Forbes (June 28)
“The question on everybody’s mind in the crypto world is whether we’ve reached the market bottom. Nearly $2 trillion in crypto market value has evaporated since November…. But the fallout is far from complete.” With over “600 crypto exchanges around the world operating in a largely unregulated frontier,” there are others that are already insolvent. Many promised unreasonably high yields, which “worked fine when crypto was going nowhere but up. It looks disastrous now.”
Tags: Bottom, Crypto, Crypto exchanges, Fallout, Insolvent, Market, Promised, Unregulated, Value, Yields
Barron’s (June 27)
“Russia’s first default on its foreign debt in more than 100 years is the latest sign that the sanctions… have consequences,” but it’s a “symbolic win.” Energy prices remain the biggest impact of sanctions. “Oil prices aren’t coming down as long as Western powers are working to wean themselves off Russian supply. Faster inflation and rising interest rates, meanwhile, are bringing the global economy to its knees.”
Tags: 100 years, Consequences, Default, Energy prices, Foreign debt, Impact, Inflation, Interest rates, Oil prices, Russia, Sanctions, Supply, Symbolic win
Market Watch (June 27)
“Stock futures are inching higher at the start of the week as investors seemingly cling to newfound optimism that a bond rout is ending, and the Fed’s rate-hike plans will get pruned due to a global slowdown.” There are, of course, no shortage of issues like surging inflation, but Brynne Kelly suspects “the next black swan for markets could be failing power grids and electricity shortages.” These could prove “catastrophic” as we move into the “height of the summer cooling season amid rising temperatures.”
Tags: Black swan, Bond rout, Catastrophic, Electricity, Fed, Inflation, Investors, Kelly, Markets, Optimism, Power grids, Rate hike, Shortages, Slowdown, Stock futures, Summer
Wall Street Journal (June 27)
“Workers throughout the economy are demanding bigger raises to compensate for soaring prices. This could push inflation higher as companies pass along higher wage costs in the price of goods and services.” Though bond markets haven’t determined “how serious the Fed is about controlling inflation… workers aren’t waiting to find out as they seek higher pay.”
Tags: Bond market, Compensate, Demanding, Economy, Fed, Goods, Inflation, Pay, Raises, Services, Soaring prices, Wage costs, Workers
Washington Post (June 25)
“In a blistering hot June around the Northern Hemisphere, in which heat records have fallen on every continent, Japan is the latest to swelter. On Saturday, temperatures there shot above 104 degrees (40 Celsius) for the first time on record during the month, another clear sign of the sweeping effects of human-caused climate change.”
Tags: 40 degrees, Blistering, Climate change, Effects, Hot, Human-caused, Japan, June, Records, Sign, Swelter, Temperatures
Reuters (June 24)
“A scramble for lithium” is creating “new risks for electric-car makers. Breathtaking prices are prompting the industry to find new ways to secure the crucial battery ingredient,” often through “direct contracts with miners and refiners” with “options to buy 100% or more of a project’s planned production capacity.” Although “vertical integration is tempting when times are tough,” it can leave buyers overstretched and “dealmaking under duress makes miscalculations more likely.”
Tags: Battery, Breathtaking, Buyers, Capacity, Dealmaking, Duress, EVs, Lithium, Miners, Overstretched, Prices, Production, Refiners, Risks, Scramble, Vertical integration
The Guardian (June 24)
“Even for an embattled prime minister leading an unpopular party in their 12th year of rule, this was a pretty dire pair of results.” The defeats in the byelection will “cast pall over Boris Johnson’s pitch that he is an election winner.” The Tiverton and Honiton upset was especially remarkable. The seat had been a stronghold for 130 years before the 24,000-plus Conservative majority was lost in “the largest numerical majority ever overturned in a byelection,” an altogether “stunning success” for the opposition.
Tags: Opposition
New York Times (June 23)
“First pineapples, now fish.” China is flexing its “economic muscle” with import bans that “pressure Taiwan.” The pineapple industry bounced back when public support rallied domestic consumption, but “Taiwan’s lucrative grouper industry is bracing for heavy losses after China’s recent ban on imports of the fish from the island.”
Tags: China, Domestic consumption, Economic muscle, Fish, Flexing, Grouper, Import bans, Losses, Lucrative, Pineapples, Taiwan
Investment Week (June 22)
“UK inflation has hit another 40 year high of 9.1% in May, up from 9% in April. The slight increase from already record high inflation rate came largely from rising food and non-alcoholic beverage prices,” while gas and diesel prices rose to “the highest on record.” The “top financial priority” for 58% of UK adults is now “day to day costs, like paying bills and for food.”
American Banker (June 21)
“The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. plans to hike deposit insurance assessment rates next year — a move that would increase costs for banks as they continue to see high deposit growth more than a year after the last round of pandemic stimulus.” On Tuesday, “the FDIC voted to issue a notice of proposed rulemaking that would raise deposit insurance assessment rates by 2 basis points for all insured depository institutions.”
Tags: Assessment rates, Banks, Costs, Deposit growth, Depository institutions, FDIC, Increase, Insurance, Pandemic, Rulemaking, Stimulus
