—— Barclays Bankers Have Bonuses Cut; Snap Lags Behind Peers, Stock Drops 32%; Nearly $20 Billion Flow into A-shares; OpenAI Revenue May Surpass $2 Billion; S&P 500 Surpasses 5,000 for the First Time; U.S. Lowers December CPI Growth; European Real Estate ETFs Withdrawn by 10%
1. Barclays Bankers Have Bonuses Cut
知情人士透露，英国投行巴克莱（Barclays）并购和IPO服务收入下跌，对此高管计划缩小奖金池。
大部分初级银行家不会受到影响，表现好的员工甚至可以获得额外10%的奖金，但数十名表现不佳的投行员工不会获得奖金。
未来几周内，CEO温卡塔克里斯南（C.S. Venkatakrishnan）将在投资者大会上公布财务目标，以及公司的运营成本等。
通常来讲，投行员工完全没有奖金的情况很少出现。银行这样做通常是为了尽快处理掉表现不好的员工。
去年巴克莱招募了许多总经理，并分给他们不少奖金，这也惹怒了原先的员工
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2. Snap Lags Behind Peers, Stock Drops 32%
Snap’s quarterly earnings report showed a 5% increase in revenue to $1.36 billion, falling short of analysts’ expectations of $1.38 billion, highlighting a challenging operational environment with little growth for the year.
A week earlier, Snap’s larger competitor, Meta, released an impressive earnings report with the highest revenue growth in two years.
CEO Evan Spiegel helped the company restructure over the past two years, but layoffs and project cuts failed to drive revenue and user growth.
After the earnings report, Snap’s stock plummeted 32%, marking the largest drop since 2022.
The disappointing results show the challenges Snap faces in a competitive market.
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3. Nearly $20 Billion Flow into A-shares
According to Bank of America’s analysis team led by Michael Hartnett, $19.8 billion flowed into Chinese A-shares during the week ending February 7, with most of this capital likely coming from state-backed investment institutions.
Last week, investors anticipated more aggressive strategies from the government to stimulate the stock market, and A-shares experienced a sharp rebound.
After the CSI 300 index hit a five-year low on February 2, it posted the best performance since 2022.
Today, the momentum slowed as China celebrates its Lunar New Year, and the Hang Seng Index ended the day with a 1% decline.
Source：Bloomberg – BofA Says State Funds Drive Biggest-Ever China Stock Inflows
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4. OpenAI Revenue May Surpass $2 Billion
Sources revealed that OpenAI’s internal revenue metrics surpassed $2 billion in December, making it one of the fastest-growing tech companies in history, with flagship product ChatGPT playing a key role in the growth.
It is expected that revenue may double by 2025 as more businesses begin to incorporate generative AI technology into their work environments.
Interestingly, OpenAI was originally founded as a nonprofit in 2015 but rapidly grew after launching a commercial division in 2020.
CEO Sam Altman revealed that 92% of the Fortune 500 companies are using OpenAI products, including ChatGPT and GPT-4.
ChatGPT now has 100 million weekly users.
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5. S&P 500 Surpasses 5,000 for the First Time
On Thursday, the S&P 500, which includes the largest U.S. blue-chip stocks, surpassed the 5,000-point mark for the first time, with a year-to-date gain of nearly 5%.
Nvidia and Meta were the driving forces, with both stocks rising over 30% this year. The strong performance of blue-chip companies alleviated investors’ concerns about the uncertainty surrounding the Fed’s interest rate cuts.
However, only half of the companies in the S&P 500 have risen this year, and only a third have outperformed the overall valuation, indicating that a small number of tech companies have driven most of the gains.
In April 2021, the S&P 500 first surpassed 4,000 points, but in 2022 it fell back below that level.
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6. U.S. Lowers December CPI Growth
The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics today released revised data showing that the core CPI, excluding energy and food, rose by 3.3% year-over-year in the fourth quarter of 2023, in line with previous data.
However, the month-over-month increase in December’s CPI was revised down to 0.2%, indicating some relief in inflation.
The revised data did not present any unexpected factors, which is a positive sign for the Federal Reserve. The government will release the January CPI data next Tuesday, with expectations that the core CPI may increase by 0.3%.
The rapid drop in inflation during the second half of 2023 has led the Fed to question whether the trend will continue and if more data is needed.
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7. European Real Estate ETFs Withdrawn by 10%
The sharp rise in loan rates and declining demand have also affected European commercial real estate. According to Morningstar, European real estate ETFs saw net assets shrink by 10% to €180.7 billion last year, as retail investors continued to withdraw funds for 11 consecutive months.
Last year, the European Central Bank (ECB) warned that real estate funds account for 40% of the eurozone’s commercial real estate market, and these funds pose a significant risk to financial stability.
Oliver Salmon, a researcher at Savills, stated that many ETFs will need to sell real estate to meet increasing withdrawal demands.
The ECB expects a soft landing for the eurozone economy this year, and a rate cut should help revive commercial real estate.
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This content is sourced from Financial Times, Bloomberg, and The Real Deal, among other financial news outlets.