Tag Archives: FTSE

Sterling, FTSE 100 gains on reports Boris Johnson will resign Thursday

Sterling hit a session high Thursday following multiple unconfirmed reports that Prime Minister Boris Johnson is set to resign.

The pound rose 0.35% against the U.S. dollar to trade at $1.1971 around 9.25 a.m. London time.

Meanwhile the FTSE 100 stock index rose 0.7% following the reports, which were not independently verified by CNBC or NBC News.

In bond markets, the 10-year U.K. government bond yield rose to hit 2.153%.

It comes after more than 50 MPs resigned from Johnson’s government within 48 hours.

The prime minister has been under increasing pressure since Tuesday, when two government heavy weights, the health and finance minister, resigned from office. This led to a cascade of departures from government.

It follows a premiership plagued by scandals and allegations of misleading the public, but the final straw for many MPs involves Conservative lawmaker Chris Pincher. The former deputy chief whip was suspended last week amid accusations that he drunkenly groped two men at a private members club.

Johnson on Tuesday apologized for appointing Pincher deputy chief whip — a senior party role — despite knowing of an investigation into his behavior in 2019.

The revelation that Johnson knew of the misconduct allegations prompted the resignations on Tuesday of Chancellor Rishi Sunak and Health Secretary Sajid Javid.

In a resignation speech to parliament Wednesday, Javid, also a former chancellor, said “treading the tightrope between loyalty and integrity has become impossible in recent months.”

Johnson narrowly survived a confidence vote from Conservative MPs last month, but many of those previously backing his leadership have now abandoned their support.

This is a breaking news story and will be updated shortly.

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Ukraine war latest: FTSE Russell, MSCI to remove Russian equities as Fitch cuts Moscow’s rating to junk

The biggest US purchasers of Russian oil include ExxonMobil © Adrian Dennis/AFP via Getty Images

Democrats in Congress are urging US oil refineries to stop importing oil from Russia in an effort to ratchet up the pressure on the Kremlin a week into the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Bobby Rush, the Democratic chair of the House Energy Subcommittee, and Jerry McNerney, another Democrat on the subcommittee, have written to the refiners’ industry group calling on its members to stop purchasing Russian crude oil and partly refined products.

In the letter to the American Fuel and Petrochemical Manufacturers, which the Financial Times has seen, the two lawmakers wrote: “Because any purchases of Russian barrels would now finance its war with Ukraine, continuing this activity has become unconscionable.”

Separately, Jack Reed, the Democratic chair of the Senate Armed Services Committee, tweeted on Wednesday: “Russian oil imports should be stopped. Our domestic supply is sufficient.”

The US imported about 209,000 barrels a day of crude oil from Russia last year, or about 3 per cent of total imports, according to the AFPM. But it also imported another 500,000 barrels a day of other petroleum products, accounting for nearly two-thirds of all unfinished oil imported by US refineries, according to Rapidan Energy Group, a consultancy.

The most recent figures from the US Energy Information Administration show the country’s biggest purchasers of Russian oil include ExxonMobil.

Joe Biden, the US president, has said he is open to imposing an oil embargo on Russia. But as his officials debate the wisdom of doing so, many oil buyers are already moving to stop purchasing supplies from Russia.

Valero Energy, a Texas-based refining company which imports heavily from Russia, has reportedly suspended all future purchases of Russian oil. Russia’s Urals crude is now trading at a record discount of more than $18 a barrel as the country’s producers struggle to find buyers.

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FTSE 100 follows Asian stocks lower on property market jitters

Chinese property developer Evergrande sent shockwaves through stock markets on Monday morning. Photo: STR/AFP via Getty

European stocks fell at the open on Monday morning in London following news of an energy market crunch in Europe and sharp losses in Asia as investors fled from property stocks. 

The FTSE 100 (^FTSE) was 1.6% lower by mid-morning in London. Germany’s DAX (^GDAXI) and France’s CAC (^FCHI) both fell around 2.3%. 

Investors in the UK were watching for movement in the UK energy market as the government considers offering emergency state-backed loans to companies as wholesale gas prices soar. Prices have jumped 250% since January. 

“The FTSE 100 starts a new week in a similar fashion to the way if finished the previous one as the index drops firmly below 7,000 to its lowest level since July, dragged down by the mining sector,” said AJ Bell investment director Russ Mould.

“There’s plenty for the market to fret about and those arguing the markets were looking frothy are seeing some of that froth disappear as a brewing crisis in China, surging gas prices in Europe and concerns about stagflation combine to sink stocks.”

Shares had headed lower in Hong Kong in the previous session with the Hang Seng (^HSI) closing down 3.6%. Jitters reverberated globally as Chinese property firm Evergrande’s (3333.HK) shares plunged more than 17% at one point, closing the day 12.2% lower. 

Read more: UK firms warn staff shortages biggest threat as Brexit begins to bite

Commodities were also being sold heavily this morning after China’s Premier Li said at the weekend that China will use “market tools” to stabilise commodity prices. 

Copper, aluminium futures, platinum and palladium were all trading lower. 

The Hang Seng’s worries spread to futures on Wall Street, as the S&P 500 (ES=F) looked to open 0.9% lower, the Dow (YM=F) looked set for declines of 1.2% and Nasdaq (NQ=F) futures were down 0.7%.

The S&P 500 had already dropped below its 50-day moving average on Friday, an important resistance point for the index. 

“Stock traders are currently following a buy-the-dip strategy. This was evident in the S&P 500 index’s drop on Wednesday, when Americans pumped $46bn (£33.6bn) into equity funds,” said said Naeem Aslam, chief market analyst at AvaTrade. 

“This was the largest investment inflow since March, with a total of $28bn pumped into large-cap companies.”

Read more: UK property prices hit all-time high

Traders are looking to the Federal Reserve’s open market committee meeting later on this week and a volley of other central bank meetings. 

“The FOMC meeting, which is scheduled to take place on Wednesday, is the most important event for investors this week,” said Aslam. “Stock market participants will be looking for clues about a possible timeline for the inevitable tapering of bond purchases.”

The Bank of England, Bank of Japan and Swiss National Bank are all also due to meet. 

Watch: Does Evergrande Pose Broader Market Threats Outside China?

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FTSE recovers from Yellen-driven sell-off

TipRanks

These 3 Cathie Wood Stocks Are Set to Rip Higher By 40% (Or More)

The markets lately are a mix of gains and volatility, and it’s tough, sometimes, for investors to make sense of it. In times like these, it makes sense to turn to the experts. Cathie Wood is one such expert, an investor whose stock choices have consistently outperformed the overall markets. A protégé of famed economist Arthur Laffer, market guru Wood has built her reputation on her clear view of the markets. Her firm is Ark Invest, whose Innovation ETF has over $52 billion in assets under management, making it one of the largest institutional investors on the scene. And better yet, Wood’s stock choices paid back during the ‘corona year;’ the ETF’s overall return in 2020 was an astounding 170%. With returns like that, it’s clear Cathie Wood knows what she’s talking about when she picks a stock. So, we’re taking a look at three of her stock choices, all from the ‘top 10’ of her firm’s holdings, by percentage weight within the portfolio. Using the TipRanks platform, we’ve found that, according to some Street analysts, each has at least 40% upside potential for the coming year. Let’s get the lowdown. Teladoc Health, Inc. (TDOC) The first stock on our list, Teladoc, was one of the ‘early adopter’ companies in the telehealth sector, making remote medical care available for non-emergency issues. Patients can use Teladoc to consult on ear-nose-throat matters, lab referrals, basic diagnoses and medical advice, and prescription refills for non-addictive substances. Teladoc bills its service as offering remote house calls by primary care doctors. Despite the obvious benefits of Teladoc’s service during the pandemic year, and steadily rising revenues, the company’s stock has underperformed the broader markets in the last 12 months. A look at the most recent quarterly report – for 1Q21 – will shed some light. The company reported $453.6 million at the top line, up an impressive 150% year-over-year. Earnings, however, told a different story. At $199.6 million, the net loss in Q1 was much deeper than the year-ago quarter’s $29.6 million loss. Per share, the loss came to $1.31, compared to just 40 cents one year earlier. The losses weighed on investors’ minds, but the company guidance was more worrisome. Management predicts that paid membership will be flat yoy in 2021. The stock fell 10% after the earnings release. Cathie Wood, however, started buying shares, taking advantage of the dip in price to increase her holdings of TDOC. Her firm bought up more than 716K shares, worth over $122 million at the time of purchase. Teladoc is Ark’s #2 holding, making up over 6% of the fund’s portfolio. While BTIG analyst David Larsen notes investors’ concerns, he believes the long-term outlook for the company remains positive. “The issue that may weigh on the stock, is 2021 membership guidance of 52 – 54M (+2% y/y) was left unchanged,” Larsen said. “Despite this headwind we still like the company and the stock. Management highlighted that the ‘pipeline for membership’ is now up more than 50% y/y, which is higher than what was reported in 4Q:20, and many of these deals are progressing. TDOC also won a large BCBS plan in the north-east due to the “whole person” model, and it’s a competitive take-away. We believe that management’s comments around membership pipeline are very calculated, and we would expect 2022 membership growth to be far better than 2021’s growth rate.” In line with his comments, Larsen rates TDOC as a Buy, and his $300 price target implies an upside of 83% for the year ahead. (To watch Larsen’s track record, click here.) Overall, Teladoc gets a Moderate Buy from the analyst consensus, a rating derived from 23 reviews that include 14 to Buy and 9 to Hold. The shares are priced at $163.21 and have an average price target of $243.68, making the one-year upside a robust 49%. (See Teladoc’s stock analysis at TipRanks.) Zoom Video Communications, Inc. (ZM) Next up, Zoom, needs no introduction. This tech-based video communications company had a low profile in 2019, but in the corona crisis of 2020 Zoom came of age. The company saw a tremendous expansion, in use and user base, and its stock peaked in November 2020 with a price well above $500 per share. It has since declined – but even after that decline, ZM shares still show a one-year gain of 121%. The share price decline in Zoom may be best seen as temporary volatility in a stock that is otherwise sound. Zoom went public in April of 2019, and has reported sequential revenue and earnings gains in every quarter since – with the gains accelerating last year. For Q4 of fiscal 2021, the last reported, Zoom reported $882.5 million at the top line, up 13.5% sequentially and a whopping 368% year-over-year. EPS in the last quarter was 87 cents; this compares to just 5 cents per share income the year before. Zoom reported $377.9 million in free cash flow for 4Q21, compared to $26.6 million one year earlier. In customer metrics, Zoom reported equally strong growth. It had more than 467K customers with more than 10 employees, growth of some 470% yoy, and 1,644 customers who paid more than $100,000 in the trailing 12 months, up 156% yoy. As for Cathie Wood, she thinks that Zoom will continue growing, saying, “I think it’s going to usurp a lot of the old telco infrastructure.” Two of Wood’s Ark funds own shares of Zoom, over 2.4 million shares in total, Zoom makes up roughly 3.40% of Ark’s portfolio. 5-star analyst Daniel Bartus, from Merrill Lynch, also likes ZM shares, and writes of the company’s model, “In our view, Zoom’s superior video experience has solidified its position as the go-to meetings platform post-COVID. As the pandemic lingers and enterprises adopt more flexible workforces, we believe 2021 will be another good year for Zoom. Post-pandemic, we believe Zoom remains well-positioned as the new communications standard and the upsell of Zoom Phone, Rooms, and additional features across the 467k customer base offsets the churn risk across smaller customers.” Bartus puts a Buy rating on the stock, with a $480 price target suggesting a potential upside of 52% for the coming year. (To watch Bartus’s track record, click here.) Wall Street’s views on Zoom offer a bit of a conundrum. The analyst consensus here is a Hold, based on reviews that include 6 to Buy, 10 to Hold, and 2 to Sell. On the other hand, the stock’s $444.40 average price target implies an upside of 41% on the one-year horizon. (See Zoom’s stock analysis at TipRanks.) Shopify, Inc. (SHOP) Last on our list of Wood’s picks, Shopify, is a Canada-based e-commerce giant that needs no introduction. Shopify has been around for 15 years, and was an early leader in providing e-commerce platforms to third parties. The company’s services include payment processing, marketing, shipping, and customer engagement. Shopify grossed $2.93 billion last year, and has seen sequential revenue gains in each of the last four quarters. While the stock has found 2021 more of a slog, it is still up by 77% over the past 12 months, handily beating the S&P 500’s 47% one-year gain. Starting out 2021, Shopify reported 110% year-over-year revenue growth for the first quarter, with the top line reaching $988.7 million. The company’s EPS in Q1, $9.94 per share, was inflated by unrealized gains from an equity investment, making comparison difficult, but the company also reported $7.87 billion in cash holdings as of the end of March, compared to $6.39 billion at the end of December. The solid gains in revenues and cash holdings are supported by a growing user base. Shopify’s mobile app, Shop, now has over 107 million registered users, of whom 24 million are monthly active users. And, the company has good word-of-mouth advertising; 45,800 of its ‘partners’ referred a fellow merchant to the service in the previous 12 months, a yoy gain of 73%. Looking at all of this, Cathie Wood thinks we may be seeing the start of the ‘next Amazon.’ She says, referring to the company’s position in the marketplace and its prospects for growth, “Shopify doesn’t care who wins. It’s going to be involved with many, if not most, of all of the sites that are going to be powering up commerce.” Her Ark funds are gobbling up shares of SHOP – they own over 690K, worth more than $754 million at current valuation. Colin Sebastian, 5-star analyst with Baird, agrees that Shopify is a stock to buy. He writes, “we view higher spending levels as supporting the enormous e-commerce market opportunity, sustaining a high level of innovation in platform services, and maintaining a high level of scalability. As such, we would be buyers of shares on any pullbacks related to margin commentary… We believe that Shopify will continue to be a key beneficiary of the migration toward multi-channel e-commerce as companies leverage and integrate a broad range of consumer touch-points to drive sales — including traditional offline, online, in-store, mobile, kiosks and call centers.” Sebastian’s price target here, $1,550, suggests an upside of 42% for the next 12 months. His rating is Outperform (i.e., a Buy). (To watch Sebastian’s track record, click here.) High-profile tech companies tend to attract a lot of attention, and Shopify has picked up no fewer than 30 analyst reviews in recent weeks. These break down to 16 Buys, 13 Holds, and just a single Sell, making the analyst consensus a Moderate Buy. The shares are priced at $1,092.01, and the average price target of $1,482.21 implies they have room to gain 36% this year. (See Shopify’s stock analysis at TipRanks.) To find good ideas for stocks trading at attractive valuations, visit TipRanks’ Best Stocks to Buy, a newly launched tool that unites all of TipRanks’ equity insights. Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the featured analysts. The content is intended to be used for informational purposes only. It is very important to do your own analysis before making any investment.

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Markets edgy ahead of US Fed decision; Germany’s 2021 growth forecasts cut – business live | Business

The German government’s top economic advisers have cut their growth forecasts for this year, warning that the latest wave of Covid-19 is hurting the economy.

In their latest outlook, the German Council of Economic Experts now expect GDP to only rise by 3.1% in 2021, down from 3.7% previously forecast.

It forecasts that Germany’s economy will shrink by around 2 % in the first quarter of this year, due to “the renewed rise in infection rates in autumn 2020 and the restrictions that currently remain in place”.

But it should then return to “a path of recovery over the coming months”, as the vaccination campaign is accelerated as planned, the pandemic is contained and, consequently, restrictions are gradually eased, the GCEE predict.

The GCEE has also cut its forecast for eurozone growth this year, to 4.1% from 4.9% previously, explaining that:


Economic activity in the euro area is being curbed by the heightened infection rates and the resultant restrictions.




German growth forecasts Photograph: German council of economic experts

The GCEE predicts that Germany’s economy will return to its pre-crisis level at the turn of the year 2021/2022, and grow by 4% in 2022.

But it also warns that vaccination progress is crucial in getting the economy back to normal, saying:


The greatest risk going forward is posed by further developments in the coronavirus pandemic. Progress on vaccinations will be one of the key factors determining how swiftly the economy can normalise.

Germany is one of several countries who suspended use of the AstraZeneca vaccine this week, while reports of thromboembolic events, such as blood clots, among a small number of people who received the jab are investigated.

GCEE member Achim Truger says Germany’s service sector could ‘bounce back’ once the pandemic is under control.


“Once we manage to get the level of infections under control and vaccinate larger sections of the population, the services sector that has been hit hard by the contact restrictions and closures – such as hospitality and stationary retail – is likely to bounce back. This should help to boost growth,”.

Fellow council member Volker Wieland flags up the risk of a third wave of Covid-19 forcing new restrictions and factory closures.


“The greatest risk to the German economy is posed by a potential third wave of infections, especially if it were to lead to restrictions or even plant closures in industry,”.

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