Oil profits spike as Middle East war fuels energy prices and Trump blasts soaring earnings – business live
Context
Rolling coverage of the latest economic and financial news HSBC has reported a 23% surge in pre-tax profit to $19.5bn for the first six months of this year, beating expectations of $18.9bn. The London-based bank, which also has a strong presence in Hong Kong, said growth was particularly strong in its wealth management and insurance business. However, profitability levels remain high, and the company expects its return on tangible equity, its main measure of profitability, to stay at 17% for this year. These results were also heavy on shareholder sweeteners, which may boost investor interest later today. HSBC announced a second dividend for this year and a share buyback of $1bn, to be completed in the next 3 months. There is now a mountain of evidence to suggest that banks can easily afford to pay more tax. While higher interest rates have meant mortgage misery and bigger bills for the rest of us, the big banks have been rolling in it. Continue reading...
What it means
Causal chain
No clear market signal
How to read a signal
- Severity
- the event's market impact, 1–5
- Direction
- ↑ / ↓ likely price move for the asset
- Exp. move
- the size of the abnormal move we'd expect if the call plays out — not a claim a move will happen:Most flagged events don't move beyond noise; those count against us (see the track record).Ssmall<1%Mmoderate1–5%Llarge>5%
- Timeframe
- the window we measure over:1dshort5dmedium21dlong
- Conviction
- how well-established the directional call is (textbook → speculative) — not a guaranteed outcome:lowaveragestrong
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