Tag: Apr 13 2021

80,000 MORE U.S. STORES WILL CLOSE BY 2026, UBS PREDICTS. UBS, the Swiss banking and financial services giant, predicts that 80,000 more U.S. retail storefronts – about 9 percent of the remaining total – will go dark by 2026, with e-commerce taking 27 percent of shoppers’ dollars then, compared to 18 percent today. Most of...

As we have been reporting in the Trends Journal, Beijing will no longer take orders or follow rules set by Washington. (See our 23 March article, “CHINA TELLS U.S TO FU.”)  Following what we had noted, this is the front-page headline of today’s Wall Street Journal – Beijing’s Message to America: We’re an Equal Now...

Central banks around the world have pared back the amount of dollars they hold, reducing the buck’s share of worldwide foreign currency reserves to 59 percent in December, the lowest level since 1995, the International Monetary Fund reported. The figure equates to a 1.5-percent decline in 2020’s fourth quarter. The banks have increased their holdings...

On 12 April, Japan will begin vaccinating citizens age 65 and older, the largest segment of the country’s population. At the expected pace of inoculation, the nation’s economic recovery will be “stop and go” until herd immunity is achieved around the end of this year, according to economists at Japan’s Norinchukin Research Institute. Most economists...

Micron Technology Inc. and Western Digital Corp. are considering buying rival chip-maker Kioxia Holdings in a deal worth as much as $30 billion, the Wall Street Journal reported. No agreements have been made about price or the sale’s possible structure, people familiar with the discussions told the WSJ. Kioxia, based in Tokyo, is controlled by...

In March, prices in the European Union rose 1.3 percent, compared to 0.9 percent in February. March’s rate was inflation’s fastest pace since February 2020. The core inflation rate, which excludes food and energy prices, actually fell during the month, edging down from February’s 1.1 percent to 0.9 percent in March. The inflation rate remains...

Credit Suisse Holdings reported losing $4.7 billion when hedge fund Archegos Capital Management was unable to meet margin calls last month, the bank reported. As a result of the debacle, the bank’s chiefs of risk management and investment banking have been let go. Credit Suisse also has slashed its dividend and stopped buying back its...

With the dollar unexpectedly growing stronger, interest rates rising in the U.S., and China’s economy humming, developing nations are seeing investors beginning to send their money to safer, more lucrative nations. The loss of capital may well leave emerging economies starved for cash at a time when global interest rates rise, making it harder for...

Powered by China’s strength and at least 6-percent growth in the U.S., the world’s economy will expand by 6 percent this year, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) said in a 12 April prediction. But many of the world’s poor countries will not share in that growth, the agency warned. Emerging markets are not receiving needed...

During 2021’s first quarter, about $1.3 trillion in mergers and acquisitions were booked worldwide, the Financial Times reported, buoyed significantly by Wall Street’s infatuation with special-purpose acquisition companies (SPACs). (See related story.)  The deals’ value topped every other year’s first-quarter total since at least 1980, according to data firm Refinitiv. In the U.S., the volume...