Humans are a carbon-based life form—carbon is the common element among most of our molecules—so maybe it’s not surprising that one of the newest health elixirs gaining notoriety is made of carbon: buckminsterfullerenes, also known as buckyballs.
Category: 3 October 2023
SPOTLIGHT: CHINA’S ECONOMIC STRUGGLE
Evergrande, China’s flamboyant, overleveraged property developer whose defaults in September 2021 set off a chain of collapses across the sector, announced last week it still owes tens of billions of dollars to contractors, lenders, and suppliers and that its chairman is under criminal investigation.
SPOTLIGHT, TOP TREND 2023: OFFICE BUILDING BUST
Echoing Gerald Celente’s July 2020 forecast, Bloomberg’s Markets Live Pulse survey reports that a majority of 919 respondents believe that the market value of U.S. office buildings is due to crash.
MEXICO’S CENTRAL BANK HOLDS INTEREST RATE AT 11.25 PERCENT
Last week, Banxico’s rate-setting committee voted unanimously to hold the central bank’s key interest rate at 11.25 percent for its fourth consecutive meeting, matching the unanimous expectation of 23 economists Bloomberg surveyed.
TOP TREND 2023, GOING GREEN, LIKE IT OR NOT: CHINA’S LARGEST OIL COMPANY SAYS GASOLINE DEMAND IS PERMANENTLY DECLINING
Sinopac, China’s largest oil company, has calculated that the world’s gasoline demand has peaked as electric vehicles (EVs) have aggressively asserted their place in the global vehicle market.
HAS THE POST-COVID TRAVEL BOOM PEAKED?
JetBlue Airways reported a downturn in U.S. domestic travel in August, while low-fare Spirit Airlines has issued a profit warning and has resorted to “deep discounting” to spur ticket sales.
BIGS NOT GETTING BIGGER: PRIVATE EQUITY CAPITAL DRIES UP
Mergers and acquisitions worldwide slowed to a value of $2 trillion in the first nine months of this year, the least since 2013 and a 28-percent decline from the same period in 2022, according to data from the London Stock Exchange Group.
EUROZONE INFLATION SLOWEST IN TWO YEARS
In September, inflation among the 20-nation Eurozone fell to an annual rate of 4.3 percent, its slowest in two years, and beat analysts’ forecasts of 4.5 percent.
EUROPE’S BOND MARKET TANKS
Investors in European bonds sold off last week on fears that the European Central Bank will hold rates higher for longer and because Italy’s budget deficit came in larger than expected.
INFLATION ASSAULTS COMMODITIES
In 2021, Liontown Resources had budgeted $300 million for its new Australian lithium mine. The budget now is twice that.