This is a story of the one.As a maintenance specialist for university housing, he knows college students can major in wear and tear.Plus, housing so many students doesn't leave a lot of room to house all the supplies he needs.
That's where Grainger comes in.With over a million industrial-grade products and fast, dependable delivery, Grainger carries the quality products he needs so he doesn't have to, from a new door hinge to a whole new faucet.
Call, click Grainger.com, or just stop by.Grainger, for the ones who get it done.
The SharePickers podcast with Justin Waite.The content of this podcast is not intended as investment advice.It is for information purposes only.Please do your own research.
Yet another business says the budget has negatively affected their growth plans. Welcome to Macro Macro News for Friday the 8th of November 2024.
So the entertainer toy shop chain says it has been forced to drop plans to open two new stores after the government said it would raise national insurance contributions for employers.
Chief Executive Andrew Murphy told the BBC the higher taxes announced in last week's budget meant it could no longer go ahead with the shops and it's also frozen hiring at its head office. This is mad, isn't it?Do you remember Labour's growth plan?
This is it.This is how it pans out.So those two shops would have employed, I don't know, how many people?All those people would have been paying tax and national insurance.Now they're not going to be.
A number of companies, including Sainsbury's, Marks & Spencer's, have hinted that Labour's changes to NI could result in higher prices for customers.
Hospitality groups have been hit with a wave of downgrades, by the way, by Deutsche Bank, following the rises in the minimum wage and national insurance unveiled by the Labour government.Greggs.I don't know if you've seen Greggs' share price today.
Greggs, a classic performer.Excellent business.Where is Greggs today?Let me just check the share price. Greggs is down, it's one of the big fallers today, and that's unusual for Greggs.It's down 6.6%.
And this is like, you know, a three billion market cap company. But they've been downgraded by Deutsche Bank.They've got a target price now of 24 quid, which at the moment is £26.20 at the moment.
Meanwhile, the Treasury, in fact, they've put them down to a sell, Deutsche Bank.The Treasury have said, we have to make difficult choices to fix the foundations, fix the foundations.They have no idea what the foundations are, do they?
The foundations are business.Small, medium-sized business which you are not helping, you are not enabling, you are restricting them, you are raising their costs.Put more money in your pocket, more pounds in your pocket.Smash the gags.
22 billion pound black hole we inherited from Tories. They're like robots, aren't they?They have no personality, no substance, no depth.
They're very superficial, just reeling off these little catchphrases, hoping that the brain-dead population, as they believe, will remember them, thinking, yes, no, they've got to fix the foundations.
Because when you've got people who lack intelligence, that's what they'll just regurgitate.No, they're fixing the foundations.They're going to put more pounds in our pocket.
Labour think by raising the national wage and NI, it will help the economy and fix the foundations.What they don't understand is if businesses struggle, there will be less workers.
So the economy and people won't feel better off because, like the entertainer there, they've frozen hiring.They're not going to employ more people.This is an anti-growth policy. Absolutely is.And do you know what?
If Labour don't realise it by now, then it's worrying on both counts.First of all, they may be in denial that this policy is completely wrong.Secondly, if they don't realise it, that's even worse.They're doubling down on their stupidity.
By the way, I've not mentioned this, but I should mention it, really, because I've been told by my publisher to give it a mention.My book is now on pre-order.I would really appreciate it, by the way, if you ordered a copy.
It would really help and, you know, really put me in the good books with my publisher, Harriman House. How to become a microcap millionaire.Three-step strategy for stock market success.And you can see that it's 23% off still at Amazon.
Let me just check that out.I don't want to give false information here.But yes, paperback version, 23% off, £15.39.Right now, Kindle version is £14.62.There's no discount on that, but it's still cheaper than the paperback.
Yeah, so that's available and I think until it goes on, you know, because it's published on the 3rd of December, so maybe until then.Okay, let's have a look at the markets.FTSE 100 down over half of 1%.
Right now, the FTSE is just crossing over the 200-day moving average.Well done, Labour.It hasn't crossed down over the 200-day moving average since the 13th of February, nine months ago. Futsi 250, down over half of 1%, 20,520.
Futsi small cap, down half of 1%, 6,832.The aim all share, down a third of 1%, to 7,35. Gold down 31% to 2,697.Copper down 2.5% to 4.33.What's that in tons?In tons, that would be 9,550.And Brent crude, it's flat, $74 a barrel.
Okay, listen, it's not, do you know what's annoying at the moment? Companies are not releasing news on Fridays.I don't know why that is.I'm sure it's the PR or Nomad advising companies don't release the news on Fridays.
No, people don't read RNS's Fridays.The markets are open five days a week, ladies and gentlemen.What is going on? There's very little news out there.
I don't know whether it's about press coverage or that, but we are living in the modern day now, where the internet is switched on 24 hours a day.And in fact, I think Friday's a very good day for releasing good news to the market.
Because people have all weekend to read about it, and if the share price rises on a Friday, then people feel they've missed out.If they haven't seen the news, they'll catch up on the weekend and buy on Monday.
So it's two days, pretty much guaranteed, to rise.So please, if you are a company, if you're listening to this, you are a CEO, CFO, advisor, please don't advise your companies not to release good news on a Friday.
It's one of the best days to release good news on. It absolutely is.And in fact, the fact that now most companies aren't releasing news on Friday makes it stand out.OK, that's the market's macro news. Story number one.
UK starting pay cools again, the survey shows.Britain's labour market showed further signs of cooling last month, according to a survey that showed the weakest wage growth since early 2021.
And tax increases in last week's budget might further hit hiring.There you go, budget again.Got to fix the foundations.Take tough decisions, fix foundations.
The Recruitment and Employment Confederate, KPMG, says gauge of starting pay for permanent roles slowed to 52.5 in October from 52.8 in September for its weakest level since February 2021 during the coronavirus pandemic.
So the Bank of England, are you paying attention to this?I can't believe there's one lady who said the rate should be kept on hold at 5%.And I looked her up, I can't think of her name now, and someone. But she's an economist.
All she's ever done is work for universities and stuff like that.Never ever had any experience with business whatsoever.Go out there and speak to real people.See if they're having a good time in the market, in the economy.See if people are buying.
It's not a bubbly economy.It's really not.Inflation's coming down.It really is.Even with wages going up, because less people are going to be hired, and more people are going to be fired.
The only way to survive this, the only way to encourage growth is the Bank of England have to keep bringing down interest rates.By the way, Barclay says the Bank of England hold rates in December meeting.That's what they're saying now.
So the budget again.The budget has done this again.In fact, it's a double knock on growth.The one thing we could rely on, the Bank of England reducing interest rates to stimulate the economy, is not going to happen now.
Barclays expects the Bank of England to hold interest rates at its December meeting, revising its prior forecast of a cut, citing the Central Bank's cautious tone that emphasises uncertainty and gradual policy moves.
They cut interest rates, of course, on Thursday, second time since 2020, and said future reductions would like to be gradual, as they predicted British government's first budget would lead to higher inflation and economic growth.
It may lead to higher inflation, it will not lead to economic growth.We have a struggling economy, and how do they think it's going to grow with interest rates at, what, 4.75% and people generally struggling, cost of living crisis?
Story number three.US Central Bank boss says Trump can't fire him.Actually, he said no twice.That's the answer he gave.No.
Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell said he would not step down if Trump asked him, and that is not permitted under law for the White House to force him out.
Mr Powell was responding to questions from reporters at a press conference after the bank announced a cut to borrowing costs, lowering the Fed's key lending rate range to 4.5% to 4.75%.
Forecasters have been expecting borrowing costs to fall further in the month ahead, but warned that Trump's plans for tax cuts, immigration and tariffs could keep pressure on inflation and drive up government borrowing, complicating those bets.
Trump has pledged to impose an import duty of at least 10% on all goods coming into the country, costs that economists say will be passed on to customers and consumers, helping to drive up prices.
Tax cuts could also stoke inflation by encouraging spending, while the mass deportations of immigrants posed by Trump would create a big hole in the US workforce that could drive up wages.Yeah. The markets may be rallying a little bit.
What's the future like at the moment?I mean, the markets are not opening in America, but I can't see it happening for a long time.In fact, the forecast will be down a little bit.The Nasdaq is forecast to be down 51%, not a lot.
I honestly think the American markets are going to roll over.What are the bonds like at the moment?They are coming down a little bit, but the yields, that is.But yes, they had risen.Ten year in America is at 4.3.Ten year in the UK is at 4.44.
Around about the level it was after Liz Truss' mini-budget. Do you know the thing is, Trump's bark is worse than his bite.He's about getting a good deal for the US economy.
And so I can't see a lot of these tariffs coming into play, 10% for the rest of the world, 60% for China.It's a negotiation ploy.And as far as Trump on energy is concerned, I know he's all about, drill, baby, drill, about oil and gas.
The thing is, you need oil and gas and renewables. Musk, Elon Musk, has Trump's ear.I think he won't be astringent on renewables, because Musk is a big player on solar.He loves solar.Obviously, he's got battery vehicles, all that stuff.
So I think he'll take the advice from Elon, says, listen, we're going to need a lot of energy for AI.These data centers are burning huge amounts.We're going to need both.
No, traditional energy sources, oil and gas, plus renewables, to tackle anywhere near the expansion needed for AI.So I can't see him being that bearish on renewables.We need all energy.
And story number four, because there's lack of micro-news around, China announces a 1.4 trillion package over five years to tackle the local government's hidden debt. Well, it's not that well hidden, is it?If it's hidden, how do they know it's there?
This is on Friday announced central governments would allocate an additional 6 trillion yuan, which is about 840 billion dollars to local governments for tackling hidden debt.The program takes effect this year and will run through to the end of 2026.
China's Minister of Finance, Lan Fuan, told reporters that breaks down around 2 trillion yuan a year. the policies apparently will reduce hidden debt, they'll reduce it from 14.3 trillion won to 2.3 trillion won.
But our commodity is not really running on that.Some micro news. Cyan Canode.It's been a serial disappointer, Cyan, but they always talk about growth, massive growth, and their orders and all that stuff, but they've never made a profit, ever.
They say they're a world leader in narrow-band radio frequency mesh networks.They've got some big orders in India, I think, Indonesia?Anyway, they announced their interim results for six months ending the 30th of September.
So revenue, 5.63 versus 5.77, so it's gone down.I was surprised by that.Lost before tax, 2.12 million versus 2.24, so a little bit of improvement there, not a huge amount.Cash of 3.7 million versus 945k.
Now they raised 5.4 million recently in September, on the 10th, and they've got 3.7 left. but their forecast is that they're going to be profitable.
So they did say their order book has demonstrated strong growth, more than doubling during the period from 6.3 million units at the start of the year to 13.1 million units.
They say our current backlog stands at 9.7 million units yet to be deployed, having increased substantially from 3.5 million units at the end of March 2024, with a significant proportion of this expected for delivery in the second half of this year, which is their financial year 2025.
And they say, historically, our revenue recognition is heavily weighted towards the final quarter of our financial year, as order completions and deployments often peak near year-end.
We expect this seasonal trend to continue, with a substantial proportion of this year's revenue to be materialising in Q4.Given this pattern, we remain confident in meeting market expectations for financial year 2025.
So the expectations for this year are, top line, 33 million versus 19, decent growth, and a profit before tax of 1.3 versus a loss of 3.1 last year.So what is the loss before tax of 2.2, 2.12 for the half year?
So they've got to go some for the second half to make a profit. We'll see.And finally, Argo Blockchain, ARB ticker.I don't know if you saw this on RNS last night, it came out.But they tried to put a positive spin on this.
A global leader in cryptocurrency mining.They're pleased to provide, I don't know why they're pleased to provide it, the following update.Baekamu and high-performance computing.
So they've got two areas, two facilities, I don't know how to say that, Baekamu, and Helios.
Now they started off with the positive and say Argo has entered into a non-binding letter of intent with BE Global Developments Limited, a specialist in high-performance computing solutions, to explore a significant expansion of the company's owned and operated Bay Como facility.
This proposed expansion will involve deploying advanced HPC infrastructure, which will diversify Argo's capabilities beyond Bitcoin mining into high-performance computing, positioning the company to serve broader computing applications in data processing, AI, and other computational intensive tasks.
The HPI expansion will require the company to incur capital expenditure, which is anticipated to be met by additional funding. Then they go to Helios, which they don't own.
Despite ongoing discussions with Galaxy to renew the company's current hosting agreement at Helios, the company was informed yesterday that Galaxy did not intend to renew the contract beyond the current end date, which is the end of this year, 20th December.
Galaxy has today announced a non-binding term sheet to host HPC, so High Performance Computing, and its Helios facility, utilising the space and power currently dedicated to crypto asset mining.
The company is considering its options for its mining fleet, which stands at 23,000 S19J Pros, hosted at the Helios facility.So, they've got nothing now, have they?Pretty much. So they'll no longer be a leading crypto-miner.
But the other facility, which they own, they're going to be in a high-performance computing.They're going to supply the infrastructure for that, but they haven't got the funds for it.So this is slightly worrying.It did drop yesterday.
I mean, let's look at it.Let me see how much it dropped yesterday. ARB, A-R-B, sorry, I thought I had this loaded up.So yesterday it dropped 14, well, 15%.Today it's down 4% to 8.25.What have they got, a cap of 50 million?
Wow, how much are those minings, the kit worth?But do you know what it does point to here?The trend towards AI data centers. That's where the demand is coming from.People are now diversifying or moving their investment from crypto mining into AI.
And it's going to be huge.And it needs a lot of energy, needs a lot of space, needs a lot of power.Data center storage capacity is expected to increase from 10.1 zettabytes this year, in 2023, to 21.So it's going to double by 2027.
And it requires more data centers.The energy Listen to this, a single chat GBT query requires 2.9 watt hours of electricity compared to 0.3 watt hours of Google search.
So 10 times the power and energy is needed to answer one question via chat GBT than a normal search on a search engine. Data centers apparently will use 8% of US power by 2030, compared with less than 3% right now.That is phenomenal, isn't it?
So you can see where the demand is coming from.It's AI.Crypto is out of favor now.And so it'd be interesting to see how this plays out if there's less demand for crypto. Anyway, that's it for the podcast.
I hope you have a nice weekend, and we'll speak you next... Oh, by the way, did I mention my book?No?Sharepickers.com, click at the top there, the book.And it's 23% off Amazon on paperback.Speak you next week.
The Share Pickers Podcast with Justin Waite.The content of this podcast is not intended as investment advice.It is for information purposes only.People in this podcast may hold positions in the stocks they talk about.
Do not buy anything based solely on a tip or recommendation.Please do your own research.
This is a story of the one.As a maintenance specialist for university housing, he knows college students can major in wear and tear.Plus, housing so many students doesn't leave a lot of room to house all the supplies he needs.
That's where Grainger comes in.With over a million industrial-grade products and fast, dependable delivery, Grainger carries the quality products he needs so he doesn't have to, from a new door hinge to a whole new faucet.
Call, clickgrainger.com, or just stop by.Grainger, for the ones who get it done.
Sign in
