Financial Times (March 20)
Though Accenture “did not cut its full-year earnings guidance, as some analysts had expected,” the consulting group “has warned that Elon Musk’s efforts to slash US government spending have started to affect its revenues.” It also highlighted “threats from global economic uncertainty.” Government contracts account for approximately 8% of Accenture’s revenue, and the firm’s shares “are now down 15 per cent since Trump’s inauguration in January.”
Tags: Accenture, Analysts, Consulting, Earnings guidance, Economic uncertainty, Expected, Government spending, Musk, Revenues, Shares, Slash, Threats, Trump, U.S.
Reuters (January 18)
The anticipated “mega-merger boom threatens a shareholder bloodbath.” As global conditions improve and central banks cut borrowing costs, mega-deals are expected to proliferate. An expected lighter regulatory touch will provide extra momentum. Based on past results, however, “when acquisitions reach $10 billion or more… the worst fears of shareholders are often confirmed.” Large acquirers generally end up trailing industry peers by 5% in median annualized total return.
Tags: Acquirer, Acquisitions, Bloodbath, Boom, Borrowing costs, Central banks, Expected, Fears, Lagging, Mega-merger, Momentum, Regulatory, Shareholder
Bloomberg (May 24)
“Overseas issuers sold yen bonds at the fastest pace in five years so far this month, chasing cheap funds before an expected interest rate hike by the Bank of Japan pushes up borrowing costs.”
Tags: BOJ, Borrowing costs, Cheap funds, Expected, Fastest pace, Hike, Interest rate, Overseas issuers, Yen bonds
Financial Times (May 10)
“The UK economy has exited last year’s technical recession with faster than expected growth of 0.6 per cent for the first quarter.” This beat the BoE forecast and marked the fastest quarter-on-quarter growth since 2021. Growth was “driven by a 0.7 per cent increase in services output, suggesting stronger consumer activity as inflation fell. Manufacturing output grew 1.4 per cent, driven by car production which has grown for six consecutive quarters.”
Tags: 0.6%, 2021, BOE, Car production, Consumer activity, Economy, Expected, Fastest, Forecast, Growth, Inflation, Manufacturing, Q1, Services, Technical recession, UK
Tampa Bay Times (February 9)
The latest Omicron wave “isn’t receding as quickly as hoped” based on the symmetry of past waves. “By now cases should have fallen to fewer than 5,000 cases a day. Instead, Florida’s daily average was nearly 18,000 cases on Sunday…nearly 270 percent higher than expected had the wave been perfectly symmetrical.” Omicron’s lingering success appears linked to “an abundance of mutations that made the variant about 2.7 to 3. 7 times more infectious than the delta variant in vaccinated households.”
Tags: 000 cases, 18, Delta, Expected, Florida, Higher, Infectious, Lingering, Mutations, Omicron, Receding, Symmetry, Variant, Wave, Waves
Financial Times (October 8)
“High levels of inflation could last longer than expected, senior central bankers in Europe have warned, signalling that persistent supply-chain bottlenecks and soaring energy costs could advance a tightening of monetary policy.”
Tags: Bottlenecks, Central bankers, Energy costs, Europe, Expected, Inflation, Persistent, Supply chain, Tightening, Warned
Reuters (October 19)
“China’s economic recovery accelerated in the third quarter as consumers shook off their coronavirus caution, although the weaker-than-expected headline growth suggested persistent risks for one of the few drivers of global demand.”
Tags: Caution, China, Consumers, Coronavirus, Drivers, Expected, Global demand, Growth, Persistent, Recovery, Risks, Weaker
EU Politico (May 27)
“Phew. Turns out the bark of Europe’s far right is worse than its bite. Yes, illiberal parties did well in France and Italy, Poland, Hungary and beyond. But overall no better than expected, and in some cases worse so…. That’s good news for Europe’s democratic parties and even better news for the European Union.”
Tags: Democratic parties, EU, Europe, Expected, France, Hungary, Illiberal parties, Italy, Poland
