Morning, I’m Louise Moon from Bloomberg UK’s breaking news team, bringing you up to speed on today’s top business stories. Keir Starmer will touch down in Beijing later today for what’s threatening to be a four-day balancing act . Putting aside the drama over his own future for a moment, the Prime Minister is confident he can pull off what few leaders have so far been able to: broaden trade ties w...
Morning, I’m Louise Moon from Bloomberg UK’s breaking news team, bringing you up to speed on today’s top business stories. Keir Starmer will touch down in Beijing later today for what’s threatening to be a four-day balancing act . Putting aside the drama over his own future for a moment, the Prime Minister is confident he can pull off what few leaders have so far been able to: broaden trade ties with China without annoying Donald Trump. In tow is a delegation heavy on banking executives, from HSBC , Barclays and Standard Chartered , as well as those from the likes of AstraZeneca , Jaguar Land Rover and McLaren . Pulling out the big names. Just days ago, Trump threatened Canadian products with 100% tariffs after its Prime Minister Mark Carney visited Beijing. And while Starmer has built more cordial ties with the White House, that still didn’t shield him from last week’s flare up over the Chagos Islands. The overarching goal, therefore, is to maintain the current stretch of calm with both Beijing and Washington, while also boosting his domestic trade goals. Over to you Keir. What’s your take? Ping me on X , LinkedIn or drop me an email at lmoon13@bloomberg.net. Oh, and do subscribe to Bloomberg.com for unlimited access to trusted business journalism on the UK, and beyond. What We’re Watching Landlord British Land is buying Life Science REIT in a deal valuing the smaller landlord, which rents out a portfolio of offices and lab spaces, at about £150 million. It adds to a wave of consolidation in the real estate investment trust sector, as investors seek greater liquidity and lower costs. Pub operator Marston’s is confident for the year ahead, noting the 2026 FIFA World Cup as a key event, after having had a “strong” festive period and start to the year. Michael Platt’s BlueCrest Capital Management is heading to the Supreme Court for a two-day hearing, culminating a long-running fight with the HMRC. The outcome of the billionaire’s case, over a £200 million tax bill, wi...
A strong update might finally get the stock moving. Amazon (AMZN +2.63%) stock trailed the S&P 500 last year despite robust growth. This could be an excellent opportunity for investors, but only if Amazon stock is likely to recover. Let's see what might happen when it reports fourth-quarter and full-year earnings on Feb. 5, and whether or not it make sense to buy the stock now. Progress in AI The ...
A strong update might finally get the stock moving. Amazon (AMZN +2.63%) stock trailed the S&P 500 last year despite robust growth. This could be an excellent opportunity for investors, but only if Amazon stock is likely to recover. Let's see what might happen when it reports fourth-quarter and full-year earnings on Feb. 5, and whether or not it make sense to buy the stock now. Progress in AI The main thing that's going to be on investors' minds when hearing about the fourth quarter is artificial intelligence (AI). This is where the company's greatest opportunities lie right now, but the market hasn't been enthusiastic about its platform lately. Management continues to say that it has more features than the competition and that it's launching them more rapidly. It also has a backlog of $200 billion for Amazon Web Services (AWS), where clients can engage with AI development. Amazon has a multilayered platform that runs across three tiers: custom large-language models (LLM), the Bedrock program, and many plug-in tools for smaller companies. CEO Andy Jassy is always talking about what he sees as a massive opportunity, since 85% to 90% of information technology (IT) spend is still on the premises, but it's slowly shifting to the cloud. Investors will want to hear about new advances in the AI platform and healthy growth in AWS sales. The company recently unveiled a new line of AI agents that can handle many more actions without needing help from users, as well as new chips and new tools for its LLMs. The results, though, may not show up in the fourth-quarter report. Expand NASDAQ : AMZN Amazon Today's Change ( 2.63 %) $ 6.26 Current Price $ 244.68 Key Data Points Market Cap $2.6T Day's Range $ 238.08 - $ 244.88 52wk Range $ 161.38 - $ 258.60 Volume 38M Avg Vol 45M Gross Margin 50.05 % Keeping the lead in e-commerce Amazon still has a huge lead and plenty of opportunity in e-commerce. According to Jassy, a similar shift to the cloud is still taking place in e-commerce, wi...
A silent-era classic has been reframed for the vertical scroll of phone screens. Is this innovation, sacrilege, or just another way to repackage cinema history? ‘Some films are slices of life, mine are slices of cake,” said Alfred Hitchcock. Who knew that anyone would take the knife to one of his most beloved silent films, The Lodger: A Story of the London Fog (1927), and turn it into a vertical m...
A silent-era classic has been reframed for the vertical scroll of phone screens. Is this innovation, sacrilege, or just another way to repackage cinema history? ‘Some films are slices of life, mine are slices of cake,” said Alfred Hitchcock. Who knew that anyone would take the knife to one of his most beloved silent films, The Lodger: A Story of the London Fog (1927), and turn it into a vertical microdrama? The Tattle TV app has announced that it will be streaming serial killer drama The Lodger on its phone-friendly vertical platform, telling Deadline that it is “one of the first known instances of a classic feature film being fully reframed for vertical, mobile-first consumption”. So will it set a trend? And if so, how can we stop it? I’m only joking, of course. There will always be those who see archive cinema as just so much more content to be re-appropriated in new formats. And there will always be old-guard purists – who, me? – who wince at the thought. Still, Tattle TV, you have my attention, so let’s talk about it. We won’t be getting this mini-Hitch in the UK, or the EU for that matter, due to rights, but lucky US viewers will be able to watch the film that Hitchcock considered “the first time I exercised my style” in a format that largely disregards that style. The Lodger will be presented with its squarish 4:3 image either extended or cut down to fill a vertical phone screen. So there will often be parts of the image missing, which is a problem. The opening shot of The Lodger is a chilling closeup of a woman screaming, her head tilted so that her entire face fills the frame, lit from behind to emphasise her blond hair. Hitchcock told Truffaut that in The Lodger, he presented “ideas in purely visual terms”. This closeup represents the terror spreading across London as a ripper targets young, golden-haired women. Is the idea intact, even if the image isn’t? Hitchcock, a well-known stickler for carefully composed frames, may well disagree. I would. Continue r...
"Practically it works out OK, as when there are religious visitors in school if there are any pupils who have been withdrawn from that, I then have the responsibility to provide an alternative activity for those pupils," he said.
"Practically it works out OK, as when there are religious visitors in school if there are any pupils who have been withdrawn from that, I then have the responsibility to provide an alternative activity for those pupils," he said.
Traimak_Ivan/iStock via Getty Images Introduction Escalade Inc ( ESCA ) is due to report its earnings next month, and since it’s been over half a year since I updated my thesis, it is a good time to see what they will do in Q4 and what I am looking for. Last time I gave ESCA a buy because of operational improvements. Unfortunately, at this rate, the company’s earnings may not be strong enough to w...
Traimak_Ivan/iStock via Getty Images Introduction Escalade Inc ( ESCA ) is due to report its earnings next month, and since it’s been over half a year since I updated my thesis, it is a good time to see what they will do in Q4 and what I am looking for. Last time I gave ESCA a buy because of operational improvements. Unfortunately, at this rate, the company’s earnings may not be strong enough to warrant a buy, so I am downgrading it a notch to a hold, awaiting results to see how its operations progress in 2026. What to Expect In short, I don’t expect miracles from Q4 numbers but a decent performance, nonetheless. The reason is that Q4 is the holiday season, and you would think Q4 is the lowest quarter for companies that are involved in any way or form with outdoor sports, but that is not the case. Q4 has been one of the strongest quarters of the year because the products that ESCA sells are heavily giftable. Perfect gifts for the holiday season, with inventory buildup happening in Q3, then sell through in Q4. So, I am a bit surprised to see that analysts are expecting the company to make around $0.20 in EPS on $57.5m in sales. The lowest Q4 sales number the company has seen in a good while. That’s a decline of around 10% y/y in sales, while flat on EPS at least. It seems that the holiday shoppers have been tightening their wallets amid tariff uncertainty and rising prices, bringing discretionary spending lower in general. To offset the tariff headwinds, the management implemented some price hikes in July of 2025, but still had to absorb quite a bit of costs related to tariffs so that the company wouldn’t lose too much sales momentum. Unfortunately, ESCA rarely, if ever, provides any specific guidance for the upcoming quarter, so we have to look solely at the analysts’ expectations. Have they been correct in the past? Mind you, only one analyst is covering the company, and the track record is rather mixed, with some coverage missing in the recent past. Author's Build...
Sundry Photography/iStock Editorial via Getty Images ASML Holding ( ASML ) plans to cut about 1,700 jobs, mainly across its technology and IT units. Most of the job reductions will take place in the Netherlands, with some in the U.S., and will largely affect management and leadership roles. The cuts represent roughly 4% of ASML’s workforce. The job cuts follow feedback that ASML has “a complex org...
Sundry Photography/iStock Editorial via Getty Images ASML Holding ( ASML ) plans to cut about 1,700 jobs, mainly across its technology and IT units. Most of the job reductions will take place in the Netherlands, with some in the U.S., and will largely affect management and leadership roles. The cuts represent roughly 4% of ASML’s workforce. The job cuts follow feedback that ASML has “a complex organization,” often requiring excessive coordination, CFO Roger Dassen said in a call with reporters. The changes are aimed at streamlining operations so that “engineers can be engineers again,” he added. The announcement was made as the Dutch chip equipment maker reported its fourth-quarter results. ASML Q4 bookings were a record €13.2B, compared to the average analyst estimate of €6.85B. Total net sales were €32.7B in 2025, which was a 16% increase compared to 2024. ASML expects 2026 total net sales to be between €34B and €39B, higher than previous guidance. More on ASML Holding ASML Q4 Preview: AI Momentum Beats Rich Valuation (Rating Downgrade) ASML: Why The Next Growth Leg Depends On Post-2027 Demand ASML: An Indirect But Very Real Beneficiary Of The AI Memory Supercycle ASML Holding declares EUR 1.60 dividend; announces new share buyback program of up to €12B ASML Holding reports mixed Q4 results; initiates Q1 and FY26 outlook
Track your investments for FREE with Simply Wall St, the portfolio command center trusted by over 7 million individual investors worldwide. Nvidia announced a US$2 billion investment in CoreWeave (NasdaqGS:CRWV), together with an expanded commercial partnership. CoreWeave is set to deepen its role as an infrastructure provider for Nvidia powered AI workloads. Multiple class action lawsuits have be...
Track your investments for FREE with Simply Wall St, the portfolio command center trusted by over 7 million individual investors worldwide. Nvidia announced a US$2 billion investment in CoreWeave (NasdaqGS:CRWV), together with an expanded commercial partnership. CoreWeave is set to deepen its role as an infrastructure provider for Nvidia powered AI workloads. Multiple class action lawsuits have been filed alleging misrepresentations about CoreWeave's ability to scale infrastructure and meet customer demand. The combination of fresh capital, closer collaboration with Nvidia, and legal claims about prior disclosures has drawn increased attention to CoreWeave's growth plans and governance. CoreWeave focuses on cloud infrastructure tailored for AI and high performance computing, an area that large tech companies and start ups are both competing to secure. Nvidia's investment and extended partnership place CoreWeave more squarely in the conversation around capacity for GPU rich data centers and access to scarce compute resources for AI training and inference. For investors watching NasdaqGS:CRWV, the key questions now cut across both business execution and legal risk. The company faces pressure to show how it plans to align real world infrastructure, customer contracts, and disclosures, while managing the scrutiny that comes with a high profile partner and multiple lawsuits. Stay updated on the most important news stories for CoreWeave by adding it to your watchlist or portfolio. Alternatively, explore our Community to discover new perspectives on CoreWeave. NasdaqGS:CRWV 1-Year Stock Price Chart Why CoreWeave could be great value Nvidia’s US$2b equity injection and tighter commercial ties give CoreWeave fresh capital, preferred access to new chips and a clearer role as an AI-focused cloud partner, at a time when investors are also weighing allegations that the company overstated how quickly it could turn contracts into live infrastructure. For you as a shareholder or po...
Polen Capital Management Llc released its "Polen Focus Growth Strategy" Q4 2025 investor letter. A copy of the letter can be downloaded here. In Q4 2025, the Polen Focus Growth strategy delivered a -1.37% gross return, underperforming the Russell 1000 Growth Index (+1.12%) and the S&P 500 (+2.66%), as concentrated mega‑cap leadership and AI valuation concerns drove market volatility. The fund face...
Polen Capital Management Llc released its "Polen Focus Growth Strategy" Q4 2025 investor letter. A copy of the letter can be downloaded here. In Q4 2025, the Polen Focus Growth strategy delivered a -1.37% gross return, underperforming the Russell 1000 Growth Index (+1.12%) and the S&P 500 (+2.66%), as concentrated mega‑cap leadership and AI valuation concerns drove market volatility. The fund faced headwinds from market rotation and valuation pressures but remained disciplined in its investment approach, focusing on companies with durable competitive advantages and diversified earnings. Portfolio adjustments were made to optimize long-term growth potential, and despite short-term challenges, the fund maintains a constructive medium- to long-term outlook, expecting broader market opportunities beyond narrow leadership trends to support balanced returns for investors. In addition, please check the fund’s top five holdings to know its best picks in 2025. In its fourth-quarter 2025 investor letter, Polen Capital Management Llc highlighted stocks like Oracle Corporation (NYSE:ORCL). Oracle Corporation (NYSE:ORCL) is an enterprise software company that detracted from performance due to investor concerns over execution risk. The one-month return of Oracle Corporation (NYSE:ORCL) was -10.27% while its shares traded between $118.86 and $345.72 over the last 52 weeks. On January 27, 2026, Oracle Corporation (NYSE:ORCL) stock closed at approximately $174.90 per share, with a market capitalization of about $529.461 billion. Polen Capital Management Llc stated the following regarding Oracle Corporation (NYSE:ORCL) in its Polen Focus Growth Strategy's Q4 2025 investor letter: