World Street | Jeff Bezos Amazon stake sale, Fed meeting minutes, Wall Street party and more

World Street offers a sneak peek into the world of business and economy.

Amazon.com founder Jeff Bezos plans to offload some stake in the company as the stock hits a record high. The minutes of the Federal Reserve's latest meeting shows the central bank saw easing price pressures. Wall Street benchmarks close at record high after latest marco data sparks hopes of rate cut. All this and more in the July 4 edition of World Street

Minting Money

Amazon founder and executive chair Jeff Bezos plans to sell nearly $5 billion worth of shares in the e-commerce giant, as revealed in a regulatory filing after its stock reached a record high.

Following the proposed sale of 25 million shares, Bezos will retain approximately 912 million Amazon shares, or 8.8% of the outstanding stock. Earlier in February, he sold shares worth about $8.5 billion after an 80% stock rally in 2023. With a net worth of $214.4 billion, Bezos is currently the world's second-richest person, according to Forbes.

Wall Street high

Wall Street indices- the S&P 500 and technology-heavy Nasdaq reached record closing highs overnight, driven by data suggesting a softening economy and raising hopes for a Federal Reserve interest rate cut in September.

The ADP Employment report and weekly jobless claims indicated easing labor market conditions, leading to optimism that the Fed might reduce interest rates, with further insights expected from the upcoming non-farm payrolls report on July 5. The market will remain closed on July 4 for Independence Day, keeping trading volumes low for the week.

Cautious hopes

Federal Reserve officials at their last meeting noted that the US economy seemed to be slowing and that "price pressures were diminishing," but opted for a cautious approach before deciding on interest rate cuts, according to minutes of the June 11-12 policy meeting.

The meeting minutes highlighted a weak May consumer price index reading and various product and labor market developments indicating falling inflation. Wage growth had slowed, and there were reports of price cutting among major retailers and declining pricing power from business contacts. Despite these signs, US central bank policymakers chose to not commit to rate cuts jut yet.

Penalty time

South Korea's financial regulator imposed record-high fines on two subsidiaries of the former Credit Suisse group for stock short-selling violations, the regulator announced on July 3.

The Financial Services Commission (FSC) decided to impose fines of 16.9 billion won ($12.17 million) on Credit Suisse AG, now UBS AG, and 10.2 billion won on Credit Suisse Singapore Ltd. Credit Suisse AG conducted naked short-selling trades worth 60.3 billion won from April 7, 2021, to June 9, 2022, while Credit Suisse Singapore Ltd. carried out similar trades worth 35.3 billion won from November 29, 2021, to June 9, 2022, the FSC stated.

(This is a developing story. Please come back for more.)