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☆ UK inflation is just not going down as cost of living crisis offers 'no respite'
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-20 | by ( Elliot Smith | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

LONDON — U.K. inflation remained stubbornly in double digits in March, driven largely by soaring food prices, while the country's cost-of-living crisis shows little sign of abating. The British government still provides residential energy subsidies, guaranteeing a cap on average household energy bills of £2,500 per year until the end of June, along with targeted support to certain vulnerable homes. Consulting, said that the Wednesday figures showed "there is currently no respite from cost of living pressures." "Consumers are doing their best to make savings on essentials in order to maintain discretionary spending — this fragile equilibrium is underwritten by the ongoing energy subsidies without which a tipping point might be reached," he said. Core inflation, which excludes volatile food, energy, alcohol and tobacco prices, rose by 6.2% over the 12 months, unchanged from the annual climb of February.

☆ Yellen: U.S. banking system remains sound
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-20 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: 1 min

WASHINGTON, April 20 (Reuters) - The U.S. banking system remains sound and the U.S. government will take "any necessary steps" to keep it the strongest and safest financial system in the world, U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said on Thursday. Yellen said decisive U.S. actions taken after the failure of two regional banks had shored up the financial system. "The U.S. banking system remains sound and we will take any necessary steps to ensure the United States continues to have the strongest and safest financial system in the world," Yellen said in a speech at the Johns Hopkins University's School of Advanced International Studies. Reporting by Andrea Shalal and David LawderOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Yellen to Call for ‘Constructive’ China Relationship
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-20 | by ( Ana Swanson | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

WASHINGTON — Treasury Secretary Janet L. Yellen on Thursday will call for a “constructive” and “healthy” economic relationship between the United States and China, one in which the two nations work together to confront challenges like climate change, according to excerpts from prepared remarks. Ms. Yellen’s comments, which she will deliver at Johns Hopkins University’s School of Advanced International Studies, will strike a notably positive tone about the U.S.-China relationship following months of heightened tensions between the two nations, which have the world’s largest economies. Ms. Yellen is expected to stress the importance of securing American national security interests, as well as of protecting human rights. She will also emphasize that targeted actions the United States has taken against China — like cutting it off from the world’s most advanced semiconductors — are aimed purely at protecting U.S. national security.

☆ Live Updates: SpaceX Prepares Again to Launch Starship Rocket
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-20 | by ( The New York Times | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +5 min

PinnedSpaceX’s first attempt on Monday to launch Starship, the most powerful rocket ever built, was called off. During a livestream for a different SpaceX launch on Wednesday, the company noted that another Starship postponement was possible. Credit... Patrick T. Fallon/Agence France-Presse — Getty ImagesWhy didn’t Starship launch on Monday? Splashdown Near Hawaii Launch SpaceX Starbase Boca Chica, TexasStarship is designed to be entirely reusable. About eight minutes after the launch on Thursday, the Super Heavy booster will splash into the Gulf of Mexico.

☆ Yellen calls for 'constructive and fair' US economic ties with China
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-20 | by ( Andrea Shalal | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

WASHINGTON, April 20 (Reuters) - The U.S. seeks "constructive and fair" economic ties with China, but will protect its national security interests and push back against China's actions to dominate foreign competitors, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen will say in a speech on Thursday. In excerpts released by Treasury, Yellen laid out the Biden administration's principal objectives for the economic relationship between the world's two largest economies amid ongoing tensions that have thwarted high-level meetings. Yellen said the Biden administration's economic priorities on China included securing U.S. national security interests, fostering "healthy" competition and cooperating, where possible, on global issues such as climate change, debt relief and macroeconomic stability. She said Washington would not compromise on those concerns, even when they forced trade-offs with U.S. economic interests. At the same time, she said the Biden administration was not seeking a "winner-take-all" competition, and believed that healthy economic competition with a fair set of rules could benefit both countries over time.

☆ Yellen raps China for serving as 'roadblock' in debt restructuring process
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-20 | by ( Andrea Shalal | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

Yellen said the United States expected China to make good its pledge to work constructively on issues such as debt relief and climate change, noting that delays in restructuring raised costs for both borrowers and creditors. IMF chief Kristalina Georgieva said on Friday that the new Global Sovereign Debt Roundtable had made "tangible progress" on debt restructuring issues. "China's participation is essential to meaningful debt relief, but for too long it has not moved in a comprehensive and timely manner. The United States and China - as the world's largest economies - had a responsibility to work together to help emerging markets and developing countries facing debt distress, she said. Yellen said Washington was working with other stakeholders to improve the Group of 20's Common Framework process for low-income countries and the overall debt treatment process, adding, "Solving these issues is a true test of multilateralism."

☆ Janet Yellen says national security may come at a cost in US-China relationship
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-20 | by ( Bryan Mena | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +2 min

Washington, DC CNN —The United States will safeguard its national security, even if it comes at an economic cost to its relationship with China, US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said on Thursday. The federal government will address any national security concerns through export controls, sanctions and by restricting foreign investments, Yellen said. In a speech at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies, Yellen outlined three objectives of the US relationship with China: prioritizing national security and defending human rights, promoting a healthy and fair economic relationship with China and cooperating with China to address global issues. Yellen’s remarks come at a time when tensions with China remain high, a few months after a Chinese spy balloon flew across the continental United States. “Even though these policies may have economic impacts, they are driven by straightforward national security considerations,” said Yellen, a former Federal Reserve Chair.

☆ Janet Yellen says U.S. economic competition with China must be 'fair to both sides'
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-20 | by ( Chelsey Cox | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +5 min

China has pivoted away from market reforms "toward a more state-driven approach that has undercut its neighbors and countries across the world," Yellen said. Her comments come as Washington, and the Republican-held House in particular, increase pressure on Beijing as part of a sustained U.S. backlash against China's economic tactics. WASHINGTON — The U.S. seeks healthy economic competition with China even as the country pursues intellectual property to gain an economic edge, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said Thursday. Hundreds of Chinese firms are listed on our stock exchanges, which are part of the deepest and most liquid capital markets in the world," Yellen said. Yellen vowed to partner with U.S. allies in countering China's "unfair economic practices" while advancing "our vision for an open, fair, and rules-based global economic order."

Beijing's retaliatory strategy against U.S. chip sanctions is a bigger worry. Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing has so far remained relatively unscathed since Washington stepped up sanctions to hobble China’s domestic semiconductor development. Second, even if Chinese companies account for just 11% of TSMC’s top line, its other customers are far more exposed to the People's Republic. How Beijing responds to American pressure will define the scope of TSMC’s recovery. In January, TSMC said its capital spending in 2023 would be between $32 billion and $36 billion, compared to $36.3 billion in 2022.

☆ Yellen to lay out U.S. economic priorities on China in Thursday speech
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-18 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

Yellen, who said last week she still hopes to visit Beijing to meet with her new Chinese economic counterparts, will deliver remarks at Johns Hopkins University's School of Advanced International Studies, the Treasury said in a statement. Yellen's speech will detail the Biden administration's economic priorities on China, including securing U.S. national security interests, fostering "healthy" competition and cooperating, where possible, on global issues such as climate change, debt relief and macroeconomic stability. Yellen also is expected to highlight U.S. economic strength. A Treasury official said the speech comes at an opportune time just after Yellen also spoke last week with counterparts from G7 democracies, Australia and New Zealand. Another audience for the remarks is China's new economic leadership team led by Liu's replacement, Vice Premier He Lifeng.

Investors may see rate cuts in the Fed's near future, part of a recession-breeds-accommodation view of the world, but "the labor market just seems very, very strong. The bulk of Fed policymakers as of March felt one more rate increase, which would raise the benchmark overnight interest rate to a range between 5.00% and 5.25%, was all that would be needed. Some policymakers and analysts worry it is those final steps that could push the economy into a recession. Reuters Graphics Reuters GraphicsLIMIT GUIDANCEGiven how inflation and the economy are behaving, Bullard said, the fewer promises made the better. Recession forecasts "are coming from models that put too much weight on the idea that interest rates went up quickly," Bullard said.

☆ Print-on-demand sellers who make 6 figures a year share 7 strategies for standing out on Etsy — and getting a store started with low up-front costs
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-18 | by ( Ella Hopkins | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +9 min

Insider spoke with three Etsy sellers who've made six figures on the platform in a year with print-on-demand products. Take inspiration from other sellers' designs — but don't copy themChristina Umerez, 27, made 324,839 Canadian dollars, or about $241,015, from her Etsy store last year. Umerez said she used eRank, a platform that helps Etsy sellers find "low-competition, high-search" keywords related to topics. Dobosenski found mock-up images of models that matched the style she wanted from other Etsy sellers. Umerez used EverBee, a market-research browser extension that showed her all the tags other sellers used and how many searches each tag got.

Her comments were echoed by others who feel the narrative shared by three top central banks of relatively cost-free disinflation rests on shaky ground. Among the Fed, ECB and BoE, only the British central bank projects a recession will be needed to slow inflation - only a mild one at that. U.S. central bank officials have split the difference, projecting a modest one-percentage-point rise in the unemployment rate this year from its near-historic low of 3.5%, and slow, but continued, economic growth. Martins Kazaks, Latvia's central bank chief, said the risk of a recession was still "non-trivial," with a host of factors still putting pressure on prices. For the Fed, different policymakers offer different ideas about the forces that will lower inflation as high interest rates slowly cool demand.

HONG KONG, April 17 (Reuters Breakingviews) - Hong Kong could use a shot of something. Yet compared to the $313 billion Shanghai-listed behemoth Kweichow Moutai (600519.SS), debutante ZJLD is a drop in the near-$100 billion baijiu industry: it logs less than 1% market share. At the top of the marketed price range, ZJLD could be worth $5.4 billion, or almost 24 times this year's forecast earnings, IFR reports. Revenue at the company, which will be the first baijiu distiller to list in Hong Kong, was up a healthy 15% last year, while its adjusted net profit margin topped 20%. For Hong Kong, consumer stocks will put the focus back onto classic risks.

☆ I grew my Shopify store while in college and sold it for $1 million on OpenStore. Here’s how.
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-17 | by ( Ella Hopkins | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Max Medroso started his microscope business, TheSTEMKids, while at college in 2020. Medroso sold his business for $1 million to OpenStore, a startup that buys Shopify stores. While I was at college studying mechanical engineering in 2020, I came across a portable microscope while browsing Amazon. Courtesy of OpenStoreI tested my business idea before buying in bulkI went to college wanting to start a business. When I set up a Shopify store to sell my microscopes in September 2020, I wanted to test out the idea before I bought lots of stock.

Merck has been looking for deals to add new products to its pipeline. Merck & Co. is in late-stage talks to acquire Prometheus Biosciences Inc., according to people familiar with the matter, a move that could give the big drugmaker promising immune disease treatments. A deal for Prometheus could be announced as soon as Sunday, the people said, cautioning the talks could still fall apart.

Merck has been looking for deals to add new products to its pipeline. Merck & Co. said it agreed to acquire Prometheus Biosciences Inc. for $10.8 billion, a push into the lucrative market for immune-disease treatments. Merck said Sunday it would acquire Prometheus at $200 a share, a roughly 75% premium to where shares closed on Friday, at $114.01. Prometheus had a market cap of $5.4 billion as of Friday’s market close. Its shares are up about 4% year-to-date.

☆ Wagner Group leader says a Ukrainian counter-offensive would likely succeed as Russia is in 'crisis,' report says
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-16 | by ( Isobel Van Hagen | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

The Wagner Group leader criticized Russia's "deep state" in an essay published Friday. Yevgeny Prigozhin said a Ukraine counter-offensive is likely to succeed as Russia is in "crisis." Prigozhin also criticized Russian state elites, who, he said, "operate independently of the political leadership of the state and have close ties and their own agenda." A mural depicting mercenaries of Russia's Wagner Group. The Wagner Group, which has lost more than 30,000 soldiers in Ukraine, works more closely with the Russian military than Prigozhin portrays, Insider previously reported.

April 14 (Reuters) - Despite a year of aggressive rate increases U.S. central bankers "haven't made much progress" in returning inflation to their 2% target and need to move interest rates higher still, Federal Reserve Governor Christopher Waller said on Friday. Important measures of underlying inflation have "basically moved sideways with no apparent downward movement," Waller said in remarks that continue the Fed's steady discounting of the immediate economic risks posed by recent bank failures. So far, Waller said, he sees both the economy and inflation remaining stronger than he expected. "Economic output and employment are continuing to grow at a solid pace while inflation remains much too high," Waller said, noting that investors should not expect rates to fall any time soon. "Monetary policy will need to remain tight for a substantial period of time, and longer than markets anticipate," he said.

The retail sales data provided at least a hint that a pandemic-era spending boom may be nearing an end, though some economists argued that the historically low unemployment rate and rising wages make a sharp drop in consumption unlikely. In separate comments, Fed Governor Christopher Waller said he'd seen little evidence yet that the economy was under stress, little progress on inflation, and no reason to call off further rate increases. The current inflation rate is more than twice that target, and progress on getting it to move in that direction has been slow. The data showed households expected inflation to accelerate significantly in the year ahead, reversing months of progress towards them viewing inflation as a receding phenomenon. There won't be much more topline economic data before the Fed's May 2-3 meeting.

That's a good reason to pause after one more rate increase, he said, to study how the economy and inflation evolve, and try to limit the damage to growth and jobs. 'HAD TO DOWNSHIFT'The Atlanta Fed chief spoke in detail about how the recent turmoil in banking markets buffeted his monetary policy views. At first, high inflation made him open to a half-percentage-point increase at the March 21-22 Fed meeting. Indeed, Bostic sketched out why he still believes the inflation battle can be won without a recession or even much of a rise in the unemployment rate. People and businesses "are sitting in a financial condition that is abnormal, and abnormal in a way that would drive excess consumption," Bostic said.

☆ This 20-minute daily practice makes kids 'better problem solvers,' says Johns Hopkins child development expert
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-14 | by ( Aditi Shrikant | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +1 min

There are lots of daily tasks — eating vegetables, doing homework, brushing teeth — that kids might not understand, or care, are beneficial. Though, there is one less-talked-about activity that is crucial for child development: engaging with and creating art. "Children who are using the arts are better problem solvers," says Susan Magsamen, co-author of "Your Brain on Art: How the Arts Transform Us." Magsamen is also the founder of the International Arts + Mind Lab, Center for Applied Neuroaesthetics at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. "We think it starts to regulate the nervous system in a way that changes how we feel."

With that out of the way, Zhang is cleared to focus on Alibaba's massive corporate overhaul unveiled last month. Current shareholders will be left with a holding company led by Zhang, plus Alibaba's cash-cow Chinese commerce business. After all, Alibaba's U.S. shares are down over 60% in the past two years, while the S&P 500 has stayed largely flat. The sales will eventually reduce SoftBank's stake in Alibaba to 3.8%. In 2022, SoftBank booked a gain of $34 billion by cutting its stake in Alibaba to 14.6% from 23.7%.

☆ Premarket stocks: Inflation just reached an inflection point
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-13 | by ( Nicole Goodkind | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +5 min

According to some experts, inflation rates have reached an inflection point and painful interest rate hikes could soon ease. Some economists believe that this level — around 5% — is the point at which inflation is no longer considered an emergency issue. That means the Federal Reserve could feel less pressure to quickly stabilize prices through aggressive, economically painful interest rate hikes. “The Fed … will insist that their job is done when inflation hits 2%,” Ball told Before the Bell on Wednesday. The US Treasury, Federal Reserve and Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation all intervened to ensure bank customers could access all their money and to attempt to stave off future bank runs.

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