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ELF Beauty stock hits two-year low as cash-strapped US consumers rein in spending
Thursday 13 Feb 2025With sales of its cut-priced make-up seemingly going gangbusters investors might ponder why ELF Beauty’s (ELF:NYSE) share price performance is anything but pretty. The Californian business posted strong third-quarter fiscal 2025 revenues on 6 February, showing 31% year-on-year growth, yet earnings...
Will Walmart lose its retail crown to Amazon?
Thursday 13 Feb 2025Whisper it, but Walmart (WMT:NYSE) may be about to have its global retail crown swiped off its head by online giant Amazon (AMZN:NASDAQ) . Walmart has been the top shopping dog since blowing past Sears more than 30 years ago, but its status as worldwide number one (in revenue terms) could be tested...
Filtronic hits all-time high on latest SpaceX order
Thursday 13 Feb 2025Shares in Filtronic (FTC:AIM) have been on a roll over the past year as the communications kit designer has benefited from successive contract wins from SpaceX, Elon Musk’s rocket and spacecraft maker. On 10 February, the company signed a new £16.8 million contract to be fulfilled between now and...
HSBC to show a small rise in pre-tax profit for 2024
Thursday 13 Feb 2025There may be a sense of poignancy when Europe’s biggest bank HSBC (HSBA) r eports full-year earnings next week as for several hundred staff it will be the last call. At the end of January, the company informed managers in its UK, European and US corporate advisory and equity underwriting teams it...
HgCapital Trust continues to deliver impressive returns amid challenging times
Thursday 13 Feb 2025HgCapital Trust (HGT) 520p Gain to date: 13.2% Private equity investment trust HgCapital (HGT) has continued to put in a robust performance since we said last March that it can add growth and value to your portfolio. The businesses it invests in provide software and services ranging from tax,...
A resilient jobs market and spiking inflation expectations likely to keep US rates on hold
Thursday 13 Feb 2025The resilience of the US labour market looks likely to keep Federal Reserve rate cuts on hold for the foreseeable future. Although non-farm payrolls for January showed the economy added 143,000 jobs, below the median estimate of 170,000, figures for the prior two months were revised up by 100,000...
Investment trust consolidation era continues in 2025
Thursday 13 Feb 2025Consolidation across the investment trust sector continues, against a backdrop of wide NAV (net asset value) discounts, pressure on sub-scale funds and shareholder activism. 2024 proved a record year for mergers and acquisitions (M&A) across the sector, with 11 mergers and eight trusts being...
US companies on course for highest quarterly earnings growth since 2021
Thursday 06 Feb 2025Although much of the market’s focus last week was on president Donald Trump on the one hand, and Chinese AI start-up DeepSeek, on the other, there was also a slew of earnings reports which included a couple of Big Tech companies. Facebook, Instagram and Whatsapp-owner Meta Platforms (META:NASDAQ)...
The factors driving Imperial Brands to 52-week highs
Thursday 06 Feb 2025Shares in Imperial Brands (IMB) have gained nearly 30% over the past six months due to a combination of investors piling into defensive stocks amid bouts of global market volatility and a strong five-year strategic plan. The multi-national tobacco company shares recently hit a 52-week high at £27...
Barclays set to deliver strong annual profit growth after doubling share price
Thursday 06 Feb 2025Next week sees the start of the UK fourth-quarter reporting season proper, with the big banks kicking off proceedings as usual. First up is Barclays (BARC) , which has been in the news for all the wrong reasons recently with its online payments system seeming to have failed miserably around the end...