Before the bell: energy prices are soaring

Uncertainty is returning to stock markets and the Bel20 is being reshuffled.

In Brussels, the Bel20 fell 1.4% yesterday and also lost one constituent. Euronext decided to remove Cofinimmo from the index ahead of its planned merger with Aedifica. Stainless steel producer Aperam returns to the benchmark index after an absence of two years. UCB (-3.6%) and Sofina (-5%) recorded the biggest losses. The Euro Stoxx 50 declined 0.7%. The US inflation figure for February came in at 2.4%, the same as the previous month. It should be noted, however, that this number does not yet take into account the higher energy prices resulting from the conflict in Iran. The inflation figure for March is therefore likely to be higher. On a largely flat US stock market, with the S&P 500 and Nasdaq almost unchanged, Oracle moved sharply higher, gaining 9.2% after the company published strong results following Tuesday’s close.

Volatility on energy markets remains high and oil prices are climbing again. A barrel of North Sea crude traded around 88 dollar earlier this week, but has now risen to 98 dollar. As a result, sentiment in Asia this morning is subdued. In Japan, the Topix and Nikkei are down 1.6% and 1.3% respectively, while the Hang Seng Index in Hong Kong has slipped 1%. In China, results are expected from Li Auto and asset manager Futu Holdings. In Belgium, GBL will publish its figures today. In the United States, results will come from Dollar General, Adobe and Ulta Beauty.

Layoffs at Oracle

The company whose share price rose by more than 9% yesterday also revealed in its report that it plans to spend an additional 500 million dollar on restructuring. That brings the total restructuring budget for the current fiscal year to more than 2 billion dollar. “Restructuring” is, of course, a euphemism for layoffs. Oracle suggests that the use of artificial intelligence requires significantly fewer programmers to develop the same amount — or even more — software. Over the past year, Oracle has already laid off more than 3,000 employees. The available budget suggests that a similar or even larger round of layoffs may follow in the coming period. The company employs roughly 160,000 people worldwide. It appears to be a broader trend in the technology sector that staff are making way for additional investment in AI.

Audiobooks

Reading is good for the development of your brain. But young people would not be young if they had not found a way to make reading easier. Audiobooks and apps that summarise books are currently extremely popular. Amazon will in any case lower the price of its Audible audiobook subscription. Previously, the service cost nearly 15 dollar per month, but soon the price will drop to just 9 dollar per month. The e-commerce giant is adjusting its pricing because more competitors are gathering around the honey pot. Spotify, for example, recently began offering audiobooks as well. With the Swedish streaming service, subscribers receive a limited number of audiobook listening hours on top of music and podcasts. In the United States, a Spotify subscription costs 12 dollar. Whether listeners remember as much from audiobooks — and whether they are just as beneficial for brain development — remains an open question.

Did you know…

that according to LinkedIn, Nestlé currently has two CEOs? Former CEO Laurent Freixe has still not updated his profile after being dismissed six months ago following an affair in the workplace. Nestlé has formally asked him to correct the information.

This article was translated from Dutch and was originally published on Spaarvarkens.be.