Shocking news emerged recently as labour officials in Brazil revealed that employees from China working at a construction site linked to BYD Electric Vehicle company are believed to be victims of human trafficking activities.

According to a Reuters report, these revelations have sparked controversy and raised concerns for BYD and their market in Brazil.

Officials, from the Labour department in Brazil, revealed that 163 workers are being subjected to conditions resembling slavery at a construction site in the state of Bahia.

Actions taken by Brazil’s authorities

According to Reuters, this situation has triggered anger and demands for responsibility to be taken.

Initial steps by the authorities involved the Brazilian Labor Prosecutors Office declaring that BYD and its subcontractor Jinjiang Group have committed to arranging better accommodations for the impacted workers at hotels until their work agreements are rectified.

These actions to address the situation mentioned by the Labor Prosecutors Office, without revealing the evidence behind the human trafficking allegations, has raised more questions than answers among the public and media scrutiny of the workers’ welfare conditions.

What does BYD say about these allegations?

The debate surrounding the issue involving BYD and Jinjiang Groups’ reputations has prompted both companies to work on minimizing any harm to their image.

A company’s executive stated that foreign entities and specific Chinese media organizations are working together to damage the image of brands and negatively impact the relationship between China and Brazil.

This allegation hints at an issue at hand that adds complexity to the situation. Regarding China’s role and reaction, to these accusations, the Chinese foreign ministry has affirmed its dedication to conduct a thorough investigation on the accusations.

Officials stated that in China protecting workers’ rights is a priority and companies are required to follow laws and regulations diligently as well as overseas expansion plans by Chinese businesses globally are part of a broader strategy to portray a positive image globally.

Noteworthy, this accusation has opened a strong backlash on social media against BYD, highlighting the discussion about the need for better working conditions worldwide.

Brazil’s government allegations

Brazil’s government’s response aims to show a separation, from the matter while emphasizing the idea that any problems should be handled at the level.

According to Reuters, Brazilian prosecutors unveiled videos of the workers living accommodations, which included bunk beds without mattresses.

They claimed the workers worked extremely long hours, often seven days a week, in conditions that the authorities described as demeaning.

The Brazilian Labor Prosecutors Office has arranged for a follow-up meeting, with BYD and Jinjiang scheduled for January 7th to discuss resolving the issues surrounding workers’ contracts and conditions in Brazil.

Stakeholders from both countries are closely watching these developments to understand the impact they may have on labour relations and foreign investments in the region.

A first step to new guidelines for labour standards?

The ongoing debate not only brings up concerns about working conditions in ventures but also sheds light on the wider problems of human trafficking and worker rights in global supply chains.

As the world economy depends more on labour forces nowadays companies are being closely watched to ensure treatment for all employees regardless of where they come from.

The accusations that the company is facing, in the Brazilian context, underscore the complexities involving business ethics and global diplomacy interactions that come into play.

The outcomes that unfold in the future are expected to establish guidelines for labour standards not just, within Brazil but also in how Chinese enterprises manage their ventures abroad.

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Luminar Technologies Inc (NASDAQ: LAZR) has managed to increase its sales by about five times over the past four years.

But that may still not be enough for investors as the company’s revenue growth has, nonetheless, fallen significantly short of the pace its management guided for in 2020.

LAZR ended last year with $70 million in sales versus up to $124 million it had forecast at the time.

Luminar stock is currently down more than 85% versus the start of 2024.

Luminar stock is now facing stiff competition

Despite a massive decline in shares of Luminar Technologies Inc, the risk of further downside remains on the table.

That’s because the company known for making lidar sense had an early entry advantage in recent years.

But it’s now facing stiff competition from the likes of Velodyne, Cepton, Innoviz etc.

So, LAZR could find it more difficult to sustain, let alone grow, its gross margins moving forward and could, therefore, remain unprofitable for another few years.

In fact, analysts now expect Luminar Technologies to take until 2027 to turn green in terms of EBITDA.

The company had originally expected to hit that milestone in 2024.

Plus, Luminar stock does not pay a dividend to appear any more attractive for long-term investors either.

Luminar may have to dilute its shareholders

Luminar remains a risky investment for the coming year as it had $661 million worth of liabilities on its balance sheet at end of its latest reported quarter.

In comparison, the Nasdaq listed firm had only $199 million in cash, including cash equivalents and marketable securities at the time.

So, LAZR may have to dilute its shareholders to make sure that it has sufficient funds to sustain operations.

The company has already increased its share count by more than 50% since its debut in late 2020.

Nonetheless, Austin Russell – its chief executive told investors last month:

We’ve further restructured Luminar to withstand near-term headwinds facing the industry so we’re better positioned to capitalise on the long-term value in this trillion-dollar industry.

Note that Luminar shares once traded at a high of over $600.

LAZR director recently sold company’s stock

Earlier in December, Heng Jun Hong – a Luminar Technologies director trimmed his stake in the company.

He sold a total of 72,842 shares for about $371,253.

Insider selling is typically seen as a negative as it may signal those with the most knowledge about the company’s future prospects are starting to lose confidence.

All in all, LAZR is yet to prove that it has a sustainable business that it can successfully scale in the coming years.

If the company’s management to narrow losses moving forward, Luminar stock could see further downside in 2025.

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2024 has been a challenging year for Indian steelmakers as India’s finished steel imports from China reached an all-time high during the first eight months of FY25, and India became a net importer of steel during the period.

India shipped in 6.5 million metric tons of finished steel, a 26.6% increase year-on-year, while China sent 1.96 million metric tons of steel to India during April-November, up 22.8% year-on-year.

With stainless steel making for an important component of China’s steel exports, along with hot-rolled coils, plates, and others, the rising imports has impacted the broader industry, and MSME producers are especially under significant pressure.

Invezz spoke to Anurag Mantri, executive director and group CFO of Jindal Stainless, India’s largest stainless steel producer to understand the impact on the industry and how domestic demand is shaping up for the company in the second half.

Mantri also shares how the company plans to tackle falling exports and his views on whether US President Donald Trump’s promised tariffs will compound woes for the industry or not.

Excerpts:

Domestic demand: fueling growth for Indian steel in H2FY25

Invezz: How is the domestic demand for stainless steel shaping up in the second half? What are the growth drivers and challenges? Any new, emerging sectors generating demand?

The domestic market has shown steady growth in the first half of FY25, and this momentum is expected to continue.

Several sectors, including railways, industrial P&T, and lifts and elevators, are driving demand.

Projects like Vande Bharat sleeper trains and Vande Metro are adopting higher-grade stainless steel, which is a positive shift for the industry.

Emerging areas like small modular reactors (SMRs), ethanol blending under the E20 initiative, and large water projects, including dams and barrages, will also turn out to be good demand generators for stainless steel.

The government also announced to spend INR 11.11 trillion on infrastructure in the financial year ending March 2025, which is expected to fuel demand.

Imports from China a challenge ailing the industry

However, challenges such as substandard imports from China and the need for safeguard, stricter implementation of BIS standards
remain to develop the Indian stainless steel manufacturing ecosystem.

Apart from this, we can expect demand from new-age areas such as aerospace, renewable energy, blue and green economy, to name a few.

Invezz: How do things look on the raw material front? You have recently entered into a JV in Indonesia.

The commissioning of our nickel pig iron (NPI) smelting facility in Indonesia ahead of schedule marks a strategic milestone.

This ensures greater raw material security, particularly in the face of the EU’s efforts to curb scrap imports.

The ramp-up of this facility will help us strengthen raw material security and operational efficiency.

Invezz: India’s finished steel imports from China hit a 7-year high this year. What is the government’s stance on imposing a duty or tax on imports from China? How does this affect JSL’s revenue and bottom line?

The rise in imports from China and Vietnam has adversely impacted MSME producers and undermines the ‘Make in India’ initiative including the employment generation and skill development in the country.

These non-level playing imports pose significant challenges.

All industry stakeholders are actively engaging with the government to advocate for measures like safeguard, anti-dumping duties,
countervailing duties etc to create a level playing field for domestic stainless steel manufacturers.

While at Jindal Stainless, we remain committed to providing the best quality stainless steel and continue to focus on value-added segments, the broader industry especially smaller manufacturers are under significant pressure. Therefore, ensuring a level-playing field remains critical.

Global export challenges: JSL diversifies markets amidst US & EU slump

Invezz: Your export volumes fell by about 28% during H1 due to global challenges. With recent tariff announcements in the US, how will this affect steel imports to India?

Global challenges, including weak demand in the US and EU, red sea crisis, west asia war, have affected exports.

The proposed US tariffs are unlikely to significantly impact imports into India directly but may create ripple effects globally.

Our focus remains on diversifying export markets, with regions like South America, Korea, Canada, Middle East etc showing potential.

Additionally, domestic demand strength helps balancing the shortfall to an extent.

Invezz: Do you stick to the revised guidance of 10–15% volume growth?

We are currently maintaining our guidance of 10–15% volume growth for FY25.

While challenges such as global market turbulence due to Red Sea crisis, weak EU & US demands have affected volumes, our strategic focus on value added segments and operational efficiency helps us in partially mitigating these challenges to still deliver a good volume growth in the last two years.

Invezz: Germany’s economic slowdown has contributed to falling exports. What is your forecast for export volumes in the second half?

Germany and broader European markets continue to face economic headwinds, with no immediate signs of recovery.

While we maintain a cautious outlook for these geographies, efforts to expand into markets like South America, Korea, Canada, Middle East etc provide optimism. For FY25, we remain confident about achieving our 10% export volume projection.

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The Stoxx 600 index has moved sideways in the last eight months as the initial momentum experienced in Q1 faded. It rose by about 6% and was trading at €508 on Friday. It has underperformed its American peers like the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq 100 indices. So, which were the top leaders and laggards in Europe in 2024?

Top gainers in the Stoxx 600 index

The Stoxx 600 index had some notable gainers in 2024. UCB stock jumped by over 145% in 2024, making it one of the best-performing companies in the index. It surged as the company boosted its outlook. The company expects revenues to be between €5.5 billion and €5.7 billion and adjusted EBITDA to grow between 23% and 24.5%.

Rolls-Royce Holdings was another top performer in the Stoxx 600 index as it jumped by over 90% during the year. This rally happened as the company continued to publish strong results, helped by the rising demand of its civil aviation and defense business. The management has also worked to reduce costs and boost efficiency.

Rheinmetall stock price soared by 115%, making it one of the best performers in Europe. This rally mirrored the performance of other military-industrial complex companies as geopolitical risks in Europe and Asia. The company has won several big orders from European and American countries. Other defense companies like Safran and Leonardo also did well.

European banks also did well during the year, taking advantage of higher interest rates. Unicredit share price rose by over 50%, continuing its trend as the best-performing European bank in the past few years. Its strong equity position has allowed the bank to accumulate shares in Commerzbank and Banco BPM.

The other top-performing European banks were Banco de Sabadell, Caixabank, Commerzbank, Natwest, and FinecoBank.

Other best-performing companies in the Stoxx 600 index were Zalando, Argen-X, Poste Italiene, Quilter, and Prosus.

Top laggards in the Stoxx 600 index

The Stoxx 600 index had some big laggards this year. Grifols’ share price fell by over 40% after a short-seller accused the company of manipulating its numbers. That crisis attracted the attention of Brookfield, a leading player in the private equity industry. Brookfield wanted to acquire Grifols until it dropped the bid in November. 

Kering’s share price fell by over 40% during the year. The company continued to report weak sales due to the performance of its Gucci brand in China. It has become one of the worst-performing luxury group companies, shedding billions of dollars in value.

Vestas Wind shares fell by 53% as woes in the wind energy industry continued. It has now dropped by almost 70% from its highest level during the pandemic. This performance differed with that of Suzlon Energy, whose shares rose by over 1,000% from the lowest point in 2022. 

The other top laggards in the Euro Stoxx 600 index were Abrdn, John Wood, Rio Tinto, Capita, Tullow Oil, Croda, and Spirax-Sarco Engineering.

Stoxx 600 index analysis

The weekly chart shows that the Stoxx 600 index, which tracks the biggest companies in Europe, jumped to a record high of €526. Since April this year, it has remained between the support and resistance levels at €495 and €526. 

The index has remained above the ascending trendline that connects the lowest swings since October 2022. It iis also above the support at €495, the previous all-time high. 

The Stoxx 600 index has remained above the 50-week and 100-week moving averages. It has also formed an inverse head-and-shoulders pattern, a popular bullish sign. Therefore, the stock will likely have a bullish breakout in 2025. This move will be confirmed if it rises above the year-to-date high of €530. If this happens, the next point to watch will be €550.

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Reddit (RDDT) had a stellar year in 2024, with s staggering 250% surge in its stock price from its first-day close following its debut listing in March.

The trajectory of the stock has caused the 19-year old social media giant to become a darling of Wall Street.

Reddit has 13 buy ratings from analysts as against seven neutral calls and one sell recommendation.

Analysts’ views on RDDT stock and 2025 forecast

Earlier this month, Morgan Stanley upgraded the stock and raised the company’s rating to “overweight” with a price target of $200.

The analysts at the brokerage attributed the move to Reddit’s strong engagement and advertising pipeline being key drivers of its future growth, and said the platform had the potential to outpace its peers in user engagement, time spent, and advertising revenue growth.

With user growth accelerating this year, Reddit has been encouraged to monetised its platform through advertising.

Reddit’s sales are projected to hit $1.28 billion in 2024, a sharp increase from $804 million in 2023 and $668 million in 2022.

Needham analyst Laura Martin recently raised her price target to $190, up from $120, while maintaining Reddit as a “conviction list” stock. In a December 11 client note, Martin wrote:

From our point of view, key areas driving Reddit’s growth in 2025 include higher Reddit search and shopping revenues, and higher international revenues from closing the (average revenue per user) gap vs. US users.

“From a macro perspective, we expect markets and ad demand to be stronger in 2025 vs. 2024, driven by more positive business sentiment,” she added.

While Baird analyst Colin Sebastian is more cautious with a neutral rating, he acknowledges “near-term upside” driven by advertiser interest and platform enhancements.

Sebastian noted that improvements like automation, targeting, and AI-powered tools could unlock greater ad revenue potential.

Challenges and opportunities in search and AI

Reddit’s heavy reliance on Google search traffic has emerged to be a strength.

Reddit Chief Executive Steve Huffman said on a late October analyst call that “Reddit” was the sixth most Googled term of 2024.

However, it is also a vulnerability with Huffman acknowledging that Google and its algorithms can “giveth and taketh away”, implying that the algorithms could impact user traffic unpredictably.

To mitigate this risk, Reddit has announced an AI-powered feature called Reddit Answers aimed at taking people’s search queries directly to Reddit.

Still, Bernstein analyst Mark Shmulik has expressed skepticism, suggesting these investments may not significantly boost margins in the near term.

Rating Reddit underperform, Shmulik said in a note earlier this month, “The (second half 2024) test has been passed, but an expensive stock has investors skipping a grade ahead of us.”

December quarter earnings to test the rally

Investors will closely watch Reddit’s December quarter earnings, expected in February, to gauge the sustainability of its rally.

The company’s October third-quarter results delivered a surprise profit and 68% sales growth, propelling shares up 42% in one day.

Despite its recent pullback, Reddit stock shows resilience.

It closed Friday at $173.52, down 1.8% but still above its 21-day moving average.

According to Investor’s Business Daily’s IBD Stock Checkup, Reddit’s IBD Composite Rating is 96 out of a best-possible 99.

The score combines five separate proprietary ratings into one rating. The best growth stocks have a Composite Rating of 90 or better, and thus Reddit stands out as a growth stock leader.

As Reddit prepares for 2025, investors will look for sustained growth and innovation to justify its premium stock price.

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