In mid-February, we had forecast this would happen in the Trends Journal, and now it is reality: Retailers needing to generate cash and dump old merchandise are offering rock-bottom prices as they reopen stores. Discounts will be especially deep on items such as fashion and furniture. Across the spectrum, from clothing to footwear to date-expired...
Category: TRENDS ON THE U.S. ECONOMIC FRONT
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PROTESTS WILL SLOW ECONOMY
Mass protests sparked by the killing of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer have further slowed the reopening of the global economy. Apple stores that had reopened shut down again, and some were boarded up after several were broken into. Macy’s also boarded over it’s NYC store, delayed reopening some stores, and closed others...
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UNEMPLOYED UP, UNEMPLOYMENT DOWN?
About 1.9 million U.S. workers filed claims for unemployment benefits during the week ending 29 May, a number that surprised many analysts who had expected a more positive number. The number of new claims was almost three times as high as the largest number of claims filed in a single week during the Great Recession....
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CBO: ECONOMIC RECOVERY TO TAKE TEN YEARS
The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO) has revised downward its January economic forecast for the U.S. from 2020 to 2030 by $7.9 trillion, or 3 percent of the GDP it had previously expected during the decade. U.S. GDP is unlikely to restore all of that $7.9 trillion until 2029’s fourth quarter, the CBO said. In...
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U.S. MARKETS
The Dow’s six-day winning streak, which brought the S&P 500 back above where it began the year, ended today, with the Dow closing down 300 points. While the NASDAQ hit a record high yesterday and today on the what the Street calls optimistic news of businesses re-opening, absent in their hype is the reality that the...
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NOTES FROM THE FRONT LINES
U.S. Seeks to Thwart Iran-Venezuela Alliance. Two loaded, Greek-owned oil tankers bound for Venezuela turned around after the Trump administration threatened sanctions against the shipping company that owns them. The sanctions likely would have barred the company from access to insurance and international banking services. Liberia, where the two vessels were registered, pulled the ships’...
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WORLD
Lockdown’s Job Losses Hit Young Hardest. One of every six people ages 18 to 29 has stopped working since economic shutdowns were imposed across nations, according to a survey conducted by the United Nations’ International Labor Organization (ILO). The result translates to as many as 200 million young adults worldwide who have lost their jobs....
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MIDDLE EAST
Emirates Airline to Begin Flying 15 June. Dubai-based Emirates airline, one of the world’s largest carriers, will have all of its airplanes flying again in the summer of 2022, according to Sir Tim Clark, Emirates’ CEO. Clark’s outlook for a two-year recovery for the airline industry is more optimistic than that of International Consolidated Airlines...
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AUSTRALIA
News Corp Closes Papers, Cuts Salaries. Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp is closing 36 of its local and regional newspapers in Australia by July and moving another 76 online, ending their print editions. The company did not disclose how many employees would lose their jobs but said 375 staffers among the papers would be kept on,...
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JAPAN
Nissan Cuts Models, Closes Plants. Nissan Motor Co. has reported a $6.2-billion loss in its most recent fiscal year, prompting the company to reduce the number of models it makes, shut down plants in Spain and Indonesia, and make fewer vehicles in the U.S. In April, Nissan’s sales were 42 percent below April 2019’s. Now...