FT : Richemont reinstates chief executive role as it navigates luxury market dow

Richemont reinstates chief executive role as it navigates luxury market downturn
Swiss luxury group appoints Van Cleef & Arpels head as it re-establishes role after almost a decade

Richemont has re-established the role of chief executive after almost a decade as the Swiss luxury group navigates a market downturn.

The group, which is chaired by its controlling shareholder Johann Rupert, said Nicolas Bos, the head of its jewellery brand Van Cleef & Arpels, would take up the position on June 1. He will report to Rupert.

“Building on Richemont’s expanded scale and stronger focus on retail and jewellery, Nicolas will steer the group through the next phase of its evolution,” Rupert said. “The re-established CEO role will help streamline decision making and optimise operational management.”

The decision to reinstate the role came as Richemont reported a slowdown in fourth-quarter sales.

>>> Stoxx 600 Pre-Market Indications

  • Aker BP (ARC TH) +2%
    • *AKER SAYS KISTEFOS FILES CLASS ACTION CLAIM ON ALLEGED LOSSES
    • *AKER MAINTAINS ANY SUCH CLAIM IS WITHOUT MERIT
  • 3i (IGQ5 TH) +1.4%
  • Ubisoft (UEN TH) +1.1%
  • HelloFresh (HFG TH) -1%
  • Telefonica (TNE5 TH) -1%
  • OMV (OMV TH) -1%
    • OMV Cut to Hold at Berenberg; PT 49 euros
  • Leonardo (FMNB TH) -1.1%
  • Thyssenkrupp (TKA TH) -1.1%
  • ASML (ASME TH) -1.1%
  • Tomra (TMRA TH) -1.1%
  • Infineon (IFX TH) -1.5%
  • Fortum (FOT TH) -3.1%
  • Lanxess (LXS TH) -5.5%
    • Lanxess Cut to Underperform at BNPP Exane; PT 22 euros

>>> TradeGate Pre-Market Indications

DAX:
  • Siemens Energy (ENR TH) -1.2%
    • Siemens Energy’s Onshore-Wind Woes Are Set to Linger, CEO Says
  • Infineon (IFX TH) -1.4%
MDAX:
  • MorphoSys (MOR TH) +1.4%
  • Thyssenkrupp (TKA TH) -1.1%
  • Aroundtown (AT1 TH) -1.1%
  • Lanxess (LXS TH) -4.8%
    • Lanxess Cut to Underperform at BNPP Exane; PT 22 euros
SDAX:
  • Heidelberger Druck (HDD TH) +4.1%
    • Heidelberger Druck Raised to Buy at Stifel; PT 1.30 euros
  • Schott Pharma AG & Co KGaA (1SXP TH) +1.6%
  • Verbio SE (VBK TH) +1%
  • Ceconomy (CEC TH) +1%
    • Ceconomy Raised to Hold at HSBC; PT 2.50 euros
  • Metro AG (B4B TH) -1%
  • AUTO1 (AG1 TH) -1.7%
  • RENK Group AG (R3NK TH) -2.1%
    • Renk Group Holder Rebecca BidCo Offers €250m Worth of Shares

>>> What to look at today - 17th of May 2024

Stocks in Asia fell Friday after data from China showed fresh economic weakness and traders reassessed the path forward for US interest rates. A gauge of the region’s equities fell for the first time in six sessions as stocks in mainland China, Australia and South Korea declined, while Japanese shares trimmed early gains. The moves followed a lackluster day on Wall Street and further signs of stress in the world’s second-largest economy. Home sales in China fell in April at a faster pace than the prior month and consumption unexpectedly slowed, providing a new warning sign for the economy. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index swung between gains and losses near a nine-month high, as robust results supported Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. and Baidu Inc. US equity futures were little changed after a small decline for the S&P 500 and Nasdaq 100 on Thursday. The yen weakened against the dollar after news the Bank of Japan left bond buying amounts unchanged. One former BOJ chief economist suggested the central bank may raise interest rates three more times this year with the next move coming as early as June, given its easy policy settings. Treasuries were little changed in Asian trading, while Australian and New Zealand yields climbed, tracking moves in US government bonds on Thursday. A gauge of greenback strength rose, while the offshore yuan weakened against the dollar. Traders will be focused on signs of further support for China’s property sector, including a potential plan to clear excess inventory, according to media reports. Key officials will meet Friday morning to discuss such a plan, according to people with knowledge of the matter. Caution in risk assets reflected a repricing of Federal Reserve rate cut expectations in the swaps market. Traders had increased expectations from one cut in 2024 to two following Wednesday’s consumer price index data. On Thursday, those bets retreated, leaving just one cut fully priced in this year. Three Federal Reserve officials said the central bank should keep borrowing costs high for longer as policymakers await more evidence inflation is easing, suggesting they’re not in a rush to cut interest rates. Cleveland Fed President Loretta Mester, New York Fed President John Williams and Richmond Fed President Thomas Barkin, speaking separately Thursday, argued it may take longer for inflation to reach their 2% target. Commodities were broadly higher. West Texas Intermediate climbed early Friday, on pace for a third day of gains. Gold was little changed after a Thursday drop. Bitcoin traded above $65,000 after halting a decline in the prior session. US After Hours DOCS +13.8% higher on earnings; DXC -20.4%, GLOB -5.2%, TTWO -3%, CPRT -1.7%, AMAT -1.3% lower on earnings; RDDT +9.1% on OpenAI partnership; CBRL -11.1% falls on strategic update, dividend cut.

Nikkei -0.54% Hang Seng +0.49% CSI +0.15% Shanghai +0.22% Shenzen +0.43%

Eur$ 1.0859 CNH 7.2304 CNY 7.2266 JPY 155.83 GBP 1.2659 CHF 0.9070 RUB 90.8647 TRY 32.2713 WTI$ 79.32 Gold 2,377 BTC 65.590 +0.50% ETH 2,953

S&P +0.01% Nasdaq +0.07% EuroStoxx -0.28% FTSE -0.12% Dax -0.23% SMI +0.24%

Macro :
- US to Offer Up to $3.4 Billion for Nuclear Fuel Makers in June
- Uranium Supply to Surge as Producers Respond to Elevated Prices
- Tepper Joins Michael Burry in Buying Chinese Stocks: China Today

Keep an eye on :
- ABBN SW : ABB Buys Siemens’ Wiring Accessories Business in China; No Terms
- ABN NA : ABN Amro to Sell Stake in Neuflize Vie to BNP Paribas
- ADP FP : ADP April Passenger Traffic +8.2%
- ARBN SW : Arbonia Buys Door Manufacturers Dimoldura, Lignis; No Terms
- ASM NA : ASMI May Top 2025 Guidance If AMAT's GAA Forecast a Guide: React
- AZE BB : Azelis Holders EQT, PSP Offer About 23m Shares: Terms, placed at EU19/Share (-11.38%)
- BAYN GY : Bayer Says Elinzanetant Studies Met Primary Endpoints
- BO US : Boeing’s Low-Key Chairman Steps Into Spotlight With CEO Hunt
- CXGD PL : Caixa Geral 1Q Net Income EU394.5M, +38% Y/Y
- ALCAR FP : Carmat Offers EU15 Million Shares at EU3/Share, Carmat Raises €16M in Global Offering
- COL SM : Criteria to Hold About 17% Stake in Inmobiliaria Colonial (1)
- CBK GY : Moscow Court Releases Some Russian Assets of Commerzbank: IFX
- CHRY LN : Chrysalis Sinks as WeFox Faces Possible Collapse: Sky News
- ENGI FP : Engie Quarterly Profit Slips 1.2% as Warm Winter Cuts Gas Demand
- ERG IM : Italy’s ERG Plans to Boost Investments Amid US Renewables Push
- FASTAT SS : Fastator CEO Says Company Can Reach Agreement With Bondholders
- FRP LN : FRP Advisory Group Says Performance is Ahead of Expectations
- HLN LN : GSK Intends to Sell About 385m Shares in Haleon, placed @ 324/share (-2.53%)
- HLN LN : Kenvue Sales Lag to Haleon May Last Unless More Fixes Prescribed
- JNJ US : Johnson & Johnson to Buy Proteologix for $850m in Cash
- KAMUX FH : Kamux 1Q EPS Matches Estimates
- KAR SS : Another Holder Anabranch to Reject Forseti’s Offer for Karnov
- LAGRB SS : Lagercrantz FY Dividend per Share Beats Estimates
- LHA GY : EU to Veto Lufthansa ITA Deal Absent Stronger Remedies: Rtrs
- MRL SM : Merlin Properties 1Q Revenue Beats Estimates
- METN SW : Metall Zug Major Holder Takes Majority Stake in Buhofer Trust I
- MTGB SS : MTG Launches SEK400M Share Buyback Program
- NVG PL : Navigator Co 1Q Net Income EU64.1M Vs. EU71.7M Y/y
- NIO US : Nio Holder Tencent Cuts Stake to Less Than 5%: 13D Filing
- NOVOB DC : Keeping Muscle While Losing Fat Is Next Goal for Obesity Drugs
- NYF SS : Nyfosa Offers 17m Shares via Carnegie, Nordea, Swedbank, priced @ SEK102/share (-3.68%)
- PURMO FH : Project Grand Bidco (UK) Limited commences the voluntary recommended public cash tender offer for all the shares in Purmo Group
- PRX NA : *PROSUS NAMES FABRICIO BLOISI AS CEO FROM JULY 1, REPLACING TU
- R3NK GY : Renk Group Holder Rebecca BidCo Offers €250m Worth of Shares, priced @ EUR25/Share (-4.9%)
- CFR SW : Richemont FY Operating Profit Meets Estimates
- CFR SW : Richemont Names Nicolas Bos CEO Effective June 1
- IDS LN : UK postal workers’ union issues strike warning to Daniel Křetínský
- SPM IM : Saipem Gets Offshore Contract of ~$850m by Azule Energy
- SCR FP : Scor 1Q Net Income Misses Estimates
- ENR GY : Siemens Energy’s Onshore-Wind Woes Are Set to Linger, CEO Says
- SNOW US : Snowflake Said to Be in Talks to Buy Reka AI for $1 Billion
- TSLA US : Tesla Cleared for German Plant Expansion by Local Council: RBB
- TOKMAN FH : Tokmanni 1Q Comparable Ebit Loss EU5.1M, Est. Loss EU2.77M
- UN0 GY : Uniper in Advanced Talks to Sell Its Coal Procurement Contracts
- DG FP : Vinci April Passenger Traffic +6.3%

>>> Europe : Brokers Upgrades & Downgrades - 17th of May 2024

>>> Up
* Ceconomy Raised to Hold at HSBC; PT 2.50 euros
* Fractal Gaming Group Raised to Buy at ABG; PT 50 kronor
* H&M Raised to Outperform at RBC; PT 200 kronor
* Heidelberger Druck Raised to Buy at Stifel; PT 1.30 euros
* JD.com ADRs Raised to Buy at BOCOM Intl; PT $40
* Rockwool Raised to Buy at ABG; PT 3,100 kroner
* Sodexo Raised to Overweight at Morgan Stanley; PT 96 euros
* Swiss Re Raised to Buy at DZ Bank; PT 122 Swiss francs
* TCM Group Raised to Buy at SEB Equities; PT 67 kroner

>>> Down
* Auto Trader Cut to Underweight at Morgan Stanley; PT 600 pence
* Inditex Cut to Sector Perform at RBC; PT 47 euros
* Lanxess Cut to Underperform at Jefferies; PT 22 euros
* Lanxess Cut to Underperform at BNPP Exane; PT 22 euros
* NIBE Industrier Cut to Neutral at Citi; PT 62 kronor
* OMV Cut to Hold at Berenberg; PT 49 euros
* Under Armour Cut to Underweight at JPMorgan; PT $6

>>> Initiation
* DHL Group Rated New Neutral at Oddo BHF; PT 43 euros
* Mensch und Maschine Reinstated Buy at DZ Bank; PT 67 euros
* Sartorius Reinstated Equal-Weight at Morgan Stanley
* Spie Rated New Overweight at Morgan Stanley; PT 44 euros

>>> Call
* Airlines’ Supply-Chain Pain Means Fares Can Only Go Up, ING Says

TechCrunch : Microsoft’s custom Cobalt chips will come to Azure next week

Microsoft’s custom Cobalt chips will come to Azure next week

Microsoft will launch its custom Cobalt 100 chips to customers as a public preview at its Build conference next week, TechCrunch has learned.

In an analyst briefing ahead of Build, Scott Guthrie, Microsoft’s executive VP of the Microsoft Cloud and AI group, directly compared Cobalt to AWS’s Graviton chips, which have been available to developers for quite a few years now. Guthrie said that Microsoft’s chips will offer 40% better performance over other ARM chips in the market. Adobe, Snowflake and others have already started using the new chips.

Microsoft first announced its Cobalt chips last November. These 64-bit chips are based on the Arm architecture and feature 128 cores.

In addition to the Cobalt chips, Microsoft will also make AMD’s MI300X accelerators available to Azure clients next week. Despite being a major GPU manufacturer, AMD has long trailed Nvidia in the AI space, but as the large cloud providers look to find alternatives to Nvidia’s expensive chips — and as AMD has started to gain some ground in this space by offering better software support — these new chips are now a hot commodity as well.

Guthrie described it as the “most cost-effective GPU out there right now for Azure OpenAI.”

Among the other nuggets of news we learned is that Microsoft will drop its pricing for accessing and running large language models at Build next week. What exactly that will look like remains unclear, though.

Microsoft will also go into preview with a new “real-time intelligence system” that will allow real-time data streaming into Fabric, Microsoft’s data analytics system. This system will offer a native Kafka integration as well as support for AWS Kinesis and Google Cloud’s Pub/Sub data-streaming systems.

Microsoft will also announce a partnership with Snowflake. Fabric will now support Snowflake’s Iceberg format (in addition to Databricks’ Parquet), which will enable “seamless interoperability with Snowflake and enable any data that’s in Snowflake to show up in Fabric and vice versa.”

And for you Copilot fans: Microsoft plans to launch a new feature that will allow developers to manage their Azure resources directly from Copilot, using natural language. “That’s going to enable an even tighter developer loop with natural language across your development stack and Azure,” Guthrie said. That system is built on top of a common extensibility mechanism, so other providers will be able to plug into it as well and offer similar capabilities.

>>> US After Hours Summary: DOCS +13.8% higher on earnings; DXC -20.4%, GLOB -5.

After Hours Summary: DOCS +13.8% higher on earnings; DXC -20.4%, GLOB -5.2%, TTWO -3%, CPRT -1.7%, AMAT -1.3% lower on earnings; RDDT +9.1% on OpenAI partnership; CBRL -11.1% falls on strategic update, dividend cut

After Hours Gainers:

Companies trading higher in after hours in reaction to earnings/guidance: DOCS +13.8% (also authorizes new $500 mln share repurchase program), DESP +10.7%

Companies trading higher in after hours in reaction to news: RDDT +9.1% (partners with OpenAI (MSFT) to bring Reddit's content to ChatGPT and other OpenAI products), NUVL +8.8% (FDA grants breakthrough therapy designation for NVL-655), OUST +6.8% (CEO and two other insiders bought shares), DV +2.1% (authorizes new $150 mln share repurchase program), MYGN +2% (announces new study publication), KAI +2% (authorizes new $50 mln share repurchase program), OKLO +1.7% (Jacob DeWitte discloses 18.1% passive stake), ERAS +1% (license agreement with Guangzhou Joyo), GLPI +0.7% (acquires 3 casinos), ACDC +0.6% (CFO to step down, names new CFO), CDNA +0.1% (study shows CareDx's HeartCare outperforms dd-cfDNA alone), ATGE +0.1% (authorizes new $150 mln share repurchase program)

After Hours Losers:

Companies trading lower in after hours in reaction to earnings/guidance: DXC -20.4%, GLOB -5.2%, TTWO -3%, CPRT -1.7%, AMAT -1.3%, AGRO -1.3%, FLO -0.1%

Companies trading lower in after hours in reaction to news: CBRL -11.1% (provides update on strategic transformation; expects Q3 and Q4 results to fall below previous outlook; announces long-term outlook; reduces dividend by over 80%), AIRJ -2% (to delay 10-Q), NYCB -0.7% (COO to resign), F -0.6% (asking EV suppliers to cut costs to support profitability, according to Reuters), ALSN -0.5% (commits to $10 mln investment in EnerTech Capital), CELH -0.4% (files mixed shelf securities offering), PH -0.4% (announces new five-year financial goals), AXS -0.3% (increases share repurchase authorization by $300 mln), AMG -0.1% (acquires minority equity interest in Suma Capital)