- Bank of Canada rate meeting – 06/09 – since the Bank of Canada last raised rates back in June, the headline rate has remained at 5%. At the last set of jobs numbers, the Canadian economy saw a net decline of -6.4k jobs, with most of those jobs lost being part-time in nature. The unemployment rate edged up to 5.5% and the highest level since January 2022. With wage growth at 5% and the economy growing at 0.3% in June the increase in rates is slowly acting as a brake on the Canadian economy with consumer spending slowing to stall speed over the last couple of months. With the central bank saying that inflation is unlikely to return to target until 2025, no changes are expected to the 5% base rate.
- Darktrace FY23 – 06/09 – when Darktrace reported back in July the shares surged higher after the company reported that it expected to see a 31% increase in full year revenue, while saying that the 396 new customers added in Q4 should see total customers rise to 8,799, a rise of 18.3%. The last 12 months saw the shares hit a record low at the start of the year, after short seller Quintessential Capital Management expressing scepticism over the validity of its financial statements, while also taking an active short position. To combat these accusations Darktrace contracted Ernst & Young to review its finances to draw a line through the unwelcome speculation over its accounting practices. In July the company announced that the review had been completed and that nothing in any of its previous financial statements remained unchanged, and that the financial statements accurately reflected the firm's financial position. The move higher in the share price is currently finding it difficult to overcome the 400p level which also equates to the highs of the year, as well as the November 2022 highs at 415p. Full year revenue is expected to come in at $544m an increase of 31%. On guidance Darktrace said it expects margins for this year to match those of 2022 and for 2024 to come in around 22%.
- Barratt Developments FY23 – 06/09 – despite a difficult economic backdrop, the Barratt Developments share price has managed to recover from the 6-year lows it fell to in October of last year in the aftermath of the spike in UK gilt yields prompted by the market response to some of the measures in Kwarteng budget and the ensuing meltdown in the LDI market. Despite gilt yields moving back, and above the levels seen at the end of last year, we've seen modest gains in the share price despite reporting a drop in forward sales in Q4, back in July. Completions were down from 17,908 a year ago to 17,206, with adjusted profit before tax expected to be in line with expectations. Private reservations were 0.55 down from 0.81 in 2022, although they have still recovered from the levels they were at the end of last year. With interest rates set to remain high, and the end of "Help to Buy" the risk is that looking ahead, forward bookings may well struggle to match the levels seen over the last few years.
