Big news came from one of the world’s largest companies, Amazon, today. CEO Jeff Bezos, who until recently used to be the richest man alive (at the beginning of 2021 Tesla’s Elon Musk dethroned him), announced that he will be stepping down from his post. The new CEO of Amazon will be Andrew Jassy, who was previously in charge of Amazon Web Services.
The news came just as Amazon delivered another record-breaking revenue report for the last quarter. The company with all of its subdivisions is excellently placed to cater to both e-commerce and online services, sectors that have been thriving even more during the pandemic.
There are also some surprising developments in Europe, more specifically in Italy. The country plunged into a full-blown political crisis after the ruling coalition fell apart and the Prime Minister resigned last week. It fell to President Sergio Mattarella to appoint a new government to rule the country until the elections in 2023, thus avoiding yet another preliminary election.
Mattarella then pleasantly surprised the financial markets by suggesting Mario Draghi for the post of Prime Minister. Draghi was President of the European Central Bank before Christine Lagarde and is well-regarded among economists internationally, as well as within the European Union especially.
Italy, which has been struggling economically for years before the pandemic, has had beef with the EU, particularly where budgets and borrowing come into play. Thus, placing someone like Draghi, who is of the same mind as the European Commission and does not have close ties to the populist parties dominating the Italian political landscape, in the position of Prime Minister could potentially do much for the country. European stock indices reacted positively to this news.
US stock indices are also going to continue their rally today due to improving market sentiment and growing hopes that Joe Biden will succeed with his stimulus bill. Companies who will share their latest earnings reports today include eBay, Qualcomm, and PayPal.
On the economic calendar today we had disappointing PMIs from China, where local lockdowns are pressuring the industrial sector once more in January. European PMIs were a bit of a mixed batch, though the composite eurozone-wide PMI was better than the forecasts. Inflation data, however, was overwhelmingly positive, with core inflation jumping to 1.4% in January from 0.2% previously.
PMI data from the United Kingdom also exceeded the forecasts. Later in the day we expect a couple of ISM reports from the United States, as well as speeches by both the Federal Reserve in the US and the Bundesbank in Germany.
