Thursday 1 May 2025
The Mighty Headlines
Economics: Chinese manufacturing falls to lowest level since 2023
Business: Facebook reports revenue of over $42 billion in Q1 2025
Markets: Shein pauses London IPO to focus on its US business
Foreign Affairs: Spanish authorities deny power cut and renewables link
Security and intelligence: France accuses Russia of cyberattacks
Domestic politics: UK local and mayoral elections today
The Mighty Stats
FTSE = 8,494.85 (up 0.37%)
S&P 500 = 5,569.06 (up 0.15%)
Nasdaq = 17,446.34 (down 0.085%)
CAC40 = 7 593,87 (up 0.5%)
£1 = $1.34 / €1.18
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The Mighty Detail
Economics: China’s manufacturing activity fell in April to its lowest level in 18 months. According to official statistics, China’s manufacturing PMI stood at 49.0 last month – its lowest level since December 2023. Any number below 50 indicates a contraction and any number above indicates growth.
Business: Facebook’s parent group, Meta, has announced revenue of $42.31 billion in Q1 2025. This beats the forecast of $41.38 billion which had been expected. In Q4 2024, Meta reported revenue of $48.39 billion.
Markets: The fast-fashion company Shein is pausing its London IPO. The Chinese fashion company is instead reported to be looking at how to restructure its US operations which are facing tariffs. The US generates around 29 per cent of Shein’s annual $38 billion of revenue.
Foreign Affairs: The head of Spain’s national grid has said that the organisation knows the cause of the power outage on Monday and that it was not due to issues with renewable electricity. Beatriz Corredor, President of Red Eléctrica, also added that the large scale power cut was not linked to a cyber attack. Portugal’s authorities have said separately that they “still don’t know the cause of the blackout.”
Security and intelligence: French authorities are claiming that Russia’s military intelligence agency, the GRU, has organised attacks against the French Government, French companies and the Paris Olympics. France’s cybersecurity agency states that the GRU has used the hacking group APT28 – also known as Fancy Bear – to attack a dozen French organisations since 2021.
Domestic politics: Local and mayoral elections are taking place across England today. A total of 1,641 council seats in 23 local authorities are up for election. Of these a total of 1,182 are currently held by the Conservative Party. Many of these elections were last held in 2021 when the Conservative Party was ahead in the polls following the Covid-19 vaccine rollout.
The Mighty Calendar
What’s happening today?
France, Spain, Italy, Germany, China, Brazil public holiday (Labour Day)
UK local and mayoral elections
President Trump delivers speech at University of Alabama
Tony Awards nominations
Business Questions in UK Parliament
UK house price data (April)
UK, US, Canada manufacturing data (April)
US initial jobless claims (weekly)
Company results from: Amazon, Apple, Lloyds, Whitbread, Drax, Eli Lilly, McDonald’s
Lookahead to tomorrow
China public holiday (Labour Day)
Eurozone manufacturing data (April)
Eurozone CPI data (April)
US factory orders (March)
Company results from: Shell, ExxonMobil, Standard Chartered, NatWest, BASF
The Mighty Finale
🌤️Weather today
Dry and sunny across England. High of 29C and low of 14C in London. Sunny spells in Belfast and Edinburgh.
✏️Life coaching quote of the day
“To make others less happy is a crime. To make ourselves unhappy is where all crime starts.” – Roger Ebert, film critic
Mighty takeaway: Be as kind to yourself as you would be to a friend or family member.
That’s it for this Thursday morning. Thanks for reading and we’ll see you tomorrow.
Cheerio!
The Mighty Memo team