Source: Sharecast
STOCKS TO WATCH
Oil major Shell posted an above-forecast surge in profits on Thursday, fuelled by soaring energy prices in the wake of the US and Israel's conflict with Iran. First-quarter adjusted earnings came in at $6.92bn, up from $3.26bn in the fourth quarter and $5.58bn a year previously. Analysts had been expecting earnings closer to $6.36bn. The blue chip also upped its divided by 5% and announced a $3bn share buyback programme.
JD Sports Fashion expects muted market growth in the near term due to a weaker spending outlook for consumers and product cycle changes at its major footwear partners. JD widened full-year earnings guidance to £750m - £850m after reporting pre-tax profits of £852m for fiscal 2025/26, down 7.7% year-on-year. It added that although JD Sports had no direct exposure in the Middle East, "we continue to closely monitor the evolving situation and its potential impact on the consumer and our business if the crisis is prolonged".
Energy company Centrica said on Thursday that it had continued to make "good progress" on the execution of its strategy, but warned that retail EBITDA was expected to be towards the lower end of its guidance range of £500m to £800m, reflecting the impact of warmer weather year-to-date, the shape of the commodity price curve and "continued challenges" in residential energy bad debt collection. Separately, Centrica announced it had acquired the Severn Combined-Cycle Gas Turbine power station from the Calon Energy Group for approximately £370m, increasing the its power portfolio to 4GW, including 1GW of assets currently in planning and construction.
NEWSPAPER ROUND-UP
Fertiliser shortages caused by the Iran war have driven up costs for UK farmers by up to 70% and will have a "dramatic" impact on food prices globally next year, according to one of Britain's most powerful property and farming companies. Mark Preston, executive trustee of the 349-year-old Grosvenor Group, controlled by the Duke of Westminster, said fertiliser "was already quite expensive" before the 50% to 70% surge in prices since the start of the Iran war in late February. – Guardian
Britain should lower speed limits for drivers as part of a package of measures to reduce the impact of the Iran war on consumers, a thinktank has said. Capping legal speeds at 20mph in towns and cities and 60mph on motorways would help reduce fuel demand and combat soaring oil prices triggered by conflict, according to the Institute for Public Policy Research. – Guardian
Elon Musk's SpaceX is poised to spend $120bn (£88bn) building what he claims will be the world's largest AI chip factory. The rocket company has filed notice to begin construction of a semiconductor and advanced computing facility in Texas, putting the billionaire in direct competition with established chipmakers in Asia. – Telegraph
Norway has confirmed plans to revive three gas fields containing enough supplies to heat millions of homes. The reactivation project will lead to mothballed North Sea fields being reopened for the first time in three decades, as Norway races to meet growing demand from Germany and the UK. The new supplies will increase exports to the UK at a time when its own oil and gas output is plummeting by about 15% a year. – Telegraph
Dario Amodei, the chief executive of Anthropic, thinks the first one-person $1bn company will be built by the end of the year as entrepreneurs use artificial intelligence tools to automate functions from marketing to data analysis. The artificial intelligence start-up co-founder said that AI tools meant there was "an enormous ability for one person or a tiny set of people to do a set of things that are incredible", whereas previously it would take years to build up the resources required to develop a business idea. – The Times
US CLOSE
Major indices surged on Thursday amid renewed hopes for a peace deal between Washington and Tehran, with falling oil prices and a host of stronger-than-expected blue chip quarterly results boosting sentiment.
At the close, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 1.24% at 49,910.59, while the S&P 500 advanced 1.46% to 7,365.12 and the Nasdaq Composite saw out the session 2.02% firmer at 25,838.94.
Reporting by Iain Gilbert at Sharecast.com