Author: Press Room
The UK economy stagnated in February but once allowance is made for public sector strikes, the official data add to survey evidence to suggest that private sector economic activity has revived so far this year after a difficult end to 2022. However, the official data also corroborate some of the concerns flagged by the PMI data, which suggests that growth could falter again in the coming months. Economy flatlines Official GDP data from the Office for National Statistics showed the UK economy flatlining in February after a stronger than previously recorded 0.4% gain in January. That follows a 0.5% contraction…
Germany’s foreign minister has warned China not to use military force against Taiwan, striking a different tone from French president Emmanuel Macron who has come under fire for saying Europe should distance itself from the issue.Annalena Baerbock said after a meeting in Beijing with China’s foreign minister Qin Gang on Friday that conflicts must be solved peacefully and that Berlin was monitoring the situation in Taiwan with concern. “A unilateral, violent change of the status quo would be unacceptable for us Europeans,” she said, according to Reuters. Baerbock’s tougher stance on Taiwan, which Beijing claims as its own territory and…
A version of this story appeared in CNN’s What Matters newsletter. To get it in your inbox, sign up for free here. Sloppy presidents saving things for posterity. A secretary of state getting government data forwarded to her private email server. Ideologically motivated leakers Edward Snowden, Chelsea Manning and Reality Winner. Now, maybe a 21-year-old airman in the Massachusetts Air National Guard, a cyber transport systems specialist, apparently showing off to his teenage gaming buddies online. If the many earlier and ongoing scandals regarding classified information aren’t a wakeup call that the US government has a problem, maybe the arrest…
Stock futures declined Friday ahead of quarterly earnings from some of the biggest U.S. banks. These stocks were poised to make moves Friday: Analysts forecast JPMorgan Chase (JPM) will report first-quarter earnings of $10.2 billion, up 23% from a year earlier, or $3.41 a share. Revenue is expected to increase to $36.2 billion from $30.7 billion a year earlier thanks to an anticipated jump in net interest income of 36% to $19.1 billion. The stock was up 0.2% in premarket trading. Wells Fargo (WFC) is expected by Wall Street to report first-quarter earnings of $1.13 a share on revenue of $20.1…
Elon Musk’s Twitter is working with investing platform eToro in an effort to let users access stock, crypto, and other asset information in real-time, and enable the trading of these, eToro announced on Thursday. The trading information will be accessible through a feature called Cashtags, which launched in 2022 and lets users interact with information about an asset by inserting a dollar sign (instead of a hashtag, as they would normally use for search) in front of a company’s ticker. Cashtags has an average of 4.7 million searches a day, and 420 million searches for Cashtags since the start o…
The new president of the Chicago Federal Reserve said the central bank needs “to be cautious” about further increases in interest rates in light of the failure of Silicon Valley Bank and the resulting stress on the U.S. financial system. Austan Goolsbee, who took over the Chicago Fed in January, said the U.S. central bank should proceed with “prudence and patience” until it can determine the extent of the damage to the financial system. Since the failure of California-based SVB last month, U.S. banks have lost tens of billions in deposits and they’ve sharply scaled back loans to businesses. If…
© Reuters. Western Union (WU) lifted at UBS as ‘competitive pressures priced in’ By Sam Boughedda UBS lifted Western Union (NYSE:) to Neutral from Sell, cutting its price target on the stock to $11 from $12 per share in a note to clients Monday. Analysts told investors that competitive pressures are priced in due to WU’s “historically low valuation” after a 20% decline so far in 2023. “In the near-term, revenue growth will likely continue to be pressured by a difficult competitive environment and promotional pricing in Western Union’s digital channel,” the analysts wrote. “That said, a recent recovery in…
By Ambar Warrick Investing.com — Oil prices crept lower in early Asian trade on Thursday, as markets gauged the prospect of a U.S. recession against more signs of easing inflation and growing bets that the Federal Reserve will pause its rate hike cycle. Markets were also somewhat cautious ahead of a monthly report from the (OPEC), which is expected to provide more cues on crude demand and supply after the cartel unexpectedly cut production earlier this month. from China was also in focus, as markets sought more economic cues on the world’s largest oil importer. Oil prices rallied on Wednesday…
By Madhumita Gokhale BENGALURU (Reuters) – India’s consumer inflation likely eased in March to 5.80% thanks to softer food price rises, dipping below the Reserve Bank of India’s upper tolerance limit for the first time this year, a Reuters poll of economists found. The data is due at 1200 GMT on April 12, less than a week after the RBI surprised markets and analysts by holding its key interest rate steady at 6.50% when most expected a 25 basis point rise. Food inflation, which accounts for nearly half of the overall consumer price basket, is expected to have moderated due…
Billionaire Elon Musk warned of a difficult slog for the U.S. economy over the next year after recent turmoil within the banking system reignited fears over an imminent recession. “Tough sledding until spring next year is my best guess,” the Tesla CEO and Twitter chief said in a tweet late Wednesday.Musk was responding to a tweet that noted the Federal Reserve’s own staff economists are bracing for a mild recession this year after the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank in early March. THESE BUSINESS TITANS ARE SOUNDING THE ALARM OVER THE US ECONOMY “Given their assessment of…
