Category: TRENDS ON THE GLOBAL ECONOMIC FRONT

The cost to send a cargo container from China to the U.S. west coast stood at $9,585 in mid-June, 34 percent lower than at the beginning of 2022 and half of what it was a year ago, according to the Freightos Baltic Index. However, the cost is still four times the June 2020 rate. The...

As of 23 June, copper prices had fallen 14 percent this year to end at $8,387 a ton, the Financial Times reported, as fears of a recession deflated the outlook for industrial metals. As we have previously noted, copper is often referred to as “Dr. Copper” because it is reputed to have a Ph.D. in...

Investors who live outside the U.S. are selling their dollar-denominated stocks and bonds amid the range of market uncertainties and piling up dollars in cash, The Wall Street Journal reported. Investors hoarding dollars has sent the buck’s value close to records against other major currencies, the WSJ said. The WSJ Dollar Index, which values the...

Inflation and interest rate hikes are causing companies in many sectors to lay off employees. To illustrate the employment trends and the socioeconomic implications, each week we will list job losses.  Some of the most notable are in the growth stock sectors, which just a few months ago were pushing for more employees but are...

European solidarity will unravel if Russia cuts off its natural gas exports to the continent and European governments lack a plan for sharing fuel, Markus Krebber, CEO of RWE, Germany’s largest power company, said last week in a Financial Times interview. Germany and the Netherlands have terminals to import liquefied natural gas and could be...

No surprise! Rising interest rates and global economic uncertainty have left real estate markets skidding. “The change in the cost of debt is having a big impact on all markets, across everything,” Chris Brett, a capital markets manager at real estate consulting firm CBRE, told the Financial Times. “The speed has taken us all by...

Businesses and households in France and Germany increasingly believe that inflation will remain higher longer than they did six months ago, according to surveys by the Bundesbank and Banque de France. Germans expect inflation to average 5.3 percent annually for the next five years, the poll found. A previous poll reported the expectation at below...

Economic activity in Europe and the U.S. braked sharply in June as food and fuel prices continued their relentless rise and central banks raised rates yet again. The S&P Global purchasing managers index (PMI) for manufacturing slipped from 53.6 in May to 51.2 this month, a five-month low.  Europe’s manufacturing PMI registered 51.9 in June,...

Each week, we report instances where the money junky hedge funds, private equity groups and the already big companies swallow another piece of the global economy. Here are some more of what the BIGS have been gobbling up and how the Bigs keep getting bigger and the rich keep getting richer. It should be noted...

GAS PRICES SOAR IN EUROPE AS U.S., RUSSIA CUTS SUPPLIES An explosion at a U.S. liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal shut down the facility for repairs for at least 90 days, operator Freeport McMoran announced. The company handles 20 percent of U.S. LNG exports to Europe and about 10 percent of the continent’s total gas...