February 1st 2023

Eurozone leads global growth figures released by the European Union Statistics Agency. Tuesday showed the currency-area's economy grew at an annualized rate of a half a percent as higher energy costs weighed on household spending. This translated into a 3.5% growth in gross domestic product for 2022 as a whole, a faster rate than seen either in China or the US. Spotify boost user base, despite loss.

Spotify reported 489 million monthly active users, a 20% increase year-over-year with growth in India and Indonesia as a result of marketing campaigns and strength from its eighth annual Wrapped campaign and the holiday season. Drive-thru profits unaffected as McDonald's profits soar amid inflation. McDonald's profits continue to rise with two consecutive quarters of increasing traffic.

Many consumers have cut back restaurant spending in response to inflation, and McDonald's has largely benefited from the change in consumer behavior since many have traded down from full-service restaurants. GM outperforms automotive industry. General Motors exceeded expectations with full year 2022 revenue of $156.7 billion and a net income of $9.9 billion, showing strong results even as the US automotive industry normalizes.

The strong report suggests GM is hanging on to record results, even as the US automotive industry begins to normalize after several years of record, low inventories and resilient consumer demand. Heavy equipment manufacturer, Caterpillar sales are up 20%.

Caterpillar sales hit $16.6 billion for the quarter up 20% due to strong demand for its construction and mining equipment and energy generation engines, driven by growing investments in oil and natural gas production, also drove higher demand for caterpillars engines Sales came to $16.6 billion for the quarter topping Wall Street expectations. What to watch for the week... Apple sets sites on new business opportunity.

The new Apple Business Connect Suite is a set of tools that allows small businesses to update how their location place cards look across Apple apps like Maps, Messages, and W allet. The Suite also provides an insight dashboard to show how customers find a business and interact with the place card. That last detail could be the essential groundwork for building a massive advertising segment. Buy With Prime threatens Shopify. UBS analyst Kunal Madhukar reiterated a sell rating on Shopify.

Madhukar claimed that Buy With Prime could lead to between 6% to 14% of Shopify's revenue and 2% to 6% of its gross profit being at risk. But there's a lot of upside potential for Shopify if it can neutralize the Buy With Prime threat. EV may not equal savings as EV fuel costs surpass gas cars in Q4 2022. Typical mid-priced ICE, which stands for internal combustion engine, paid about $11.29 to fuel their vehicles for a hundred miles of driving.

That cost was around 31 cents cheaper than the amount paid by mid-price EV drivers charging mostly at home and over $3 less than the cost borne by comparable EV drivers charging commercially. IMF raises growth forecasts. It says most countries will avoid a recession, and IMF expects the global economy to grow 3.2% between the final quarter of last year and the final quarter of this year.

It's an upgrade from its last forecast, the Financial Times' Colby Smith says a big factor is China's decision to scrap its restrictive zero-Covid policies. Interest rates remain (shocker) key concern.The biggest question is whether or not the Fed will continue to hike interest rates as this implies quantitative tightening and could have a significant impact on the market as long as they continue even with baby steps of 25 basis points at a time.

As long as that continues, quantitative tightening rolls on in the background. What they talk about the least is actually the most important, which is quantitative easing. And that caps off your snackable new summary for the day. But now what? What can you do with this new found intel? How can you wield this information to protect and grow your money? The first thing you can do is head over to MarketMoversDaily.com and subscribe.

Subscribing is free and it's the one thing that keeps us working for you, plus gives you the inside scoop. scoop Because let's face it, email's really where we share our best stuff. Think micro content for macro returns. Subscribe today. After that, we work for you. Me, my partners, our board of advisors, all focused on delivering the best content to make you a better business person and a better investor. Become a Market Mover today. It's fast, easy.

Just head over to MarketMoversDaily.com, drop in your email and let me and my crew go to work for you.