Dublin-based Icon PLC, which conducts clinical trials for drug companies and reported $2.8 billion in 2020 sales, will buy competitor PRA Health Sciences for $12 billion. PRA is headquartered in Raleigh, NC. PRA is an expert in using digital technologies to gather and report test results, allowing people to remain at home and send data...
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EMERGING MARKET INVESTMENTS LOSE THEIR LUSTER AS RATES RISE
Stock markets in developing countries have risen about 90 percent over the past 12 months and reached historic highs during the week of 19 February, according to MSCI’s index of markets across 27 nations. Now, however, investors’ relentless hunt for higher returns has pushed bond prices up. Those higher yields have helped to knock down...
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INDIA’S ECONOMY REBOUNDS IN FOURTH QUARTER
India’s economy grew 0.4 percent in 2020’s fourth quarter, year on year, according to the National Statistics Office, compared to a 24.4-percent crash in the second quarter and a further 7.3-percent slide in the third. Farming added 3.9 percent and manufacturing 1.6 percent, figures showed. Investment grew 2.6 percent during the period, its first increase...
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BRITISH POUND CLIMBS TO THREE-YEAR HIGH VALUE
As we noted earlier, despite the U.K. falling into its worst recession in three centuries, the British pound rose to an exchange rate of £1.41 to the dollar on 24 February, its highest value since April 2018. The pound’s value had slumped for more than a year under Brexit fears and the damage inflicted by...
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GLOBAL TRADE REACHES PRE-COVID WAR LEVELS
Global trade shrank 5.3 percent last year but had returned to 2019 levels by November, according to CPB Netherlands Bureau for Economic Policy Analysis. The global crisis spiked the need for personal protective and medical care equipment, pushing worldwide demand up 46 percent in 2020, the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development reported. Working...
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GOODYEAR WILL BUY COOPER TIRE FOR $2.8 BILLION
Goodyear Tire & Rubber, the largest U.S. tire maker, will pay $2.8 billion in cash and stock to buy Cooper Tire & Rubber, the second largest. The purchase would grow Goodyear to include 50 factories, a workforce of 72,000, and annual revenue of about $17.5 billion, according to the company’s presentation to investors. The combined...
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RALPH LAUREN, LANDLORD BATTLE OVER 5TH AVENUE RENT
In a measure of the plunging value of commercial real estate, fashion influencer Ralph Lauren is entering arbitration with the owners of 711 Fifth Avenue in Manhattan. Lauren leased the prime, ground-floor retail spot in 2017, agreeing to $27 million in annual rent but since has abandoned the space. To stanch some of its cash...
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HIGHER MORTGAGE RATES HOBBLE HOUSING MARKET’S EXPANSION
The average interest rate on 30-year fixed mortgages rose to 2.81 percent during the week ending 18 February, the highest rate in three months, according to the Freddie Mac financing agency. In tandem that week, various measures of mortgage and refinancing activity dropped 11.6 and 11.3 percent respectively, the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) noted. “Rates...
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FEDERAL EVICTION BAN UNCONSTITUTIONAL, JUDGE SAYS
The federal ban on evictions imposed last September by the Trump administration and CDC is unconstitutional, a federal judge in Texas has ruled. The ruling favors a group of Texas landlords and property owners who sued in October to void the ban, contending that the federal government’s executive branch lacks authority to ban evictions. Judge...
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FEWER JOBS, LOWER RATES
The U.S. Federal Reserve will not raise benchmark interest rates from their current levels near zero until three conditions are met, Fed chair Jerome Powell said in Congressional testimony on 24 February. First, a broad range of statistical measures must show the labor market has returned to full strength. Second, inflation must rise to 2...