M&S to rein in methane-producing cows

Sarah Butler

Marks & Spencer is investing £1m in tackling the methane produced by cows by changing the diet of the herds that provide its milk.

The retailer is working with all 40 of the pasture-grazed dairy farmers in its supply base with the aim of cutting 11,000 tons of greenhouse gas emissions annually produced by cattle burps and manure. It said adding a new type of feed to the cows’ diet would reduce the carbon footprint of its main fresh milk by 8.4%.

The innovation comes as M&S said it was also setting up a £1m accelerator fund for its ethical project Plan A, working in partnership with longstanding and new suppliers to find new ways of achieving net zero carbon emissions.

Could Shell deal a major blow to the City of London by moving its stock market listing to New York instead?

The oil giant’s CEO, Wael Sawan, has told Bloomberg that Shell would have to consider a shift if the gap between valuations in the UK and US doesn’t narrow.

Sawan told Bloomberg’s Javier Blas last month that he is trying to fix Shell’s problems by cutting costs, cutting underperforming units, and buying back shares with free cash.

Sawan added:

“If we work through the sprint, and we are doing what we are doing, and we still don’t see that the gap is closing, we have to look at all options.”

This morning, Sawan’s predecessor Ben van Beurden has fanned the flames, saying that the gap in valuations across the Atlantic is a “major issue” which makes it more likely that companies will consider moving their listings to New York.

Van Beurden told the FT Global Commodities summit that Shell was “massively undervalued”, while deeper capital pools and more favourable attitudes towards conventional energy companies make the US more attractive than Europe.

Shell is currently valued at £180bn, with a price/earnings ratio of 12.6.

New York-listed rival Exxon is worth $478bn (£376bn), with a p/e ratio of 13.59, meaning Exxon is more highly valued than Shell compared to its earnings.

Gold has hit a new all-time high this morning.

The spot price of gold has risen to $2,365.39 per ounce, above Monday’s record high, meaning gold has now risen by 14% since the start of 2024.

Gold is traditionally seen as a safe-haven in difficult times, and as a hedge against inflation.

Analysts say gold has been lifted by geopolitical tensions, with war in Ukraine and the Middle East encouraging some traders to put money into bullion.

Some central banks have also been adding to their gold reserves. with China’s central bank purchased gold for its reserves for a 17th straight month in March.

The price of other precious metals, such as silver, have also been rising, as Fawad Razaqzada, market analyst at City Index and FOREX.com, explains:

Both metals have been in demand, particularly gold, essentially because of years of high inflation chipping away at the value of fiat currencies, which is the same reason why Bitcoin has also been hitting record levels.

Up until a couple of weeks ago, silver wasn’t finding much love. But stronger industrial data from China earlier in the week pointed to stronger demand for industrial materials like copper and silver.

UK retail sales lifted by early Easter

Larry Elliott

An early Easter boosted consumer spending in March and gave Britain’s retailers their best month in more than two years.

Prompting hopes that the retail sector might be emerging from a protracted soft patch, the latest snapshot of spending in shops and online showed the value of sales above the current inflation rate for the first time since the early days of the cost of living crisis.

The monthly sales monitor from the British Retail Consortium and the accountancy firm KPMG said the value of sales was up by 3.5% in March on a year earlier. Inflation as measured by the consumer prices index stood at 3.4% in February and is expected to have fallen to about 3% in March.

Linda Ellett, the KPMG UK head of consumer markets, leisure and retail, said the Easter pickup in spending pointed to the possibility of “green shoots of recovery” for retailers.

Investors are losing faith that central banks will make hefty cuts to interest rates this year.

Futures traders have reduced bets on how much the US Federal Reserve will cut rates this year to the lowest level since October, LSEG data shows.

Traders now expect fewer than three quarter-point cuts to US interest rates this year, down from up to six cuts expected in January.

Reuters explains:

Fed funds futures contracts for December on Monday reflected expectations of around 60 basis points in rate cuts this year, compared to some 150 basis points that had been priced at the start of 2024.

The prospect of a first 25 basis point cut in June stood at 49%, down from 57% a week ago, CME Group data showed on Monday.

This repricing follows stronger than expected US economic data, such as last Friday’s forecast-beating US employment report showing 303,000 new jobs were created in March.

Yesterday, JP Morgan CEO Jamie Dimon warned that inflation coud be stickier than forecast, leading to higher interest rates than markets expect.

For the UK, traders expect the Bank of England to cut rates to 4.5% by the end of this year, from 5.25% at present.

Good morning, and welcome to our rolling coverage of business, the financial markets and the world economy.

Argentina’s currency crisis has come back to bite HSBC, as it announces the sale of its operations in the South American country.

HSBC is selling its business in Argentina – which covers banking, asset management and insurance and $100 million in subordinated debt – to Grupo Financiero Galicia for $550m.

But, HSBC will record a $1bn pre-tax loss on the sale, as it will crystallise losses it has been running on the Argentinian peso-denominated book value of HSBC Argentina when converted into US dollars.

HSBC will also recognise $4.9bn in historical currency translation reserve losses when the deal closes. Those losses swelled by $1.8bn last year because of the devaluation of Argentina’s peso.

Last December, Argentina’s libertarian government led by Javier Milei devalued the peso by about half, as part of their economic shock treatment.

The sale will help fund HSBC’s pivot strategy of shifting capital to India and China.

Noel Quinn, HSBC’s chief executive, says the bank is pleased to have agreed the sale of HSBC Argentina.

This transaction is another important step in the execution of our strategy and enables us to focus our resources on higher value opportunities across our international network. HSBC Argentina is largely a domestically focused business, with limited connectivity to the rest of our international network. Furthermore, given its size, it also generates substantial earnings volatility for the Group when its results are translated into US dollars. Galicia is better placed to invest in and grow the business.

“We remain committed to Mexico and the US, and to serving our international clients throughout our global network with our leading transaction banking capabilities.”

The agenda

• 7.45am BST: French trade balance for February

• 1pm BST: Mexico’s inflation rate for March

• 3pm BST: RealClearMarkets/TIPP index of US economic optimism

• 6.30pm BST: IMF to publish chapter 3 of its Global Financial Stability Report