BUSINESS
The trouble with Lithium
Demand has outstripped supply, pushing prices up almost 500% in a year and hindering the world’s most successful effort yet to halt global warming.
BUSINESS
Fed saw aggressive hikes providing flexibility later this year
While highlighting the “strong commitment and determination” of all policy makers to restore price stability, the minutes of the May 3-4 meeting, released Wednesday, showed officials attentive to financial conditions as they prepare to raise rates further.
BUSINESS
Embattled payments startup Bolt is cutting one-third of staff
In a message to staff on Wednesday, Bolt Chief Executive Officer Maju Kuruvilla wrote that the company was making cuts as part of a broader restructuring.
BUSINESS
Elon Musk’s revised Twitter bid drops margin loan, requires more cash
Elon Musk will provide an additional $6.25 billion in equity financing for the $44 billion buyout, according to a regulatory filing Wednesday. That’s enough to eliminate the margin loan of the same size, which had already been reduced earlier this month.
WORLD
Zimbabwe’s inflation is back above 100% after currency plunge
Annual inflation quickened to 131.7% from 96.4% in April, ending a 10-month period in which the rate was below 100%.
COMPANIES-2
Etihad CEO Says India Sales Higher, Optimistic on China Rebound
Etihad Airways said bookings for its India flights are edging higher as the south Asian nation loosens coronavirus curbs, adding to a surge in demand led by the Gulf carrier’s destinations in Europe and North America.
BUSINESS
Bill Ackman doubles down on call for aggressive Fed rate hikes
The series of tweets came hours after Ackman warned that investors lacked confidence the Fed will get inflation under control and called for it to act aggressively.
BUSINESS
Soros warns ‘civilization may not survive’ Putin’s war
Soros has previously used the WEF stage to unleash blistering critiques. At the last meeting, in January 2020, he suggested without evidence that Facebook Inc. might be conspiring to help re-elect Donald Trump, who lost the US presidency later that year.
BUSINESS
Social media stocks sink to erase $135 billion on Snap warning
Shares in digital ad-dependent Snap tumbled 43%, their biggest intraday decline ever to trade below its 2017 initial public offering price of $17.
BUSINESS
Singapore says GDP outlook challenged by war, COVID shocks
Supply-chain tensions have risen amid Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and COVID-related lockdowns in China, exacerbating inflation and triggering a global march toward higher interest rates
BUSINESS
Govt considers tax cut on soybean and sunflower oil to cool prices
Edible oil prices in India, which relies on imports for 60 percent of its needs, have surged this year along with international prices following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine that choked the supply of sunflower oil from the Black sea region.
BUSINESS
Govt may restrict sugar exports at 10 MT this year
The move may be announced in the coming days, Bloomberg reported citing a source. India was the world’s biggest sugar exporter after Brazil last year and counts Bangladesh, Indonesia, Malaysia, and Dubai among its top customers.
BUSINESS
Samsung to spend $360 billion on chips, biotech over five years
The conglomerate -- whose units from Samsung Electronics Co. to Samsung Biologics Co. dominate Korea’s economy -- promised in a statement to create 80,000 jobs through 2026, mostly in semiconductors and biopharmaceuticals.
BUSINESS
Airbnb to shut China business, focus on outbound Asia travel
The San Francisco-based company will stop offering rental homes and experiences in the country this summer, according to a person familiar with the matter.
WORLD
US unveils 13-nation economic pact to assert Asia leadership
Altogether the nations involved in the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework, or IPEF, constitute roughly 40% of global gross domestic product, according to the White House, which has touted its launch as a marquee accomplishment of President Joe Biden’s first trip to Asia.
BUSINESS
Dennis Gartman advises selling rallies in this year’s ‘Bear Market’
“The bear market started January 5,” the chairman of the University of Akron Endowment told Bloomberg Radio on Monday, referring to a day after the S&P 500 hit an intraday record.
BUSINESS
Joe Stiglitz says Fed rate hikes killing economy won’t fix inflation
The remarks will be followed within days by the Fed’s release of minutes of its latest monetary policy deliberations, potentially shedding more light on increasingly aggressive tightening that included a half-point rate increase earlier this month. Stiglitz offered an alternative approach.
BUSINESS
IMF’s Kristalina Georgieva urges against abandoning all crypto after Terra’s crash
TerraUSD, or UST, imploded earlier this month, setting off a chain reaction that saw the overall value of the cryptocurrency market slashed by hundreds of billions of dollars.
BUSINESS
Snap CEO Evan Spiegel’s memo to staff warns of hiring slowdown
Snap CEO Evan Spiegel sent staff an internal memo warning of a hiring slowdown in response to a “challenging macroeconomic environment.”
BUSINESS
After $5 trillion rout, Emerging Markets seek turnaround signal
The pain points are all too obvious: Stocks have fallen below their average valuations of the past 17 years. Local-currency bond yields have soared through a range that’s held since the 2008 crisis. Spreads on dollar bonds are close to thresholds seen only during times of distress.
BUSINESS
After meltdown, tech-bottom signals have yet to scream ‘buy now’
Tech stocks have been hammered this year as rising interest rates, slowing economic growth and soaring inflation form a perfect storm of negative catalysts.
BUSINESS
Stock selloff to intensify as fresh 10% plunge looms, survey finds
With the S&P 500 flirting with a bear market last week and notching more than $1 trillion in losses, participants in the latest MLIV Pulse survey reckon there’s more pain to come.
BUSINESS
India plans to borrow $13 billion extra to offset fuel-tax cut
The loss to the exchequer due to the recent excise duty cuts will therefore have to be borne through additional market borrowings.
WORLD
Australia's Labor Party takes power as Scott Morrison concedes defeat
“In this country, at a time like this, when we look around the world, and particularly when we see those in the Ukraine fighting for their very freedom and liberty, I think on a night like tonight we can reflect on the greatness of our democracy,” Morrison said in conceding the election.
