Westpac shares bucked the trend amongst its banking peers rising after revealing its half-year result for the first half of the 2023 financial year. Cash earnings came in at $4,001m which rose +22% from last year benefiting from higher interest rates and making progress to become a simpler, stronger bank with disciplined cost and margin management providing $1...
Apple surprised us with iPhone sales rising to $51.3B vs. estimates of $48.9B. Some of this was likely due to the backlog of customers who were unable to purchase a new phone during the company’s supply crunch in China the previous quarter. We’re most impressed with services growth, which grew +5.5% to $20.1B. An astonishing figure: almost one billion people now...
Headline here is WarnerBrothersDiscovery’s streaming unit swung from a $654M loss to a $50M profit for Q123. Aside from Netflix, none of the streamers are profitable – so profit in WBD’s streaming unit is a “big win” for the company and proof of CEO Zaslav’s drive to reduce debt and increase cashflow. Analysts were forecasting a streaming loss of ~$70M-90M. The...
Disney reported mixed results for the quarter. The good: streaming losses fell to $659M from the previous quarter’s $1.1B, whereas streaming revenues rose +12% to $5.5B. Crucially ARPU (average revenue per user) rose 20%in the US and ~6% internationally — it’s a case of squeezing actual profit out of users rather than scaling the business at all costs — this is...
On Wednesday, the US dollar decreased in value against other major currencies, including the Mexican peso, by over 1%, due to reports of slower than expected US inflation. This suggests that the Federal Reserve may pause its interest rate hikes. According to data from the US Labor Department, inflation in April decreased to 4.9%, which is the lowest year-over-year...
On Monday, the dollar continued to show weakness against most of its major counterparts as traders awaited the Federal Reserve's acknowledgement of the end of its hiking cycle, while also hedging against the risk of a potential recession. Traders are also keeping an eye on the debt ceiling impasse in Capitol Hill, with the Treasury Secretary warning of possible...
"It is impossible to predict with certainty the exact date when Treasury will be unable to pay the government's bills," Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said in a letter to Congress. Although Yellen noted a tentative date of June 1 as the due date to help spur lawmakers into action.
While it is highly unlikely that the US will default on its debt, this doesn’t...
Rakon is a NZ based manufacturer of frequency control chips which enable data transmission, particularly for satellites and the communications industry as a whole. The company forecasts HKEX:40 -43M of EBITDA for the FY23 and trades around 8x earnings. We think the company looks materially undervalued at 8x earnings, largely because the board has not declared a...
On Monday, the US dollar increased to nearly a two-week high against a range of currencies as the Federal Reserve is expected to raise interest rates by 25 basis points later this week. The dollar also gained on Friday due to elevated core inflation in March.
This week, investors will be focused on whether the Federal Reserve plans to halt interest rate...
With safe haven currencies pulling in the most buyers this week, including the yen and the US dollar, what will happen to the USD/JPY and the GBP/JPY leading up to, and after, the Interest Rate Decision due from the Bank of Japan on Friday?
Markets will likely be watching this decision super closely regardless of their expectation for the BoJ to leave interest...
In March 2023, the United Kingdom's year-on-year consumer price inflation rate decreased to 10.1% from 10.4% in February. However, it exceeded the market forecast of 9.8%, and Britain remains the country in Western Europe with the highest rate of inflation. This also marks the seventh consecutive period where the rate has remained above 10% and has been above the...
Yield Curve Control (YCC) has kept interest rates on ten-year Japanese government bonds within a narrow range close to zero percent since 2016. The Bank of Japan (BOJ) employs YCC to target short-term interest rates at -0.1% and to maintain the 10-year government bond yield within 0.5% above or below zero.
In 2016, Japan was grappling with over a decade of...
The US annual inflation rate has slowed down for the ninth month in a row, hitting 5% in March of 2023. While this is the lowest it's been since May of 2021, it's still well above the Fed's target of 2%. Investors are trying to figure out when the central bank will put the brakes on its hiking campaign to slow inflation.
The March FOMC minutes (released this...
Investors are facing a busy week of economic data that includes the release of consumer price and producer price index data for March on Wednesday and Thursday (US time), respectively. The results of these reports will help determine whether or not the Fed will pause or end its rate-hiking campaign. While investors are leaning towards a continuation of the Fed's...
Gold has managed to surge its way to US$2,020/oz, taking full advantage of the renewed weakness in the dollar price and treasury yields.
Recent data from the US showed a slowdown in the services sector growth, fewer private company job additions than expected in March, and a fall in factory orders for the second consecutive month. This suggests that the economy...
The US dollar's position as the primary global reserve currency is being challenged as countries become eager to insulate themselves from Washington’s influence.
For decades, the dollar has dominated the global monetary system. Currently, about 60 percent of foreign exchange reserves held by central banks are in US dollars, and nearly 90 percent of all currency...
The price of gold hit a high of $1,971/oz before retreating and finding support above $1,960. Upbeat equities and higher Treasury yields make it difficult for XAU/USD to continue its recent rally. Fears of a wider banking contagion have also abated, hurting demand for safer assets. The market cheered First Citizens Bank’s agreement to buy all deposits and loans of...
Which way will Bitcoin break out of last week’s range? On screen I have highlighted the price range between $29,000 and $26,700, representing the high and low of the week-long ranging period. The price has flirted with a break to the downside, touching as low as $26,500, but a confident close below $27,000 is still to occur.
Bitcoin surged in March as confidence...
