Remy Cointreau SA on Thursday said it remains confident of its outlook for the fiscal year, but said growth is set to slow after a strong first six months.
In the six months to Sept. 30, the French distiller made current operating profit of 319.3 million euros ($331.9 million,) 27% higher on year organically, with an operating margin that climbed 1.7 points to 36.8%.
Kingfisher Cuts FY 2023 Profit Views Amid Higher Investments
Kingfisher PLC said Thursday that profit for fiscal 2023 is expected to be lower than previously guided as the company increased investments and expenses.
The home-improvement retailer said it currently expects adjusted pretax profit--the company's preferred metric, which strips out exceptional and other one-off items--for the year ending Jan. 31 in the range of 730 million pounds and 760 million pounds ($880 million and $916.2 million). This compares with the company's previous guidance of around GBP770 million.
Gucci's Creative Chief to Step Down
Alessandro Michele, whose eccentric designs reinvigorated Gucci, is stepping down as creative director of the Italian luxury brand as a period of rapid growth peters out.
Parent company Kering SA said in a statement late Wednesday that Mr. Michele was leaving his post at the fashion house having "played a fundamental part in making the brand what it is today."
German Consumers Are Boosting the Economy. These Stocks Stand to Gain.
It hasn't received a lot of attention that the outlook for Germany's economy, Europe's largest, is considerably better than it was just a few months ago.
Prospects looked dire earlier in the year. Russia's invasion of Ukraine cut off a significant portion of the country's national gas supplies. Energy prices spiked, and inflation shot up. That prompted the European Central Bank to start raising interest rates for the first time in a decade.
Hackers Temporarily Take Down European Parliament Website
The European Parliament's website was briefly disabled by a denial-of-service cyberattack on Wednesday, hours after lawmakers passed a resolution labeling Russia a state that sponsors terrorism.
European Parliament President Roberta Metsola tweeted that the institution was "under a sophisticated cyberattack. A pro-Kremlin group has claimed responsibility."
GLOBAL NEWS
China Recovery Hopes Crushed by Record Covid Outbreak as Lockdowns Spread
SINGAPORE-China's worst Covid-19 outbreak is squashing hopes for an economic rebound and fanning concern about disruption to the world's supply chains, heaping more pressure on a global economy that is already losing speed as central banks ratchet up interest rates to beat back inflation.
The record number of new cases and the authorities' tough response have extinguished hopes that China was inching toward reopening. Those hopes were stoked earlier this month when the government published a 20-point plan to refine some virus controls, such as reducing quarantine periods and easing restrictions on close contacts of confirmed cases.
Fed Minutes Show Most Officials Favored Slowing Rate Rises Soon
WASHINGTON-Most Federal Reserve officials thought they should slow the pace of interest-rate increases after approving a 0.75-percentage-point rate rise at their meeting earlier this month to battle high inflation.
Bank of Korea Raises Rate 25 Basis Points, Easing Pace of Hikes
South Korea's central bank has eased the pace of interest-rate increases to curb high inflation, lowering its 2023 growth and inflation forecasts.
The Bank of Korea raised the benchmark seven-day repurchase rate by 25 basis points to 3.25% on Thursday, as expected, after an outsized 50-basis-point increase in October.
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This article is a text version of a Wall Street Journal newsletter published earlier today.
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
11-24-22 0552ET
