Watson’s Weekly 24-02-2024

This is an amalgamation of the “best bits” of the daily weekday newsletter/blog woven together to form a concise and coherent view on the things that matter in the commercial and economic news of the week. 

THE COLOURED HIGHLIGHT REFERS TO THE EDITION WHERE THE STORY APPEARED IN WATSON’S DAILY. Clicking on the day will take you to the appropriate edition of Watson’s Daily.

IN BIG PICTURE NEWS...

This was the week that the Nikkei hit its highest level for 34 years, Nvidia absolutely smashed it and Capital One laid down the challenge to credit card giants with its $35bn deal to buy Discover Financial…

IN COMMODITIES NEWS…

IN BUSINESS, CONSUMER & EMPLOYMENT TRENDS NEWS...

IN BUSINESS TRENDS NEWS…

IN CONSUMER TRENDS NEWS…

IN EMPLOYMENT TRENDS…

IN TECH NEWS...

IN AI-RELATED NEWS…

IN HARDWARE COMPANY NEWS…

IN SOCIAL MEDIA NEWS…

IN GAMING…

  • It looks like the industry is suffering a slowdown as hardware sales are losing momentum and consumer spending on mobile gaming has shown signs of weakening. That being said, the PS5 and Xbox have been out for a few years now and maybe people are waiting for the Switch 2.0 that’s supposed to come out at the end of this year.

IN MEDIA…

  • WPP saw a hefty 70% fall in profits thanks to a slowdown in ad spend and chunky restructuring costs. Advertising spend can usually be quite a good bellwether of where the economy is going but advertising agencies are facing the added headwind of the potential damage that AI can do to their business.

IN THE AUTOMOTIVE SECTOR...

OVERALL…

IN EV NEWS…

ELSEWHERE…

IN FINANCIALS NEWS...

IN CREDIT CARDS…

IN BANKS NEWS…

IN RETAIL, CONSUMER GOODS & LEISURE NEWS...

IN RETAIL NEWS…

IN CONSUMER GOODS NEWS…

IN LEISURE NEWS…

IN OTHER NEWS...

BANTER

My favourite video this week was the one with the guy and his unusual commute!

 

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