As every Sunday, the most important news from the past week, as well as the most important dates for the coming week.
Also as a video:
https://youtube.com/shorts/Tzvt-QWMEx0?si=s6XBg1idGvlqJmah
Monday:
Global military spending reaches a new record high. Global military spending amounted to 2.3 trillion euros in 2023. This is roughly equivalent to the GDP of France. At 859 billion euros, the USA spent around 37% of this. It is followed by China, Russia, India and Saudi Arabia. Germany follows in seventh place, just behind the UK. Ukraine follows in eighth place.
Despite the crisis in the construction industry, the sustainable insulation specialist $ST5 (+0.91%) Steico can significantly increase its profit. In particular, profits rose significantly in the first quarter from 2.1 to 5.9 million euros. The main reason was falling purchase prices, which is also exciting in view of the upcoming ECB interest rate decision. We hold a very small position of 3 shares in Steico in our value portfolio. For the most part, we exited at prices well above EUR 60.
https://www.ecoreporter.de/artikel/steico-gewinn-im-ersten-quartal-wächst-deutlich/
Tuesday:
The Chinese are buying fewer and fewer iPhones and more and more smartphones from the Chinese manufacturer Huawei. $AAPL (+2.87%) Apple's sales fell by 20% in China in the first quarter. Huawei's sales increased by 70 %. Apple is a victim of the rising tensions between the USA and China.
Wednesday:
$TSLA (+6.49%) Tesla suffers first drop in sales since 2020 in Q1 2024. Sales fell by 9% to USD 21.3 billion. The announcement of more affordable models at the end of the year already generated enthusiasm.
The German government surprisingly raises its growth forecast; instead of 0.2%, GDP growth of 0.3% is now expected. Among other things, the ifo business climate index has already climbed for 3 months in a row.
Thursday:
Our value stock $KGX (+5.89%) Kion starts the new quarter with solid figures. Turnover increased by 2.8%. Profitability increased, only the cash flow deteriorated slightly. In our view, it is also positive that incoming orders increased again compared to the same quarter last year.
Our value stock $HFG (-3.63%) Hellofresh reports quarterly figures and is particularly impressive with its growth in the ready meals segment. Overall, sales rose by 3.8%, but the ready meals division grew by 56.2%. Hellofresh thus broke the 2.07 billion euro sales barrier in one quarter, the highest ever. The bottom line will initially be lower due to the start-up financing of the ready meals brand.
Consumer sentiment in Germany 🇩🇪verbessert continues to improve. In April, sentiment rose for the third time in a row. However, the value of the GfK barometer remains in negative territory at -24.2 points. This means that negative responses to the survey continue to predominate. However, the trend is positive.
Growth in the USA 🇺🇸 is lower than expected at 1.6% in Q1. The inflation rate is also higher than expected. These are bad signs. In theory, the Fed should be looking at inflation rather than economic growth. This means that a reduction in interest rates in the USA could be postponed further. The stock markets are falling sharply.
After $META (+3.24%) Meta, the next tech company is now announcing a dividend payout. Alphabet will pay out 0.20 cents per share in future. The share price literally exploded after the announcement. The other figures are also convincing, with profits rising to 22 billion euros in one quarter.
Friday:
The Japanese 🇯🇵 central bank postpones the interest rate decision. As a result, the yen continues to fall. Last year, Germany became the world's third-largest economy despite zero growth, thanks to the weak yen.
Saturday:
The inflation rate in Germany is expected to have risen in April for the first time this year. Inflation was probably 2.3% in April, compared with 2.2% in March. The main reason for this is the renewed increase in VAT on gas and district heating.
These are the most important dates for the coming week:
Tuesday: 11:00 Inflation data (Eurozone)
Wednesday: 20:00 Interest rate decision (USA)
Friday: 14:30 Employment data (USA)