meeting apparently went so well that Trump subsequently ordered US Trade Representative Jamieson Greet to step up direct negotiations.

The last penny was minted in the US due to the four cent cost.

COMPANY NEWS

Despite supply chain challenges and earnings at the low end of guidance shares on Rolls Royce didn’t really move. Defence and Power Systems demonstrated robust performance, and the business is progressing towards a small modular reactor contract by year end.

Siemens delivered a mixed set of results as group orders, revenues and industrial profit slightly missed consensus due to adverse foreign exchange. For the full year, the group guided for organic growth of 6-8% (vs consensus 6.5%). Management also mentioned they plan to distribute the €15bn in Siemens Healthineers.

Sealed Air bubbled up 21% after reports that they are in takeover talks with PE firm Clayton Dubilier & Rice.

Shares in Asian e-commerce company Sea Limited fell 8% on results as it reported revenues of $6bn ahead of expectations but earnings missed significantly.

In a similar move to National Grid, SSE closed up 16.8% after providing details around its £33bn investment plans and announcing a £2bn equity raise. It stated it should result in gross regulated asset value increase at around 25% per year for the next five years.

Shares in On Holding (running shoes) jumped 18% higher after reporting third quarter results. Sales in Europe and Asia were both good with Americas net sales of CHF436.2m below consensus estimates.

Spirax Group shares rose slightly due to an inline set of numbers even with the challenging market backdrop.

SONY results hit a nice note with the shares heading 6% higher as the previous tariff hit was downgraded and all divisions performed well. There was a special mention for K-Pop Demon Hunters as the company owns the IP.

Nu Holdings, the Latin American financials firm, continued to grow strongly sending their shares higher.

Flutter Entertainment (owner of Paddy Power and Betfair) fell 14.3% after reporting results that missed expectations, particularly in the US. The company cut full year guidance but announced they would launch a new prediction market FanDuel Predicts in partnership with CME Group which would launch in December.

OLD SCHOOL TECH

One trend we have seen is the excellent performance of some tech companies that were around in the last tech bubble such as Cisco, IBM and Microsoft.

Cisco shares reacted positively to another set of good results with earnings and revenue above consensus. Positive beats from Product and Networking revenue offset Security revenue, and guidance in revenue and earnings were both better than expected due to demand for secure networking as customers move to use AI.

Elsewhere shares in cloud pros Coreweave, which rents out access to AI chips, finished 16.3% lower due to lower margins at the operating level and a cut in guidance. AMD held a positive capital markets day stating that annual revenue growth was expected to average more than 35%.

ACTION STATIONS

3i Group, the listed private equity firm, has been one of the best performers on the UK market for some time due to its underlying investment in the retailer Action, which is based on the Continent.

However, even with the total return beating expectations, the shares in the company fell 17.4% after reporting first half results, due to softer current trading at the underlying retailer. The overall investment ownership did tick up by 2.2% to 62.3%.

The company stated that like for like this year despite weakening consumer confidence since the summer while management commented that they remained cautious on the deployment of capital into new investments.

THE WEEK AHEAD

• UK and EU CPI (Wednesday)
• Minutes from the Fed
• US and UK PMI (Friday)

A busy earnings season closing with all eyes on Nvidia:

• Monday – Trip.com
• Tuesday – Home Depot, Baidu, Pinduoduo
• Wednesday – Nvidia, Target, Palo Alto Networks
• Thursday – Walmart, Gap
• Friday – Frontline

THE WEEK IN HISTORY

1666: English writer Samuel Pepys writes the first report of a blood transfusion (between dogs) in his diary

1856: American Gail Borden is issued a patent for technology related to his invention of condensed milk

1972: Dow Jones Industrial Average closes above 1,000 for 1st time (1003.16). Now at 47x that figure!