Thames Water on the rocks

Thames Water, a company which supplies around 25% of the English population with their water,  announced yesterday that their CEO Sarah Bentley will step down with immediate effect. With reports that the company is drowning in debt, many fear that it will need to move into public administration. Whilst it’s not a listed stock, this sort of announcement would usually impact other major water companies, like severn water. However, they remained seemingly unaffected by the news, suggesting that there’s hope it’ll blow over quickly. 

Walgreens Boots Alliance cuts forecasts

The Walgreen Boots Alliance, which owns the retail pharmacy shops Walgreens in the US and Boots in the UK, has cut its earnings forecast for the year. With falling demand for products as the covid-19 pandemic has eased in severity, they also announced the need to close hundreds of shops across the UK and USA. Shares fell more than 9%, to 11 year lows on the back of the announcement. 

Australian inflation falls

Australian inflation data released yesterday revealed that it had fallen to a 13 month low. This coincided with the announcement of a fall in Canadian inflation too. The two together present promising news for the global economy, as the US has been a front runner in seeing falling inflation, whilst others have lagged behind. It now seems that other countries are finally seeing an easing in the problematic inflation. 

Sources: AJ Bell, IG, Financial Times, NASDAQ