What's going on?

Reckitt Benckiser: you probably don�t know the company by name, but you may by its products. The British maker of Durex, Dettol, and Nurofen reported safe, clean, and pain-free annual results on Monday.

What does this mean?

The company�s �like-for-like� sales (i.e. excluding the effects of exchange rates, acquisitions, discontinued operations, etc.) grew 4% in its fourth quarter, beating expectations, and 3% across the whole of 2018. Reckitt plans to do something similar this year, aiming to grow 3-4%.


Double-digit quarterly sales growth in emerging markets (EMs) including India and Brazil helped Reckitt � which not too long ago was on struggle street � bring in annual profit ahead of expectations, too.

Why should I care?

For markets: Continuity is key.

Reckitt�s shares rose 1% on Monday � a bright spot in an otherwise gloomy UK stock market. Between the company�s earnings beat and its expectations for more of the same, investors seemed happy to buy its stock. They appear unperturbed by Reckitt�s CEO retiring halfway through the restructuring plan it embarked upon after buying baby food maker Mead Johnson for $17 billion in 2017.

The bigger picture: Emerging markets are cool again.

The biggest country in South America, Brazil, has seen its stock market soar after the election of its new president late last year � boosting EM investors� portfolios everywhere. Brazil�s continued to battle with economic crisis since emerging from a deep recession in 2017, and its fresh far-right leader is promising tax and pension reform � the latter of which could save the country $350 billion over ten years. And in India, the country�s central bank just gave the government $4 billion that it needed to plug a hole in its budget � which eased some qualms for EM investors.