Unilever expects slow start to year, Relx reports full-year growth
By Josh White
Date: Thursday 13 Feb 2025
(Sharecast News) - London open
The FTSE 100 is expected to open five points higher on Thursday, having closed up 0.34% on Wednesday at 8,807.44.
Stocks to watch
Multinational consumer goods company Unilever on Thursday said it expected a slow start to the current financial year with "subdued" market growth in the near term and announced a €1.5bn share buyback after a 12.6% rise in annual profit to €11.2bn. "We expect the market and our growth to improve during the year as price increases, reflecting higher commodity costs in 2025. We expect a more balanced split between volume and price," the company said. It added that the ice-cream business would be separated via a demerger and listed in Amsterdam, London and New York following a full review of options.
Relx reported solid financial growth for 2024 on Thursday, with revenue rising 7% on an underlying basis to £9.43bn and adjusted operating profit increasing 10% to £3.2bn. The FTSE 100 information and events firm said adjusted earnings per share grew 9% at constant currency to 120.1p, while it completed £1bn in share buybacks, five acquisitions totalling £195m, and seven disposals for £95m. Looking ahead, Relx said it expected continued strong underlying growth in revenue, adjusted operating profit, and adjusted earnings per share in 2025.
Barclays saw profit before tax jump over the last three months of 2024 to reach £1.7bn, versus £0.1bn one year before. That came on the back of a 24% year-on-year surge in group income to £7.0bn. Total operating expenses meanwhile fell by 7% to £4.6bn. For 2025, the lender said that it was targeting a return on tangible equity of approximately 11%, group net interest income of around £12.2bn and a cost-to-income ratio of roughly 61%. Its target for 2026 RoTE was pegged at over 12%.
Newspaper round-up
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Chevron Corporation, the US oil giant, will make up to 8,000 employees redundant by the end of 2026 to cut costs. The oil producer said it will cut between 15 per cent and 20 per cent of jobs from its global workforce. At the end of 2023, Chevron employed 40,212 people across its operations so 20 per cent would be about 8,000. Those figures do not include about 5,400 employees of Chevron service stations. - The Times
US close
US stocks finished mostly lower on Wednesday after an unexpected acceleration in core inflation spooked markets, causing bond yields to rise strongly.
The Dow and S&P 500 fell 0.5% and 0.3%, respectively, while the Nasdaq was little changed by the close.
According to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the annual rate of US consumer price inflation rose to 3% in January, surprising economists who had expected no change from 2.9% the previous month, highlighting persistent inflationary pressures across the economy.
Core inflation, which excludes food and energy prices, unexpectedly increased to 3.3% from 3.2% in December, whereas analysts had pencilled in a decline to 3.1%.
The yield on a 10-year US Treasury note was up 9.7 basis points at 4.629% - its highest in three weeks. The dollar initially jumped following the inflation data, but had pared gains by the close with the greenback index finishing flat at 107.98.
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