In today’s recap, Marcello talks about how Warren Buffet is selling billions of dollars from his stocks; Another conflict is arising in the Middle East and putting in danger the shipping procedures that go through the Suez Canal; and Tesla is delivering a new water package for its Cybertruck to make it work in water.
Argentine President Milei Wednesday signed a decree outlining economic reforms including an end to limits on exports, plus measures to loosen regulations, as his new govt combats a severe economic crisis. Among the reforms are plans to privatize state-owned firms, but he did not name specific firms. His govt, which has devalued the local peso currency by over +50%, plans to hike taxes for Argentina’s grains exports which are a key source of global supply for processed soybeans, corn & wheat. Grains exports remain a crucial source of foreign currency reserves for the central bank, needed to finance imports & pay down debts.
The U.S. Labor Department reported Thursday that the number of Americans applying for unemployment benefits rose slightly last week, but still remained at historically low levels, despite high interest rates intended to slow hiring & slow down the economy. Jobless claims were up by 2,000 to 205K the week that ended Dec. 16. The 4-week average of claims, which smooths out week-to-week ups & downs, fell by 1,500 to 212K. Overall 1.87M Americans were collecting jobless benefits the week that ended Dec. 9, little changed from the week before. Unemployment claims are a proxy for layoffs.
Amid ongoing speculations of Federal Reserve Bank interest rate cuts, gold prices stabilize near the $2,050 range, while copper nears a 4-month high on further Chinese stimulus hopes.
Warner Bros Discovery CEO David Zaslav met with Paramount Global CEO Bob Bakish to discuss a potential deal between the 2 media companies, it was reported on Wednesday. Zaslav has also spoken to Shari Redstone, who owns Paramount’s parent company, about a deal. It is unclear whether Warner Bros would buy Paramount Global or its parent company, National Amusements Inc (NAI). Paramount is controlled by the Shari Redstone-led media company that owns 77% of Paramount’s Class A voting shares. Talks between Warner Bros & Paramount are still early, and may not ultimately result in a deal.
Oil posted the biggest weekly gain since October, as attacks in the Red Sea forced 100’s of ships to take safer but far longer (+40%) routes, thus delaying the delivery of oil cargoes.
FedEx shares plunged -12.05% on Wednesday at $246.25, after the U.S. package delivery behemoth cut its revenue outlook due to weaker demand.
Social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter, was restored globally early Thursday, with over 77K U.S. users facing issues at the peak of the outage, according to Downdetector data. Users in Canada, France, the U.K. & other countries reported issues with accessing both X & X Pro, earlier known as TweetDeck. Over 7K users in Canada & the U.K. experienced issues with the platform. Downdetector tracks outages by collating status reports from several sources including users.
An artifact stolen from Pompeii, has been recovered from a family home in Belgium. For the past 50 years, it has been installed in a wall lining the staircase leading down to the basement. The son of the home’s owner, Geert de Temmerman, explained that it had been brought back from Italy as a souvenir as a result of a family vacation where his father was offered the marble relief sculpture by an anonymous man, who then fled the scene as soon as the deal was over. Dating from about 62 C.E., depicting an earthquake that happened that same year
Podcast: Play in new window | Download | Embed
Subscribe: RSS