In this week’s recap, US & world markets in general ended lower this week, with the Russian/Ukrainian conflict showing no signs of ending soon and the World Bank lowered its global growth forecast for 2022 by nearly 1%, from +4.1% to +3.2%. The IMF also cut its global growth projections for 2022 & 2023, now projecting a +3.6% GDP rate. This represents a -0.8% & -0.2% drop saying the economic impact from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine will propagate far & wide.
Corn is just one of a number of agricultural commodities that has seen surging prices in recent weeks, in part due to the war in Ukraine. The surging price of corn hit another milestone Monday morning, as the cost of global commodities continues to push higher. The contracts for July corn futures were trading above $8 per bushel, the highest level since September 2012. The contracts were trading near $6 per bushel at the start of 2022.
Netflix, a U.S. based subscription streaming service & production company saw shares plunge -35.12% on Wednesday at $226.19, thus losing $42B in value. Not only did its paying subscriptions fall in the 1st quarter for 1st time since 2011, but the firm forecast the loss of another 2M subscribers in the current quarter. Coupled with the drop of -21% in Q4 2021, the company is losing some $90B in valuation for 2 quarters.
It was announced on Thursday, SpaceX founded by Elon Musk had signed its 1st deal with an air carrier, the semi-private charter company JSX, to provide in-flight wireless internet using the Starlink satellite network, as it jostles with other burgeoning satellite firms to put high-speed internet on commercial airlines. Space X has launched some 2,000 Starlink satellites to low orbit since 2019.
Commerzbank (2nd largest bank in Germany) applies for crypto license; Coinbase launching NFT marketplace in BETA; the Headquarters of Azure Standard, the Nation’s Largest Independent Food Distributor, were completely destroyed in mysterious overnight fire; Florida Senate voted 23 to 16 on Wednesday to ending Disney’s tax privilege, self-governing power & special exemption; Amazon palm scanning system being tested in Austin; blackouts in India and the hottest March on record; Musk vs Gates on Twitter.
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