Luxury and Banking Sectors Lead the Pack After a Quietly Optimistic Week in the Markets

With bowling, banking and luxury goods sectors all keeping their chins up, it feels like the markets are emerging from the dark winter

WORDS BY
Zoe Burt
Published
March 15, 2024
Image: Female Invest
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Mixed US inflation and earnings updates give way for cautious optimism

Inflation data was released last week, revealing that US inflation had fallen to the 5% mark. 

This shows that the aggressive interest rate hikes carried out by the Fed throughout the year has worked, to some extent. 

However, the core inflation figure, which removes the data on food and energy prices, was concerningly high. 

Whilst these are notoriously volatile areas, the Fed was cautious in its subsequent announcements around inflation and continued interest rate rises. 

Major banks, including Goldman Sachs, Wells Fargo and CitiGroup released their earnings figures which resulted in a positive end to the week. JP Morgan announced record profits for the quarter, which really helped boost the S&P 500.

Unsplash / Sophie Backes

Luxury sector boosts European markets

Following the positive news from the US banking sector, the European markets all ended the week on a similarly positive note. 

The FTSE 100 had a four day positive streak, rounding off nearly four weeks of gains. The pound also hit a 10 month high to the dollar.

Inflation announcements this upcoming week could change the outlook for the currently rosy UK markets, but many hope that the worst days are behind us. 

Over in France, the CAC 40 also ended the week on a four day high, with 14 of the last 17 days being in the green. 

French based luxury goods producer LVMH announced an impressive 17% rise in sales, which has mostly come from China’s reignited designer goods demand following the end of their Covid-19 restrictions. 

L’Oréal also acquired Australian luxury beauty brand Aesop last week. With their eyes firmly set on the Asian markets, L’Oréal are looking to continue the French sales success in another region of the globe.

Unsplash / Gabrielle Henderson

AB InBev share price takes a hit, but what’s really behind it?

BudLight, owned by global drinks brand Anheuser Busch InBev (aka. AB In Bev) recently partnered with trans activist and TikTok star Dylan Mulvany to promote its beer. 

Partnering with social media stars and influencers is a common marketing technique, with Dylan Mulvany amongst the hundreds working with AB InBev. 

An online backlash has ensued from the partnership, however, with notable names like KidRock making a film for his social media channels shooting bottles of Bud Light and denouncing the company for their marketing choices. 

The share price of AB InBev fell by 5% last week, which many appointed to the marking furore. 

However, the share price also hit a 52 week high, which is when many bullish traders will exit a stock. This could have also caused a sell off and been the reason for the drop to the share price that was seen. 

As with any dramatic share price movements, there is likely to be more than one cause which may go beyond the knee-jerk, social media generated response

Wil Stewart / Unsplash

Bowling and cinema chains see a winning streak on stock prices

US movie theatre chain, National Cine Media, is up 114.6% for the year, surging a further 55% last week after it was announced that the company had taken a 9.1% stake in cinema advertising company AMC. 

UK based bowling chain Hollywood Bowl has also hit record profits over the last six months. 

Whilst its more luxury rival Everyman  seems to be having a slightly tougher time on their share price, the message from these stock results and profits is clear: bowling and cinema trips are an affordable luxury in difficult economic times. 

Generally known as cyclical and non-cyclical stocks, there are always winners and losers from every economic scenario.

Karla Rivera / Unsplash

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