1. U.S Markets in Red Awaiting More Economic Cues
U.S Markets traded flat ahead of consumer price and inflation data announcement on Thursday. The announcement will be key in predicting how long the U.S Federal Reserve will keep the record-low interest rates unchanged. Crude oil prices cooled off continuing yesterday’s trend, after concerns of oversupply.
Big banks stayed in red while tech companies moved up. Bitcoin is trading in the red after the U.S successfully recovered a huge part of the ransom paid to hackers over the shutdown of the Colonial Pipeline last month. This has proved that Bitcoin is now more trackable than ever by Government authorities.
Stoxx Europe is up 0.25%
Dow Jones is down 0.20%
NASDAQ is up 0.32%
2. Apple Approaches Battery Companies For Its EV
Apple is moving ahead with its plans for an Electric Vehicle and the company is in talks with China’s CATL and BYD about the supply of batteries. CATL and BYD rank first and fourth in the automotive battery-making industry.
3. Amazon To Open Data Centers In Spain
Amazon Web Services is ready to invest Rs 10,922 crores to open data centres in Spain in 2022. The amount will be invested in 10 years for capital expenditure, the construction of the centres, imports of equipment, and operating expenses.
4. BAT Expects Higher Sales Growth From E-Cigarettes
Cigarette maker British American Tobacco(BAT) raises annual sales growth outlook by more than 5% after its entry into e-cigarettes. The Vuse e-cigarettes and glo tobacco heating products of the company alone have a consumer base of 1.49 crores.
5. Major News, Media Sources Takes A Hit
Multiple news & media sources such as Reddit, Amazon, CNN, Paypal, Spotify, and the New York Times are globally down. As per the latest reports available, a glitch at U.S.-based cloud computing services provider ‘Fastly’ caused the global outage.
6. Network Equipment Business Will Sustain: Samsung
Samsung Electronics said the network equipment business is catching up with the momentum as 5G operations fasten up across countries. Even though the company ranks only 5th in 5G network equipment, the recent deals with multiple carriers like Verizon is a good sign.
7. Wolf of Wall Street Producer named in $250 Million 1MDB Suit
Riza Aziz, one of the producers of The Wolf of Wall Street and stepson to former Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak, has been named by 1MDB in a $250 million(~Rs 1,800 crore) case. It is a huge ongoing scandal over alleged misuse of public assets under Najib Razak’s regime.
The case is one of several against individuals and companies including JP Morgan and Deutsche Bank filed by 1Malaysia Development Berhad to recover assets worth more than $23 billion(~Rs 1.65 lakh crore).
8. Tesla’s China Wholesales surge 29% in May after April slip
Tesla’s China shipments bounced back in May after production being suspended for maintenance last month. Concerns of low demand still exist for the coming month. After Tesla’s dream run in China, from government subsidies to good sales, the company is now facing some issues.
Investors have been concerned about a protest at the Shanghai auto show in mid-April and a series of crashes involving the cars.
Tesla is planning to sell its first car in India this year.
9. European Companies investing more in China After Pandemic
In a possible threat to India’s economic growth, European businesses are pumping in investments to China after the quick recovery of the country from the pandemic last year. According to a survey, more and more European companies are reporting that they will expand into China this year.
10. Biden Announces Plan to Boost Chip, Medicine Output
U.S President Joe Biden has released a strategy to secure important supply chains in medicines to semiconductors. The country is also considering an import on tariffs on magnets.
White House has recommended at least $50 billion(~Rs 3.7 lakh crore) in funding for semiconductor research and production in the U.S, to compete with China in the field. The entire world is currently experiencing a semiconductor shortage, even being felt by Indian automotive manufacturers.
