Fortune (December 31)
“Tesla Inc. shares have fallen so far, so fast that some individual investors are piling in.” but the company still faces “mounting challenges” and remains expensive. “Even after this year’s record 65% drop, the electric-car maker’s meteoric surge during 2020 and 2021 has left it with stock-market value of $389 billion, more than Toyota Motor Corp., General Motors Co., Stellantis NV and Ford Motor Co. combined.”
Tags: $389 billion, Electric car, Expensive, Ford, GM, Individual investors, Market value, Mounting challenges, Stellantis, Stock, Surge, Tesla, Toyota
U.S. News (August 3)
“A surge in consumer demand and pandemic-related logjams holding up containers in key ports had boosted freight rates and profits in the shipping industry in recent quarters, yet the cost of living crisis has reversed that trend.” Shipping giant Maersk, which controls 17% of the container shipping market “expects global container demand to fall this year as sales of durable goods come to a ‘standstill.’” Inflation, “dented consumer demand” and the weaker economy “could lead to a normalization of the global shipping market towards the end of the year.”
Tags: Containers, Crisis, Demand, Durable goods, Freight rates. Profits, Inflation, Logjams, Maersk, Normalization, Pandemic, Ports, Shipping industry, Surge
South China Morning Post (May 18)
“A surge in the number of Chinese professionals looking for emigration opportunities in response to China’s strict zero-Covid measures could affect the country’s ambitions to become a science and technology superpower.” The “noticeable spike” in interest in leaving China began after “outbreaks of the Omicron variant emerged in Shanghai” around the end of May.
Tags: Ambitions, China, Emigration, Omicron, Opportunities, Outbreaks, Professionals, Science, Spike, Strict, Superpower, Surge, Technology, Variant, Zero COVID
FreightWaves (March 24)
After two years of COVID-induced havoc in global freight markets, volatility has started to abate,” but looking ahead, “the picture isn’t pretty. We think another sharp, painful downturn in the U.S. truckload market is imminent, and it could be as bad as 2019.” Rather than the usual March surge, “March volumes are softer than at any point in 2021” and appear linked “to a major consumer slowdown…. Spot rates are falling fast and volumes are dropping.”
Tags: Abate, Consumer slowdown, Covid, Downturn, Freight markets, Global, Havoc, Painful, Sharp, Spot rates, Surge, Truckload, U.S., Volatility, Volumes
Atlanta Journal-Constitution (February 1)
“The highly contagious omicron variant has pushed the daily average of U.S. COVID-19 deaths higher than last fall’s delta wave as the nation nears a chilling milestone of 900,000 coronavirus deaths.” Statewide deaths have also been growing, though “it remains unclear if Georgia will surpass the peak that followed the devastating surge of the earlier delta variant.”
Tags: Chilling, Contagious, Coronavirus, COVID-19, Deaths, Delta wave, Devastating, Georgia, Milestone, Omicron, Peak, Surge, Surpass, U.S., Variant
Wall Street Journal (December 23)
“Businesses, schools, hospitals and governments are preparing for a new year with a sense of déjà vu, as the spread of Covid-19’s Omicron variant brings a familiar challenge: how best to navigate another surge. This time, they’re hopeful they can stay open and operating.”
Tags: Businesses, Challenge, COVID-19, Déjà vu, Governments, Hospitals, Omicron, Schools, Spread, Surge, Variant
Star-Ledger (December 17)
“New Jersey on Thursday reported another 16 confirmed COVID-19 deaths and 6,271 confirmed cases—the state’s highest one-day total for confirmed positive tests since Jan.13, the peak day from last winter’s pandemic surge, before vaccines were widely available.”
Tags: Cases, Confirmed, COVID-19, Deaths, Highest, New Jersey, Pandemic, Peak, Positive tests, Surge, Vaccines
San Francisco Chronicle (November 18)
“Officials are concerned hospitals could be strained this winter as COVID-19 cases increase across the region ahead of Thanksgiving weekend.” In San Francisco infection rates have already “risen sharply in recent weeks…. With people expected to travel, gather with friends and spend more time indoors over the next few weeks… the region could soon head for another surge.”
Tags: COVID-19, Hospitals, Indoors, Infection rates, Officials, San Francisco, Strained, Surge, Thanksgiving, Travel, Winter
New York Times (November 4)
Fed Chairman Jerome Powell announced a tapering of stimulus programs, but he did not “lay the groundwork for higher rates.” That doesn’t mean “the era of near-zero rates will last anything close to as long as it did after the global financial crisis,” but if the current inflation surge “proves something other than temporary, Mr. Powell’s decision to stick to his guns” on interest rates “will loom as a missed moment to join other English-speaking countries in using monetary policy to try to stamp it out.”
Tags: Fed, Global financial crisis, Inflation, Interest, Monetary policy, Near-zero, Powell, Rates, Stimulus, Surge, Tapering
The Economist (October 9)
“Spending has come roaring back, as governments have stimulated the economy and consumers let rip. The surge in demand is so powerful that supply is struggling to keep up. Lorry drivers are getting signing bonuses, an armada of container ships is anchored off California waiting for ports to clear and energy prices are spiralling upwards. As rising inflation spooks investors, the gluts of the 2010s have given way to a shortage economy.”
Tags: Consumers, Container ships, Demand, Economy, Energy, Gluts, Governments, Inflation, Investors, Ports, Powerful, Roaring, Signing bonuses, Spending, Supply, Surge
