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| This Week's Gainers & Losers |
GainersFTAI Aviation +21.31%: The aircraft engine maintenance specialist reported a strong third quarter, with net profit rising 31% and adjusted EBITDA reaching $348 million. More importantly, the company doubled the size of its share buyback program. Vertiv +19.65%: The supplier of power and cooling equipment for data centers continues to benefit from the AI investment boom. Third-quarter revenue jumped 61%, while organic orders more than doubled. The company raised its full-year guidance across the board. Viasat +25.3%: The satellite communications specialist gained ground after announcing a partnership with Space42 and Canada's Terrestar Solutions. The three companies plan to connect their satellite networks to develop direct-to-device mobile connectivity services. Insmed +20.55%: The biotech company benefited from the commercial success of Brinsupri, its treatment for bronchiectasis, with sales rising 29% from the previous quarter. Insmed raised its full-year forecasts for both of its marketed drugs, while Brinsupri recently made its debut in Japan. SoFi Technologies +14.68%: The digital bank continues to grow at a breakneck pace. Adjusted net revenue rose 44%, while net income jumped 73%. The company added 1.2 million members in just three months, raised its full-year guidance and unveiled ambitious targets for 2027. LosersXP Inc. -53.01% and Nu Holdings -23.42%: The Brazilian brokerage and digital bank plunged 48% and 17%, respectively, on Monday following Lula's reelection as Brazil's president. Investors fear looser fiscal policies, persistently high interest rates and a slowdown in the Brazilian economy. ServiceNow -33.87%: The software company suffered a sharp selloff despite a 20.5% increase in quarterly revenue and an upward revision to its full-year guidance. Investors focused instead on an expected slowdown in near-term backlog growth, from 20.5% to 18.5% in the fourth quarter, reigniting concerns about growing competition from AI agents. Fortinet -24.4%: The cybersecurity specialist plunged 26% on Thursday despite reporting a 20% increase in quarterly revenue and raising its full-year guidance. Investors were disappointed by its growth outlook, amid concerns about whether the company's sales momentum can be sustained. Alphabet -12.61%: Google's parent company suffered a historic selloff after reporting weaker-than-expected quarterly results. Slowing search advertising growth and, more importantly, negative free cash flow of $9.1 billion reignited concerns about the cost of the AI race, despite strong revenue growth at Google Cloud. Boeing -8.92%: The aircraft manufacturer continues to disappoint investors with its struggle to ramp up production, particularly of the 737 MAX. Despite returning to positive free cash flow in the third quarter and making progress on aircraft certifications, persistent production challenges and another net loss have kept investors cautious. |
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| Commodities |
A rough week for platinum and palladiumFor a change, this week's spotlight falls on platinum, which has lost 8.6% in just a few days. Palladium (-7.7%) and, to a lesser extent, silver (-4.8%) could just as easily have made the list. What do they have in common? All three are both precious and industrial metals. That makes them more exposed to industrial and automotive demand than gold, leaving them particularly vulnerable to the wave of risk aversion that swept through markets. Gold itself fell to its lowest level since mid-July on Friday, pressured by rising crude oil prices and inflation expectations that strengthen the case for keeping monetary policy tight for longer. Oil, meanwhile, remains elevated at around $115 a barrel, with no concrete solution in sight to the supply disruptions caused by the wars in Ukraine and Iran. |
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| Macroeconomics |
| Macro: As expected, the Fed left interest rates unchanged this week, while keeping the door open to a hike in December. The decision looks increasingly like a reluctance to act, given that all the arguments for raising rates are already on the table. Recent data have shown inflation picking up again. And persistently high inflation is not just the result of soaring energy prices. It also reflects the strength of the US economy, fueled by AI investment. The ECB also left rates unchanged this week, as widely expected. The main takeaway from its meeting, however, was the official announcement of Christine Lagarde's early departure. The ECB president will step down on February 7. Crypto: Bitcoin (BTC) is heading for its fourth consecutive weekly decline, down 4% since Monday. October has now wiped out all of September's gains, with an 8% drop ending a three-month winning streak. Most of Bitcoin's losses over the past 24 hours followed news of a cyberattack targeting Binance, the world's largest cryptocurrency exchange. The hack may have affected as much as $6.3 billion in assets, which would make it the largest theft in crypto history if that figure is confirmed. Hardly reassuring for investors, although Binance says it has managed to secure a significant portion of the affected funds by freezing certain assets. The exchange has also pledged to cover its users' losses. The panic has spread across the broader crypto market: ether (ETH) is down 4% this week, trading around $2,200, Solana (SOL) has tumbled 6.3% to $95, and Binance's BNB has lost 5.5%, hovering around $680. So much for "Uptober," the nickname investors have given October because of its historically strong performance. This year, the month has clearly decided to break with tradition. |
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| Things to read this week | ||||||
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*The weekly movements of indexes and stocks displayed on the dashboard are related to the period ranging from the open on Monday to the sending time of this newsletter on Friday. The weekly movements of commodities, precious metals and currencies displayed on the dashboard are related to a 7-day rolling period from Friday to Friday, until the sending time of this newsletter. These assets continue to quote on weekends. |
