- FTSE 100: let’s hope life begins after 40
- BYD the worlds top selling electric carmarker
- The price increase in the Red Sea
- 2024’s changes in cost of living
- Obscene levels of pay inequality
FTSE 100: let’s hope life begins after 40
The FTSE 100 turned 40 on January 3rd having started life replacing the FTSE 30 in 1984 and continuing to be the main benchmark of the UK stock market. It’s definitely not been easy being a Millennial, we were all blindly optimistic and on the up and up till the late 90’s and the FTSE 100 was no different, with absolute abundance of momentum growing and growing from 1000 listings to just short of 7000 by the turn of the millennium.
But true to the Millennial experience it was kind of downhill since then having experienced a ‘once in a lifetime’ event at every single formative benchmark of life stages, leading to stagnant growth and apathy, and yes still talking about the FTSE 100, and from that just an inability to keep up. At the point the internet was kicking off the FSTE 100 has always failed to attract technology firms which have been the driving force of this last 20 years, and even now tech firms would rather list anywhere but London.
Only 26 of the original 1000 still remain and even then many of them have undergone significant face lifts and remain unrecognisable, The high fliers of the years of the index have been the staple consumer products with Unilever and Associated British Foods among them but the selling of those products hasn’t yielded the same results with Sainsbury and Marks and Spencer performing poorly as more competition entered the market. It’s not great surprise the two worst performers are NatWest and Lloyds.
I think I speak for more than just the FTSE 100, I really hope life does begin at 40, even for Millennials.
BYD the world’s top selling electric carmaker
Can we acknowledge the elephant in the room here please? Because the headlines on this have been annoying, they have painted the picture that this is binary outcome, that Tesla have done badly and China’s BYD (Build Your Dreams) have pulled off some astonishing feat to be crowned victor of EV makers. When in fact both BYD and Tesla have outperformed their own expectations in Q4.
That said, in the final quarter of 2023 BYD outsold Tesla by 42,000 units for the first time ever. It’s worth noting that the price point of BYD vehicles is significantly lower than a Tesla and they sell typically to their local market, they have significant state support and made the very clever move of acquiring a car manufacturer after having perfected the battery, so everything is done in house, which makes the enterprise perfect and able to manufacture at reasonable cost.
Still this coming year BYD are looking to become a big player in International Markets, they also produce hybrid vehicles that often act as the gateway drug before people tend to go full electric and BYD intend to target Europe. They hope to release 3 further models into the market this year and announcing their intention to build a plant in Hungary. Watch this space.
The price increase in the Red Sea
It’s predicted that the reported attacks in the Red Sea are going to mean a price increase in essentials on UK shelves this year, cargo ships are being forced to undertake extra nautical miles, around 3,500 of them, at a cost of £1.6m in additional food, fuel and wages PER TRIP based on the time involved to ensure that we have tea, meat, fish and wine on our shelves.
The UK, US and other allies have called for an “immediate end” to the attacks on the container ships in the Red Sea which are being conducted by a state backed rebel group in the area. To date there have been 25 attacks on ships since November and the means of attack are intensifying and escalating.
While destruction and pirating might seem a thing of the past and stories but the threat on the high seas is very real, the thought that slavery is a thing of past is the opinion of someone who doesn’t understand what really happens at sea.
2024’s changes in cost of living
It’s hard to know quite what is going on, according to Economists it’s likely the Bank of England will cut interest rates twice this year. Inflation is likely to drop within “touching distance” of the 2% target and to stimulate some growth, but the energy price cap has increased by 5% this month to £1,928.
It is also expected that rail fares will rise again in March by 4.9%, April will see the impact of the decisions taken next month on Council Tax, unless you’re in Scotland and this is frozen till 2025, TV licensing may also increase in April and that is also the months where most utilities rise by inflation, yes I am looking at your mobile phone bills.
All this being said the current predictions for the energy price cap at its next review in April is due to fall to £1,660 and those costs that have not been formally announced could go down as well as up. Wages are increasing across the board, the National Insurance drop came into effect on Saturday but the tax thresholds have been frozen to 2028 so combined with the benefits to people pockets might not be as much as people think, but in a cost of living crisis every little helps.
Obscene levels of pay inequality
Let’s just end on a super depressing note, this is not a test, but if you’ve made it this far then chances are this already caught your eye, but according to The Trades Union Congress analysis by Thinktank High Pay Centre has discovered ‘obscene levels of pay inequality’. I for one am shocked, she says glaring awkwardly straight to camera. The wholly unpredictable outcome of their investigation is that FTSE 100 bosses will have earned more money by 1pm on Thursday 4th January 2024 than the average UK worker will earn in the entire year, which by the way is £34,963! I for one could not be more shocked, obviously! The disparity is apparently thanks in part to the cost-of-living crisis, ongoing labour strikes and well the massive flipping pay gap between Chief Execs than the labour force.
For various complex reasons, that include the Conservative Government, Brexit labour shortages and inflationary pressures across the board, workers median pay has increased 6% since March 2023, but CEO’s pay has risen by a further 3% on top.
The report is an interesting read and calculates how long it would take other top earners to out earn the median UK worker (Economics version of Laws the man on the Clapham omnibus) and you’ve got to laugh or you’ll cry, typically all done and dusted by 16th January, at this point you feel some comparative sympathy for everyone else who fall into the top 1% of full time UK earners (those earning £145k or more) who don’t overtake us average Joes (sorry Joe) until the end of March, the 29th to be precise! Did I mention how shocked I am?
Watch: The Traitors – I absolutely loved series 1 (and the American version where Claudia is played by Alan Cumming), a simple programme based on a game, there is a castle, 22 players and the possibility of winning £120k in the ultimate game of trust and treachery. It’s on three nights a week in January and I will not be recommending anything else to watch this month because this is where my time will be going.
Read: London Zoo: Zoo does annual stocktake – London Zoo does an annual stock take of all it’s animals (the audit kick test as it’s finest) to share with other Zoo’s around the world to manage conversation and breeding programs and everyone gets counted. Came for the article, stayed for the photos!
Listen: Nudge: How Sainsbury’s and Adobe nudge customers – A deeper dive into how a behavioural science approach helped Adobe increase their retention, how Sainsbury increased their mobile app downloads but quite some number and how a Ramadan project significantly reduced food waste amongst families.
Rachael McKelvey 
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