The European Central Bank (ECB) raised its base interest rate a quarter point on 4 May after making six consecutive half-point increases since embarking on its current campaign of tightening in July last year.
Tag: Economy
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GOLD PRICE HOVERS NEAR ALL-TIME HIGH
Last September when gold prices were sinking, The Trends Journal forecast that prices had bottomed. As we go to press, spot gold is selling at $2035 per ounce.
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SPOTLIGHT: CHINA
China’s manufacturing economy slumped in April, with the purchasing managers index (PMI) for the sector slipping from 51.9 in March to 49.2 last month.
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SPOTLIGHT: BYE BYE BUCKS – DEATH OF THE DOLLAR
China’s yuan, not the dollar, was the most-used currency in China’s international trade at the end of March, Business Insider reported.
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SOUTH KOREA’S EXPORTS CONTINUE THREE-YEAR LOSING STREAK
In April, South Korea's exports declined 14.2 percent, year on year, for the seventh consecutive month, their longest slide since the beginning of the COVID War, Reuters reported.
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EXXONMOBIL, CHEVRON POST HIGHEST PROFITS IN 15 YEARS
On 28 April, ExxonMobil posted its highest quarterly net income ever, reaching $11.4 billion after new U.S. and coastal South American wells produced more robustly than had been expected.
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DRAGFLATION TREND: EU EKES OUT SMALL GROWTH IN FIRST QUARTER
The European Union’s (EU’s) economy managed to grow by 0.3 percent in this year’s first quarter, even though Germany’s – Europe’s largest economy – flatlined for the period, showing neither growth nor contraction, the Financial Times reported.
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CORPORATE DEFAULTS RISING
In this year’s first quarter, 33 corporations tracked by Moody’s Analytics defaulted on debts, the largest number since 47 failed to pay in the final quarter of 2020.
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SPOTLIGHT: OFFICE BUILDING BUST
The combination of the remote-work revolution and rising interest rates “could be worse than anything corporate landlords have experienced before,” The New York Times said in a 26 April analysis.
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SPOTLIGHT: BIGS GETTING BIGGER
Drug giant Merck will pay $10.8 billion in cash to buy Prometheus Biosciences, a San Diego company that develops drugs for diseases resulting from the body’s defective immune system.