The Market News Reel for this week! Get the most important market news & updates for the week ahead each Monday!
Major headlines, excerpts from news sources and a link to the full article are shown below. "Breaking Thoughts" section is purely our opinion.
Shell Investors Back HQ Move to the UK
"Royal Dutch Shell Plc shareholders approved the relocation of the company’s headquarters to London from The Netherlands, a country with which relations have become increasingly strained due to environmental concerns.
The company is seeking to convince investors -- such as activist Dan Loeb -- governments and environmental groups that it can transform itself into a clean energy producer while still providing generous payouts. Key to that plan, the company says, is consolidating all of its shares in one country, making it easier to buy and sell assets as well as return cash to shareholders.
A “resounding” 99.8 per cent of votes cast by investors were in favor of the proposal, Mackenzie said. The resolution also drops “Royal Dutch” from the company name, because Shell expects it will no longer meet the conditions for using the honorary designation." - read more on BNN Bloomberg here
Breaking Thoughts: When the UK left the EU (formally in Jan 2020), most of the media proclaimed that London was finished as a major center of global commerce and that many companies will be moving HQ's & operations to the EU.
Now almost 2 years later it can be confirmed that almost the exact opposite has happened. The UK has the majority of Europe's tech unicorns, its most vibrant start up ecosystem (Greater London), the biggest IPO boom on the continent (including Deliveroo & Darktrace), it was the fastest European country to reach high vaccination levels enabling much earlier re-openings than the EU, and now the EU's biggest company is moving its HQ (and its stock) to London.
The lesson here is an important one for global investors. Namely, when a country democratically chooses its own political path, large media outlets are highly unlikely to get the consequences of such choices correct. Journalists at major media organizations have to spin a narrative, and one that's often removed from the "everyday Joe". Therefore, it may be unwise to make investment decisions based on media hysteria over political choices made by the people. (For example: there was poor performance in the FTSE 100 before & shortly after the 2016 "Brexit" vote, which was followed by a huge resurgence to new highs - the opposite of what most media had predicted at the time).
Major Earnings This Week
Monday December 13:
H&R Block (HRB): Expected Q4 earnings of $-1.25 per share
Tuesday December 14:
RCI Hospitality (RICK): Expected Q4 earnings of $0.67 per share
Wednesday December 15:
Progressive (PGR): Expected Q4 earnings of $0.82 per share
Trip Com Group (TCOM): Expected Q3 earnings of $0.07 per share
Thursday December 16:
Accenture (ACN): Expected Q1 earnings of $2.63 per share
Adobe (ADBE): Expected Q4 earnings of $3.20 per share
FedEx (FDX): Expected Q2 earnings of $4.28 per share
Major IPOs Expected This Week
Wednesday December 15:
Samsara (IOT), an "Internet of Things" cloud platform seeks to raise up to $800M at an $11B valuation
See you next week!
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