2024-02-01 04:42:09
Current reporting from Wall Street and the world’s leading markets: the important updates, prominent stocks, bonds and analyst updates
11:00 – Asia-Pacific closed: Nikkei down 0.8%, Shanghai down 0.6%, Hang Seng up 0.5%, Kospi up 0.8%, Sydney’s ASX 200 down 1.2%.
10:40 – at the opening in Europe: the POTSI index falls by 0.3% ahead of the interest rate announcement in England, CAC and DAX fall by a similar rate. The Bank of England is expected to announce today (14:00) about leaving the interest rate unchanged, at a level of 5.25%.
French bank BNP falls 7.5% after the reports – competitors Credit Agricole and Societe Generale fall 2% and 3.2% respectively.
More after the reports: Deutsche Bank strengthens by almost 4% in Frankfurt, of increases by 1.5% in London, Roche loses 3.8% in Zurich – where Julius Baer increases by 1.5% after the dismissal of the CEO.
10:00 – The energy giant Shell concludes 2023 with an adjusted net profit of $28.25 billion, compared to $39.9 billion in 2022 – a 29% decrease.
Analysts were expecting a lower profit of $27.50 billion. In the summary of the fourth quarter, the adjusted profit was 7.31 billion dollars, compared to 6.22 billion dollars at the same time – the market expected 6.04 billion dollars.
At the same time as the reports were published, the company announced the launch of a new $3.5 billion buyback plan, which will be implemented in the next three months – the dividend will increase by 20% to 34.40 cents per share.
9:50 – Roche ends 2023 with revenues of 58.72 billion Swiss francs ($68.17 billion), compared to 63.28 billion francs in 2022. The profit after tax was 12.35 billion francs, compared to 13.53 billion francs in the previous year.
Operating profit fell by 13% to 19.24 billion francs. Analysts were expecting revenue of 59.18 billion Swiss francs and operating profit of 20.03 billion Swiss francs.
9:10 – Deutsche Bank announced, at the same time as the publication of the financial statements, its intention to lay off 3,500 employees, as part of an efficiency plan aimed at saving 2.5 billion euros in expenses. The bank currently employs 89,000 people, so this is a cut of 4% of its workforce.
The German bank presents in the summary of the fourth quarter of 2023 a net profit of 1.26 billion euros, while the analysts were expecting a profit of 785.6 million euros.
The profit line reflects a 30% decline compared to the corresponding quarter last year, when the bank recorded a profit of 1.8 billion euros (in the third quarter of 2023, the profit was 1.03 billion euros).
The bank attributed the decrease to the increase in the provision for doubtful debts. Deutsche Bank’s revenues amounted to 6.66 billion euros, a 5% improvement compared to the corresponding quarter in 2022.
At the end of 2023, Deutsche Bank recorded a net profit of 4.2 billion euros, also in this case above expectations, which stood at 3.685 billion euros.
Simultaneously with the publication of the reports, the bank announced that it intends to increase by 50% the distribution to the shareholders, through own purchase and dividends, to a total amount of 1.6 billion euros.
The actual meaning – the dividend was jumped from 30 to 45 euro cents per share, and the bank launched a buyback program of 675 million euros, which will be implemented in the first half of 2024.
9:00 – The French bank BNP Paribas ended the fourth quarter with a net profit of 1.07 billion euros, compared to 2.14 billion euros in the corresponding quarter.
Revenues remained almost unchanged, at 10.90 billion euros. The results were lower than analysts’ expectations, for a profit of 1.77 billion euros and revenues of 11.42 billion euros.
Europe’s largest bank by market value (71 billion euros) launched a buyback program of 1.05 billion euros and raised the dividend by 19% to 4.60 euros per share.
At the same time, BNP cut its profit forecast, to an average increase of 8% in annual profit in 2022-2025, from a previous forecast of an increase of more than 9%.
8:50 – CEO of Julius Baer Philipp Rickenbacher resigns from his position (Philipp Rickenbacher) – The Swiss investment bank appointed the operational director and deputy CEO Nick Dreckmann as temporary CEO (Nic Dreckmann).
In its annual reports, Julius Baer recorded credit losses of 606 million Swiss francs ($703 million), most of them on one unsecured loan of 585 million Swiss francs. In the bottom line, the bank recorded a profit of 454 million francs in 2023, a drop of 52% compared to 2022.
6:40 – A mixed trend in the Asia-Pacific markets, following an evening of strong declines on Wall Street – mainly in technology – following the Fed’s announcement.
The Nikkei is down 0.9%, the Hang Seng is up 1.4%, the Kospi is up 1.3%, the Shanghai is up 0.2%, the ASX 200 retreats from yesterday’s record high, down 1.2%.
As expected, the Fed left the interest rate unchanged at 5.50%, and Powell made it clear at the press conference that it is unlikely that there will be an interest rate cut at the March meeting. The Nasdaq responded with a 2.2% drop, the S&P 500 fell 1.6%, the Dow Jones weakened 0.8%.
Investment bank Nomura stands out in Tokyo with an increase of more than 5%, after announcing a buyback plan of up to 100 billion yen ($677 million), Nomura’s highest buyback amount since 2019, and about 4% of the bank’s shares.
The announcement came after Nomura reported a 24% loss in net profit in the October-December quarter (compared to the corresponding quarter), to 50.5 billion yen – a decrease that comes from a one-time profit recorded in the corresponding quarter. The investment banking division posted a 30% jump in revenue to 45.4 billion yen.
On the other hand, Aozora Bank shares fall by 21%, at the bottom of the Nikkei index (Aozora Bank) after publishing a forecast of a loss of 28 billion yen ($190.5 million) for the fiscal year signed in March. This is compared to a previous forecast he published for a profit of 24 billion yen.
Ozora explained the surprising forecast with an increased provision for doubtful debts in the American operation and the losses recorded for it in American bond sales. The bank also informed that in order to strengthen the capital, it will not distribute a dividend for the second half of the year.
More on the stock exchange of Japan: the electric company of Tokyo loses 5.4%. In cars – Toyota weakens by 1.8% and Honda decreases by 2%.
In Hong Kong: fashion and sports goods company Li-Ning (Li-Ning) and restaurant chain Haidilao (Haidilao) jump 7% at the top of the Hang Seng index. In the online stocks: Alibaba strengthens by 3%, Meituan by 5%, Netize by 3.6%; Chip company SMIC climbs 3.2%.
In New York: Dow Jones contracts rise 0.2%, Nasdaq contracts rise 0.5% and S&P 500 rise 0.3%. Investors are mainly waiting for the busy evening – Apple, Amazon and Meta will publish reports after the lock.
Qualcomm concludes the first fiscal quarter with revenues of 9.94 billion dollars, compared to 9.46 billion dollars in the corresponding quarter, the analysts expected 9.51 billion dollars.
Net income was $2.8 billion or $2.46 per share, compared to $2.2 billion or $1.98 per share in the corresponding quarter.
The chip company presented an adjusted quarterly profit of $2.75 per share, in the gap from analysts’ expectations, which stood at $2.37 per share. Qualcomm shares held steady in late trading.
Qualcomm’s forecast for the current quarter (fiscal second) stands at revenues of 9.7-8.9 billion dollars and an adjusted profit of 2.40-2.20 dollars per share. The market expects revenues of $9.3 billion and an adjusted profit of $2.25 per share.
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