28.08.2024

VW must further expand its austerity measures + KLARNA halves workforce due to AI + Figures from NVIDIA, HP and Salesforce today + Insurance companies at ATH

Due to sluggish demand and high discounts Volkswagen $VOW (+1.96%) must expand its austerity program. The core brand VW could no longer achieve its own savings targets for this year with the current measures alone, reports the Handelsblatt, citing people familiar with the matter. Two informants would cite a delta of 2 to 3 billion euros in the core brand's savings and efficiency package. According to the newspaper, a company spokesperson did not wish to comment on the information. So far, the VW core brand is planning to make sustainable savings of 10 billion euros by 2026 in order to achieve a target return of 6.5 percent. (Handelsblatt)

Insurance companies remain very strong: Munich Re $MUV2 (-1.1%) rose by 1.4 percent to 481.50 euros and marked new all-time highs, Allianz $ALV (-0.66%) have almost reached their highs for the year. "The bull market in the sector is continuing", said one market participant. The development in the sector continues to be strong, as the latest figures from Zurich Insurance $ZURN (-0.89%) underlined.

KLARNA (possible IPO in Q3 2024) The Swedish fintech company plans to almost halve its workforce as part of its increased use of artificial intelligence (AI). Jobs are likely to be cut, particularly in areas such as customer service and marketing. CEO Sebastian Siemiatkowski announced the benefits of AI in Klarna's second quarter results published the day before. The company has already reduced its workforce from 5,000 to 3,800 employees in the past year. Siemiatkowski told the FT that Klarna could employ up to 2,000 people in the coming years. "Not only can we do more with less, but we can do much more with less," he said. (Financial Times)

Wednesday: Stock market dates, economic data, quarterly figures

ex-dividend of individual stocks

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Quarterly figures / company dates USA / Asia

08:00 Hyundai Motor Investor Day

13:30 Abercrombie & Fitch quarterly figures

22:00 HP | Salesforce quarterly figures

22:20 Nvidia quarterly figures

Untimed: BYD | Foot Locker | Autodesk quarterly figures

Quarterly figures / Company dates Europe

06:50 Aroundtown half-year figures

10:00 Flatexdegiro half-year figures

Economic data

• 08:45 FR: Consumer confidence August PROGNOSIS: 92 previous: 91
• 10:00 EU: ECB, M3 money supply and lending July M3 money supply FORECAST: +2.7% yoy previously: +2.2% yoy
• 16:30 US: Crude oil inventory data (week) from the government Energy Information Administration (EIA)
• 23:59 US: Fed Atlanta President Bostic (2024 FOMC voting member), attends Stanford Club of Georgia event