HSBC has finished its bulk but instead of cutting weight now, it’s cutting bankers. On Wednesday CEO Georges Elhedery unveiled a sweeping cost-cutting plan, axing unprofitable business lines and a good chunk of the workforce along the way, with at least 40 Hong Kong bankers being let go upon the release of his announcement.

Say goodbye to M&A and equity underwriting¹ in New York, London, and the EU, and hello to a potential 8% workforce reduction over the next couple of years. The bill for this grand restructuring? $1.8 billion, covering admin, severance, cardboard boxes for HSBC employees to pack their stuff into (maybe) and other expenses. His goal is to cut annual expenses by $1.5 billion by the end of 2026, which only looks achievable if enough employees take the L.

Investors on the other hand are straight-up profiting. HSBC’s pre-tax profit rose by $2 billion since last year – leading to the bank issuing a $2 billion share buyback to be completed by April. But if you’re an employee…now might be a good time to update the LinkedIn.

Walmart dropped its latest earnings report this week, and while it wasn’t bad, it wasn’t exactly fireworks either. The retail giant’s outlook for the year was a little underwhelming, which sent investors into a mild panic. Despite reporting $180.6 bn in revenue (slightly past expectations) and hitting 66 cents per share in earnings² (beating the 65-cent forecast), its guidance for fiscal year 2025 was softer than expected.

Walmart expects 3-4% sales growth this year, falling short of analyst projections. On top of that, its first-quarter earnings guidance³ of 57-58 cents per share fell short of the 64-cent estimate. Wall Street took this as a sign that shoppers might be tightening their belts in 2024. As a result, retail stocks tumbled 6.2%, dragging Target, Home Depot, and Amazon along—because if Walmart sneezes, the whole retail sector catches a cold

But before you start panic-buying canned beans to help the economy, analysts say this isn’t necessarily a red flag. Walmart has a track record of issuing conservative forecasts, and its core business remains solid. Plus, if the company were TRULY bracing for a consumer spending apocalypse, it wouldn’t have hiked its dividend⁴ by 13% to 94 cents per share—its biggest increase in over a decade.

UnitedHealth Group’s stock plunged 7.3% on Friday after reports surfaced that the Justice Department (DOJ) is investigating its Medicare billing practices. The government hopes to know if UnitedHealth is overcharging Medicare by exaggerating how sick some patients are.

From some digging online, here’s what they mean: The government pays private insurers like UnitedHealth a fixed monthly amount to manage Medicare Advantage plans, a private version of Medicare⁵. But if a patient is diagnosed with a serious health condition, the government pays more to cover their extra medical needs. This probe is looking into whether UnitedHealth exaggerated or added diagnoses to increase those payments.

UnitedHealth fired back, calling the report misinformation and saying any fraud claims are “outrageous and false.” The company insists it follows the rules, and that regular government audits are nothing new.

Chinese tech stocks are so back after Alibaba crushed earnings expectations for the December quarter 2024, with revenue climbing to ¥280.15 bn ($USD 39 bn) and adjusted net profit⁶ hitting ¥51.07 bn ($USD 7.01 bn), up 6% from a year ago. Investors took notice and Alibaba’s stock surged 14%, adding to its impressive 48% gain in 2025 so far.

No surprise (thanks Deepseek😘), a major growth driver was AI and cloud computing. Alibaba’s cloud revenue jumped 13% YoY, outpacing analyst expectations, whilst its AI-related products saw triple-digit revenue growth for sixth consecutive quarters.

Additionally, tech seems to be back in favor with Beijing. Alibaba founder Jack Ma was recently spotted in a meeting with President Xi Jinping, perhaps signaling that China’s regulatory crackdown stance on big tech may be easing.

For years, luxury brands banked on China’s appetite for high-end handbags and designer drip. But now, it looks like the country’s big spenders are trading Prada, Chanel and Gucci for more affordable lifestyle brands.

China’s luxury market shrank by a staggering 20% last year according to Bain & Co, gone are the days of double-digit growth, now, brands like Louis Vuitton and Gucci are facing declines of 11% and 24%, respectively. Foot traffic in high-end boutiques has tanked, with consumers opting for online shopping over dealing with the perhaps too attentive shop assistants and restrictive purchasing policies (Hermès I’m looking at you - I want my Birkin).

The sluggish economy in China combined with changing priorities means that wealthy Chinese shoppers are shifting from logos to lifestyles, opting for Lululemon leggings and Arc’teryx jackets. This meant that Kering’s (Gucci) shares have plunged 36% over the past year, while LVMH is down 16%, reflecting investor jitters over luxury’s future in China.

• Trump called Zelenskiy a “dictator with no elections” as US-Ukraine relations soured while Trump and Putin plan to end the Russia-Ukraine conflict without Ukraine being present

• Microsoft announced its first quantum computing chip, Majorana 1 has a total of 8 qubits on a sticky-note sized piece of silicon and can’t do much aside from solving math problems but is a promising start to Quantum Computing

• Eight beavers built a dam in the Czech Republic officials had planned but had not yet begun. The work by the beavers saved an estimated $1.2 million.

• The Reserve Bank of Australia cut its policy rate by 0.25% on Tuesday, following the paths of international central banks. It was the first rate cut since November 2020.

• Meta announced project Waterworth, the longest and most advanced subsea network with an estimated 50,000 km of underwater cable to be used to connect 5 continents.

• Buffett’s annual letter to shareholders and Berkshire Hathaway earnings came out Saturday morning. Be ready to parse Buffett’s letter for clues about what the GOAT thinks about the markets this year. Check it out here!

1. Equity Underwriting: The process where investment banks help companies issue new shares to investors, assuming the risk of selling the securities at an agreed price.

2. Earnings Per Share (EPS): EPS tells you how much profit a company made for each individual share of its stock. It is calculated by dividing total profit by the number of shares. A higher EPS is better for investors/shareholders.

3. First-quarter earnings guidance: A company’s prediction/forecast of how much profit it expects to make in the first three months of the year.

4. Dividends: A portion of a company’s profits that is paid out to its shareholders. Management does not have to hand out dividends.

5. Medicare: Medicare is the U.S. government’s health insurance program. Medicare Advantage is a private alternative to Medicare.

6. Adjusted net profit: This is a company’s profits after removing one-time expenses/non-recurring items and non-cash expenses. It presents a more accurate representation of a company’s underlying financial performance.

• Crypto Talk: Daily crypto updates to keep you informed on events such as Trump and Melania’s rug-pull 👀

• Joey Choy Top Stocks: Renowned Singapore Investor Joey Choy’s Stock Market Insights.

• Letter of Intent: Keep on top of all of the M&A, VC and ECM deal action for those IB interviews.

• Phenom Crypto Letter: Crypto and DeFi coverage that is 14,978+ members strong.

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