市场资讯及洞察

Salesforce the worlds #1 customer relationship management (CRM) platform has just announced record fourth quarter and full fiscal 2022 results exceeding expectations. The pandemic-led shift to hybrid work has kept up a strong demand for its cloud-based software. Total fourth quarter revenue was $7.33 billion, an increase of 26% year over year, and 27% in constant currency.

Salesforce’s subscription and support revenue for the fourth quarter also rose 24.7% to $6.83 Billion. “We had another phenomenal quarter and full-year of financial results,” said Marc Benioff, Chair and Co-CEO of Salesforce. With our customers’ success driving our financial success, we’re generating disciplined, profitable growth at scale quarter after quarter,” said Bret Taylor, Co-CEO of Salesforce. “Our Customer 360 platform has never been more strategic or relevant in driving the growth and resilience of our customers around the world.” Salesforce has also been working to integrate Slack after its $27.7 billion purchase of the instant messaging platform, as well as adding products in a bid to sell more tools to existing customers. Analysts see a lot of room to increase sales of the company’s flagship software that lets businesses manage and interact with customers.

Salesforce believes the software market can grow double digits over the next several years, as companies across the globe continue to have conversations about facilitating hybrid and remote work models. Salesforce has not slowed down Slack’s roadmap, with the platform launching Slack Huddles and Clips in the second half of 2021. Salesforce said it expects $1.5 billion in sales form Slack in its fiscal year 2023.

Salesforce’s stock price has been on a downhill ride in the past several months, falling more than 30% from it’s November record high of over $310. Shares have recently increased over 4% and are currently trading at $209.65. Salesforce (CRM) Salesforce.com Inc. is the 51 st largest company in the world with total market cap of $205.75 billion Gavin Patterson the Chief Revenue Office said the global sanctions against Russia arising out of the war with Ukraine will have “minimal impact” on Salesforce’s business and haven’t forced the company to take any actions.

You can trade Salesforce.com Inc. (CRM) and many other stocks from the NYSE, NASDAQ, HKEX and the ASX with GO Markets as a Share CFD. Sources: Reuters, Yahoo Finance, itnews

In the midst of the Russian, Ukraine crisis, there are huge ramifications that affect us all in the global market. Energy is a critically important export. Russian oil and gas exports make up a fifth of Russia's economy and half of its earnings from exports.

The country is the European Union's biggest oil trading partner, according to the latest data from Eurostat. Russia also ranks 5 th in the world for oil consumption, accounting for about 3.7% of the world's total consumption of 97,103,871 barrels per day. They are also ranked 3 rd in oil production, which is the most important factor when it comes to costs, sitting close to the oil powerhouses of United States and Saudi Arabia.

They are also some way ahead of China, who sits in 4 th lagging behind Russia by a wide margin of 6 million barrels per day (Fig.1). As you can imagine any disruption to any country in this list on a normal day, would trigger a price movement. So a war and subsequent sanctions on a country who controls so much consumption and production of the precious liquid would make more than a ripple.

Global benchmark April Brent crude climbed $3.06, or 3.1%, to end at $100.99 a barrel. The contract, which expired at the end of the session, settled at its highest since September 2014, posting a gain of 10.7% for the month. West Texas Intermediate crude for April delivery on the New York Mercantile Exchange rose $4.13, or 4.5%, to settle at $95.72 a barrel.

The front-month contract finished at the highest since August 2014, up 8.6% for the month, according to Dow Jones Market Data. Latest Price Action Over the last few days, we have seen Oil prices finished higher each closing day, a sharp increase over night of 9.72% to start today’s session at $106.33 (Fig.2). Fig. 2 WTI Oil followed suit and had a jump of 11.5%, a sharp increase over night to start today’s session at $106.75 (Fig.3).

Fig. 3 The Wall Street Journal reported that the U.S. and other major oil-consuming countries were weighing the release of 70 million barrels of oil from emergency stockpiles in response to surging crude prices. This is to try to stabilize the oil prices and make up the supply that Russia would normally deliver pre sanctions. It’s important to tread carefully when trading assets such as these commodities, which are driven by Geopolitics, unforeseen supply and demand levels and corporate institutions around the world who have their own agendas in mind when thinking of their bottom line.

Profits. Sources: QUARTZ, worldometers.info, The Wall Street Journal, Tradingview.

Last week, Russia took a step that not many people thought it would take – they invaded Ukraine. Even though the tensions have been building in the region since the annexation of Crimea in February 2014, not many people thought Vladimir Putin would take the step to invade a sovereign nation. Five days on from the start of the invasion, we have already seen countries around the world condemn Russia’s actions and announce tough sanctions against the largest country in the world.

None of those have yet made any difference to their actions, as they continue their invasion. However, their actions have already impacted their economy - and it will most likely get worse. Swift action from the West Over the weekend, the United States, European Union, United Kingdom and other countries agreed to remove a number of Russian banks from The Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication (SWIFT) system, an international payment system which is used by financial institutions around the world. "We commit to ensuring that selected Russian banks are removed from the SWIFT messaging system.

This will ensure that these banks are disconnected from the international financial system and harm their ability to operate globally," the European Commission said in a statement following the announcement. The latest move will have a drastic impact on the Russian economy, which is the 11 th largest in the world according to the World Bank data. It is worth pointing out that only one other country has ever been cut off from the SWIFT system – Iran.

The move resulted in Iran losing half of its oil export revenues and 30% of foreign trade. The central bank reacts On Monday, the Bank of Russia announced its key interest rate from 9.5% to 20% to protect the Ruble, as the pressure mounts on the Russian economy following the latest round of sanctions. ''External conditions for the Russian economy have drastically changed. The increase of the key rate will ensure a rise in deposit rates to levels needed to compensate for the increased depreciation and inflation risks.

This is needed to support financial and price stability and protect the savings of citizens from depreciation,'' the Central Bank said in a statement on their website. ''Further key rate decisions will be made taking into account risks posed by external and domestic conditions and the reaction of financial markets, as well as actual and expected inflation movements relative to the target and economic developments over forecast period,'' the statement continued. The Central Bank of Russian Federation interest changes since July 2020 Financial markets Last week we saw the Moscow stock exchange, the MOEX index, plummet by 45% - to a new record low. The index recovered some of the losses last Friday when it was up by 20%.

On Monday, it was announced that the exchange will not open and the Russian Central Bank said that the operating hours of the exchange would be announced on 1 March 2022 before 9:00 Moscow time. MOEX Russia Index The Ruble The Russian currency has been in free fall since the conflict began – reaching the lowest level ever against the US Dollar. US Dollar was trading at around 76 level at the beginning of February vs. the Russian Ruble.

USD/RUB was trading 107.7000 level on Monday – up by around 27%. USD/RUB With the conflict showing no signs of getting resolved any time soon, we will most likely see more impact on the Russian and world economy in the coming weeks and months. Sources: The World Bank, TradingView, Global Rates, The Central Bank of Russian Federation

All prices in this article will be in USD unless otherwise stated. Rio Tinto Group is an Anglo-Australian multinational and the world's second-largest metals and mining corporation, behind BHP, producing iron ore, copper, diamonds, gold and uranium. Rio Tinto made history last week by posting the second biggest profit in Australian corporate history, the biggest belonging to BHP.

They have decided to reward their shareholders with Australia’s biggest ever dividend worth $16.8 billion, which is roughly $23 billion AUD. The $21.4 billion of underlying earnings for 2021 was the biggest in all of Rio Tinto’s 149 year history. The achievement has allowed a dividend payment of $4.79 per share.

The final and special dividends took Rio Tinto’s total dividends for the year to a record-breaking $10.40 per share. The total dividends paid by Rio Tinto for the year is almost doubled the previous year’s $5.57. The greatest profit recorded by an Australian company was BHP.

They set this record in 2011 with a recorded $21.68 billion in underlying profit. Comparing both companies, BHP’s record profit was when the Australian dollar was much stronger than today. This means the profit announced by Rio Tinto would be much bigger than BHP, in Australian dollars, $22.5 billion vs $23 billion AUD.

This does not take into account inflation. Rio Tinto’s great result was largely attributed to its most important commodity, iron ore. However, the decade high prices for copper and aluminium have also bolstered their profits.

The shareholder returns unleashed by Rio Tinto over the past four years rank as the four biggest in the company’s history, meaning shareholders in the miner are enjoying a golden era of returns. The “golden era” was initially built on the proceeds of asset divestments, however, Australian mining companies have been fortunate due to rival mining companies in Brazil suffering massive dam failures in 2019. Australia was able to capitalise on the weak iron ore supply in the aftermath.

The strong operating environment for mining companies like Rio Tinto has only continued since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. The pandemic had prompted governments to announce stimulus spending on infrastructure which drove strong demand for the raw materials which were produced by the likes of Rio Tinto and BHP. Most of Rio’s record setting dividend will be paid to shareholders outside of Australia; the company’s biggest shareholder is Chinese state-owned entity Chinalco while most investors own the stock through the London Stock Exchange.

All in all, the mining industry is currently experiencing a strong year. Rio Tinto, being one of the biggest players, has set the benchmark for other companies in the industry. The strong start to the year is a good indication as to where the industry is going.

If you would like to take this opportunity to invest in Rio Tinto Group and don’t already have a trading account, you can register for a Shares or Shares CFD account at GO Markets. Sources: ASX, Wikipedia, AFR.

Results are in – NVIDIA reports NVIDIA Corporation (NVDA) announced its second quarter results after the closing bell in the US on Wednesday. The US technology giant reported revenue that exceeded analyst expectations at $6.704 billion for the quarter vs. estimate of $6.699 billion. Earnings per share reported at $0.51 per share, narrowly beating estimate of $0.50 per share for the second quarter. ''We are navigating our supply chain transitions in a challenging macro environment and we will get through this,'' founder and CEO of NVIDIA, Jensen Huang said in a statement following the latest results. ''Accelerated computing and AI, the pioneering work of our company, are transforming industries.

Automotive is becoming a tech industry and is on track to be our next billion-dollar business. Advances in AI are driving our Data Center business while accelerating breakthroughs in fields from drug discovery to climate science to robotics.'' ''I look forward to next month’s GTC conference, where we will share new advances in RTX, as well as breakthroughs in AI and the metaverse, the next evolution of the internet. Join us,'' Huang added.

NVIDA expects revenue of around $5.9 billion for the third quarter, which is short of analyst estimate of $6.9 billion for the quarter. NVIDIA Corporation (NVDA) chart Shares of NVIDIA were little changed on Wednesday, up by 0.24% at $172.12. The stock fell in the after-hours by around 3% on future outlook.

Here is how the stock has performed in the past year: 1 month -3.19% 3 months +1.46% Year-to-date -41.44% 1 year -22.47% NVIDIA price targets Truist Securities $216 Mizuho $250 Raymond James $240 Barclays $200 Deutsche Bank $175 Citigroup $285 Keybanc $230 NVIDIA Corporation is the 13 th largest company in the world with a market cap of $429.17 billion. You can trade NVIDIA Corporation (NVDA) and many other stocks from the NYSE, NASDAQ, HKEX and the ASX with GO Markets as a Share CFD. Sources: NVIDIA Corporation, TradingView, MetaTrader 5, Benzinga, CompaniesMarketCap

The Reserve Bank of Australia, (RBA) has increased the Country’s cash rate by half a percent to combat the rising inflation in its latest cash rate change. The increase was in line with most analyst’s expectations as the RBA continues to fight inflation and bring it back into the 2-3% range. The current forecast from the RBA suggests that CPI inflation will peak near 7.75% over 2022, before falling to 4% during 2023, and then settling at 3% in 2024.

A key source of concern for the RBA was and continues to be the current spending habits of Australian households. Importantly, as the cost of goods has risen due to inflation, pressure has built on household budgets and their spending habits. This has been caused by both the supply chain issues and the increased cash rate.

Furthermore, consumer confidence has fallen, and “housing prices are declining after the large increases in recent years.” This shows how interest rate hikes are impacting the lives of Australians and their spending habits. Another important factor at play is the tightening of the job market. The unemployment rate dropped in June to 3.5%, the lowest rate in 50 years, and job vacancies and job advertisements continue to be at high levels.

However, the bank does not expect to be able to hold these levels and predict the rate of unemployment will reach 4% by the end of 2024 as a result of the current slowing economic growth. In response to the announcement, the ASX200 responded positively as investors saw the announcement as bullish, shooting up 0.38% in the 30 minutes after the announcement. Conversely, the AUDUSD dropped back below $0.70 dropping to $0.6970 in the 30 minutes immediately after the announcement.

The RBA will later this week further update the market with its monetary policy statement which will provide further clarity on its decision-making and the current sentiment.