Financial Times (May 10)
“The UK economy has exited last year’s technical recession with faster than expected growth of 0.6 per cent for the first quarter.” This beat the BoE forecast and marked the fastest quarter-on-quarter growth since 2021. Growth was “driven by a 0.7 per cent increase in services output, suggesting stronger consumer activity as inflation fell. Manufacturing output grew 1.4 per cent, driven by car production which has grown for six consecutive quarters.”
Tags: 0.6%, 2021, BOE, Car production, Consumer activity, Economy, Expected, Fastest, Forecast, Growth, Inflation, Manufacturing, Q1, Services, Technical recession, UK
Washington Post (May 9)
“A group of powerful investment managers and public treasurers with assets invested in McDonald’s are demanding that the company take tougher steps to address child-labor violations at its franchises.” The investors want McDonalds, as well as Wendy’s, “to adopt a zero-tolerance policy for the use of child labor at franchised restaurants” and “conduct third-party human rights risk assessments of their businesses.”
Tags: Assets, Child labor, Child-labor violations, Demanding, Franchises, Human rights, Investment managers, McDonald's, Powerful, Risk assessments, Treasurers, Wendy’s, Zero tolerance
Seeking Alpha (May 8)
“Sweden is following Switzerland, Hungary, and the Czech Republic in easing monetary policy for the first time since hiking cycles began in 2022, when inflation surfaced in the aftermath of the COVID pandemic.” The quarter point cut of the overnight rate by the Riksbank makes “it more likely that the ECB will also jump on the bandwagon. The shift is noteworthy to global investors as it highlights the current central bank divergence taking place across the world.”
Tags: Aftermath, Central bank, Covid, Czech Republic, Easing, ECB, Global investors, Hungary, Inflation, Monetary policy, Pandemic, Riksbank, Sweden, Switzerland
New York Times (May 7)
France’s TotalEnergies and the UK’s Shell “are considering moving their stock listings to New York, as pressure mounts for them to improve their valuations, which lag their American counterparts.” Such a shift “would be a blow to European exchanges, where they are among the largest listed companies,” and “reflect the almost irresistible lure of the United States as a center of energy production and innovation as well as investment.”
Fortune (May 6)
“Last year’s consensus was that the U.S. economy was headed for a recession, but that didn’t happen. This year’s consensus is that we’ll have a soft landing, in which the economy slows but won’t tip into a recession.” But contrarians like Andrew Hollenhorst, Citi’s chief U.S. economist, believe “a hard landing” is now imminent.
Tags: Citi, Consensus, Contrarians, Economist, Economy, Hard landing, Hollenhorst, Imminent, Recession, Slows, Soft landing, U.S.
Wall Street Journal (May 4)
“Evidence is stacking up that the U.S. economy has slowed, led by the formerly red-hot services sector. Yet overall activity levels remain healthy, and some cooling is welcome news to investors because it opens the door back up to possible rate cuts by the Federal Reserve.”
Tags: Cooling, Economy, Evidence, Federal Reserve, Healthy, Investors, Rate cuts, Red-hot, Services sector, Stacking up, U.S.
The Economist (May 4)
“It is easy for investors to lose a fortune in the financial markets—and even easier for governments.” When Japan tried to prop up the yen in 2022, the nation “spent more than $60bn of its foreign-exchange reserves,” but supporting a currency “is expensive and futile.” Since breaking the ¥160/$1 barrier, there are rumors of another intervention. As long as the giant interest rate gap exists with the U.S., Japan would be “wrong to try to prop up the yen.”
Tags: $60bn, ¥160/$1, 2022, Currency, Expensive, Financial markets, Forex, Futile, Governments, Interest rate, Intervention, Investors, Japan, Reserves, Yen
Bond Buyer (May 3)
“Oklahoma’s list of investment banks determined to be ‘boycotting’ the fossil fuel industry expanded with the addition of Barclays, making it ineligible for state and local government contracts.”
Tags: Barclays, Boycotting, Contracts, Fossil fuel industry, Government, Ineligible, Investment banks, Local, Oklahoma, State
WARC (May 3)
“Political leaders in France and the US have been publicly critical of companies for making products smaller while maintaining the existing price, but South Korea’s government is one of the first to legislate against it.” The Korea Fair Trade Commission “will now require producers that downsize products to put notices on packages, websites, or at stores for the three months following the change.”
Tags: Companies, Critical, Downsize, France, FTC, Legislate, Notices, Packages, Political leaders, Price, Products, Smaller, South Korea, Stores, U.S., Websites
The Guardian (May 1)
“As the declining population continues to impact Japan’s society and economy, the number of vacant houses has topped nine million – enough to accommodate the entire population of Australia at three people per dwelling.”
Tags: Accommodate, Australia, Declining, Dwelling, Economy, Impact, Japan, Population, Society, Vacant houses
