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☆ Just how bad was the war in Ukraine for Europe’s biggest economy last year?
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-13 | by ( Anna Cooban | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +7 min

London CNN —Germany’s economy grew slightly last year despite battling an energy crisis sparked by Russia’s war in Ukraine. The bank predicts the German economy will stagnate this year, rather than decline, as it had previously forecast. Tobias Schwarz/AFP/Getty ImagesEither way, it’s welcome news for Europe’s biggest economy. “The German economy has been more resilient than initially feared,” Jan-Christopher Scherer, a research associate at DIW Berlin, told CNN. About 40% of German companies expect business to decline in 2023, and another 35% think it will stagnate, according to a November survey of 2,500 firms conducted by the German Economic Institute.

☆ Bitcoin jumps above $18,000 to highest level in a month, as FTX lawyers recover $5 billion
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-12 | by ( Ryan Browne | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +1 min

Bitcoin on Thursday surged to its highest price in nearly a month, as traders bet on an U.S. inflation cooldown and digest news that lawyers for defunct crypto exchange FTX found billions of dollars' worth of assets, boosting hopes for its users. On Wednesday, attorneys for collapsed crypto exchange FTX said they had found around $5 billion in "liquid" assets, including cash and digital assets. The recovery will be a welcome boon to FTX customers after the crypto exchange imploded in November. FTX lawyers nevertheless warned the $5 billion cache was so high that selling the assets could lead to significant downside pressure on the market, driving down their value. "This could also mean that the market thinks the worst is over for crypto and that most negative news in now priced in."

☆ UK PM reportedly restarts talks with SoftBank about listing Arm in London
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-09 | by ( Ryan Browne | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

SoftBank has stopped working on a London initial public offering for chip designer Arm because of political upheaval in the British government, the Financial Times reported. British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak reportedly reopened negotiations with the CEOs of SoftBank and Arm, in a renewed attempt to have the chip designer list its shares in London. Sunak is the third British prime minister to try to convince SoftBank to list its Arm division in the U.K. since a proposed buyout of Arm by Nvidia was scrapped. In May, former PM Boris Johnson wrote to SoftBank appealing for the Japanese firm to list Arm in London. With 6,000 staff globally and 3,000 in the U.K., Arm is widely regarded as the jewel in the crown of the British tech industry.

In this article BBBY Follow your favorite stocks CREATE FREE ACCOUNTA pedestrian walks by a Bed Bath and Beyond store in San Francisco, California. Justin Sullivan | Getty ImagesWhen Bed Bath & Beyond leaders speak to investors Tuesday morning, they won't simply report sales and earnings results. On Thursday, Bed Bath warned it may have to file for bankruptcy, saying it could soon be unable to cover costs as sales lag and store traffic dwindles. If Bed Bath has made significant inroads in improving inventory, it could offer a glimmer of hope for the quarters ahead. Before Bed Bath can address moving product off shelves, though, it needs to tackle an even more fundamental problem: having enough merchandise to fill them.

☆ It's official: Remote work is going to make it easier to buy a home
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-04 | by ( James Rodriguez | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +12 min

Remote work pushed housing trends into warp speedIn some ways, the pandemic's housing shifts were a long time coming. The shift to remote work also hastened many people's desire for more space. Across the country, remote workers chose to part ways with roommates or seek out larger homes. Elon Musk asserted his authority at Twitter by putting an end to remote work. On the other hand, as my colleague Aki Ito previously argued, a recession could further ingrain remote work as employers look to cut spending on real estate.

☆ Recession or soft landing? Five reasons to be cautiously optimistic about 2023
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-02 | by ( Matt Egan | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +4 min

New York CNN —Last year was dominated by scary headlines about crushing inflation, super-sized interest rate hikes and mounting recession fears. That’s still low historically and almost exactly where jobless claims were a year ago, long before recession fears emerged. “This is one reason to the be optimistic the economy could skirt a recession,” Moody’s Analytics chief economist Mark Zandi told CNN on Thursday. It’s also the lowest annual inflation rate in nearly a year. The Fed won’t hike to the moonThe Fed’s war on inflation is the reason the risk of a recession is significant.

☆ Creator economy experts say 2023 will be a buyer's market for M&A. Here are 5 themes to watch, from tech buyers like Shopify to startup consolidation
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-30 | by ( Marta Biino | Sydney Bradley | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +12 min

"As a result, institutional acquirers, like PE firms who still have dry powder to spend, will start snatching up mid-to-large sized creator startups at much more advantageous prices." Insider spoke with creator-economy and market experts about what deals and the broader M&A landscape in 2023 may look like. "They're going to see that the creator economy exists as a direct failure of them to support creators," Gestetner said. "But if an opportunity arises for us to significantly enhance our capabilities to make us a better business powering the creator economy, we'll consider it." Startups can expect consolidation in saturated marketsThe crowded niches within the creator economy startup sphere could also face a wave of consolidation.

☆ Americans still haven't felt the worst of the war on inflation, meaning 2023 will be 'survival of the fittest'
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-29 | by ( Ayelet Sheffey | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +8 min

The Federal Reserve hiked interest rates seven times during 2022 to fight inflation. He believes the new year will bring a whole host of different challenges for small businesses. "I believe that we're going to see small businesses dropping like flies, and competition thinning out among the pandemic entrepreneurs," Gray said. With nearly half of Americans employed by small businesses, financial hardship to the sector could significantly impact the overall workforce. "Just since June, the rates have gone up almost 3% so capital is getting a lot more expensive for small businesses generally," Wallace told Insider.

☆ 'The music stopped': 6 founders tell how they survived this year's bursting VC funding bubble, customers unwilling to spend, and a graveyard of fallen startup peers
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-27 | by ( April Joyner | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +11 min

This year's economic caution marked a huge contrast to 2021's exuberance and record VC funding. Insider spoke with six founders about how they've handled the abrupt switch from market exuberance to economic caution. But at the same time, they said, they've sought to pounce on new opportunities created by the economic downturn. ElektraShifting landscapes, changing prioritiesAfter a year of record venture capital funding, the abrupt shift in investor sentiment hit hard in 2022, founders told Insider. Artificial intelligence startups are the latest beneficiary of VC hype, buoyed by breakthrough software tools such as DALL-E and ChatGPT.

☆ $4 gas could return as soon as May, GasBuddy projects
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-27 | by ( Matt Egan | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +5 min

New York CNN Business —Gas prices will probably be significantly cheaper overall next year. Yet the national average could still climb back above the $4-a-gallon threshold as soon as May, according to GasBuddy projections shared exclusively with CNN. Why gas prices are droppingIn December 2021, before Russia amassed troops at Ukraine’s border, GasBuddy projected the national average for gas would be $3.41 a gallon in 2022. The national average is now about 20 cents below the same period of a year ago, according to AAA. Gas prices are not expected to return to $5 this summer – although GasBuddy isn’t ruling that out.

☆ Rents are still high, even after cooling at the fastest pace in 19 months
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-20 | by ( Diana Olick | In Dianaolick | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +1 min

Rents for both single-family homes and apartments are still rising, but at a far slower pace, as inflation squeezes consumers and landlords lose pricing power. Rent growth in November slowed for the tenth straight month, with rents up just 3.4% compared with November 2021, according to Realtor.com. Rent relief varies from market to market. Meanwhile, Midwestern markets are becoming less affordable, with rents rising nearly 10% and 9% in Indianapolis and Kansas City, respectively. While the Realtor.com report looks at all rents, another report focusing just on single-family rents in October shows a similar picture.

☆ It's just the beginning of M&A in the creator economy. Industry experts predict 2023's top trends, and the buyers and sellers to watch.
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-19 | by ( Marta Biino | Sydney Bradley | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +12 min

"As a result, institutional acquirers, like PE firms who still have dry powder to spend, will start snatching up mid-to-large sized creator startups at much more advantageous prices." "They're going to see that the creator economy exists as a direct failure of them to support creators," Gestetner said. "But if an opportunity arises for us to significantly enhance our capabilities to make us a better business powering the creator economy, we'll consider it." Startups can expect consolidation in saturated marketsThe crowded niches within the creator economy startup sphere could also face a wave of consolidation. In the creator economy, companies bet on the fact that YouTube advertising revenue on the videos will increase as the audiences of creators grow and they gain more views.

☆ Hotel prices and airfare decline as travel demand cools after summer surge
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-13 | by ( Rebecca Picciotto | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +1 min

The cooldown comes in a year where the travel industry enjoyed major tailwinds after a turbulent couple of years due to Covid. Pent-up travel demand even began to encroach on retail's momentum as pandemic shoppers turned into post-pandemic travelers. The travel industry has seen demand taper since a summer surge. United Airlines CEO Scott Kirby, however, said that travel demand and revenue remains strong while business travel has "plateaued." Even as travel demand cools, revenues in the industry have remained stable due to higher prices.

☆ Janet Yellen: Inflation will be ‘much lower’ by the end of 2023 and a recession isn’t required
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-12 | by ( Matt Egan | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +3 min

New York CNN —Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen is striking a cautiously optimistic tone about 2023, predicting a major inflation cooldown and stressing that a recession isn’t required to get prices back under control. “I hope that it will be short-lived,” Yellen said of the current period of high inflation. “We learned a lot of lessons from the high inflation we experienced in the 1970s. Yellen conceded a recession is possible in the months ahead — though the former Fed chair emphasized that one isn’t required to tame inflation. “There’s a risk of a recession,” Yellen said.

☆ President Xi says China wants to buy more oil from Saudi Arabia – and that could eat away at the dollar, a think tank strategist says
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-09 | by ( George Glover | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

China is willing to import more oil from Saudi Arabia, President Xi Jinping said Friday. That could spur "de-dollarization", if Saudi Arabia agrees to accept yuan payments. He also agreed to step up coordination with Saudi Arabia on energy policy in his meeting with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. "The Saudis have a lot to buy from China and China has a lot to buy from Saudi Arabia," Luft said. The western sanctions against Russia have led to a cooldown in the relationship between the US and both China and Saudi Arabia.

☆ Pandemic hotspots like Phoenix and Denver hit their housing market peak earlier this year and there's more evidence than ever that they're descending back to earth
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-29 | by ( Kelsey Neubauer | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Considering sales alone, these cities were among those that saw the most dramatic declines, according to data technology company Zonda. "There are many forces working against the housing market right now," Zonda Chief Economist Ali Wolf said in a report last week. By late spring, the markets were feeling the pain. In both Austin and Phoenix, home prices are rising at a pace 23% slower than they were last year, the report shows. Since late Spring, home prices in Phoenix have dropped 6.7% and in Austin, prices have dropped by over 10% since the end of May.

☆ Try this interval workout to avoid HIIT burnout or injuries
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-27 | by ( Melanie Radzicki Mcmanus | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +7 min

Yet HIIT workouts require maximum exertion, which means they aren’t for every day — or necessarily for everyone. “But that might not be what you’re really doing.”You can perform HIIT workouts using body weight via circuits of exercises such as lunges. undrey/Adobe StockFull-body workout: Variable-intensity interval trainingA VIIT workout is the sweet spot between HIIT and HVIT sessions, Brock said, featuring intervals of hard, medium and low intensity. “Variable intensity workouts are great because they use the entire gauntlet,” Brock said, offering a more complete, full-body workout. If losing weight is your aim and you don’t have much time, the shorter, calorie-busting HIIT workouts may be the way to go.

☆ The cooldown in home prices was a 'once-in-40-years' move, worse than the 2008 crisis that foiled algorithms, said the CEO of America's largest home-flipper
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-19 | by ( Jordan Pandy | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Opendoor CEO Eric Wu says the company's algorithm didn't predict housing market shifting so quickly. The quick market shifts rivaled those of the housing crisis of 2008, he said. Opendoor's forecast did factor in higher interest rates, according to Wu, but not for home price appreciation to shift alongside it. "We were pricing in the interest rate movements" but didn't also account for the dramatic shift in home prices, he said. According to Wu, Opendoor tested previous market conditions, but the speed of the most-recent shift was far greater than previous shifts — including the 2008 financial crisis.

☆ Here's why digital health experts think a slowdown in record funding will benefit the industry
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-18 | by ( ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Digital health funding has cooled off after reaching record levels in 2021, as interest rates rise. The frenzied digital health market has finally chilled out. But there's a silver lining to the cooldown, digital health experts said during a panel at the HLTH conference in Las Vegas on Tuesday. "It was exciting and manic and lots of great ideation and creation, but totally ridiculous," Jonathan Bush, founder and CEO of the startup Zus Health, said of digital health funding at its height. Funding in digital health tumbled to $12.6 billion as investors contended with rising interest rates amid a market downturn.

☆ We just got another strong sign inflation is cooling off
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-15 | by ( Madison Hoff | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Producer Price Index data out Tuesday shows another sign that inflation is cooling. October's rise marks another month of PPI for final demand falling below the previous year-over-year increase; October's year-over-year increase of 8.0% falls below the 8.4% increase seen in September. Looking at month-over-month data, PPI increased 0.2% over the month in October, like it did in September, based on seasonally adjusted figures. With both showing signs of cooling, PPI and CPI data together show that the worst of inflation could be over. The Dow also saw a massive rise on November 10, the day of the release of October's CPI data.

☆ The Inflation Cooldown Is Finally Here
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-10 | by ( Justin Lahart | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

The inflation cooldown might be real this time. The Labor Department on Thursday reported that consumer prices rose a seasonally adjusted 0.4% in October from a month earlier, less than the 0.6% that economists had forecast, putting them up 7.7% from a year earlier. That compared with an 8.3% on-year gain in September. Even more cheering, prices excluding food and energy—the so-called core that economists and policy makers see as more reflective of inflation’s trend—rose 0.3% from September, versus an expected gain of 0.5%, putting them up 6.3% from a year earlier.

☆ Dow gains 1,200 points and Nasdaq surges 7% in blistering rally following October CPI report
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-10 | by ( Matthew Fox | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

The 10-year US Treasury yield plunged 31 basis points and the US dollar Index fell more than 2%. The Nasdaq closed an eye-popping 7.35% higher, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average spiked nearly 1,200 points. Meanwhile, core monthly inflation, which excludes food and energy, increased 0.3%, below estimates for a rise of 0.5%. The move in assets was immediate following the CPI release, with the 10-year US Treasury yield plunging an immediate 20 basis points, eventually falling 31 basis points. Meanwhile, the US Dollar Index plunged more than 2%, it's weakest day in more than 10 years.

☆ How much you'd pay per month for a typical home in 6 US cities where prices have fallen but mortgage rates are on the rise
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-25 | by ( Alcynna Lloyd | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Insider compared the typical monthly payment on homes in six US cities where prices are falling. It's part of the housing market's cooldown. Freddie Mac indicates that the average rate on a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage is at its highest since April 2002. But if they bought a home now, when the typical home value is $553,280, and locked in a rate of 6.94%, their monthly payment would jump to nearly $2,927. Read on to see how mortgage rates are affecting housing affordability in other parts of the country.

☆ Inflation already peaked, and 2 things in particular will ease Americans' pain over the next 12 months, JPMorgan says
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-19 | by ( Ben Winck | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

The US is past peak inflation, and the cooldown is going to be swift, JPMorgan said Tuesday. Supply-chain healing and the strong dollar will slow price growth and even bring some discounting, the team said. Inflation is forecasted to slow to 6.8% by the end of the year, marking the lowest inflation since last November. The strong dollar will drag import costs lowerThe Fed's rate hikes haven't been very helpful to Americans so far. Import prices aren't just set to "slow significantly," but could even fall by the end of 2023, according to the bank.

☆ The latest inflation report was the worst-case scenario for Biden, the Fed, and the stock market
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-14 | by ( Ben Winck | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

The White House could suffer ahead of midterms while Fed tightening could continue to affect stocks. But the September inflation report was crystal-clear in showing trouble ahead. For the stock market, the prospect of further Fed tightening is a major headwind with indexes already near 2022 lows. "Slowing growth yet rising inflation — the combination none of us, and least of all the Fed, want to see." Worse-than-expected inflation endangers Democrats' already-shaky election hopesThe Thursday report was the last opportunity for Democrats to win a surprise inflation cooldown they could campaign on through Election Day.

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