Reuters (April 28)
“Global shipments of smartphones shrank 3 percent in the first quarter from a year earlier in the market’s first year-on-year contraction on record…reflecting growing strains on the industry.” Q1 shipments dropped to 334.6 million devices from 345 million in 2015.
Tags: Contraction, Industry, Q1, Record, Shipments, Shrank, Smartphones, Strains
Wall Street Journal (November 25)
In the U.S., “the pressure on corporate profits may last longer than expected.” Many have attributed the contraction in corporate profits to temporary trends, namely “the weakness in the commodities sector, which is ravaging profits at energy companies, and the strong dollar, which is putting pressure on multinationals.” Though reassuring, “the problem with those dismissals is that oil may not be done going down, and the dollar may not be done going up.”
Tags: Commodities, Contraction, Corporate profits, Dollar, Energy, Multinationals, Oil, Pressure, Trends, U.S.
Bloomberg (September 2)
“Japan’s lowest auto sales in three years are reviving concerns that manufacturing will hollow out in Asia’s second-largest economy.” This could deliver a blow to Prime Minister Abe’s “efforts to revive the economy, which last quarter contracted the most since the 2011 earthquake and tsunami.”
Tags: Abe, Asia, Auto sales, Contraction, Earthquake, Economy, Japan, Manufacturing, Tsunami
Reuters (June 27)
With unemployment hitting a 16-year low, Japan’s surprisingly strong job market may provide the nation with needed momentum. “Analysts expect the economy to contract in the second quarter due to the tax hike…. The contraction could be more severe given the weak spending data, although the strong job market and an expected increase in summer bonus payments will underpin spending.”
Tags: Analysts, Bonus, Contraction, Economy, Japan, Jobs, Momentum, Spending, Tax hike, Unemployment
