Current reporting from the world’s leading markets: the important updates, prominent stocks, bonds and analyst updates
Nike 225 Shanghai Hang Seng FTSE 100 DAX 40 CAC 40 Dow Jones SS&P 500P 500 NASDAQ 100
Join for regular updates on the Telegram channel of the capital market section of Calcalist
10:40 – At the opening of the trading day in Europe: the DAX index increases by 1%, the CAC increases by 0.7% and the POTSI increases by 0.5%; Commerzbank and Mercedes-Benz shares strengthened by 2% at the top of the DAX index.
Societe Generale strengthens by 2% on the Paris Stock Exchange. After the reports in London: British Telecom falls by 8.4%, Burberry is cut by 6.2%.
10:00 – EasyJet concludes its financial half year with a pre-tax loss of £415 million, compared to a loss of £557 million in the corresponding half last year. Revenues grew to 2.69 billion pounds, compared to 1.50 billion pounds in the corresponding half. Revenue from passengers jumped to £1.75 billion, compared to £985 million in the corresponding half.
9:50 – Burberry reported an operating profit of 634 million pounds in the financial year that ended at the end of March, compared to 523 million pounds a year earlier, an increase of 21%. Analysts had expected a lower operating profit of 621 million pounds.
Revenues grew to 3.09 billion pounds, compared to 2.83 billion pounds a year earlier, market expectations stood at 3.11 billion pounds.
9:40 – British Telecom (BT) reported pre-tax profit of 1.73 billion pounds in the financial year ended at the end of March, compared with 1.96 billion pounds a year earlier. Analysts were expecting a profit of 1.92 billion pounds. The company recorded annual revenues of 20.68 billion pounds, compared to 20.85 billion pounds in the previous year.
BT ended the fourth quarter with EBITDA of £2.05 billion and revenues of £6.09 billion. In this case above expectations which were EBITDA of 1.98 billion pounds and revenues of 5.06 billion pounds.
7:40 – Updates from New York: Micron is expected to win a contract with the Japanese government worth 1.5 billion dollars, to promote the chip industry in the country. This was reported by Bloomberg. The amount will be awarded in financial support for upgrading the company’s memory chip factory in Hiroshima, with an investment of 3.6 billion dollars.
Cisco lost 3.9% in late trading after the reports – the company delivered results that exceeded market expectations but, contrary to early estimates, did not upgrade the upper end of its revenue forecast range. The company recorded in the third fiscal quarter a net profit of 3.2 billion dollars or 78 cents per share, the adjusted profit was 1 dollar per share, the analysts expected 97 cents per share.
The revenues in the quarter grew to 14.57 billion dollars, compared to 12.84 billion dollars in the corresponding quarter of the previous year, the analysts expected a lower revenue line, of 14.40 billion dollars. Cisco raised the adjusted profit forecast for the entire year, to $3.82-3.80 per share, against $3.78-3.72 per share in the previous forecast. The revenue forecast was updated to 10%-10.5%, against a previous forecast of 9%-10.5%.
7:10 – Strong gains in Asian stock markets, after an optimistic evening on Wall Street, against the background of estimates that a solution to the debt ceiling crisis is expected (Nasdaq jumped by 1.3% yesterday, Dow Jones and S&P 500 rose by 1.2%). The Nikkei index rises by -1.5%, Hang Seng up 1.3%, Shanghai up 0.8% and Kospi up 0.6%.
The Nikkei index is led by Sony with an increase of almost 7%, after it announced that it is considering separating its finance division (banking and insurance) in a spin-off. The Japanese media giant stated that the move is planned to be implemented in the next two to three years. The stock of measuring instruments for the chip industry Advantest climbs by 6.5%, the stock of Tokyo Electron chips rises by more than 4.5%.
Lenovo tops the Hang Seng index with a 4.8% increase, the chip company TSMC strengthens by 4.2%. Tencent is down 1% after the reports – the company reported revenue of 146.09 billion yuan in the first quarter ($2.41 billion), an 11% increase compared to the same quarter last year. The profit was 24.8 billion yen, also here an increase of 10% but less than the market forecasts which were 31 billion yuan.
The investment bank Nomura is cutting China’s annual growth forecast from 5.9% to 5.5%, partly due to the decline of the economic boom after the exit from the zero Covid policy. “We see an increase in the risk of a decline in the rate of growth, an increase in unemployment and a weakness in the currency,” said Banumora – the bank also lowered the forecast for Chinese GDP in 2024, from 4.4% to 4.2%.
