Today, Dave Ramsden, deputy governor of the Bank of England, released an important statement about the inflation trend in the UK during the Association for Financial Markets in Europe meeting. According to Ramsden, the general increase in the level of prices seems to be persistent, although factors like services’ prices as well as salaries growth have experienced a remarkable decrease in the last months. He also stated that it is vital to understand if this prices’ growth will continue for a period of time that is sufficiently long before taking into consideration drastic cuts in BoE rates’ levels, which are already high.
Macy’s (M) (+3.37% at 4:00 PM EST) just reported 2023 Q4 revenue and earnings. According to the data of the Cincinnati based company, there was a decline in year over year revenue of 1.7% and, despite this negative result, the final value ($8.12 billion) was above Wall Street’s estimated one ($8.11 billion). Digital sales and same-stores sales declined drastically (approximately between -4.5% and – 5.5% each). Other two results that beat expectations are net income ($685 million reported vs $554 million forecasted) and adjusted EPS ($2.45 reported vs $1.99 expected).
Another company with results for the final quarter of 2023 way better than what was previously expected is Cava Group (CAVA) (+12.20% at 16:02 EST). The Mediterranean restaurant chain achieved remarkable achievements. First, revenue went up to $177.1 million, while analysts hypothesized a final value of $174.3 million. Also, same-stores saw their sales soaring 11.4% (while the expected percentage change was equal to +5.9%). A signal of the positive historical moment experienced by the company is that with 19 new restaurants opened in 2023 Q4, it is planning to inaugurate another 48-52 of them.
Author: Piero Foberti