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London Quick Take – 12 September - Ocado plunges on Kroger review, miners lead FTSE higher, new records on Wall Street
Neil Wilson
Investor Content Strategist
Note: This is marketing material. This article is not investment advice, capital is at risk.
Key Points
- Ocado shares tumble after US partner Kroger commits to reviewing e-commerce order fulfilment
- Miners lead gainers on FTSE 100 as index nears fresh all-time high above 9,357
- Wall Street closes with record highs for the three major indices as inflation and unemployment rose
- Sterling shrugs as UK economy flatlines in July
Bulls in control: European stock markets trade broadly higher after all three major US indices closed at record highs yesterday despite warming inflation. At the same time as the inflation report, data showed US weekly jobless claims rising to the highest level in almost four years, underscoring the market’s belief that the Fed is ready to turn super dovish.
On the subject of weakening growth, the UK economy failed to grow in July (though really we ought to scrap the monthly GDP releases as they are too unreliable - the pound is kind of unmoved on the noise). Nevertheless, more bad news for the Chancellor might spur more radical action come the Budget? Is radical even good? On the plus side, Nvidia and OpenAI are set to announce a major AI infrastructure investment in the UK next week, with respective CEOs Jensen Huang and Sam Altman set to tie in with President Trump’s visit to the UK. This will require a lot of energy.
The FTSE 100 climbed about 0.2% early doors Friday, recovering the 9,300 level near to its all-time highs. Mining stocks powered the gainers with Fresnillo again riding high along with the likes of Anglo American, Endeavour Mining, Glencore and Antofagasta rounding out the top 5 gainers this morning.
Ocado shares fell sharply, sliding about 10% after some disturbing commentary from it US partner Kroger. Last night on its earnings call, the US retailer, which is Ocado’s biggest partner for its warehouse automation technology, said it would take a “hard look” at some of its automated facilities and carry out a "full site-by-site analysis" of its existing network. The comments are clearly a negative for Ocado as Kroger seems likely to move away from the kind of large CFCs provided by the British company and instead seems to be looking to lean on local stores to fill orders.
Earlier the S&P 500 had closed up 0.85% to 6,587, while the Nasdaq climbed 0.72% to 22,043. Tesla rallied 6% apparently on stronger Model Y sales in China, while Broadcom and Oracle gave back a little of their recent rallies.
US inflation was broadly in line at +2.9% year-on-year, but a tad hotter on a monthly basis at +0.4%. Core CPI was in line with expectations as well, at +3.1%. At the same time jobs data continued to show weakness with initial unemployment claims rising to 263k vs 235k expected. The CPI print showed further deviance from the Fed’s target, but was not enough to upset the bandwagon. Afterwards the USD OIS curve was fully discounting 3x 25bps cuts this year. The Federal Reserve meets next week.
There's being “deliberately uninformative” about the future policy path and then there’s saying absolutely sweet nothing about anything. Aside from repeating its promise not to pre-commit to a particular path (duh), there was nothing from the European Central Bank on the assessment of the Eurozone economy or on particular risks. There were staff updates though and the inflation outlook was revised up a touch along with growth this year.
Finally, a bit of froth: Opendoor Technologies – one of the new breed of so-called meme stocks – leapt nearly 80% higher after the company named its new CEO. The stock has been a retail trader favourite since hedge fund manager Eric Jackson turned his attention to the company following his successful bet on Carvana.
On the subject of weakening growth, the UK economy failed to grow in July (though really we ought to scrap the monthly GDP releases as they are too unreliable - the pound is kind of unmoved on the noise). Nevertheless, more bad news for the Chancellor might spur more radical action come the Budget? Is radical even good? On the plus side, Nvidia and OpenAI are set to announce a major AI infrastructure investment in the UK next week, with respective CEOs Jensen Huang and Sam Altman set to tie in with President Trump’s visit to the UK. This will require a lot of energy.
The FTSE 100 climbed about 0.2% early doors Friday, recovering the 9,300 level near to its all-time highs. Mining stocks powered the gainers with Fresnillo again riding high along with the likes of Anglo American, Endeavour Mining, Glencore and Antofagasta rounding out the top 5 gainers this morning.
Ocado shares fell sharply, sliding about 10% after some disturbing commentary from it US partner Kroger. Last night on its earnings call, the US retailer, which is Ocado’s biggest partner for its warehouse automation technology, said it would take a “hard look” at some of its automated facilities and carry out a "full site-by-site analysis" of its existing network. The comments are clearly a negative for Ocado as Kroger seems likely to move away from the kind of large CFCs provided by the British company and instead seems to be looking to lean on local stores to fill orders.
Earlier the S&P 500 had closed up 0.85% to 6,587, while the Nasdaq climbed 0.72% to 22,043. Tesla rallied 6% apparently on stronger Model Y sales in China, while Broadcom and Oracle gave back a little of their recent rallies.
US inflation was broadly in line at +2.9% year-on-year, but a tad hotter on a monthly basis at +0.4%. Core CPI was in line with expectations as well, at +3.1%. At the same time jobs data continued to show weakness with initial unemployment claims rising to 263k vs 235k expected. The CPI print showed further deviance from the Fed’s target, but was not enough to upset the bandwagon. Afterwards the USD OIS curve was fully discounting 3x 25bps cuts this year. The Federal Reserve meets next week.
There's being “deliberately uninformative” about the future policy path and then there’s saying absolutely sweet nothing about anything. Aside from repeating its promise not to pre-commit to a particular path (duh), there was nothing from the European Central Bank on the assessment of the Eurozone economy or on particular risks. There were staff updates though and the inflation outlook was revised up a touch along with growth this year.
Finally, a bit of froth: Opendoor Technologies – one of the new breed of so-called meme stocks – leapt nearly 80% higher after the company named its new CEO. The stock has been a retail trader favourite since hedge fund manager Eric Jackson turned his attention to the company following his successful bet on Carvana.
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