Amazon Prime Day flashes warning for US retailers
Independent credit card transaction data paints a muted sales picture, with Amazon making slight gains and the broader US retail industry falling behind. The lacklustre spending is a troubling signal for the sector, which was hoping for a rebound after a year of sluggish consumer spending
Israel-Hamas War: A Biden West Asia trip is risky but worth it
Biden has to give succour to Israel in its hour of need, get the hostages held by Hamas out alive, work to protect innocent Palestinian living in the Gaza Strip, and prevent this war from drawing in other countries and becoming conflated with adjacent conflicts, possibly even kindling a global conflagration
China’s proposal for a stock market investment fund could prove risky
China’s medicine may prove to be a bitter one, not just for its country but for South-East Asian markets as well
China’s expanding military drone ecosystem is a menace for the likes of Taiwan and India
As China continues to invest in making drones more modular and drone operators more specialised, India has to develop counter-drone strategies of its own and hope that the US curbs on the flow of critical technologies to China have the desired effect
Can the G20 road map help clear the crypto conundrum?
New Delhi can take inputs from the Marrakesh communique to develop its regulatory system for crypto assets
HDFC Bank’s merger pain is not over yet
To meet merger costs, HDFC Bank borrowed from the market which increased its overall cost of funds. These will be replaced by deposits over time, the bank has said.
Ashok Leyland: making the most of CV market momentum
What could surprise negatively is pressure on market share and stiff competition that may take a toll on pricing and profitability
Reformed multilateral development banks may offer fairer rescue deals to needy nations
Global institutions have so far failed miserably to meet the aspirations of developing countries
Chart of the Day: Hidden in WPI deflation is a sign of retail price pressure
The sequential rise in the WPI for manufactured products bears watching, if producers pass on higher costs into retail prices, the Barclays report states
Katy Perry’s $225 million payday began in 1908
The rights to mechanically reproduced music used to belong to no one
‘Gobsmackingly bananas’ record temperatures are dividing scientists
Global temperature records are being broken on a consecutive monthly basis. That’s not good
Moneycontrol Pro Panorama | Shareholders in the driver’s seat
In this edition of Moneycontrol Pro Panorama: The comeback of the bond vigilantes, can biofuels solve the carbon problem, can Gehlot's charm work magic in Rajasthan, uncertain times surround oil markets, and more
The perils of forecasting when oil markets are on a rollercoaster
The future outlook for global oil prices has thus become increasingly uncertain, given the factors that could impact their movement. Some drivers are easier to predict like the rise in demand and overall availability of crude oil and refined products. It is difficult, however, to predict the course of geopolitical tensions that are increasingly gripping the world
Chart of the Day | Q2 profitability in fine form, but a challenge lies in wait
Q2 earnings in key sectors shows EBITDA margins scaling up but sequential trends indicate the need for caution on assuming the momentum will continue
GHI gets it wrong. Shorter Indian children doesn't mean it is because they sleep hungry. It’s more complex than that
There is a wide body of literature by distinguished Nobel laureates that suggest correlating height with hunger will be fallacious. There are two fundamental flaws in GHI’s methodology. First, is the conflation of the aspect of physical height with hunger. Second, is the collection and the methodology of data itself. The highest level of statistical and academic rigour should be non-negotiable while framing such indices. Hunger is too serious a matter
Positive real yields sting safe stocks
And how tight policy constrains supply
Satellite data can bridge agricultural data gap, strengthen credit underwriting
The shift towards satellite data is imperative to foster broader financial inclusion and to mitigate the inherent uncertainties that characterise agriculture
Infosys trumps TCS and HCL in order wins but lags in revenue collection
TCS and HCL have lower receivables than Infosys
India’s net-zero transition needs a loose purse and a risk meter
An RBI report states that the real challenge for India will be in arranging new investment, estimated to be in the range of $7.2 trillion (baseline scenario) to $12.1 trillion (accelerated scenario) till 2050
Global Economy: Singapore gives optimists some succour
The Singapore central bank's latest assessment is careful not to declare victory, but does sound less dour than recent prognostications from OECD, IMF and European policymakers. If this hub for trade and capital is right, then the global expansion will live to fight another day
China Property: Private Equity's role is the new hot potato
Ping An Real Estate — with 110 billion yuan in assets — held around 10 billion yuan in cash, covering only half of its interest-bearing debt due in the next 12 months. Its business operations and liquidity positions have deteriorated rapidly alongside China’s property slump, with sales falling by more than half from their 2021 high
A US armada is growing off Israel's shore. What's next?
The principal reason to consider speeding them to the scene of the crisis is the presence of so many US citizens in a war zone. There are roughly 200,000 Americans, mostly dual citizens, in Israel. Besides being caught in the Israel-Hamas crossfire, there is also the Hezbollah risk if it decides to join the fight from the north
Can Gehlot’s charm overpower Modi’s magic in Rajasthan?
As Rajasthan gets ready for the assembly election, two pre-poll surveys have thrown up contradictory outcomes for the state where smaller political parties traditionally play a vital role
Parsing India’s position on the Israel-Hamas War: It is about securing national interest and prioritising the greater good
Seeing India’s reactions only through the prism of a balancing act is trite and myopic. Vital national interest is being protected but there’s clarity that an act of terror shouldn’t be given equivalence to anything else, while ensuring that this position doesn’t overshadow a cause where the perpetrators of the violence are not the sole stakeholders to the lingering problem and its possible solutions
Can biofuels be the solution for the world’s carbon challenge?
Scaling up biofuel production to meet global demand while ensuring sustainability and preventing land degradation is a logistical and resource-intensive challenge
