Chinese aluminum exports surged in May, helping fill a global shortage caused by war in the Middle East. Crude oil imports continued to slump, dropping to an eight-year low, as the conflict chokes shipments from major producers. Outbound cargoes of aluminum climbed 16% from the previous year to 630,000 tons, according to customs data on Tuesday. Smelters in the world’s biggest producer have maximi...
Chinese aluminum exports surged in May, helping fill a global shortage caused by war in the Middle East. Crude oil imports continued to slump, dropping to an eight-year low, as the conflict chokes shipments from major producers. Outbound cargoes of aluminum climbed 16% from the previous year to 630,000 tons, according to customs data on Tuesday. Smelters in the world’s biggest producer have maximized output to capture more international sales, after the war halted supplies from a key producing region and rallied prices. The damage to export facilities and severe constraints on vessels in the Persian Gulf continued to curb oil and gas purchases from the region. China’s total crude imports plunged 29% to 33.1 million tons, the lowest since February 2018, while gas imports were flat at 10.1 million tons. Oil refiners are cutting fuel output rather than jostle for alternative sources of crude, a sign of dwindling long-term demand . Product exports fell 24% in May to 3.37 million tons, although the figure was slightly higher than April after China allowed some shipments to relieve shortages in nearby countries. Chinese buyers of liquefied natural gas, however, are tapping other suppliers to make up for lost deliveries from Qatar, pressured by the onset of peak summer demand. Read More: China’s May Trade in Key Commodities (Table) Purchases of coal, which competes with gas, remained subdued, dropping 7.7% to 33.3 million tons. China’s vast reserves have capped demand for pricier imports, although the impact on production from the Shanxi coal disaster could change that calculation in coming months. The Strait of Hormuz is also a chokepoint for global fertilizer shipments. To conserve domestic supplies, China has responded by tightening controls over its exports, which fell 5.5% to 2.97 million tons. Steel exports also moderated by 2.2% to 10.3 million tons as the war’s inflationary pressures have made overseas buyers more cautious, according to Mysteel. Among commodities i...
Today, the Digital Media Association (DIMA), the trade association representing the leading music streaming services including Amazon, Apple Music, Feed.fm, Pandora, Qobuz, Pandora, Spotify and YouTube, revealed that 50% of consumers are listening to their streaming services every day – rising to 58% for paid subscribers.
Today, the Digital Media Association (DIMA), the trade association representing the leading music streaming services including Amazon, Apple Music, Feed.fm, Pandora, Qobuz, Pandora, Spotify and YouTube, revealed that 50% of consumers are listening to their streaming services every day – rising to 58% for paid subscribers.
Few things are more feared than a dementia diagnosis. Now people living with the condition are fighting against damaging stereotypes and demanding proper medical support When Maxine Linnell, 78, a retired psychotherapist living in Leicestershire, learned that she had dementia four years ago, the diagnosis proved less challenging than some people’s reactions. “What was striking was how many people’...
Few things are more feared than a dementia diagnosis. Now people living with the condition are fighting against damaging stereotypes and demanding proper medical support When Maxine Linnell, 78, a retired psychotherapist living in Leicestershire, learned that she had dementia four years ago, the diagnosis proved less challenging than some people’s reactions. “What was striking was how many people’s attitudes changed almost immediately … they stop seeing you as a person and see only dementia, some professionals included. Like this is the end and everything after will be devastating.” The assumption that you go overnight from diagnosis to late-stage dementia isn’t confined to family and friends. Julie Hayden, a nurse and social worker from Yorkshire, was diagnosed nine years ago at the age of 54, long after sensing that something was wrong but being constantly told that it was depression or menopause; her doctors still associated dementia with old age and didn’t consider that she might have had young onset. “At the point of diagnosis,” she recalls, “most of us are told: ‘Well, it’s dementia, nothing we can do about that. Best go away and get your end of life affairs in order.’” Continue reading...
Capping the population at 10 million is a far-right fantasy. It would dismantle the openness that has made the country rich Zürich on a Sunday morning can feel like the day after Armageddon: so empty, so calm, despite being Switzerland’s biggest city. But then the church bells erupt across the lake basin, and a jogger trots by like a polite deer in aerodynamic sunglasses, and one knows that all is...
Capping the population at 10 million is a far-right fantasy. It would dismantle the openness that has made the country rich Zürich on a Sunday morning can feel like the day after Armageddon: so empty, so calm, despite being Switzerland’s biggest city. But then the church bells erupt across the lake basin, and a jogger trots by like a polite deer in aerodynamic sunglasses, and one knows that all is fine in this proudly impeccable place, where little is left to chance and the authorities even track the city’s pigeons with GPS. Swiss people know they are lucky. A highly diversified economy keeps salaries high and income inequality comparatively low. A British friend once remarked that our supermarkets feel like the gourmet hall at Harrods. The state makes business easy. Hiking paths are maintained by armies of volunteers . The flip side is our reputation for being a nation of humourless control freaks, but there are benefits to trains running on time. In a restless world, Switzerland remains a place where one can exhale. Joseph de Weck is an associate fellow with the German Council on Foreign Relations and writes for Guardian Europe from Zürich and Paris Continue reading...
The bottom of the ocean has barely been explored, but every journey to the deep reveals wondrous new lifeforms. As underwater mining gains momentum, we risk destroying one of the Earth’s last great wildernesses On 8 March 2018, at 1.20am, Malaysian Airlines flight 370 veered off its scheduled route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing. An hour later, military radar spotted the plane heading west over the ...
The bottom of the ocean has barely been explored, but every journey to the deep reveals wondrous new lifeforms. As underwater mining gains momentum, we risk destroying one of the Earth’s last great wildernesses On 8 March 2018, at 1.20am, Malaysian Airlines flight 370 veered off its scheduled route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing. An hour later, military radar spotted the plane heading west over the Andaman Sea. Six or seven hours later, it is presumed to have crashed somewhere over the southern Indian Ocean, one of the least studied bodies of water in the world. Just how little we knew about this part of the ocean became clear during the subsequent search for the missing aircraft. Before a proper underwater search could even begin, a vast stretch of seafloor had to be mapped. Over the next three years, a team of ships from Australia, China and Malaysia scanned the bottom with a combination of submersible robots and ship-borne sonar. Together, they charted a swath of ocean roughly 1,500 miles long and 150 miles wide, encompassing an area the size of France. The maps produced from these scans revealed a lost world , full of undersea canyons, crevasses, volcanic plateaux and a single, enormous cliff taller than the Swiss Alps. Even the abyssal plains, thought to be some of the flattest areas on the planet, were home to previously uncharted hills. Continue reading...
As he publishes a memoir, the pioneering guitarist talks about rejecting spandex and hair metal, his fears for breakthrough hit Black Hole Sun – and completing nine unfinished Soundgarden songs Kim Thayil has always felt like an outsider. For example: the Soundgarden guitarist has lived in Seattle, a city infamously addicted to coffee, for more than four decades, but only started drinking the stuf...
As he publishes a memoir, the pioneering guitarist talks about rejecting spandex and hair metal, his fears for breakthrough hit Black Hole Sun – and completing nine unfinished Soundgarden songs Kim Thayil has always felt like an outsider. For example: the Soundgarden guitarist has lived in Seattle, a city infamously addicted to coffee, for more than four decades, but only started drinking the stuff himself during lockdown. “I was pretty against-the-grain to my Seattle friends, who always wanted to meet up at coffee shops,” he grins, cradling a freshly brewed cup of java in his kitchen. “My girlfriend in the 80s and 90s even worked at the original branch of Starbucks and made coffee with a French press every morning. But I drank tea, because my parents are Indian.” Thayil’s Indian heritage also set him apart from his peers. In his new memoir, A Screaming Life, he writes that when he and bassist Hiro Yamamoto formed Soundgarden in 1984, the group was “two-thirds Asian”, and that “as liberal and accepting as the punk scene was, it was still largely white, and I was ever aware of that”. Nevertheless, Soundgarden went on to become pioneers of Seattle’s grunge movement, a multiplatinum-selling, critically acclaimed, Grammy-winning group whose breakthrough hit, Black Hole Sun, transcended their gnarly milieu to become an enduring anthem. Continue reading...
To get John Authers’ newsletter delivered directly to your inbox, sign up here . Today’s Points: Boing! Dip-buyers helped tech stocks recoup about half of Friday’s selloff. Japan’s yen remains above 160 per dollar even as bond yields surge and stocks fall. Global private equity buyouts dropped 70% in the first quarter. OpenAI is joining the IPO party. Deferred capital gains taxes for ETFs cost Unc...
To get John Authers’ newsletter delivered directly to your inbox, sign up here . Today’s Points: Boing! Dip-buyers helped tech stocks recoup about half of Friday’s selloff. Japan’s yen remains above 160 per dollar even as bond yields surge and stocks fall. Global private equity buyouts dropped 70% in the first quarter. OpenAI is joining the IPO party. Deferred capital gains taxes for ETFs cost Uncle Sam $48 billion per year. AND: Don’t forget to fill in your World Cup brackets. (BRKT ) A Yen for Intervention Japan’s economic Great Normalization is hitting some perilous frontiers. That almost certainly means a rate hike from the Bank of Japan next week, and possibly another attempt at currency intervention by the Ministry of Finance — but it’s not clear that either would help the country return to normal. Monday saw the 10-year Japanese government bond yield, deliberately held at zero for many years under the BOJ’s former policy of yield curve control , go back above 2.7%. The yen held above 160 per dollar, a level that has previously prompted the government to intervene: These are copper-bottomed reasons for the BOJ to hike next week, which is now priced as a near-inevitability. But the bank is dragging its feet. At the year’s outset, traders expected a hike by now, and the projection for two hikes by year-end is unchanged: A hike would make sense because the rise in short-term rates hasn’t come close to catching up either with other countries or with Japan’s own inflation. This is how target rates and 10-year inflation breakevens compare with the US: In such circumstances, a hike won’t do much to shore up the yen. Mansoor Mohi-Uddin of Bank of Singapore argues that a sustained yen rebound “will require the BOJ to lift interest rates above inflation” to ensure positive returns for yen-buyers. This is unlikely. Inflation appears to have returned, but the question is clouded by the recent price spike for rice, Japan’s staple food. That has died down after core inflati...
The politics of Brexit are changing. Ten years after the UK’s vote to leave the European Union, polls regularly show a majority in favor of rejoining the bloc. Politicians are increasingly open about their ideas for reestablishing bonds across the English Channel. But undoing the damage won’t be easy. None of the options short of a complete reversal of Brexit would restore more than half of the ou...
The politics of Brexit are changing. Ten years after the UK’s vote to leave the European Union, polls regularly show a majority in favor of rejoining the bloc. Politicians are increasingly open about their ideas for reestablishing bonds across the English Channel. But undoing the damage won’t be easy. None of the options short of a complete reversal of Brexit would restore more than half of the output lost by Britain breaking away from its largest trading partner. That’s among the findings from a new Bloomberg Economics analysis of the impact of the 2016 referendum and three plausible scenarios for rolling back its effects. Brexit may have already cost the British economy between 2% and 4% of gross domestic product, according to the analysis published by Bloomberg on Tuesday ahead of the referendum’s 10th anniversary later this month. While that’s less than some previous calculations, Bloomberg Economics’ central estimate for 2.5% of GDP lost over the long-run is still equal to about £30 billion in forgone annual tax revenue, enough to cover the Ministry of Defense’s entire capital budget. It helps explain why resetting relations with Europe — the source of about half of the UK’s global goods trade — has become a political priority. Keir Starmer, a remainer who studiously avoided talk of rejoining the EU in the run-up to becoming prime minister in 2024, now says he’s committed to “putting Britain at the heart of Europe.” Thus, the European question is threatening to consume the center of British politics once again as Starmer battles bids to unseat him as leader of the Labour Party. The main contenders to replace him — Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham and former Health Secretary Wes Streeting — have been among those pushing against the governing Labour Party’s pledges not to relitigate the vote to leave Europe. Whoever wins the battle for control of 10 Downing St. will have to face Brexit evangelist Nigel Farage , who has reinvented his UK Independence Party as...
At an undisclosed test site, a helicopter takes off, towing a kite-like array of massive coils. The system, called Airborne Transient Electromagnetic (Atem) detection, works by firing a powerful pulse of electricity through a giant transmitter coil. This creates a brief, strong electromagnetic field that penetrates the ground or water. When the pulse is turned off, the magnetic field induces tiny,...
At an undisclosed test site, a helicopter takes off, towing a kite-like array of massive coils. The system, called Airborne Transient Electromagnetic (Atem) detection, works by firing a powerful pulse of electricity through a giant transmitter coil. This creates a brief, strong electromagnetic field that penetrates the ground or water. When the pulse is turned off, the magnetic field induces tiny, decaying “eddy currents” in any conductive material it hits. These currents, in turn, create their...
watch now In this video BNY GS Share Share Article via Facebook Share Article via Twitter Share Article via LinkedIn Share Article via Email Executive Decisions with Steve Sedgwick He left Goldman Sachs after 26 years with no job lined up. Now he runs one of America’s oldest banks After 26 years at Goldman Sachs, Robin Vince walked away without another job lined up. In this episode of "Executive D...
watch now In this video BNY GS Share Share Article via Facebook Share Article via Twitter Share Article via LinkedIn Share Article via Email Executive Decisions with Steve Sedgwick He left Goldman Sachs after 26 years with no job lined up. Now he runs one of America’s oldest banks After 26 years at Goldman Sachs, Robin Vince walked away without another job lined up. In this episode of "Executive Decisions," the BNY CEO reflects on why he stepped off a successful career path, what he learned during the global financial crisis and how that pause ultimately led him to one of America’s oldest banks. 35:12 25 minutes ago Steve Sedgwick After 26 years at Goldman Sachs , Robin Vince made a decision few senior Wall Street executives would make: he walked away without another job lined up. At 48, he chose to take what he called a "gap year," turning down an immediate approach from BNY so he could step back and think carefully about what he wanted from the next phase of his life and career. In this episode of " Executive Decisions ," the BNY CEO explains why stepping away became essential, and how that pause helped him decide he was not finished building. He reflects on the pressure, uncertainty and self-doubt that shaped his career, from arriving in France as a child unable to speak the language to navigating the intensity of Goldman Sachs in the 1990s. Vince also looks back on the global financial crisis, including the weekend of Lehman Brothers' collapse, and the lesson he took from moments of extreme pressure: learn to work the problem. He then discusses the transformation of BNY under his leadership, why consistency matters in building institutions and how he balances running one of America's oldest banks with family life and personal wellbeing. Subscribe to " Executive Decisions with Steve Sedgwick " wherever you get your podcasts, or click here .
Leaving the European Union has cost the UK 2% to 4% of forgone economic output but almost half can be recovered by improving trade with the bloc, according to analysis by Bloomberg Economics for the 10-year anniversary of the Brexit referendum. Its estimate of the damage is slightly lower than the Bank of England’s 3.5% of GDP and the 4% used by the Office for Budget Responsibility. Even so, the c...
Leaving the European Union has cost the UK 2% to 4% of forgone economic output but almost half can be recovered by improving trade with the bloc, according to analysis by Bloomberg Economics for the 10-year anniversary of the Brexit referendum. Its estimate of the damage is slightly lower than the Bank of England’s 3.5% of GDP and the 4% used by the Office for Budget Responsibility. Even so, the consequence of Brexit has been “significant and negative,” the report’s authors write. “The economy is smaller compared to a world where it remained part of the bloc.” In terms of tax, Brexit has cost the Treasury roughly £30 billion ($40 billion) a year, using Bloomberg Economics’ 2.5% of GDP central estimate of the long-term harm. The decade-old debate has been revived by a change in the politics of Brexit, with a majority of the public now in favor of rejoining the EU, according to the latest polling. Prime Minister Keir Starmer is seeking closer ties and several senior Labour Party figures have made a case for rejoining eventually. Bloomberg Economics used a variety of models to calculate its central estimate of the cost to date. It found the damage was far smaller than the 6% to 8% of GDP hit set out in a recent and widely read National Bureau of Economic Research paper . Using a “doppelganger” model like the NBER to build an alternative growth path assuming the UK had remained in the EU, Bloomberg Economics said the damage would be 9.6%. However, it said the estimate is misleading because the NBER doppelganger includes Ireland, where growth has averaged 7% a year since the 2016 referendum thanks to its low-tax strategy, and is heavily weighted to the US, which unlike the UK “wasn’t hit by an energy shock in 2022, has benefited from significant fiscal stimulus and is seeing the benefits of AI investment.” Stripping out Ireland reduces the hit to about 6% and adjusting the US growth trajectory to reflect pre-2016 levels of outperformance lowers the impact further to 3.4%...
For the 60 years Warren Buffett served as CEO of Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE: BRKA) (NYSE: BRKB) , he employed a policy of not meddling in each subsidiary's managers' leadership of their respective business. His thinking? They were smart enough on their own to build a business he was interested in owning. Buffett's predecessor, Greg Abel, may not feel quite the same way, though. After announcing its ...
For the 60 years Warren Buffett served as CEO of Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE: BRKA) (NYSE: BRKB) , he employed a policy of not meddling in each subsidiary's managers' leadership of their respective business. His thinking? They were smart enough on their own to build a business he was interested in owning. Buffett's predecessor, Greg Abel, may not feel quite the same way, though. After announcing its plans last month to wholly acquire and then privatize homebuilder Taylor Morrison Home Corp. (NYSE: TMHC) , last week, Abel alluded to the possibility of combining Taylor with another Berkshire company -- manufactured- and mobile-homes builder Clayton Homes. It's not happened yet. And it may never actually come to pass. Continue reading
This is the forum for daily political discussion on Seeking Alpha. A new version is published every market day. Please don't leave political comments on other articles or posts on the site. The comments below are not regulated with the same rigor as the rest of the site, and this is an 'enter at your own risk' area as discussion can get very heated. If you can't stand the heat... you know what the...
This is the forum for daily political discussion on Seeking Alpha. A new version is published every market day. Please don't leave political comments on other articles or posts on the site. The comments below are not regulated with the same rigor as the rest of the site, and this is an 'enter at your own risk' area as discussion can get very heated. If you can't stand the heat... you know what they say... More on Today's Markets: Trump’s $100K H-1B visa fee blocked by judge Judge Leo Sorokin ruled in U.S. District Court in Massachusetts that the visa payment policy breached both the federal Administrative Procedure Act and the Constitution, according to a court filing . It's likely the government will appeal the decision. Trump says Israel and Iran looking for immediate ceasefire "Both sides, Israel and Iran, are looking to do an immediate CEASEFIRE!" Trump posted on Truth Social. "Final negotiations on 'Peace' are proceeding, subject to ignorance or stupidity getting in its way." Trump demands that Senate parliamentarian be fired Trump said she "treats Republicans, and everything that they stand for, horribly!" in a post on Truth Social. He accused her of being "a Radical Left Lunatic that caters to Democrats, and has no respect for Republicans, or Republican Ideology." Moderation Guidelines: We remove comments under the following categories: Personal attacks on another user account Anti-Vaxxer or covid related misinformation Stereotyping, prejudiced or racist language about individuals or the topic under discussion. Inciting violence messages, encouraging hate groups and political violence. Regardless of which side of the political divide you find yourself, please be courteous and don't direct abuse at other users. For any issue with regards to comments please email us at : moderation@seekingalpha.com. Seeking Alpha's Disclosure: Past performance is no guarantee of future results. No recommendation or advice is being given as to whether any investment is suitable ...
With a net profit margin of 22.31%, QUALCOMM Incorporated (NASDAQ:QCOM) is included among the 10 Most Profitable Dividend Stocks to Invest In Now. On June 5, JPMorgan raised its price recommendation on QUALCOMM Incorporated (NASDAQ:QCOM) to $265 from $160. It reiterated a Neutral rating on the shares ahead of the company’s investor day scheduled for June […]
With a net profit margin of 22.31%, QUALCOMM Incorporated (NASDAQ:QCOM) is included among the 10 Most Profitable Dividend Stocks to Invest In Now. On June 5, JPMorgan raised its price recommendation on QUALCOMM Incorporated (NASDAQ:QCOM) to $265 from $160. It reiterated a Neutral rating on the shares ahead of the company’s investor day scheduled for June […]