Business

Markets continued to rally in response to Donald Trump’s election victory. The S&P 500 hit another high (it has broken more than 50 records so far this year) and the Dow Jones Industrial Average closed above the 44,000 mark for the first time. The rise in Tesla’s stock pushed the carmaker above a valuation of $1trn, which it last achieved in early 2022. The dollar continued to climb, hitting emerging-market currencies (over 40% of global trade is invoiced in dollars). Cryptocurrencies also made huge gains. Bitcoin surged by 30% in a week to trade above a record $90,000.

America’s annual inflation rate rose for the first time since March. It stood at 2.6% in October, up from 2.4% in September. The core rate, which excludes volatile energy and food prices, held steady at 3.3%. Traders still expect the Federal Reserve to cut interest rates again next month. It recently shaved a quarter of a percentage point off its main rate, taking it to a range of between 4.5% and 4.75%. The Bank of England also reduced its rate by a quarter-point, to 4.75%.

Argentina’s annual inflation rate fell to 193% in October, the first time it has dropped below 200% in almost a year. The month-on-month rate slowed to 2.7%, the lowest since November 2021. The government’s ending of a freeze on meat prices has led to a fall in beef consumption in the meat-loving country.

China’s latest stimulus package disappointed investors by not going far enough to boost household spending. The 10trn yuan ($1.4trn) package is aimed at supporting the country’s distressed local authorities, allowing them to restructure debt through new bond issues.

Robotic vision

Helped by a strong performance from its Vision Funds, SoftBank reported a quarterly net profit of ¥1.2trn ($7.8bn). Expanding its push into artificial intelligence, SoftBank is building Japan’s most powerful supercomputer in collaboration with Nvidia, using the first chips from Nvidia’s Blackwell design. At a launch event Masayoshi Son, the Japanese conglomerate’s boss, said he wanted to develop AI robotics so that a “robot can have passions as a friend”.

An appeals court in the Netherlands overturned a lower court’s landmark decision in 2021 that ordered Shell to cut emissions by 45% by 2030, including those that stem from the use of its products, based on 2019 levels. The original case had been brought by climate activists. The appeals court found that although companies have a duty of care to reduce emissions, under EU law they “are free to choose their own approach…as long as it is consistent with the Paris agreement’s climate targets”.

Siemens Energy reported a 12-month net profit of €1.3bn ($1.4bn), bouncing back from a €4.6bn loss in the previous year. The supplier of wind turbines has faced a gale of problems in recent years related to technical problems with its machinery. Its share price has rebounded over the past year, rising by 360%. The company has warned, however, that a second Trump presidency makes the outlook for renewable energy uncertain.

Volkswagen raised its investment in Rivian from $5bn to $5.8bn, as the carmakers officially began their joint venture to develop electric-vehicle technology and software. Rivian is a loss-making American startup and the investment lifeline allows it to launch its R2 model, a smaller, cheaper SUV, next year. The first VW cars to include Rivian’s technology are expected to be on the road in 2027.

Just Eat Takeaway, a food-delivery company, decided to sell Grubhub for $650m. Just Eat paid $7.3bn for its smaller rival in 2021, a price bloated by the excess appetite for food apps during the pandemic. It soon regretted its purchase and wrote down Grubhub’s value.

A rush to fortify homes and businesses ahead of Hurricanes Helene and Milton was a factor behind Home Depot’s rising quarterly sales.

The release of the long-delayed “Dungeon & Fighter Mobile” game in China helped boost Tencent’s quarterly profit, which rose by 47%, year on year, to 53.2bn yuan ($7.4bn).

The ad breaks

Two years after it started offering a cheaper subscription package that includes ads, Netflix said that 50% of new subscribers were now signing up for the deal, and that 70m monthly active users have the ad-supported bundle. That is up from 40m six months ago and 15m 12 months ago. Netflix has 283m members in total. It has already sold its ad slots for the two National Football League games it will stream live on Christmas Day. Viewers who escaped to Netflix to avoid TV’s incessant advertising might wonder if all this will eventually sound the death knell for ad-free streaming.