BUSINESS
Apple stock downgraded as Barclays warns on cooling iPhone demand
Barclays analysts led by Tim Long cut their rating on Apple to underweight and price target to $160 from $161, implying a 17% decline over the next year.
BUSINESS
Russian oil cargoes head away from India amid payment issues
Five ships all carrying Sokol oil from Russia’s Far East — the NS Commander, Sakhalin Island, Krymsk, Nellis, and Liteyny Prospect — are moving toward the Malacca Strait at 7 to 10 knots, according to vessel-tracking data. A sixth also holding Sokol — the NS Century — is still close to Sri Lanka.
WORLD
Vedanta faces investor reckoning over $3.2 billion of bonds
Bondholders have until Jan. 2 to give an early consent on a plan to push out due dates on $3.2 billion in bond repayments, a move that prompted S&P Global Ratings in December to cut the company’s rating deeper into junk.
WORLD
The 10 most intriguing science breakthroughs of 2023
The most talked-about science story in 2023 was the expanding use of the diet drugs called GLP-1 receptor agonists, most popularly known as Ozempic.
WORLD
An economist’s guide to making New Year’s resolutions
That means breaking down larger, more general goals into a smaller, more concrete ones. Instead of resolving to “exercise more,” for example, ask yourself how much you would benefit if you spent another 15 minutes a week exercising.
WORLD
2023’s economy will be hard to top, but 2024’s just might
There is ample reason to be optimistic about the US economy.
WORLD
Saudi fund outpaces Singapore’s GIC with $31.6 billion splurge
PIF, as the Saudi fund is known, deployed $31.6 billion in 2023, according to research consultancy Global SWF.
WORLD
AI, Metaverse, Chatbots: Workplace trends to watch for in 2024
ChatGPT’s arrival a year ago has captured the collective imagination with 100 million users per week, according to its creator, OpenAI.
WORLD
Chief Justice John Roberts says AI will transform how the courts work
AI tools will change how judges do their jobs and how they understand “the role that AI plays in the cases that come before them,” Roberts said in his end-of-year report.
WORLD
Singapore avoids recession as Lee Hsien Loong warns of ‘troubled’ world
Gross domestic product expanded 1.2%, Lee said in his New Year’s message, compared with the trade ministry’s forecast in November for an expansion of around 1%. For 2024, he reiterated an official projection for growth of 1% to 3%.
WORLD
US overtakes China as South Korea’s top export market
South Korea sold $11.3 billion in goods to the US in December compared with $10.9 billion to China, the trade ministry said Monday. The switch in positions came as South Korea’s overall exports rose 5.1% from a year earlier — a third monthly increase after a yearlong slump.
WORLD
Xi Jinping vows to strengthen economic recovery after ‘tough’ year
While China’s most-powerful leader since Mao Zedong used his annual new year address to trumpet his nation’s achievements, he also conceded some “enterprises had a tough time” and “people had difficulty finding jobs and meeting basic needs.”
BUSINESS
Back in business: Large-cap stocks make a comeback in December
The Nifty50 index climbed about 8 percent in December, its best month since July 2022, compared with the 6.4 percent gain for NSE’s small-cap gauge.
TRENDS
Musk leads world’s richest to $1.5 trillion wealth gain in 2023
The combined net worth of the 500 richest people surged by $1.5 trillion in 2023, fully rebounding from the $1.4 trillion lost the year prior, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index
WORLD
L’Oreal heir Francoise Bettencourt Meyers becomes first woman with $100 billion fortune
The milestone came as shares of L’Oréal SA, the beauty products empire founded by her grandfather, rose to a record high, with the stock set for its best year since 1998. She’s the 12th-richest person in the world, just behind Mexico’s Carlos Slim.
BUSINESS
Record eight-year winning streak seen extending for India stocks
That’s the key takeaway from an informal Bloomberg News survey of 10 fund managers and strategists, seven of whom said the NSE Nifty 50 Index will rise in 2024.
WORLD
US dollar is set for worst year since 2020
After being whipsawed by false starts calling for the end of the Fed’s rate hiking regime, a Bloomberg gauge of the greenback is down nearly 3% since January in the steepest annual drop for the US currency since 2020.
BUSINESS
Year in Review: 2023’s Top CEO mishaps and misadventures
While some CEOs seemed to relish the spotlight, Elon Musk chief among them, others were inadvertently thrust into social media’s harsh glare.
WORLD
Half of Red Sea container-ship fleet avoids route after attacks
he tally compiled by Flexport Inc. shows 299 vessels with a combined capacity to carry 4.3 million containers have either changed course or plan to. That’s about double the number from a week ago and equates to about 18% of global capacity.
WORLD
A Cathie Wood ETF just overhauled its Bitcoin-related holdings
shares of the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust on Wednesday, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
BUSINESS
Oil holds decline on signs of further build in crude stockpiles
West Texas Intermediate held above $74 a barrel after declining by 1.9% on Wednesday, with Brent crude near $80
WORLD
Global bond ‘carnival’ sets stage for best two months on record
The Bloomberg Global Aggregate Total Return Index has risen nearly 10% over November and December, its best run in Bloomberg data going back to 1990.
INDIA
India seeks more middle east crude as attacks delay cargoes
Shippers turned cautious about entering the Red Sea in recent weeks due to multiple attacks by Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi rebels.
BUSINESS
Inside the record year for India’s $585 billion Mutual Funds industry
These are some of the milestones that mark what’s set to be a blockbuster year for India’s mutual funds industry. Powered by an insatiable thirst for financial gains, millions of young Indians armed with smartphones have taken to equity investments in the world’s most-populous nation.
