April 4-8 | What To Watch This Week: Cloud Software, Electric Vehicles and French Election

We’ve been talking about it for a few weeks already… inflation! The inflation rate is shaking up the global stock markets, and indeed our daily lives. Investors are quickly rebalancing their portfolios and diversifying to protect themselves from the impact of rising prices. As always, we’re here to help you stay ahead of the news every week and make confident investment decisions.

With that in mind, let’s take a look at everything you need to know for the week ahead.

Two electric vehicle stocks to watch

When we talk about electric vehicle companies, we typically think of Tesla, NIO and Rivian. However, they aren’t the only names in the space. Last week, the Nasdaq.com website listed a handful of companies related to the EV sector that could experience strong growth in April.

  • ChargePoint: This company develops EV charging infrastructure, and its stock price has grown 45% since February. ChargePoint is currently working on the launch of convenient charging systems for Toyota owners. The company also signed a partnership with Wheels Donlen to supply charging infrastructure to e-mobility car fleets.
  • Lucid: Lucid specialises in luxury electric cars that ‘rethink the way you drive.’ The company places a strong emphasis on research and development, and the strategy seems to be paying off. Lucid recently launched the Lucid Air model, a high-tech electric sedan, which helped push the stock price 20% higher in recent weeks. Likewise, the outlook is positive after they signed a partnership with DreamDrive Pro to incorporate assisted driving technology using Nvidia chips. Finally, Lucid could soon launch a production plant in Saudi Arabia which could generate up to $3.4 billion in value for the company over the next 15 years.

How will the French election impact the stock market?

The first round of the French Presidential election begins this Sunday, April 10th. Investors in France and the rest of Europe will be watching closely to see what direction this takes. As you can imagine, the markets always have their favourite candidate!

During the last election in 2017, the French CAC 40 got a considerable boost due to Macron’s victory. In fact, the stock market jumped higher every time Macron rose in the polls during the campaign. According to the Wall Street Journal, this was largely because Macron took favourable positions towards the banking and financial sectors, as well as reducing taxes on stock market exchanges and wealthy individuals. This time around, however, the impact could be different. The economic policies of each candidate can change how the market reacts.

For example, some have promised a reduction in household taxation. Others have proposed to bring back the abolished Wealth tax (ISF) or replace it with a form of climate tax. Candidates like Jean-Luc Mélenchon and Anne Hidalgo are in favour of this policy. On top of that, some candidates on the left want to reduce, or even abolish, VAT. Finally, the subject of universal wage is also on the table, pioneered by the Green candidate Yannick Jadot.
To learn more about the tax policies of each candidate, check out Le Monde’s comparison tool.

ZoomInfo on cloud 9?

ZoomInfo Technologies is a US tech company specialising in software as a service (SaaS) for professionals in sales, marketing and recruitment (not to be confused with Zoom, the video-call service!) Since its IPO in 2020, it has been one of the fastest-growing tech companies, with revenue rising 60% every year.

Things have been moving at light speed for ZoomInfo lately. In February they published their 4th quarter results, with an EPS of $0.18 and revenue of $222.3M. They’ve also recently launched RevOS, their new commercial software, and announced two large acquisitions: RingLead and Chorus. Their next earnings call is scheduled for early May, so it’s worth keeping an eye on ZoomInfo.

If you want to know more about the potential of cloud software, check out our Thematic Investing article on cloud stocks here.

Economic and earnings calendar

Monday – Trade balance in Germany (February). Fiscal balance in France (February). Unemployment rate in Spain (March).

Tuesday –  Services PMI in Spain, Germany, Eurozone and the United States (final figures, March). Trade balance in the United States (February). Ecofin meeting for the European Union. Quarterly figures from Argan.

Wednesday – Unemployment rate in Ireland. Index of consumer confidence in Spain. Minutes from the FOMC (Federal Open Market Committee) in the United States. Quarterly figures from Moncler, Simply Good Foods and Levi Strauss.

Thursday – Inflation rates in the Netherlands and Ireland (March). Industrial production in Germany (February). US weekly unemployment figures. Quarterly figures from Constellation Brands.

Friday –  Manufacturing production in the Netherlands (February).

Sunday – First round of presidential elections in France.

We’ll be back next week with another edition of the BUX Breakdown. In the meantime, have a great week on the markets!

The BUX Breakdown was written by Clémentine Pougnet.

All views, opinions, and analyses in this article should not be read as personal investment advice and individual investors should make their own decisions or seek independent advice. This article has not been prepared in accordance with legal requirements designed to promote the independence of investment research and is considered a marketing communication.

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