In this week’s Recap, Marcello talks about some data that shows that we are facing a drop in stocks very similar to the one the market suffered in the Great Depression; an unprecedented outbreak of Monkey Pox is triggering alerts worldwide.
China’s President Xi (since 2013) will attempt an unprecedented 3rd term this fall, as he plans to extend his rule as China’s most powerful leader since Mao Zedong. Xi’s bold domestic & foreign policies remain controversial. His strict zero-COVID-19 strategy, his staunch support for Russia & a recent crackdown on tech giants have broad popular support, but the resulting economic price has sparked intense debate among Chinese analysts, stakeholders & the public at large.
U.K. inflation soared to a 40-year high of 9% in April as food & energy prices spiraled higher, according to official figures revealed on Wednesday, escalating the country’s cost-of-living crisis. The 9% rise in the consumer price index (CPI) is the highest since records began in 1989, outstripping the +8.4% annual rise posted in March 1992 & well ahead of the +7% seen in March of this year.
Berlin may run out of fuel, unless German officials can find a way to keep a Cold War relic from falling victim to new geopolitics. A refinery on the Polish border, supplying bulk of the jet fuel for Germany’s capital airport & gasoline for the region’s, is caught up in EU’s standoff w/Russia over war in Ukraine. A plan to ban Russian oil imports by the end of 2022, threatens to choke off supplies to the facility in the town of Schwedt, which will cripple Berlin & much of Eastern Germany in the process.
German industrial giant Siemens is leaving Russia after nearly 170 years of business. At the start of the war in Ukraine, following the Russian invasion, the company put all new business & international deliveries in Russia & Belarus on hold. Now the German manufacturing giant says it will exit the Russian market entirely. The company has started proceedings to wind down its industrial operations & all industrial business activities in line with regulatory requirements & international sanctions.
Shares of U.S. based Walmart, world’s largest retailer by revenue, plunged -11.38% Tuesday to $131.35, with a market cap of $361.58B, after reporting mixed quarterly results, with earnings falling short of estimates, as rising costs for food, fuel & wages weighed on profitability, even as still-solid consumer spending helped sales. The stock fell an additional -6.79% at $122.43 on Wednesday. Shares now down -15.38% in 2022 & -13.73% year on year.
Australia’s unemployment rate is the lowest since 1974; China is now seeking to replenish its strategic crude stockpiles with cheap Russian oil; The number of Americans filing new claims for unemployment benefits unexpectedly rose last week.
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