Source: Sharecast
STOCKS TO WATCH
Retailer Next lifted full-year guidance on Wednesday after first-quarter sales beat forecasts, boosted by unusually warm weather. Full-price sales jumped 6.2% in the 13 weeks to 2 May – comfortably ahead of internal expectations for a 4% uplift – and adding an extra £8m to profits. As a result, the high street bellwether left guidance for full-year sales unchanged but raised its outlook for pre-tax profits to £1.218bn from £1.210bn. It also raised forecasts for costs associated with the conflict in the Middle East, but said price rises in international markets would mitigate most of the impact.
Online rail ticket platform Trainline said the Iran war was weighing on foreign ticket purchases as it flagged flat sales for 2027. Trainline said on Wednesday that it now expects to report £6.2bn-6.45bn in FY sales, compared with £6.3bn in fiscal 2025/26, and also warned that it also expects to see headwinds in the UK from fare freezes and train companies promoting their own ticket channels.
Medical equipment manufacturer Smith & Nephew said its first-quarter trading performance was in line with expectations, with underlying revenues up 3.1% year-on-year at $1.5bn on the back of growth across all business units and regions. Smith & Nephew, which also launched a new $500m share buyback, maintained its full-year guidance for underlying revenue growth of around 6% and approximately 8% trading profit growth.
NEWSPAPER ROUND-UP
Four in five people are worried that the Iran war will make food more expensive, according to a new poll, as businesses warned the "window is closing" for ministers to cut energy costs for UK retailers. Research by Opinium found that 80% of people are worried about the rising price of groceries, which would come from retailers passing on cost increases to consumers, while 73% expect the conflict to push up prices of other products. – Guardian
The private credit industry's role in fuelling the AI boom could backfire, with a sharp correction leading to "sizeable" losses, the Financial Stability Board has warned. A new report into private credit by the global watchdog, which monitors financial authorities including central banks in 24 countries, found that the healthcare, services, and tech sectors have become the biggest borrowers of private credit. – Guardian
Hedge fund manager Crispin Odey submitted "false evidence" in his fight to overturn a ban on working in the City, a court has heard. The high-profile financier made "brazen" attempts to create a "false history" in court, according to Clare Sibson KC, the Financial Conduct Authority's lawyer. She told the Upper Tribunal that Mr Odey's claims that his alleged past misconduct was "mutually consensual, or for my part entirely innocent in nature" were "not truthful". – Telegraph
Nissan has announced plans to close a production line at its Sunderland factory and cut 900 jobs in Europe as part of fresh restructuring efforts. The Japanese manufacturer said it would combine production from two lines into one at the North East site, which makes vehicles including the Leaf, Juke and Qashqai. – Telegraph
Advanced Micro Devices beat Wall Street's first-quarter sales and profit estimates on Tuesday as booming demand for artificial intelligence infrastructure continued to boost the US economy. The chip designer reported revenue of $10.3bn, up 38% year-on-year and ahead of analyst forecasts of $9.9bn. Net income for the quarter rose 95% to $1.4bn, ahead of expectations of $1.2bn. – The Times
Some of Britain's biggest supermarkets have warned regulators that competition is being "distorted" by legal rules enabling Aldi and Lidl to block rivals from opening new stores on nearby land. Sainsbury's, Morrisons and Iceland have urged the Competition and Markets Authority to change rules that exempt the German discounters from a ban on restrictive property clauses, given their rapid expansion over the past decade. – The Times
US CLOSE
Major indices closed higher on Tuesday as major indices bounced back from yesterday's losses as market participants cheered strong quarterly earnings and oil prices retreated.
At the close, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 0.73% at 49,298.25, while the S&P 500 advanced 0.81% to 7,259.22 and the Nasdaq Composite saw out the session 1.03% firmer at 25,326.13.
Reporting by Iain Gilbert at Sharecast.com