Yahoo Finance What to Watch: Thomas Cook mulls airline sale, SocGen cuts, and Bank of England's 'Super Thursday'
Here are the top business, market and economic stories you should be watching today in the UK, Europe and abroad:
Thomas Cook mulls airline sale
Thomas Cook (TCG.L) is considering potentially selling its airline business amid concerns over the company’s future.
The travel firm said on Thursday that it will conduct a strategic review of the airline arm, which will consider “all options to enhance value to shareholders”.
It came as Thomas Cook reported a 1% rise in first quarter revenue to £1.65bn while underlying operating losses increased by £14m to £60m.
CEO Peter Fankhauser said: “We are at an early stage in this review process which will consider all options to enhance value to shareholders and intensify our strategic focus. We will provide an update on this process in due course.”
TUI tumbles
Rival travel agent TUI (TUI.L) is one of the worst performing stocks on the London Stock Exchange on Thursday, down 14% after a profit warning late on Wednesday.
The company said earnings were likely to be flat this year due to margin pressure. Tui blamed negative “impact from the extraordinary hot weather in 2018, resulting in later bookings and weaker Markets & Airlines margins,” as well as “continued weakness of the Pound Sterling, making it difficult to improve margins on holidays sold to UK customers.”
Greg Johnson, an analyst with Shore Capital who covers the stock, said in a note on Thursday: “The shortfall of c€120m reflects challenging conditions in the traditional tour operating segment.”
SocGen plans to slash costs
Societe Generale (SGE.SG) on Thursday announced plans to cut costs at its investment bank by €500m in response to difficult market conditions.
Fréderic Oudéa, the Group’s chief executive, said the cuts were driven by a “financial and regulatory environment that looks set to be less favourable and even more complex over the next few years than anticipated a year ago.”
The announcement came as SocGen reported a difficult fourth quarter as revenue fell by 6.3% to €5.9bn. The bank cut its forecasts for return on equity and revenue growth.
The Bank of England’s ‘Super Thursday’
It’s ‘Super Thursday’ for the Bank of England, as the central bank prepares to deliver its latest interest rate decision and inflation report.
Analysts and economists expect the Bank of England to keep rates on hold at 0.75%.
“With Brexit uncertainty, the cloudy economic outlook and, seeing this in the broader context of central banks becoming more dovish of late, it would seem unlikely that the BoE will do anything other than tread water,” Neil Wilson, the chief market analyst at Markets.com, said in an email.
The pound is lower against both the dollar (GBPUSD=X) and the euro (GBPEUR=X) ahead of the announcement.
Superdry hit by weather
Superdry (SDRY.L) has blamed “unseasonably warm weather” for a dip in third-quarter sales as the troubled retailer continues to struggle.
The fashion group’s revenue fall 1.5% to £269.3m in the 13 weeks to January 26, with store sales tumbling 8.5% and online dropping 0.7%.
As well as weather issues, Superdry said “ongoing legacy product issues” also contributed to the decline.
European markets
European stock markets were mixed. Britain’s FTSE 100 (^FTSE) was 0.05% higher, Germany’s DAX (^GDAXI) was down by 0.47%, France’s CAC 40 (^FCHI) was down by 0.21%, and the Euronext 100 (^N100) was 0.07% lower.
Asian markets were also mixed. Japan’s Nikkei 225 (^N225) closed down by 0.59%, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index (^HSI) was up by 0.21%, and China’s benchmark Shanghai Composite (000001.SS) was 1.3% higher.
What to expect in the US
US stock futures were pointing to a lower open. S&P 500 futures (ES=F) were down by 0.19%, Dow Jones Industrial Average futures (YM=F) were down by 0.13%, and Nasdaq futures (NQ=F) were down by 0.25%.
