#7 Good news for Airbus

Dubai-based airline company Emirates signed an agreement with Airbus this week for the purchase of potentially 36 additional A380’s. For those of you who are not overly familiar with airplane models, it’s the ‘double-decker’ among the planes we’re talking about here.

The commitment that Emirates has signed is for 20 of these A380’s and another 16 options. The whole deal is worth around $16 billion.


#6 Apple’s employee bonus

Last week we mentioned Walmart and Visa in our Trending Financial Tweets. This week there was good news for Apple’s staff members: the technology company announced that it will issue a bonus of $2,500 in restricted stock units.

With this announcement, Apple joins a growing list of American businesses that let their employees share in the financial gain they benefit from following the recent US tax law changes.

Besides these employee bonuses, Apple has also said it will bring back most of its overseas cash and spend $30 billion in the US over the next five years.



#5 US jobless claims drop

Lately, it seems as if the good news just keeps on coming for the US: filings for unemployment benefits dropped to the lowest level in almost 45 years. Businesses are increasingly keeping their staff and struggling to find people to fill positions, especially in the manufacturing and construction sector. 



#4 Nestlé’s sweets for my sweet

Nestlé is adding yet another color to the already wide palette of KitKats in Japan: ruby. The company made a deal with Zurich-based Barry Callebaut which develops natural, ruby-colored chocolate.

The chocolate has a ‘natural berry flavor that’s sour yet sweet’ and hit Kitkat stores in Japan and South Korea – and online – this Thursday. Well in time for those wanting to offer their Valentine a sweet, ruby-colored treat.


#3 And the winner is…

Amazon, the Seattle-based e-commerce and cloud computing giant, is looking to open its second headquarters. The list started with a pool of 238 cities and got narrowed down to 20 ‘finalists’.

Among them are places like Austin, Boston, Chicago, Indianapolis, and Nashville. Mayors and other city representatives are making their pitch for Amazon, all hoping to welcome the company’s second headquarters in their area. 



#2 IBM’s lucky number 23

For the first time in more than five years, IBM saw its revenue go up compared to last year. Fourth quarter – and full year – earnings for 2017 were better than analysts expected: $5.18 in earnings per share vs. $5.17 expected and $22.5 billion in revenue vs. $22.06 billion expected.

As for 2018, analysts expect more revenue growth in the first quarter: a total of $18.42 billion and $2.28 in earnings per share, according to Thomson Reuters. It will be interesting to see if IBM is indeed going to be able to continue in this positive direction. Share prices however fell, despite the company's first growth in 23 quarters.

 

 



#1 Venezuela’s hyperinflation

Sadly it can’t all be good news. Things have been brewing in Venezuela for a while now and both political, as well as economic circumstances, haven’t helped.

To add an extra challenge to the mix, the South-American country is now suffering from a period of so-called hyperinflation; a very rapidly – at a rate of 50% or more per month – increasing inflation. A rapid (further) devaluation of the currency and a worsening of the economy are the result. The small beacon of light at the end of this long, bleak tunnel: Brazil was in a similar situation for decades and eventually managed to turn the tide. 



There we have it, the third week of January captured in 7 Tweets. We’ll keep tracking Twitter of course and will continue to bring you the top financial micro-messages from the web. See you back here next Friday!