What’s the latest for the HSBC share price ahead of its Q3 earnings?

HSBC shares are down 6% since the beginning of January, driven by the ‘world’s local bank’ relying too heavily on growth from China and emerging markets to offset rising operating costs.

Over its first six months of trading, operating income rose by 5.1% to $27.4 billion, with the bank owing the increase to strong growth in its retail banking and wealth management division and Asia.

Its performance in both these areas allowed it to offset a 3.5% increase in operating costs, with underlying pre-tax profit climbing 6.8% to $12.5 billion.

With Brexit and the US-China trade war continuing to slow global economic growth, it is unlikely that the bank will wow investors when it unveils its Q3 earnings next week.

But the bank has performed relatively well considering the myriad of challenges it faces, chief among them the lack of a CEO, with John Flint stepping down earlier this year, leaving Noel Quinn, HSBC’s head of global commercial banking to steer the ship until a replacement is found.

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HSBC to cut 10,000 jobs to reduce costs

The interim CEO is not one to sit idly by though, spearheading a major cost-cutting drive that threatens to axe 10,000 jobs.

HSBC’s eagerness to reduce costs comes will come as no surprise, with the lender warning investors about the ‘increasingly complex and challenging global environment’ the banking industry finds itself in, bogged down by low interest rates, trade disputes and Brexit uncertainty.

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HSBC to relaunch First Direct to take on digital rivals

Earlier this month, HSBC said that it plans to relaunch its First Direct brand in a bid to attract younger customers away from digital rivals like Monzo.

Over the next 12 months, First Direct will get a complete overhaul that will see the digital bank make significant enhancements to its services, features and general accessibility.

'We have a proud heritage of being the original challenger bank back in 1989,’ First Direct CEO Joe Gordon told the Financial Times. ‘Now we’re making a real digital pivot to tackle the environment as it is now.’