Are you ready for Green Monday, which falls earlier this week this year, calculated in 2005 by former Cardiff University psychologist Cliff Arnall as the saddest 24 hours on the calendar?
Arnall’s damning conclusion about the third Monday of the first month (which he has since tried to refute) was based on analysis of data, such as consumer surveys, divorce records and weather forecast. The main conclusion many of us draw from this analysis is that not all academic research is useful to society.
If you’re a world leader or senior executive, you at least have the World Economic Forum in Davos to distract you from the January sadness. The FT Live team will also be in the Swiss resort town, hosting a number of live and digital events in which leaders in policy, business and finance will share insights. about the major issues being debated. You can view events and Register here for free.
For the rest of us, we will have to live with the grim economic news in 2023 and hope things can only get better.
If you’re in the UK, the striking fact is mass strike action. This may not be the second “winter of discontent,” at least according to my colleague, Jonathan Guthrie, but another strike vote among ambulance workers will take place this week while the Union The University and Colleges union will announce a new wave of 18 strikes this week covering 150 UK universities in February and March after its members voted last week to reject decline their latest salary offer.
The Northern Ireland Protocol will raise its head again with a deadline of Thursday to restore power-sharing at Stormont. Don’t expect this to make you feel better about cross-border life or politics.
Abortion rights activists marched from Washington Square Park to Bryant Park in New York last June © Alex Kent/AFP/Getty Images
Sunday is the 50th anniversary of the U.S. Supreme Court’s Roe vs Wade ruling honoring Americans’ constitutional right to abortion. This is, of course, a very direct debate – which lasted all the way to the boardroom – following the Supreme Court’s decision last year to overrule the 1973 ruling. Anti-abortion campaigners will march in Washington on Tuesday. Friday, sparking many comments about a fundamental US political error.
The week will end with another artificial date, this time based on astronomy: the lunar new year celebration. The mass movement of people to visit family and friends on this occasion this year will take place in the shadow of the rising Covid levels in China. Concerns about the impact on the spread of the disease are high.
Something to look forward to a little further ahead is an evening with FT columnist Martin Wolf. Join Martin and other thought leaders online for a dedicated subscriber event on January 31 to debate the major changes needed at this time of global uncertainty. The discussion coincided with the publication of Martin’s new book, The Crisis of Democratic Capitalism. Sign up for free here.
Economic data
Ken Murphy, chief executive of Tesco, has warned that UK inflation could soar even higher © Luke MacGregor/Bloomberg
It’s going to be a busy batch of data from China, the UK and the US this week. The European Central Bank will publish the minutes of its December meeting on Thursday and various central bankers will discuss the regional and global economy in Davos.
UK inflation rate will be updated on Wednesday. The outlook is not good, especially after recent comments by the Bank of England chief economist Huw Pill. Ken Murphy, chief executive of the UK’s largest food retailer Tesco, even warned that inflation in the UK could climb even higher. Last month’s release showed the cost of living as determined by the consumer price index was 10.7% in November, down from 11.1% in October.
Companies
We’re in the middle of the first earnings season of 2023, and it’s a mix of companies, especially from Europe and (as Wall Street returns from the Martin Luther King Day holiday) the United States.
Online food ordering services Just Eat Takeaway and Deliveroo will update investors on their festive sale on Wednesday and Thursday respectively. Both are under pressure to deliver improved profitability. The end of the lockdown is not good for food ordering apps when customers choose to return to the restaurant.
The question now is whether the recession will help these companies — as more people buy takeout instead of dining out — or hurt them harder as customers are reluctant to return. their own kitchen. Efforts to increase grocery sales, through partnerships with supermarkets and convenience apps like Getir, could also give Deliveroo and JET a slice of the home-cooking market.
Last year was a year to forget for Ocado Retail. The online supermarket, jointly owned by Ocado – which reported the figures on Tuesday – and Marks and Spencer, has parted ways with chief executive Melanie Smith and has repeatedly warned about profits; Its sales are expected to fall for the first time in history.
Public attention focused on technical problems at low-cost carrier Southwest Airlines © Rick Bowmer/AP
At its last update in September, Ocado said it expected strong customer growth and sales growth of around 5% in the fourth quarter. That would be similar to the growth announced last week by Tesco and J Sainsbury, after UK shoppers splurged on their first Christmas in two years to remain untouched by Covid-19.
U.S. airlines are reporting fourth-quarter and full-year earnings as public attention focuses on technical glitches at low-cost carrier Southwest Airlines and the land’s top aviation regulator. countries have caused major crises. But for most airlines, the news could still be rosy, as (despite growing interest in private jets post-Covid) demand for commercial jet travel drives push profits.
United Airlines will report on Wednesday. Hopefully CEO Scott Kirby will have some stinging words for the US Federal Aviation Administration, which grounded planes for two hours on Wednesday when a corrupt database file caused an important safety system fails. He said over the summer that the agency needed more air traffic controllers.
