Friday, 31 January 2025
The Mighty Headlines
Economics: ECB cuts interest rates to 2.75 per cent
Business: Toyota remains world’s best-selling vehicle brand
Markets: FTSE 100 reaches record high
Foreign Affairs: Guantanamo Bay to hold criminal migrants from US
Security and intelligence: Chinese state-linked subterfuge in Spanish floods
Domestic politics: House of Commons passes new Charter of Budget Responsibility
The Mighty Stats
FTSE = 8.646,88 (up 1.04 per cent)
S&P500 = 6.071,17 (up 0.53 per cent)
Nasdaq = 19,681.75 (up 0.25 per cent)
CAC40 = 7.941,64 (up 0.88 per cent)
£1 = $1.24 / €1.19
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The Mighty Detail
Economics: The European Central Bank has cut interest rates to 2.75 per cent. This comes as inflation nears 2 per cent and economic growth remains weak. Eurozone GDP did not grow in Q4 2024. Portugal grew the most at 1.5 per cent. Ireland’s economy contracted the most at -1.3 per cent.
Business: Toyota has retained its spot as the world’s best-selling vehicle brand for the fifth year running. The Japanese company sold more than 10.8 million units in 2024, although this is a decrease of 3.7 per cent on 2023.
Markets: The FTSE 100 closed at a record high at the end of trading yesterday. This was helped by the value of shares in Shell, St James’s Place and Endeavour Mining increasing by 2.6 per cent, 6.7 per cent and 7.2 per cent respectively.
Foreign Affairs: President Trump has announced plans for Guantanamo Bay in Cuba to accommodate 30,000 criminal migrants. Trump said that “some of them are so bad…we don’t want them coming back”. Guantanamo Bay is best known for holding people the US Government suspects of terrorism activities.
Security and intelligence: There are reports that a Chinese state-linked group spread disinformation about the floods in Spain last year in a bid to destabilise the Spanish Government. Intelligence firm Graphika said that the Chinese campaign known as “Spamouflage” circulated content on social media calling for the Spanish administration to be overthrown.
Domestic politics: The House of Commons has passed a new Charter of Budget Responsibility into law. It includes a spending review every two years and a single tax event each year. A stability rule and an investment rule seek to ensure that day-to-day spending is met by revenue – not borrowing – and that debt falls as a share of the economy.
The Mighty Calendar
What’s happening today?
China, Hong Kong public holiday (new year)
UK house price data (January)
France CPI inflation data (January)
Germany unemployment rate (January)
US personal spending and income data (December)
South Korea trade data (January)
Company results from: ExxonMobil, Chevron
Lookahead to the weekend
Saturday
Six Nations Rugby - Scotland vs Italy
Six Nations Rugby – Ireland vs England
Launch of Japanese JAXA H3 rocket
Sunday
Groundhog Day, United States and Canada
Chinese New Year parade, Trafalgar Square, London
Annual clown service, All Saints Church, Hackney, London
The Mighty Finale
🌤️Weather today
Rain in southeast England in the morning. Dry elsewhere. High of 8C and low of 3C in London. Sunny in Belfast. Light cloud in Edinburgh.
✏️Life coaching quote of the day
“Everything you want is on the other side of fear.” – Jack Canfield, motivational speaker
Mighty takeaway: Don’t let fear hold you back. Go for it and live your life!
That’s about it for today’s edition and for this week. We hope you enjoy the weekend and we’ll see you on Monday.
Adios!
The Mighty Memo team