Major International Business Headlines Brief::: 04 February 2022

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Major International Business Headlines Brief::: 04 February 2022 

 


 

 


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ü  Facebook owner Meta sees biggest ever stock market loss

ü  Amazon raises US price for Prime as profits jump

ü  European oil facilities hit by cyber-attacks

ü  Koo: India's Twitter alternative with global ambitions

ü  Interest rates rise again in bid to cool soaring prices

ü  Don't ask for a big pay rise, warns Bank of England boss

ü  KP Snacks hack prompts crisp and nut supplies warning

ü  Amazon helps stocks steady but prospects for rate hikes loom over markets

ü  U.S. employment growth likely slowed in January amid Omicron surge, job
losses possible

ü  France's Sanofi eyes rising earnings in 2022 after Q4 earnings increase

ü  Amazon hikes Prime membership fees in U.S. as wages, costs rise

ü  Toshiba to invest $1 bln to double power chip production

ü  Snap recovers from Apple privacy changes, shares surge 50%

ü  Japan's economy likely rebounded in Q4 on solid consumption

ü  Tanzania: Fish Value Rises to 166bn/-

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


 <mailto:info at bulls.co.zw> 

 


 

 

Facebook owner Meta sees biggest ever stock market loss

Facebook's owner Meta Platforms saw its stock market value slump by more
than $230bn (£169bn) on Thursday, in a record daily loss for a US firm.

 

Its shares fell 26.4% after quarterly figures disappointed investors.

 

Meta also said that Facebook's daily active users (DAUs) had dropped for the
first time in its 18-year history.

 

The company's share price slide saw chief executive Mark Zuckerberg's net
worth fall by $31bn, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.

 

The drop in Mr Zuckerberg's personal fortune was equivalent to the annual
gross domestic product of Estonia.

 

That came after Meta revealed that Facebook's DAUs fell to 1.929bn in the
three months to the end of December, compared to 1.930bn in the previous
quarter.

 

It was the first time ever that this measure of activity on the world's
biggest social network had gone into reverse.

 

Meta also warned of slowing revenue growth in the face of competition from
rival platforms including TikTok and YouTube, while advertisers were also
cutting spending.

 

Mr Zuckerberg said the firm's sales growth had been hurt as audiences,
especially younger users, had left for rivals.

 

The firm forecast revenues of between $27bn and $29bn for the first quarter
of this year, which was lower than analysts had expected.

 

Although the company has been making investments in video services to
compete with TikTok, owned by Chinese technology giant ByteDance, it makes
less money from those offerings than its traditional Facebook and Instagram
feeds.

 

It's clear that Meta is facing a whirlwind of different problems.

 

Last year Apple brought in its App Tracking Transparency policy.

 

It lets people choose whether or not they want to be tracked around the
internet by companies, like Meta, who can then sell that information to
advertisers.

 

That is a major problem for Facebook, because finding information out about
you and selling it to advertisers is exactly how it makes money.

 

Its quarterly results showed advertising income falling, partly for this
reason.

 

Meta's rivals, like TikTok, are also attracting younger audiences. And user
growth has stagnated around the world.

 

There are bigger longer term issues too.

 

Meta makes money from advertising. Yet the company's name has been changed
to mark a concept - the Metaverse - a thing that doesn't exist yet and won't
do for years.

 

Mark Zuckerberg is committed to spending tens of billions of dollars on the
project, even though evidence that people actually want to live their lives
in virtual reality is scant.

 

It all means many investors are unfriending.

 

Meta, which owns the world's second largest digital advertising platform
after Google, also said it had been hit by privacy changes on Apple's
operating system.

 

The changes, which make it harder for brands to target and measure their
advertising on Facebook and Instagram, could have an impact "in the order of
$10bn" for this year, the firm said.

 

"Clearly Meta got more impacted compared to its rivals as other social media
like Snap posted healthy results," said Sachin Mittal, head of telecom and
internet sector research at DBS Bank.

 

"While there has been a broad negative impact on the whole tech sector, we
reckon players with lower reliance on targeted ads or better algorithms to
cope with Apple's changes would still do well."

 

Meta's share price slump also dragged on other social media platforms,
including Twitter, Snap and Pinterest during Thursday's regular trading
session.

 

However, Snap's shares jumped by almost 60% in after-hours trade as it
reported its first ever quarterly profit.-bbc

 

 

 

Amazon raises US price for Prime as profits jump

Amazon is raising the price of its Prime service for US customers after
reporting record sales and profits.

 

The e-commerce giant said it was hiking the price by 17% to $139 for annual
membership.

 

The firm, which cited increased wage and shipping costs, said it had no
announcements to make about other countries "at this time".

 

It is the first increase since 2018 for Prime, which gives subscribers
access to benefits like faster shipping.

 

More than 200 million people globally pay for the service, many of them in
the US.

 

Amazon shares soared almost 15% in after hours trade on the news, which
accompanied the release of its end of 2021 performance.

 

Sales for the last three months of 2021 expanded by 10% year-on-year to
$137.4bn. But those gains were driven by growth in areas like its cloud
computing division, Amazon Web Services, and advertising, while its
e-commerce sales dipped from 2020, when the pandemic propelled blockbuster
gains.

 

The firm's profits in the quarter also jumped, to $14.3bn - almost double
the prior year. Its investment in electric vehicle maker Rivian, which
floated on the stock market in November, drove those increases.

 

For the year, sales rose 22% to $469.8 billion, sending profits to $33.4bn.

 

Analysts had been worried about how the firm would fare, after executives
warned last year they were seeing higher costs due to supply issues and
difficulty hiring workers.

 

Amazon said those challenges had hurt - and were likely to continue this
year. It forecast sales growth of 3%-8% in the first three months of 2022.

 

"As expected over the holidays, we saw higher costs driven by labour supply
shortages and inflationary pressures, and these issues persisted into the
first quarter due to Omicron," chief executive Andy Jassy said.

 

"Despite these short-term challenges, we continue to feel optimistic and
excited about the business as we emerge from the pandemic."

 

The company said inflation, including higher wages, drove $4bn more in costs
in the final months of 2021. With the increase in the Prime fees, the firm
is moving to shift some of those costs to customers.

 

Mr Jassy said some may quit Prime due to the fee increase, which goes into
effect on 18 February for new members and will apply after 25 March to
existing subscribers.

 

But he said that hadn't been a problem in the past.

 

Consumer spending in the US has remained strong, despite prices rising at a
7% rate last year - the fastest inflation in nearly four decades.-BBC

 

 

 

European oil facilities hit by cyber-attacks

Multiple oil transport and storage companies across Europe are dealing with
cyber-attacks.

 

IT systems have been disrupted at Oiltanking in Germany, SEA-Invest in
Belgium and Evos in the Netherlands.

 

In total dozens of terminals with oil storage and transport around the world
have been affected, with firms reporting that the attacks occurred over the
weekend.

 

But experts caution against assuming this is a co-ordinated attack.

 

The BBC understands that all three companies' IT systems went down or were
severely disrupted.

 

Belgian prosecutors say they are investigating the cyber-attack that's
affected SEA-Invest terminals including the company's largest in Antwerp,
called SEA-Tank.

 

A spokeswoman for the company said they were hit on Sunday with every port
they run in Europe and Africa affected.

 

The company is working to get a back-up IT system online but says that most
liquid transportation is operational.

 

The spokeswoman said SEA-Invest is aware of the cyber-attacks against other
companies but investigations have not determined if there is a link.

 

A spokesperson for Evos in the Netherlands told the BBC that IT services at
terminals in Terneuzen, Ghent and Malta have "caused some delays in
execution".

 

Limited capacity

On Monday Oiltanking Deutschland GmbH & Co. KG, which stores and transports
oil, vehicle fuels and other petroleum products, said it had been hacked.

 

The company was forced to operate at a "limited capacity" and was
investigating the incident, it said.

 

Some reports suggest the attack on Oiltanking is ransomware, where hackers
scramble data and make computer systems inoperable until they get paid a
ransom.

 

In May last year a ransomware attack on US oil supplier Colonial Pipeline
saw supplies tighten across the US and multiple states declaring an
emergency.

 

An employee of a major barging company in the Netherlands told the BBC that
port supply chains were disrupted.

 

The worker said they first noticed problems on Tuesday when oil deliveries
started slowing down. He said "things are moving but much slower than
normal".

 

The disruption comes as tensions remain high between Ukraine and Russia and
as concern over rising energy prices grows.

 

But cyber-security experts caution against jumping to the conclusion that
the multiple incidents are the result of a co-ordinated effort to disrupt
the European energy sector.

 

"Some types of malware scoop up emails and contact lists and use them to
automatically spam malicious attachments or links, so companies with shared
connections can sometimes be hit in quick succession," said Brett Callow,
Threat Analyst at cyber-security company Emsisoft.

 

"This is why you sometimes see sector-based or geographic-based clusters of
incidents."

 

Another possible explanation could be that all the companies use the same
software for operations that may have been compromised by hackers.-BBC

 

 

 

Koo: India's Twitter alternative with global ambitions

Can Indian microblogging app Koo beat Twitter?

 

That's certainly the goal, according to co-founder Mayank Bidawatka, who
says Koo expects to surpass Twitter's 25 million-strong user base in India
this year.

 

It had touched 20 million downloads in India by the end of 2021.

 

"We are now available in 10 languages, including English. This year we'd
like to cover all of India's 22 official languages," he told the BBC at the
company's headquarters in the southern city of Bangalore, a tech hub.

 

Koo was thrust into the spotlight last year as an alternative to Twitter
amid a row between the Indian government and the US microblogging platform.

 

Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government asked the platform to block
allegedly incendiary accounts - Twitter complied initially and then restored
them, citing "insufficient justification". The face-off continued as the
government threatened legal action against the company's employees in India.

 

This was in addition to an ongoing dispute over new digital rules that
sparked concerns about free speech and privacy. WhatsApp sued the
government, saying the rules would force it to violate privacy protections.

 

Irked by Twitter's defiance and alleged failure to comply with digital
rules, a flurry of cabinet ministers and lawmakers from Mr Modi's Bharatiya
Janata Party (BJP) migrated to Koo overnight. Mr Modi, who has a huge
following on Twitter, has stayed put.

 

Koo, which caters primarily to non-English users in India, launched in early
2020. It expanded to Nigeria in 2021 when the country suspended Twitter. It
now wants to reach 100 million users by the end of 2022.

 

Mr Bidawatka founded Koo along with Aparmeya Radhakrishna, an angel investor
and entrepreneur whose ride-sharing business TaxiForSure was acquired by the
Indian company Ola for $200m (£147m) in 2015. The two also run Vokal, a
knowledge-sharing platform in Indian languages.

 

Since last year, Koo has attracted cricketers and Bollywood stars - and it
expects the number of "eminent accounts", which now number 5,000, to triple
by the end of the year.

 

But it's also accused of amplifying government propaganda and letting
anti-Muslim hate speech go unchecked.

 

Social media has become yet another battleground in a sharply polarised
India - and the supporters of the Hindu nationalist BJP have long been
accused of relentlessly trolling those who are seen as critical or opposed
to Mr Modi.

 

Koo's guidelines explicitly prohibit hate speech and discriminatory or
offensive content. But with "koos" (its version of tweets) being generated
every second, moderation is hard, as is the case on other social media
platforms, including Twitter.

 

Mr Bidawatka says the problem needs to be solved using technology rather
than human moderators, and by involving the user community to flag posts
they deem toxic.

 

He says that there are "a lot of BJP folk" on Koo, but disagrees that it's
an echo chamber of right-leaning, anti-liberal voices. He adds that the app
hosts opposition leaders from 19 other parties, including state chief
ministers from the main opposition Congress party.

 

"There will always be some early adoptors. But how you start, and what
happens in the beginning should not define your entire journey," Mr
Bidawatka said. "As entrepreneurs, there is no reason for us to create
something that only a section of the population will use."

 

But according to Nikhil Pahwa, a digital rights activist, there is a clear
rationale for Mr Modi's government to promote Koo as a homegrown, even
"nationalist" alternative to Twitter, so that it can create a "soft landing
spot" for itself, in case the need to ban Twitter arises in the future.

 

Much like the Chinese "splinternet", where the state controls cyberspace,
India has, over the years, been pushing for greater digital sovereignty and
control of its internet, Mr Pahwa says.

 

These wider trends "will provide further tailwinds to Indian-owned platforms
(like Koo)," he adds.

 

He also notes that global big tech, governed by policies around data and
security "will find it increasingly difficult to grow in India".

 

Koo has a fair shot at success, he believes, if it can solve the issue of
how best to moderate content, while creating a safe space for users, which
Twitter has long struggled with.

 

Twitter logo displayed on a phone screen in Tehatta, Nadia, West Bengal,
India on June 16, 2020.

 

 

But it will need to make a more concerted effort to attract users with a
diversity of political views. As of now, liberal or anti-establishment
voices might be disinclined to leave Twitter or have an account on both
platforms.

 

The app's requirement for authentication via a mobile phone number to
register will also pose a challenge, Mr Pahwa says, because while it would
allow Koo to moderate content better, it "takes away the comfort of
anonymity" that Twitter grants to its users.

 

Still, Koo's distinctive focus on building a product for non-English
speakers makes it a compelling product.

 

Over the last few months the company has experimented a lot, such as giving
people the ability to 'koo' in multiple languages at once, and on one
screen.

 

Mr Bidawatka says Bollywood actors - who usually communicate with their fans
in English on social media - make use of this feature to reach wider
audiences across multiple languages.

 

Koo currently competes with ShareChat in India, a far bigger rival in terms
of its user base. As it scales up across Indian languages, it will be
doubling its headcount to 500 people.

 

Buoyed by the platform's success in Nigeria, Mr Bidawatka plans to take the
platform to countries outside India where English is not the dominant
language.

 

"South East Asia is exciting because of the large population and
under-penetration of existing platforms. That's definitely on the cards," Mr
Bidawatka says.

 

"English is spoken by only 20% of the world - 80% of the world does not
speak English," he adds. "That entire market is open to us."-BBC

 

 

 

Interest rates rise again in bid to cool soaring prices

Interest rates have risen for the second time in three months as the Bank of
England tries to curb a rapid rise in the cost of living.

 

The hike to 0.5% from 0.25% came as the Bank warned that price rises could
speed up.

 

Prices are expected to climb faster than pay, putting the biggest squeeze on
household finances in decades.

 

It comes as the chancellor unveiled a support package to help households
cope with a 54% jump in energy bills.

 

Rising gas and electricity costs are the main factors pushing up prices
across the economy.

 

Inflation, as measured by the consumer prices index (CPI), is expected to
peak at 7.25% in April, and average close to 6% in 2022.

 

This would be the fastest price growth since 1991 and is well above the
Bank's 2% target.

 

Despite that, the Bank of England governor Andrew Bailey has suggested
workers need to accept pay restraint, and should not ask for higher wages,
in order for inflation to be tamed more quickly.

 

There are also increasing signs of broader price pressures across the
economy.

 

Prices of household appliances such as fridges climbed almost 10% over the
past year.

 

Goods shortages also meant retailers were offering fewer bargains in the
January sales compared with previous years.

 

Food prices and rents were also likely to creep up in the short term, the
Bank warned.

 

Interest rate movements since 2005

Pay increases are not expected to keep pace with rising prices.

 

Post-tax incomes are forecast to fall 2% this year, after taking into
account the rising cost of living.

 

This represents the biggest fall in take-home pay since records began in
1990.

 

Despite this, the Bank said there had been a "material pick-up in pay
settlements" this year, with the average worker enjoying a 5% pay rise.

 

"Acute" staff shortages in sectors such as hospitality, engineering,
construction and IT also meant many employers were offering staff "ad-hoc"
bonuses to keep them.

 

The pandemic meant other workers had retired early, stayed in education or
cut down their hours for a better work life balance. The Bank said this had
created other labour shortages that could take "many years to be resolved".

 

Bank of England governor Andrew Bailey said the jobs market was
"extraordinarily tight", adding that when he speaks to businesses up and
down the UK, labour shortages are the "first, second and third thing people
want to talk about".

 

The Bank's decision to raise interest rates will make borrowing more
expensive, potentially hitting some households harder.

 

The Bank cannot do much to ease the energy price shock or rapid price rises
in some consumer goods, so it is sticking to its job by trying to keep
inflation stable, the Bank's deputy governor for monetary policy Ben
Broadbent said.

 

The rates rise coupled with soaring prices will make it more difficult for
some people to afford mortgage repayments.

 

Naomi Mellor, a vet who lives in Hatfield with her husband, sold their house
in April, but their next purchase fell through, so they're renting.

 

She said rising mortgage rates have had a big impact on what they can
afford.

 

"We're looking at a rise in our energy bills, a rise in our fuel bills and a
rise in our mortgage repayments, which altogether is going to contribute to
probably £200 to £300 a month more in our monthly bills.

 

"We're trying to buy a house and the rising mortgage rates have had a big
impact on what we can afford and how much we're going to be repaying on a
monthly basis," she said.

 

The Bank's rates decision will add just over £25 to the typical monthly
repayment for people on a tracker mortgage.

 

Those who have a standard variable rate mortgage will pay an extra £15 per
month on average.

 

Nearly two million people in the UK have one of these two types of mortgage.

 

While savers will hope for higher returns, many big banks failed to pass on
the full increase in December, when interest rates were increased from a
record low of 0.1%.

 

The worst squeeze on the income of households since 1990 is what the Bank
predicts.

 

Record energy bill rises from April will take inflation to a peak of 7.25%
in April, more than treble the Bank's normal target.

 

Some have called it "Black Thursday" for living standards.

 

In raising interest rates again and signalling more rate rises in the coming
months, and nearly voting for even more on Thursday, the Bank is putting the
nation on the couch in an exercise in mass psychology.

 

Inflation rises can be self-fulfilling. If workers, consumers and businesses
expect 7% rises to persist, they will pre-emptively put up prices and ask
for wage rises that then bring this about.

 

What the Bank is trying to do is to confine what is happening right now to
being a one-off shock.

 

To stop the inflation becoming "ingrained" as Bank governor Andrew Bailey
put it today.

 

There is a presentational issue here.

 

In ordinary circumstances interest rates are raised to temper booming or
bubbly growth - to take the punch bowl away from the party. But there is no
punch bowl. There is no party.

 

In fact the Bank lowered its forecasts for growth of the economy to 3.75%
from 5%, even though Omicron was not as damaging as feared.

 

The Bank's answer is that this series of rate rises will be enough to stop a
spiral of inflation, but will not go so high as to kill off the recovery. It
is a delicate balancing act indeed.

 

The recent rapid rise in prices led to some members of the Bank's Monetary
Policy Committee (MPC) to call for a bigger rate rise.

 

Four of the nine members voted to increase rates to 0.75% to ward off fears
that price rises could become more sustained.

 

The MPC voted unanimously to end new purchases as part of its £895bn bond
buying programme to support the economy.

 

The Bank also forecast that the rapid spread of the Omicron Covid variant
will hit growth this year.

 

The economy is forecast to stagnate in the first three months of this year,
while the Bank also cut its annual growth forecast for 2022 from 5% to
3.75%.

 

Policymakers expect the economy to grow by around 1.25% in 2023.

 

While consumers are expected to dip into their savings to maintain living
standards, this is expected to slow down later this year, weighing on
growth.-BBC

 

 

 

Don't ask for a big pay rise, warns Bank of England boss

Workers should not ask for big pay rises, to try and stop prices rising out
of control, the Bank of England governor has told the BBC.

 

Prices are expected to climb faster than pay, putting the biggest squeeze on
household finances in decades.

 

Andrew Bailey said the Bank raised rates to 0.5% from 0.25% to prevent
rising prices becoming "ingrained".

 

Asked if the Bank was also implicitly asking workers not to demand big pay
rises, he said: "Broadly, yes".

 

Inflation is on course to rise above 7% this year, leaving households facing
the biggest income squeeze in decades.

 

Post-tax incomes are forecast to fall 2% this year, after taking into
account the rising cost of living.

 

This represents the biggest fall in living standards since records began in
1990.

 

Workers are currently enjoying pay rises of just below 5% on average,
according to a Bank survey.

 

However, in sectors with big labour shortages, such as IT, construction and
engineering firms have started paying workers "ad-hoc" bonuses in order to
keep them.

 

Mr Bailey said that while it would be "painful" for workers to accept that
prices would rise faster than their wages, he added that some "moderation of
wage rises" was needed to prevent inflation becoming entrenched.

 

Mr Bailey said: "In the sense of saying, we do need to see a moderation of
wage rises, now that's painful. I don't want to in any sense sugar that, it
is painful. But we need to see that in order to get through this problem
more quickly."

 

In the year from 1 March 2020, Mr Bailey was paid £575,538 including
pension.

 

That is more than 18 times higher than the median annual pay for full-time
employees of £31,285 for the tax year ending 5 April 2021.

 

Inflation, as measured by the consumer prices index (CPI), is expected to
peak at 7.25% in April, and average close to 6% in 2022.

 

This would be the fastest price growth since 1991 and is well above the
Bank's 2% target.

 

There are also increasing signs of broader price pressures across the
economy.

 

Interest rate movements since 2005

Prices of household appliances such as fridges climbed almost 10% over the
past year.

 

Goods shortages also meant retailers were offering fewer bargains in the
January sales compared with previous years.

 

The price of services such as getting a haircut or a trip to the vet had
also become more expensive as companies passed on higher wage costs to
consumers, the Bank warned.

 

Mr Bailey described the jobs market as "extraordinarily tight", adding that
labour shortages were the "first, second and third thing people want to talk
about" when he visited businesses across the country.

 

The Bank's Monetary Policy Committee that sets interest rates suggested that
further rate rises would be needed "in the coming months" if the economy
continued to bounce back from the slowdown caused by the Omicron variant,.

 

However, Mr Bailey cautioned that the economic outlook was particularly
"uncertain"

 

This may not necessarily be the start of a "long march upwards" in interest
rates, he added.

 

The worst squeeze on the income of households since 1990 is what the Bank
predicts.

 

Record energy bill rises from April will take inflation to a peak of 7.25%
in April, more than treble the Bank's normal target.

 

Some have called it "Black Thursday" for living standards.

 

In raising interest rates again and signalling more rate rises in the coming
months, and nearly voting for even more on Thursday, the Bank is putting the
nation on the couch in an exercise in mass psychology.

 

Inflation rises can be self-fulfilling. If workers, consumers and businesses
expect 7% rises to persist, they will pre-emptively put up prices and ask
for wage rises that then bring this about.

 

What the Bank is trying to do is to confine what is happening right now to
being a one-off shock.

 

To stop the inflation becoming "ingrained" as Bank governor Andrew Bailey
put it today.

 

There is a presentational issue here.

 

In ordinary circumstances interest rates are raised to temper booming or
bubbly growth - to take the punch bowl away from the party. But there is no
punch bowl. There is no party.

 

In fact the Bank lowered its forecasts for growth of the economy to 3.75%
from 5%, even though Omicron was not as damaging as feared.

 

The Bank's answer is that this series of rate rises will be enough to stop a
spiral of inflation, but will not go so high as to kill off the recovery. It
is a delicate balancing act indeed.-BBC

 

 

 

KP Snacks hack prompts crisp and nut supplies warning

Shops have been warned deliveries of nuts and crisps could be at risk, after
KP Snacks was hit by ransomware.

 

In a letter to retailers, first reported by Better Retailing, the company
said it "cannot safely process orders or dispatch goods".

 

The producer of McCoys, Hula Hoops and various varieties of nuts apologised
for any disruption.

 

In a message quoted by Better Retailing, one wholesaler warned problems
could last into March.

 

"Initial discussions have highlighted that no orders will be being placed or
delivered for a couple of weeks at least and service could be affected until
the end of March at the earliest," the wholesaler wrote.

 

Countdown timer

In a post on the darknet, seen by BBC News, cyber-criminals published
personal documents from staff, with the company letterhead.

 

A countdown timer on the page warns more will be published unless a ransom
is paid.

 

Often, ransomware hackers will gain entry to a computer network, steal
valuable data and then scramble the victim's copies of documents.

 

Ransoms are then demanded for the decryption of the data and the deletion of
the hacker's copy of sensitive information.

 

Cyber-security response

KP Snacks, which has a factory in Billingham, said: "On Friday, 28 January,
we became aware that we were unfortunately victims of a ransomware incident.

 

"As soon as we became aware of the incident, we enacted our cyber-security
response plan and engaged a leading forensic information technology firm and
legal counsel to assist us in our investigation.

 

"We have been continuing to keep our colleagues, customers, and suppliers
informed of any developments and apologise for any disruption this may have
caused."

 

The police advise organisations not to pay ransoms but many do.

 

Last June, the world's largest meat-processing company paid criminals $11m
(£7.8m), for example.-BBC

 

 

 

Amazon helps stocks steady but prospects for rate hikes loom over markets

(Reuters) - Asian equity markets fought for a footing on Friday, supported
by an Amazon-led bounce in U.S futures, but oil's rise to a seven-year high
kept traders on edge over prospects that interest rates will rise to curb
global inflationary pressures.

 

MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan (.MIAPJ0000PUS)
ticked up 0.4%, led by a 1.5% rise for the Hang Seng index (.HSI) in its
first day of trading after this week's Lunar New Year holidays. Japan's
Nikkei (.N225) fell 0.4%.

 

 

Overnight the euro posted its sharpest jump in more than a year after
European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde left the door open to rate
hikes this year and said inflation was running hotter for longer than
expected.  

 

The Bank of England raised rates to 0.5% and nearly half its policymakers
wanted a bigger increase. The S&P 500 (.SPX) had its worst day in nearly a
year. read more

 

 

"We're seeing the environment is really changing in terms of central bank
stances, which were previously so camped in growth-supportive territory, but
now are shifting rapidly to fighting inflation," said Rob Carnell, chief
economist at ING in Singapore.

 

It follows a hawkish shift in rhetoric at the Federal Reserve over recent
months and has applied the blowtorch to bonds and to growth stocks - leaving
the likes of Facebook owner Meta Platforms (FB.O) little room to disappoint.

 

Meta plummeted more than 26% on Thursday, losing more-than-$200 billion of
its market capitalisation in what was the largest single day slide in value
by a U.S. company. It dragged the Nasdaq (.IXIC) down 3.7%, its worst day in
17 months.

 

However Amazon reported better-than-expected earnings after the bell and the
share jumped 17% in after hours trade - driving Nasdaq 100 futures up 1.7%
and bolstering sentiment in Asia.  

 

Shares of Snap (SNAP.N) and Pinterest (PINS.N) surged in extended trading,
too, following strong quarterly reports, and Twitter also jumped, reversing
some earlier losses. 

 

YIELDS JUMP

 

Still, the backdrop is one of pressure from rising rates which analysts say
is unlikely to abate even if U.S. labour data comes in fairly weak later on
Friday, as economists expect.

 

Yields in Europe leapt overnight after the ECB's hawkish turn, with the
yield on benchmark 10-year German bunds up 12 basis points (bps) to an
almost three-year high of 0.155%.  

 

Two-year yields rose 14 bps to -0.322%, well above the the ECB's policy rate
of -0.50%. In Britain, bets on more BoE hikes are firming and two-year gilts
rose more than 10 bps to an 11-year high of 1.169%.

 

Even anchored Japanese government bonds scaled six-year highs on Friday,
taking the five-year yield to zero, as investors girded for the Bank of
Japan to follow peers and tighten policy.  

 

Treasuries also sold overnight and were steady in Asia, with the two-year
yield at 1.2179% and the 10-year yield at 1.814%.

 

In the currency markets, the euro's surge lifted it to a three-week high of
$1.1451 and the dollar index is staring down the barrel of its worst week in
nearly two years with a fall of more than 2% over the week so far.

 

A risk-averse mood has kept a lid on trade-linked currencies, however, and
the Australian dollar was last steady at $0.7140 and the kiwi at 0.6673.

 

U.S. crude was up 0.45% and trading over $90 a barrel for the first time
since 2016 as frigid weather threatened to disrupt supply, while Brent was
up 0.43% to $91.48 per barrel.

 

The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

 

 

 

U.S. employment growth likely slowed in January amid Omicron surge, job
losses possible

(Reuters) - U.S. job growth likely slowed sharply in January as COVID-19
infections lashed the nation, disrupting activity at high-contact business,
a temporary setback to the labor market recovery that was already reversing
at the end of the month.

 

There is even a strong possibility that the economy lost jobs last month as
lower-paid hourly workers in industries like healthcare as well as leisure
and hospitality, who typically do not have paid sick leave, bore the brunt
of the winter wave, driven by the Omicron variant of the coronavirus.

 

The Labor Department will publish its closely watched employment report on
Friday. Economists and White House officials have urged against reading too
much into the report, which will also contain annual revisions to the
establishments data and new population controls for the household survey.
Federal Reserve officials, who are expected to start raising interest rates
next month, are likely to brush aside the report.

 

"The hiccup in the labor market and lost jobs is temporary. It is the
inflation danger that is paramount in the minds of Fed officials," said
Christopher Rupkey, chief economist at

 

FWDBONDS in New York. "We don't care how weak the monthly employment report
is for January, no central banker worth his or her salt will believe the
economy is faltering."

 

The survey of establishments is likely to show that nonfarm payrolls
increased by 150,000 jobs last month after rising by 199,000 in December,
according to a Reuters poll of economists.

 

Part of the slowdown will reflect ongoing challenges finding workers, with
10.9 million job openings at the end of December.

 

Estimates range from a decrease of 400,000 to a gain of 385,000. A decline
in payrolls would be the first since December 2020.

 

According to the Census Bureau's Household Pulse Survey published in
mid-January, 8.8 million people reported not being at work because of
coronavirus-related reasons between Dec. 29 and Jan. 10. Its survey of small
businesses also showed an increase in establishments reporting large
negative impacts from the pandemic between Jan. 10 and Jan. 16.

 

The government surveyed businesses in mid-January for the payrolls portion
of the employment report, when Omicron infections were peaking. Workers who
are out sick or in quarantine and do not get paid during the payrolls survey
period are counted as unemployed in the establishment survey even if they
still have a job with their companies.

 

According to the latest government data, paid sick leave was available to
79% of civilian workers in March 2021.

 

The labor market, and indeed the economy's troubles at the start of the year
are mostly behind. The government reported on Thursday that first-time
applications for unemployment benefits dropped for a second straight week
last week, retreating further from a three-month high touched in
mid-January. read more

 

The United States is reporting an average of 385,875 new COVID-19 infections
a day, sharply down from the more than 700,000 in mid-January, according to
a Reuters analysis of official data.

 

"As the medical situation changes, so will the employment impact," said Brad
McMillan, chief investment officer at Commonwealth Financial Network in
Waltham, Massachusetts. "The January jobs report will be another great
example of how not reacting to immediate news, but instead looking at the
underlying data, can make you a better investor."

 

NOISY REPORT

 

Adding to the uncertainty surrounding the payrolls number, actual employment
in January typically falls after the holiday season hiring. The model used
by the government to strip out seasonal fluctuations from the data accounts
for this by adding about 3 million jobs to produce the seasonally adjusted
figure.

 

The government estimated last August that the economy created 166,000 fewer
jobs in the 12 months through March 2021 than previously reported. This
could impact the January figure.

 

"If fewer than usual layoffs occur in some industries this year, perhaps
reflecting that the level of employment is already lower than desired given
worker shortages, adjusted figures would show a large increase," said
Veronica Clark, an economist at Citigroup in New York.

 

A weak payrolls number was flagged this week by the ADP National Employment
report, which showed private payrolls declined in January for the first time
in a year.

 

White House officials have been frantically trying to prepare the nation for
a disappointing payrolls number, with several officials offering a preview
of the report.

 

The survey of households, from which the unemployment rate is derived, could
offer a better view of the labor market. It counts people who have a job as
employed regardless of whether they got paid during the survey week if they
were temporarily absent from their jobs because of illness, bad weather,
vacation, labor-management disputes, or personal reasons.

 

The unemployment rate is forecast unchanged at 3.9%, underscoring tightening
labor market conditions. New population assumptions will, however, cause a
break in the series. January's jobless rate and other ratios from the
household survey are not directly comparable to December.

 

With Omicron's surge keeping workers at home, the pool of labor likely
remained small. The workforce is 2.2 million jobs below its pre-pandemic
level.

 

The loss of low-paying hourly jobs likely boosted wage growth. Average
hourly earnings are forecast rising 0.5%, which would raise the annual
increase to 5.2% from 4.7% in December. Economists also expected an increase
in overtime pay as workers covered for their absent colleagues.

 

The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

 

 

France's Sanofi eyes rising earnings in 2022 after Q4 earnings increase

(Reuters) - French drugmaker Sanofi (SASY.PA) said it would aim to further
increase its earnings per share (EPS) this year as it reported rising
fourth-quarter results on Friday.

 

The group, which is hoping for a comeback after losing ground in the
COVID-19 jab race, is eyeing an increase in its EPS in the "low
double-digit" in 2022.

 

Its sales in the three months to December grew 4.1% to 9.99 billion euros
($11.45 billion) while its EPS came in at 1.38 euros.

 

For the whole of 2021, its earnings per share rose by 15.5% at constant
exchange rates, while the company had guided for a rise of 14%.

 

($1 = 0.8725 euros)

 

The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

 

 

 

Amazon hikes Prime membership fees in U.S. as wages, costs rise

(Reuters) - Amazon.com Inc on Thursday said it was raising the price of its
annual U.S. Prime subscriptions by 17%, as it looks to offset higher costs
for shipping and wages that it expects to persist this year.

 

Shares rose as much as 17% in extended trade as Amazon also beat profit
expectations for the holiday season. If shares increase on Friday by that
much, it would be the stock's biggest percentage gain since October 2009 and
grow founder Jeff Bezos' wealth by about $20 billion.

 

For the holiday quarter, Amazon earned $14.3 billion, double its net income
from a year earlier. That included a pre-tax gain of $11.8 billion from its
stake in electric car maker Rivian Automotive (RIVN.O).

 

On the heels of a windfall from greater at-home shopping in the pandemic,
Amazon has poured money into its operations to manage disruptions, most
recently the Omicron variant of COVID-19. It has marketed signing bonuses to
attract hundreds of thousands of workers in a tight labor market, and it has
paid more for shipping because it could not get products into the right
warehouses.

 

Now, as analysts have expected, Amazon is raising the price of Prime. U.S.
monthly fees for the fast-shipping and media service are increasing to
$14.99 from $12.99, and annual membership is going up to $139, from $119.
The change is effective Feb. 18 for new members and reflects greater
benefits such as savings on prescription drugs and faster delivery, Amazon
said.

 

Chief Financial Officer Brian Olsavsky told reporters on a conference call
that Amazon expected some members to quit, but retention loss "hasn't been
large in the past." The annual fees last went up by the same amount four
years ago, and four years before that.

 

Revenue per Prime member "did grow significantly during the pandemic,"
Olsavsky added.

 

With more than 200 million members globally, Prime is an incentive to
consumers to direct more of their shopping to Amazon. That way, they make
the most of their subscriptions. Revenue from such fees for the fourth
quarter rose 15% to $8.1 billion.

 

The company announced no changes for Prime members outside the United
States.

 

Operational disruptions, lost productivity and inflationary pressures
contributed to more than $4 billion in costs during the holidays, Olsavsky
said. Labor-related challenges would continue, though to a lesser degree,
this quarter, and the company's capital expenditures on infrastructure would
rise in 2022, he told analysts.

 

Offsetting softer e-commerce trends, key cloud unit Amazon Web Services
(AWS) performed better than expected.

 

"The one clear bright spot for the core business was the continued
acceleration in AWS to help bolster a bottom line that was otherwise
squeezed, if not for the boost it got from the Rivian investment," Insider
Intelligence analyst Andrew Lipsman said.

 

With demand rising for gaming and remote work during the pandemic, AWS
posted a 40% increase in revenue to $17.8 billion. Analysts had expected
more than $17.3 billion, according to IBES data from Refinitiv.

 

The unit even won a key customer, announcing Thursday an expanded
partnership with retailer Best Buy Co Inc (BBY.N). AWS has long sought
rivals as its marquee clients, such as Netflix Inc , to show it is a
trustworthy partner and not scooping up competitors' data.

 

Microsoft Corp (MSFT.O) and Alphabet Inc's (GOOGL.O) Google recently
forecast a positive outlook or results for their cloud businesses as well,
though research firm Canalys said AWS stayed ahead. It won 33% of cloud
infrastructure spend worldwide in the fourth quarter, versus 22% for
Microsoft and 9% for Google. read more

 

Amazon also broke out ad revenue for the first time, reporting a 32%
increase to $9.7 billion for the fourth quarter. That's bigger than the ad
sales Alphabet's YouTube reported for the same period.

 

An Amazon official told reporters that the ability of brands to reach
consumers across its ad properties was "largely unchanged" after Apple Inc's
(AAPL.O) privacy tweaks to its operating system.

 

The changes made it more difficult for brands to target and measure ads on
Instagram and Facebook, for instance, causing parent Meta Platforms Inc
(FB.O) to anticipate around a $10 billion hit this year and sending its
shares down 26% Thursday.

 

Still, Amazon forecast first-quarter sales below Wall Street estimates,
projecting between $112 billion and $117 billion, or to grow between 3% and
8%.

 

Analysts were expecting about $120 billion, according to IBES data from
Refinitiv.

 

The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

 

 

 

Toshiba to invest $1 bln to double power chip production

(Reuters) - Toshiba Corp (6502.T) said on Friday it will invest about 125
billion yen ($1.09 billion) to more than double production of power
management semiconductors, aiming to catch up with power chip giants such as
Infineon Technologies AG (IFXGn.DE).

 

The Japanese industrial conglomerate will build a cutting-edge
300-millimeter fabrication plant in central Japan for power management
chips, which efficiently control electric power in cars, electronic devices
and industry equipment.

 

Toshiba will invest around 100 billion yen in the new plant, on top of a 25
billon yen investment in a 300-millimeter fabrication line it is building at
an existing chip plant, a Toshiba spokesperson said.

 

The new plant is set to start operating by March 2025. When the first phase
is complete, Toshiba's power chip output capacity would be 2.5 times its
current level. Depending on demand, the new plant could further expand with
additional investment, the spokesperson said.

 

($1 = 114.8700 yen)

 

 

 

Snap recovers from Apple privacy changes, shares surge 50%

(Reuters) - Snap Inc (SNAP.N) on Thursday said its advertising business
bounced back from the effects of Apple Inc's (AAPL.O) privacy changes faster
than it expected, and shares of the company skyrocketed 50% as it provided a
first quarter outlook that surpassed analyst estimates.

 

The results were good news for a tech sector hammered since yesterday on
gloomy outlooks and concern that Apple's privacy updates, which were
introduced last year and allow users to prevent apps from tracking their
online activity for advertising purposes, would hurt ad revenue.

 

Snap forecast first-quarter revenue between $1.03 billion to $1.08 billion,
and daily active users to be between 328 million to 330 million. The
guidance for both metrics surpassed analyst estimates, according to IBES
data from Refinitiv.

 

Digital pinboard company Pinterest Inc (PINS.N) also reported
higher-than-expected revenue on Thursday and its shares rose 20%. read more

 

The earnings reports from both Snap and Pinterest contrast with that of
Facebook owner Meta Platforms Inc (FB.O), whose sharesfell 26% on Thursday
in what could be the largest single-day wipeout in market value for a U.S.
company, a day after it said the impact from Apple's privacy changes could
be "in the order of $10 billion" this year.

 

Meta said the Apple updates hurt advertisers' ability to target ads to
potential customers and measure the effectiveness of ads.

 

A large portion of Snap's advertisers began using new ad measurement tools
by the end of the fourth quarter, and parts of Snap's advertising business
began to recover from the Apple changes "quicker than we anticipated," said
Snap Chief Financial Officer Derek Andersen, in prepared remarks released
ahead of the earnings call with analysts.

 

However, global supply chain disruptions and labor shortages hurt
advertising demand from consumer packaged goods and restaurant brands, he
added.

 

Snap's revenue for the fourth quarter ended Dec. 31 was $1.3 billion, an
increase of 42% from the prior-year quarter. The figure beat analyst
expectations of $1.2 billion, according to IBES data from Refinitiv.

 

Daily active users on Snapchat rose 20% year-over-year to 319 million,
beating consensus estimates of 316.5 million.

 

Snap still has a long runway for growth compared to larger tech rivals. It
has developed a strategy to attract new users across Latin America, Europe
and Asia. Meta reported Wednesday that Facebook has 2.91 billion monthly
users globally, which showed no growth compared with the previous quarter.

 

Snap also reported its first quarter of positive net income since its
initial public offering, with earnings of $22.5 million in the fourth
quarter, compared with a net loss of $113 million in the prior-year quarter.

 

The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

 

 

 

Japan's economy likely rebounded in Q4 on solid consumption

(Reuters) - Japan's economy likely rebounded in the final three months of
2021 as consumption rose during a drop off in COVID-19 cases, a Reuters poll
showed, though it could slide back into contraction this quarter after a
spike in Omicron variant infections.

 

The poll also showed wholesale prices continued to rise in January from a
year earlier, a sign higher energy and raw material costs will keep eroding
corporate profits.

 

The world's third-largest economy likely grew an annualised 5.8% in
October-December, rebounding from a 3.6% contraction in the third quarter,
according to a median forecast of 18 economists polled by Reuters.

 

The increase was driven largely by a 2.2% rise in private consumption, which
accounts for more than half of Japan's gross domestic product (GDP), the
poll showed.

 

Capital expenditure likely gained 0.5%, while external demand added 0.3%
point to GDP growth in October-December after neither adding nor shaving off
the previous quarter's figures, the poll showed.

 

"Japan's economy clearly turned up in October-December, as foot traffic
recovered thanks to the lifting of COVID-19 curbs and falling infection
cases," said economists at SMBC Nikko Securities.

 

Separate data will likely show wholesale prices rose 8.2% in January from a
year earlier, slowing for the second straight month but still hovering near
the record 9.0% hit in November, the poll showed.

 

Household spending likely rose 0.3% in December from a year earlier, marking
the first rise in five months, the poll showed.

 

The government will release preliminary October-December GDP data at 8:50
a.m. on Feb. 15 (2350 GMT, Feb. 14) and household spending data at 8:30 a.m.
on Feb. 8 (2330 GMT, Feb. 7).

 

The Bank of Japan will release the wholesale price data at 8:50 a.m. on Feb.
10 (2350 GMT, Feb. 9).

 

The government reinstated coronavirus curbs in most areas in Japan, and
local authorities are mulling over even stricter restrictions to stop the
fast spread of the Omicron variant. On Thursday, Japan's daily infections
exceeded 100,000 for the first time.  

 

The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

 

 

Tanzania: Fish Value Rises to 166bn/-

FISH worth 166.5bn/- were traded in the registered markets during the
quarter ending September last year which is 54.4 per cent higher than
107.8bn/- in the similar quarter in 2020, driven by volume increase
following favourable weather and increased use of proper fishing tools.

 

According to the Bank of Tanzania (BoT), Consolidated Zonal Economic
Performance Report a total of 37,840 tonnes were traded in the market during
the period under review compared to 17,990.7 tonnes in the corresponding
quarter.

 

All zones recorded an increase, with Lake Zone representing 64.0 per cent of
the total value of fish sold in the markets.

 

 

The Lake Zone traded a total of 23,654.4 tonnes in the quarter under review
that generated 106.5bn/- compared to 5,603.5 tonnes of fish worth 60.5bn/-
in the corresponding quarter 2020.

 

In the Southern Highlands, a total of 4,268.5 tonnes of fish were traded
with a value of 15.35bn/- compared to 3,186.6 tonnes worth 13.33bn/- in a
similar quarter in 2020.

 

For the Southern Eastern zone, a total of 4,139.5 tonnes of fish were traded
in the registered markets during the quarter under review generating
22.51bn/- compared to 4,759.3 tonnes with 17.50bn/- in the previous year.

 

In the Dar es Salaam zone, a total of 2,880.4 tonnes of fish worth 10.56bn/-
were traded in the reference period compared to 2,845.8 tonnes of fish
valued at 8.36bn/- in the corresponding quarter of 2020.

 

The Central zone traded a total of 208.1 tonnes valued at 1.26bn/- in the
third quarter of 2021 compared to 137.1 tonnes worth 633.9m/- in the
corresponding quarter.-Daily News.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


 


 


Invest Wisely!

Bulls n Bears 

 

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INVESTORS DIARY 2022

 


Company

Event

Venue

Date & Time

 


 

 

 

 

 


 

 

 

 

 


 

 

 

 

 


 

 

 

 

 


 

 

 

 

 


Companies under Cautionary

 

 

 


 

 

 

 


ART

PPC

 

 


Starafrica

Fidelity

Turnall

 


Medtech

Zimre

Nampak Zimbabwe

 


 

 

 

 


 <mailto:info at bulls.co.zw> 

 


 

 


DISCLAIMER: This report has been prepared by Bulls ‘n Bears, a division of
Faith Capital (Pvt) Ltd for general information purposes only and does not
constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy or
subscribe for any securities. The information contained in this report has
been compiled from sources believed to be reliable, but no representation or
warranty is made or guarantee given as to its accuracy or completeness. All
opinions expressed and recommendations made are subject to change without
notice. Securities or financial instruments mentioned herein may not be
suitable for all investors. Securities of emerging and mid-size growth
companies typically involve a higher degree of risk and more volatility than
the securities of more established companies. Neither Faith Capital nor any
other member of Bulls ‘n Bears nor any other person, accepts any liability
whatsoever for any loss howsoever arising from any use of this report or its
contents or otherwise arising in connection therewith. Recipients of this
report shall be solely responsible for making their own independent
investigation into the business, financial condition and future prospects of
any companies referred to in this report. Other  Indices quoted herein are
for guideline purposes only and sourced from third parties.

 


 

 


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