Economy / 8

7-Eleven acquiring Speedway convenience stores in $21 billion deal

August 04, 2020

The deal, the fourth-largest acquisition of a foreign company by a Japanese firm, was reached Monday between the Seven-Eleven convenience store chain operator and USA oil refiner Marathon Petroleum Corp, owner of Speedway. Marathon Petroleum, based in OH, has been struggling financially and has shuttered operations in two refineries. 7-Eleven is based in Irving, Texas, and operates, franchises and/or licenses more than 71,100 stores in 17 countries including a number of locations in the ...

Fed's Kashkari lays out case for 'really hard' lockdown

August 04, 2020

Neel Kashkari, president of the Minneapolis Federal Reserve Bank, is calling for America to go into a "hard" shutdown for at least a month, saying it is necessary to stop the spread of COVID-19 and arguing that the USA government can afford it.

Facebook beats Q2 estimates with 11% growth in revenue despite coronavirus

August 04, 2020

Revenue jumped 11% to $18.7 billion, compared with the $17.3-billion average analyst projection. In response to accusations of monopolizing the ad industry, Zuckerberg pointed out that for every dollar spent on USA advertising, Facebook only takes about 10 cents.

Eat Out to Help Out discount scheme launches

August 04, 2020

Frederica D'Incecco, of Tapas Brindisa Battersea, in London, said that the restaurant has received lots of enquiries about the scheme and expects a large number of bookings and walk-ins. To the delight of customers, you can use the discount as many times as you want, and there is no minimum spend requirement. Therefore, this does not apply to food or drink served at weddings, takeaways, or mobile food vans.

Virgin Galactic unveils jet design that travels three times faster than sound

August 03, 2020

Rolls-Royce is known for its airplane engine design and notably designed the engine that fueled the supersonic Concorde , which traveled at Mach 2. Virgin Galactic says it has signed a non-binding memorandum of understanding with Rolls-Royce for the development of the plane's engine propulsion system, has put the design through a mission concept review in cooperation with NASA representatives, and is working with the Federal Aviation Administration to lay out a certification framework ...

Lordstown Motors to go public in SPAC deal

August 03, 2020

The news about going public and new investors is not a surprise move. The state of play: Lordstown, which plans to build a pickup truck at a former GM plant in OH, on Monday announced a merger agreement with DiamondPeak Holdings. General Motors invested $75 million in the deal, as the company looks to diversify its exposure to electric vehicle manufacturers following its investment in Rivian.

Gold prices today near record highs, silver surges ₹3,000 in 2 days

August 03, 2020

In the global market, gold prices surged to an all-time high on Monday as fears about the economic fallout from rising COVID-19 cases boosted demand for the safe-haven metal, although gains were capped by an uptick in the United States dollar.

Department store Lord & Taylor files for bankruptcy

August 03, 2020

Luxury department store chain Lord & Taylor filed for bankruptcy along with its owner, the venture-backed fashion-rental subscription service Le Tote Inc. Men's Wearhouse and Jos. The company hopes the bankruptcy filing will help alleviate its $630 million debt. "The unprecedented impact of COVID-19 requires us to further adapt and evolve", Tailored Brands CEO Dinesh Lathi said in a statement announcing the bankruptcy late on Sunday.

Melbourne to close retail, scale back other industries until mid Sept

August 03, 2020

Despite a lockdown that began in early July , Melbourne has continued to report hundreds of new cases daily, and authorities said the city's residents would now face a curfew from 8 pm to 5 am for the next six weeks. "It's heartbreaking. This pandemic, this virus, is taking a heavy toll and now's the time, as it has been throughout this pandemic, that we continue to provide support to one another", Morrison said.

Private boaters surround SpaceX capsule after successful splashdown

August 03, 2020

Pensacola was selected as the primary site on Saturday, shortly before the crew undocked from the space station. This next mission of four astronauts will spend a full six months aboard the space station. During re-entry to Earth's atmosphere, the capsule's outer shell withstood temperatures as high as 1,900 degrees while Behnken and Hurley, strapped inside the cabin, experienced 29C temperatures.

Shoprite To Halt Operations In Nigeria

August 03, 2020

South Africa's grocery store, ShopRite, is set to leave Nigeria , Africa's biggest market, after operating in the country for a period of 15 years. Shoprite's operations in Nigeria saw a 6.7% decline in sales for the twelve months to June 2020, according to the group's trading statement.

White House 'not optimistic' on near-term aid deal

August 03, 2020

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi walks towards her office at the Capitol to resume talks with White House chief of staff Mark Meadows and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin on a COVID-19 relief bill, Saturday, Aug. This means that they will need the money and Personal Protective Equipment. "Obviously we need bipartisan support to reach a deal, the last two deals we made 96-0 and 100-0".

UAE starts its first nuclear power plant

August 03, 2020

Mohammed bin Rashid, the ruler of Dubai and UAE vice president, congratulated Abu Dhabi's ruler, Mohamed bin Zayed, for the successful initiation of Unit 1 of the facility. It's the first nuclear power plant on the Arabian Peninsula. "The plant is the culmination of more than a decade of vision, strategic planning and robust program management", said Mohammed Al Hammadi, CEO of Emirates Nuclear Energy Corporation.

Ontario: Toronto & Peel Region to enter Stage 3

August 03, 2020

More than four months since the implementation of aggressive physical distancing in Ontario because of the COVID-19 pandemic , case counts in the GTA have dropped significantly, and gathering limits have now risen to 100 people in outdoor settings.

Melbourne goes into lockdown with another 671 cases

August 03, 2020

The state premier of Australia's Victoria has declared a state of disaster to help contain the surge in coronavirus cases as he reported 671 new infections - nearly double the previous day. "But it is not working fast enough". We must go harder. "It's the only way we'll get to the other side of this", state premier Daniel Andrews said during a media conference.

Canada to transition people off emergency benefits soon: PM Trudeau

August 03, 2020

Speaking this morning, Trudeau says many people who don't qualify for the program, such as gig or contract workers, will gain access to a transitional, parallel benefit that is similar to EI. There will be no increase to EI premiums during this time, he noted. As of June, nearly 40% of the 3 million lost jobs due to the pandemic have been recovered.

Twitter Employees Will Never Have to Go Back To Office Again

August 03, 2020

CEO Jack Dorsey released a statement in a company-wide email on Tuesday that noted that Twitter will allow workers to simply remain at home to work. To aid their staff, Twitter have increased employees allowances to buy home office supplies. Other tech companies chose to take the same route, such as Microsoft, Google, and Amazon .

Tech giants will pay for Aussie news

August 03, 2020

Media companies in Australia will be able to seek payment from Facebook Inc. and Alphabet Inc.'s Google for news articles that are posted on their platforms, according to new rules, which could set a precedent for other countries seeking to compel tech giants to compensate local publishers .

Nvidia looking to buy Arm, in 'advanced talks'

August 02, 2020

While we can think of worse choices, Nvidia is far from the ideal owner for ARM. Nvidia declined to comment and Arm did not respond to a request to comment. Under the plan the group has been selling down core assets including stakes in Chinese ecommerce giant Alibaba Group Holding BABA.N and USA wireless carrier T-Mobile US Inc TMUS.O .

Tour operator Tui to close 166 stores

August 02, 2020

The company announced in May that it was to reduce overhead costs globally by 30 per cent, with approximately 8,000 roles impacted. A total of 350 stores across Ireland and the United Kingdom will remain open. Mr. Flintham went on to suggest that the move is a cost reduction move that is imperative, and that customer behaviors had already been changing before COVID-19.

Amazon to invest US$10 billion in space-based internet system

August 02, 2020

While Kuiper will give Amazon the ability to deliver internet to unserved, underserved communities globally, the FCC's nod is only to deploy and operate the constellation to provide broadband in the US. Government Communications Commission (FCC) to dispatch and work an arranged group of stars of 3,236 web satellites. "Together, these projects will expand broadband access to more households in the United States and around the world".

Heathrow Airport calls for passenger testing regime

August 02, 2020

The CEO of London's Heathrow Airport has said the United Kingdom economy could stall unless quarantine time is reduced by instituting passenger testing for COVID-19 - but the government has responded, insisting that testing is not a "silver bullet".

Collapse in traffic pushes IAG to second quarter loss

August 02, 2020

Air France-KLM was priced down 1.8% and has slumped 65% for the year. In the first six months, IAG's turnover, also the owner of Iberia and Vueling Airlines, fell by 56% to Euro 5.3 billion. Walsh said of the new appointments: "I don't think it signals anything other than Qatar's support for our business". As well as Walsh being succeeded by Iberia boss Luis Gallego, chairman Antonio Vazquez will be replaced at the beginning of 2021 by Javier Ferran.

Australia's Victoria declares state of disaster over coronavirus

August 02, 2020

Outside Melbourne, the rest of Victoria will move to a Stage 3 lockdown from midnight Wednesday with people allowed to leave home only for essential work, study, care and needed supplies. Victoria's school, TAFE and university students will need to retun to remote learning. Education Minister Dan Tehan told Sky News that the federal government would "absolutely" support Victoria in ramping up its measures.

Coronavirus Recession Takes Hold of US, France, and Spain

August 02, 2020

Adjusted for inflation, seasonal and calendar effects, it erased nearly a decade of growth, the statistics office said. "In the first quarter, real GDP decreased 5.0 percent", the BEA declared, noting, however, that the Q2 "estimate" is "based on source data that are incomplete or subject to further revision by the source agency".

Pandemic sees United Kingdom payrolls drop by over 600,000

August 02, 2020

A government spokesperson told the BBC: "We are working closely with the hospitality sector to develop safe ways for restaurants, bars and cafes to reopen as soon as we can from July". The UK could be heading into an "employment crisis", commentators have warned, as the number of employees on payrolls dropped by 612,000 in two months.

Red onions imported from the United States of America by Sysco in Western Canada

August 02, 2020

The person from P.E.I. had travelled to Alberta, and it's thought he or she caught the illness there. Hundreds of Salmonella Newport cases across several states have been linked to a supplier based in Bakersfield, according to an ongoing investigation by the U.S.

Pandemic boost for Big Tech set to drive Wall St higher

August 02, 2020

Stronger-than-expected profit reports from UPS and other companies helped the market trim its losses through the day. JPMorgan Chase fell 2.7% and Citigroup lost 3.1%. Investors betting on more USA government stimulus, before an extra $600-per-week federal jobless benefit expires on Friday, have also been disappointed as the Senate adjourned for the weekend and will return on Monday.

Queensland will report several instances of COVID-19 now, says health chief

August 02, 2020

All staff and residents are now on red alert and have been told to get tested immediately. Alarmingly, the relative works at an aged care facility, which has now enacted a COVID-19 emergency response plan. She is due to front Gympie Magistrates Court on November 30. Olivia Winnie Muranga, 19, flew into Brisbane on July 21 with Diana Lasu and an unidentified friend - allegedly getting around the Queensland government's ban on Victorian travellers by transiting from Melbourne via Sydney .

Coronavirus effect: Italy's GDP shrinks 12.4% in Q2

August 01, 2020

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez was meeting later Friday with the leaders of Spain´s regions to discuss how to rebuild the economy and where to deploy billions of euros in European Union aid for recovery. Those support measures have helped keep unemployment from spiking. "This was the sharpest decline since the quarterly GDP calculations for Germany began in 1970", the statistics office said.

Federal Reserve says economic recovery depends on Covid-19

August 01, 2020

Consumer confidence has taken a hit. Powell's vow to keep interest rates near zero for as long as it takes and use all the central bank's "tools" lifted USA stocks on Wednesday, but failed to lift European stocks on the open. A government report due out later in the day is expected to show a record 34% drop in annualised economic output last quarter. Fed policymakers had hoped those measures would help contain the virus, allowing the economy to bounce back quickly, even as they fretted ...

Singapore Airlines posted first-quarter net loss of $800m

August 01, 2020

The carrier's fuel hedging policy led to a S$535 million loss in the quarter, while there was also a S$127 million hit from the liquidation of NokScoot Airlines Co Ltd. Passenger capacity at the end of the second quarter is forecast to be about 7% of the level before Covid-19. It was also unlikely that the bulk of the airline's 19 Airbus A380s would return to service as there would be overcapacity, he said.

Mercedes S-Class Teased With New E-Active Body Control

August 01, 2020

The S-class was also one of the world's first self-driving cars, though the first model to be so capable, the 1995 S-class re-engineered by Ernst Dickmanns and his team at Bundeswehr University, was only a concept. The wide-opening sliding doors on both the left and right-hand sides of the vehicle as an example allow easy and comfortable access to the interior. The Mercedes CLE will also most probably be built on Mercedes' MRA platform and can be configured with either an all-wheel or ...

James Murdoch Quits Board of News Corp Over Editorial Differences

August 01, 2020

James Murdoch's brother, Lachlan Murdoch, now serves as chief executive of Fox Corp, a slimmed down version of the company that remained after Disney's $71 billion acquisition of Fox's entertainment assets in early 2019. News Corp.is the newspaper publishing arm of the Murdoch empire and parent of The Wall Street Journal , The New York Postas and tabloids and newspaper in Britain and Australia.

Oil prices inch higher after sharp drop in United States crude inventories

July 31, 2020

While the Fed's commitment to keep interest rates near zero buoyed financial markets, Chair Jerome Powell said the path forward for the economy was "extraordinarily uncertain" and would depend on keeping the virus in check. The futures curve is another indication of potential weakness. That leaves Brent on track for a fourth month of gains, while US crude is heading for a third consecutive month of increases, as the contracts have recovered from the depths reached in April when much of the ...

Rio Tinto touts ‘V-shaped’ China recovery as it beats profit expectations

July 31, 2020

The company's Pilbara iron ore mines underpinned the result, thanks to strong demand from China that more than made up for weaker steel markets in Europe, the US, Japan, Korea and Taiwan. Rio said it took a $US1 billion impairment charge for the period, largely related to four of its aluminium smelters and its Diavik diamond mine in Canada.

United States lawmakers grill big tech CEOs at House antitrust hearing

July 31, 2020

Here's a breakdown of how each company performed in Q2 of 2020. The company posted its fist revenue decline in history as sectors like travel and local were impacted by the Covid pandemic. Tech giants Amazon , Alphabet , Apple and Facebook all reported better-than-expected results after the market closed yesterday, validating surging valuations built on expectations the sector would be a big victor amid the pandemic upheaval.

Kodak Moves Into Pharma Backed by $765M Federal Loan

July 31, 2020

Kodak said Tuesday it will create pharmaceutical components that have been shown to be critical but in short supply, as defined by the Food and Drug Administration. CEO of Kodak Jim Continenza said it would make "up to 25 percent of active pharmaceutical ingredients used in non-biologic, non-antibacterial, generic pharmaceuticals", and that the field will make-up 30 to 40 percent of its business .

Huawei, Apple gain bigger share of shrinking China smartphone market

July 31, 2020

Industry tracker Canalys said Thursday the embattled firm, which is facing USA sanctions, shipped 55.8 million devices the April-June period - overtaking Samsung for the first time, which shifted 53.7 million units. and its allies. The United States has effectively blocked Huawei from using Google's services, damaging the attractiveness of the Chinese company's phones overseas, and limited its access to chips crucial for 5G networking.

Inflation dropped 1.9 pct in June quarter

July 31, 2020

The consumer price index goes all the way back to 1948, and the next biggest quarterly drop in prices recorded was a 1.5 per cent fall in December 1953, as Australia came off the back of a Korean War boom in wool prices, then the nation's largest export.

Google's massive financial growth comes to a halt in tough 2nd quarter

July 31, 2020

GCP growth was again led by Google Cloud's infrastructure offerings and data and analytics platform, she said. Shares of Alphabet were about flat at $1,538.37 after it released the second-quarter results, above this year's pre-pandemic high of about $1,525.

Recovery in global air traffic may be delayed to 2024: IATA

July 31, 2020

Short-haul travel, mainly domestic travel, is likely to recover more quickly than long-haul, mainly global, travel. The organisation expects enplanements to fall by 55 per cent in 2020 compared to 2019 and stressed that although passenger numbers should rebound by 62 per cent in 2021, it will still be down by almost a third compared to 2019.

India’s April-June gold demand falls 70%

July 30, 2020

Investors have increased their holdings in gold, which is widely considered a safe haven in times of market volatility, amid a slide in USA dollar and fears of a second wave of Covid-19. Gold supply too was impacted by the pandemic and total supply in the first six months of 2020 declined 6 per cent to 2,192 tonne as both mine production and recycling were affected by lockdown restrictions.

Trump’s call to ‘delay’ election more about politics than safety, Whitmer says

July 30, 2020

In May, Trump's son-in-law and a senior White House adviser, Jared Kushner floated the idea, refusing to rule out the possibility of postponing the November presidential election. "Nothing President Trump says, does, or tweets can change that fact", he said. Trump asked in a tweet. To be clear, Trump has no power to "delay the election".

Donald Trump suggests delaying US election due to mail-in voting

July 30, 2020

Five more states - California, Montana, Nevada, New Jersey and Vermont - are set to join in this year, and around 17 states are going to send mail-in voting applications to every registered voter. "I have to see", he told interviewer Chris Wallace. Arguably the most newsworthy President of our time , Trump appeals to the non-critical thinkers of the world, those who will simply take what he says at face value without actually evaluating how much damage those same statements can cause.

Lloyds Bank chief executive to step down

July 30, 2020

Horta-Osorio joined Lloyds from Santander in 2011 after running the Spanish bank's United Kingdom operation. Mr Budenberg will take over when Lord Blackwell, who had already announced that he would be steeping down, retires. He told staff in a memo seen by Reuters that leading Lloyds had been the job of a lifetime. He advised the British government on its bailout of banks, including Lloyds, during the financial crisis.

US House speaker Pelosi: GOP stimulus bill unlikely to pass in Senate

July 30, 2020

While Senate Republicans struggled to roll out their own $1 trillion proposal, Pelosi implored the White House and GOP lawmakers to stop the infighting and come to the negotiating table with Democrats. Striking any agreement with Congress by Friday's deadline for expiring aid will be daunting. Voters are assessing their handling of the virus crisis before the November election, and President Donald Trump's standing is at one of the lowest points of his term, according to a new AP-NORC ...

Dollar teeters, stocks stalled as Fed comes in to focus

July 29, 2020

Australia's S&P/ASX 200 (AU:XJO ) was flat. USA second-quarter GDP is expected on Thursday. Hong Kong's Hang Seng rose 0.4 per cent while the Shanghai Composite climbed 1.5 per cent. 3M (MMM ), a maker of N95 masks and various other products for consumers and businesses, fell 4.8% after reporting a profit for the latest quarter that fell shy of analysts' expectations.

Gold Price Trades to Fresh Record High Amid Extreme RSI Reading

July 28, 2020

Last week, gold prices recorded one of the best weeks in the last few years by gaining over 5%. As a result, topside targets remain on the radar as the price of gold clears the previous record high price recorded in September 2011 ($1921), but need a close above the Fibonacci overlap around $1907 (78.6% expansion) to $1920 (161.8% expansion) to bring the $1971 (100% expansion) to $1985 (261.8% expansion) region on the radar.

Google to keep workers at home through July 2021

July 28, 2020

Google has reported plans to keep its 200,000 full time and contract employees working remotely for the next one year, until July 2021. The decision will apply to nearly all of the company's 200,000 workers, according to the Journal . Amazon isn't the only company to have extended the work from home policy. Most of the almost 200,000 workers across Google's parent company Alphabet Inc., including both full-time and temporary employees, will reportedly be affected by the move.

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