Energy giant Shell reported a significant drop in annual profit following a year of lower crude prices and refining margins.

A smaller fourth-quarter profit meant Shell posted adjusted earnings of $23.72 billion for the full-year 2024, down from $28.25 billion a year earlier.

Analysts had expected Shell’s full-year 2024 net profit to come in at $24.71 billion, according to an LSEG-compiled consensus.

The company announced another share buyback program of $3.5 billion, which is expected to be completed over the next three months.

“Despite the lower earnings this quarter, cash delivery remained solid and we generated free cash flow of $40 billion across the year, higher than 2023, in a lower price environment,” CEO Wael Sawan said in a statement.

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St James’s Place

Mark FitzPatrick, chief executive officer at wealth manager St James’s Place, said he was “pleased to report a strong final quarter for SJP”.

It saw £4.3bn of net inflows over the course of 2024, according to an update, compared to £5.1bn of net inflows during the previous year.

Gross inflows stood at £18.4bn, compared to £15.4bn in 2023, while its retention rate for funds under management stood at 94.5%. This is a slight decrease compared to last year’s 95.3%.

By the end of last year, funds under management totalled £190.2bn, a 13.1% increase in FUM compared to 2023’s closing amount of £168.2bn.

Mr FitzPatrick said: “Our investment management approach has continued to work well for our clients, with our portfolios delivering strong returns that compare favourably against peer groups. This, together with another year of net inflows, drove our funds under management (FUM) to £190.2bn at 31 December 2024; a record for FUM.”

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BT

BT Group said cost control mitigated a decline in revenue, enabling it to post stronger third-quarter profit.

Reported pre-tax profit climbed 1% to £427 million in the three months to December, as adjusted earnings grew 4% to £2.1 billion.

Revenue slipped 3% to £5.2bn as record fibre rollout and price increases were offset by challenging conditions outside of the UK.

BT said fibre to the premises (FTTP) build rate had passed a million homes for a fourth consecutive quarter, with half of the UK now connected. Openreach revenue edged up 1% to £1.5bn.

Chief executive Allison Kirkby said: “Our ongoing modernisation continues at pace, delivering a further step-up in fibre build and take-up, customer satisfaction and EBITDA. Benefits from our cost transformation more than offset lower revenue outside the UK and weak handset sales.

“Cost transformation remains firmly on track, with excellent progress on both energy costs and productivity in the quarter.

“We continue to make progress towards becoming fully focused on the UK, with the sale of our data centre business in Ireland.

“BT’s continued delivery means we remain on track to deliver our financial outlook for this year and our cash flow inflection to c.£2bn in 2027 and c£3bn by the end of the decade.”

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Job cuts overshadow Chancellor’s speech

The Chancellor’s plans were overshadowed by the number of businesses announcing job cuts or branch closures.

Tesco said its 400 job cuts are part of plans to simplify ways of working, but they come just ahead of changes to National Insurance which the grocer has previously said will impact it to the tune of £250 million a year.

Lloyds Banking Group’s decision to cut a further 136 branches are down to our changing habits and all affected staff will be offered jobs elsewhere in the company. However, Danni Hewson, head of financial analysis at AJ Bell, said it “leaves more holes on the high street which is already struggling, as witnessed by WH Smith’s latest figures for the part of the business it is looking to sell.”

There were also reports that the Post Office is shedding more roles.

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CMA probes

Edrington‘s deal to sell The Famous Grouse to William Grant & Sons is to be investigated by the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA).

The CMA has set a date of 27 March to decide whether to escalate an ongoing probe into a formal investigation.

Stakeholders have a deadline of 12 February to submit observations to the regulatory body.

The same deadline has been set for interested parties to submit comments on a £2.1bn deal by ScottishPower Spanish owner Iberdrola to buy North West Electricity Networks.

Iberdrola announced the deal in August, which would see it add a large chunk of north west England’s power grid to its network.

The £1.5 billion takeover of the owner of Glasgow, Aberdeen and Southampton airports has been completed.

AviAlliance had announced the deal to buy AGS Airports, which also owns Southampton, from Ferrovial and Macquarie in November last year.

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US markets

The US Federal Reserve paused interest rate cuts for the first time since September in its first monetary policy decision under the new Trump administration.

The central bank kept the Fed Funds rate steady at 4.25 to 4.5%, in line with market expectations. In a statement after the decision, policymakers said inflation “remained elevated” and removed a reference to steadily falling price rises.

Consumer price inflation in the US has fallen from a peak of nearly 10% in 2022 to just above the Fed’s 2% target.

Markets are still trying to fathom what DeepSeek really means for the future of AI and in particular chip powerhouse Nvidia. After clawing back some of its losses yesterday, shares took another chunky step back today with no one wanting to get caught out if the current tech bubble really is going to pop.

Microsoft’s Azure cloud computing business posted a slowdown in quarterly growth, compounding investor ­worries about its huge investment in artificial intelligence products.

Revenue from Azure, the group’s main profit engine in recent years, rose 31% in the second quarter, compared with a 34% increase in the prior quarter. Analysts had estimated between 31% and 32%.

Microsoft shares fell $14.67, or 3.3%, to $427.66 in after-hours trading.

Tesla fell short of fourth quarter revenue forecasts, as the electric-vehicle maker introduced financing offers and discounts to boost flagging demand for its ageing lineup.

Shares in the world’s most valuable car maker fell sharply after it reported revenue of $25.71 billion in the final three months of the year compared with expectations of $27.26 billion.

Delivery of 1.8 million vehicles for the year marked the company’s first annual decline due to higher borrowing costs and intense competition.

US stocks fell on the Federal Reserve’s decision to hold interest rates.

Asian markets then saw a mixed showing overnight, with China’s Shenzhen index the biggest faller, shedding 1.3%.

London’s blue chips had just missed out on an intraday record in Wednesday’s session. The FTSE 100 closed 23.94 points higher at 8,557.81.