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Today's markets: Chip wars, climate pledges and consumer confidence

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April 23, 2021

Happy Friday and welcome to the IC’s live blog, where our writers round-up the biggest business stories of the day. 

Chip wars

Overnight in the US, Intel (US:INTC) beat expectations for its first quarter of the year, as robust PC sales offset weaker demand from its data centre clients - where it is facing increasing pressure from graphics-chip giant Nvidia (US:NVDA). Nvidia revealed last week that it planned to enter the central processing unit (CPU) market for data centres, with a product based on Arm chip designs. But it is still not clear whether its $40bn takeover of the British tech business will get past our regulators. 

Climate pledges ramp up

Meanwhile at the climate summit, President Biden pledged to cut carbon emissions by 50-52 per cent below 2005 levels by 2030, in a “decisive decade” for combating global warming. This administration certainly appears greener than the last: its ‘American Jobs Plan’ has already outlined plans to spend more than $380bn on the renewable energy sector. But which companies stand to gain from a cleaner US? Read Nilushi Karunaratne’s take here. 

 

President Xi Jinping did not announce any new climate targets at the summit, although promised to “phase down” coal consumption in the five years from 2025. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi similarly did not provide new national targets, and instead re-committed to installing 450 gigawatts of renewable energy by 2030. But environmental risk is a key factor for emerging market returns, writes James Norrington. You can find his full analysis in this week’s cover feature. 

 

Biden rattles markets

Meanwhile, not only is Joe Biden showing his hand on the climate. As he seeks to put clear blue water between his administration and that of Donald Trump news of his tax plans came yesterday which seriously rattled Wall Street investors. Rumoured as key to his administration's tax plans are a proposed tweak to the top level of income tax, upwards naturally, but more significantly a doubling in Capital Gains Tax for those earning more than $1m. Ouch.

UK consumer bounceback

Closer to home UK consumer confidence appears to be bouncing back with GFK research showing it at its highest since the pandemic struck, and ONS figures out today showed retail sales bounced back harder than expected in March even though many shops remained shuttered. 

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