Monday, 27 January 2025
The Mighty Headlines
Economics: Argentina’s economy begins to grow
Business: WH Smith looks to sell its high street business
Markets: European stocks increased by 1 per cent last week
Foreign Affairs: Colombia and Mexico refuse migrant airplanes from US
Security and intelligence: Declassified CIA report shows Covid-19 from Chinese lab
Domestic politics: President Trump says relationship with Starmer is “very good”
The Mighty Stats
FTSE = 8,502.35 (down 0.73 per cent)
S&P500 = 6,101.24 (down 0.29 per cent)
Nasdaq = 19,954.30 (down 0.5 per cent)
CAC40 = 7,927.62 (up 0.44 per cent)
£1 = $1.25 / €1.19
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The Mighty Detail
Economics: Newly published data shows that Argentina’s economy grew for the first time since May. The country’s economy grew by 0.1 per cent in November. This is in contrast to the 0.6 per cent contraction that had been expected. President Milei is enacting major free-market reforms to Argentina to try to increase growth.
Business: WH Smith has said that it is looking to sell its high street operation and focus solely on its travel business. The high-street business employees around 5,000 people and includes 500 shops. The travel business includes 1,200 shops in airports, train stations and hospitals in 32 countries. It accounts for 75 per cent of WH Smith’s overall revenue.
Markets: The pan-European Stoxx 600 index closed down by 0.05 per cent on Friday but gained more than 1 per cent over the week. Decent earnings growth in European companies and confidence in US economic growth after Donald Trump’s inauguration may have played a part in the increase.
Foreign Affairs: The Colombian President Gustavo Petro has said that he will not allow US airplanes returning migrants to land in the country. There are also reports that Mexico is refusing entry to a US military plane scheduled to return migrants to Mexico.
Security and intelligence: A newly declassified CIA report claims that the origin of Covid-19 most likely came from a laboratory leak in China although it says this is not conclusive. The report was compiled under President Biden’s CIA Director, William Burns, but has only just been declassified by the new CIA Director, John Ratcliffe.
Domestic politics: President Trump has said that he has a “very good relationship” with UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer who has done a “very good job so far”. There have previously been concerns about Trump’s attitude to the UK Government, given that some Labour Party workers campaigned for Kamala Harris and the Foreign Secretary made derogatory comments about Donald Trump while in opposition.
The Mighty Calendar
What’s happening today?
King Charles attends Liberation of Auschwitz ceremony
EU Foreign Ministers meeting, Brussels
Germany business climate data (January)
Spain consumer confidence data (December)
Company results from: Ryanair, AT&T, Fujitsu
Lookahead to tomorrow
Inquiry into the Omagh bombing begins
China, South Korea public holiday (new year celebrations)
Japan CPI inflation data (yearly)
France consumer confidence data (January)
Spain unemployment data (Q4 2024)
US house price data (November)
Company results from: Boeing, Starbucks, General Motors, Lockheed Martin,
The Mighty Finale
🌤️Weather today
Basically, there is rain everywhere today. North, south, east and west. High of 9C and low of 8C in London.
✏️Life coaching quote of the day
“If you run into a wall, don’t turn around and give up. Figure out how to climb it.” – Michael Jordan, basketball player
Mighty takeaway: Don’t give up when you face obstacles. Find solutions to them.
That’s about it for today’s edition. See you tomorrow.
Adios!
The Mighty Memo team