Investment Week (July 25)
“Excluding investment companies and international companies whose London quote was secondary, 1,180 companies were listed on the LSE as of the last day of trading in May 2022, down from 1,349 in May 2019.” During the first half of 2022, “the number of companies floating on the LSE also fell drastically…with just 26 companies debuting, marking a 45% decline compared to the first half of 2021. The UK was not alone. Global IPO activity was poor, with the number of deals falling to 46%.”
Motley Fool (July 2)
“During the first six months of 2022, the S&P 500 dropped 20.6%, marking its worst first-half performance since 1970” while “the Dow had its largest first-half drop since 1962” and “the Nasdaq… had its largest percentage drop in its history.” This has left “a lot of investors worried, and understandably so. But while things might seem bleak right now, the reality is that investors really shouldn’t panic.”
Tags: 1962, 1970, 2022, Bleak, Dow, Drop, First-half, Investors, Nasdaq, Performance, Reality, S&P 500, Worried, Worst
Investment Week (May 9)
“BP’s latest plan to buy back $2.5bn of stock this quarter has pushed forecasts for FTSE 100 firm buybacks to be on track for a record high in 2022. FTSE 100 firms are now planning £37bn of share buybacks this year, compared to the prior record of £34.9bn in 2018.”
Investment Week (March 28)
Global dealmaking has dropped “to its lowest level since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic…. Just over $1trn of deals were struck in the first quarter of 2022, nearly a quarter less than the same period last year.” Primary factors behind slowing M&A activity appear to be “tougher regulations on both sides of the Atlantic, soaring inflation and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.”
Tags: 2022, COVID-19, Dealmaking, Global, Inflation, M&A, Outbreak, Pandemic, Q1, Regulation, Russia, Slowing, Soaring, Tougher, Ukraine, War
WARC (March Issue)
“The cost of search, social and retail media advertising grew by double digits in the final three months of 2021…. Search cost-per-click (CPC) saw the largest rise, increasing by 23% year on year to $0.71 in Q4 2021.” Moreover, the trend in rising “advertising spend and costs looks likely to continue in 2022.”
Tags: 2021, 2022, Advertising, Cost, CPC, Double digits, Media, Q4, Retail, Search, Social, Spend, Trend
New York Times (January 25)
“So far, 2022 is off to a rocky start for the stock market. Yesterday, after an initial plunge in which stocks dropped as much as 4 percent — the biggest one-day drop in nearly a year — the market rallied and ended the day with a slight gain.” There was no particularly market-moving news, but “the foundations supporting the market during the pandemic are looking less stable.”
Tags: 2022, Foundations, Gain, News, Pandemic, Plunge, Rallied, Rocky start, Stock market, Support
Bloomberg (January 7)
“This isn’t the way Xi Jinping wanted to start 2022. In Xi’an, China is witnessing its worst Covid outbreak since the virus emerged, and the ancient city has been locked down for two weeks battling the delta variant…. Any nationwide outbreak could raise questions about Covid Zero and its number one supporter: Xi Jinping.
Tags: 2022, China, Covid Zero, Delta, Locked down, Outbreak, Variant, Virus, Xi’an
LNG Industry (January 6)
“The world’s two largest economies–the US and Mainland China–are poised to be the world’s top export and import markets for LNG in 2022.” In 2021, the US placed third, behind Australia and Qatar, but “was the largest source of LNG supply growth in 2021.” China overtook Japan in 2021, marking “the first time since the early 1970s that Japan has not been the world’s largest LNG importer.”
Tags: 1970s, 2021, 2022, Australia, China, Export, Import, Japan, LNG, Markets, Qatar, Supply growth, Top, US
Wall Street Journal (January 6)
“Investors are bracing themselves for volatility in 2022. Easing supply chain snarls, potential interest rate increases and slowing growth in corporate earnings are all being closely watched. Contributing to the murky picture: a mixed economic recovery, complicated by the fast-moving Omicron variant of Covid-19, which is making it harder for investors to consider whether to readjust portfolios toward value stocks.”
Tags: 2022, COVID-19, Earnings, Growth, Interest rates, Investors, Murky, Omicron, Portfolio, Recovery, Slowing, Snarls, Supply chain, Variant, Volatility
Seeking Alpha (January 4)
“While analysts on Wall Street are confident the bull market will continue uninterrupted into 2022, there are more than enough risks to derail that market outlook. Importantly, none of these independently suggest a significant correction is imminent. However, the risk is that they will undermine the bullish ‘psychology’ of the market.”
Tags: 2022, Analysts, Bull market, Confident, Correction, Derail, Imminent, Market outlook, Risks, Undermine, Uninterrupted, Wall Street
