Shares Rebound as Wall Road Shakes Off Inflation Worries: Stay Updates

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Recognition…Mary Turner for the New York Times

The US stock futures rose along with most European stock indices on Friday as the data showed more signs of the European economy strengthening as it emerges from lockdowns and vaccines are introduced faster.

The S&P 500 is expected to gain 0.3 percent at the start of trading, according to the futures. The US benchmark index is down around 0.4 percent so far this week after concerns about faster-than-expected inflation unsettled markets.

The Stoxx Europe 600 rose 0.4 percent, led by gains in consumer goods companies. One of the biggest winners was Richemont, the Swiss luxury goods company that owns brands like Cartier and Montblanc. Richemont stock rose 5.3 percent after the company reported annual results of strong sales growth in Asia, particularly for its jewelry and watch brands.

Oil prices rose. West Texas Intermediate, the US crude oil benchmark, futures rose 0.7 percent to $ 62.38 a barrel.

Economic data

UK retail sales rose sharply in April as unneeded stores were allowed to reopen. The sales volume rose by 9.2 percent compared to the previous month, announced the office for national statistics on Friday. It was more than double the forecast of the economists polled by Bloomberg. Shopping for clothing stores led to the resurgence.
Across the euro area, activity in the service sector increased in May. The purchasing managers index rose from 50.5 in April to 55.1 points, IHS Markit announced on Friday. A value above 50 indicates expansion. The index for the manufacturing sector has hardly changed compared to the previous month at 62.8.
“Growth would have been even stronger had it not been for supply chain delays and difficulty restarting businesses fast enough to meet demand, especially in terms of recruitment,” wrote Chris Williamson, chief economist at IHS Markit, in the report.
“The outlook for the euro zone is currently quite positive as growth and inflationary pressures mount,” ING’s economist Bert Colijn wrote in a note. He added that the economic recovery, which “started cautiously somewhere in January,” accelerated significantly in the second quarter of this year.

There are many ways to measure how much the economy has reopened after a pandemic. One unusual way is to compare Clorox’s stock prices to Dave & Buster’s.

Nick Mazing, director of research at data provider Sentieo, developed this metric to measure shifts in post-pandemic activity. The higher Clorox’s share price goes compared to Dave & Buster, the more people seem to stay home and sanitize everything than go to crowded bars.

As a result of this move, the DealBook newsletter reports, conditions have almost returned to a preandemic level – in fact, Dave & Buster’s recently raised its sales forecast as almost all beer and arcade bars are reopening.

Two other ratios Mr Mazing suggests for comparison are Netflix versus Live Nation and Peloton versus Planet Fitness.

The first is almost back where it was before the pandemic: Live Nation is preparing for a full concert schedule and selling tickets to people who may have already seen everything from “Below Deck”.

The second, however, suggests that people aren’t so eager to puff and puff again in the gym as they are content with exercising at home. As the restrictions lift and people feel more secure in the crowd, drinking and dancing seem to have higher priorities.

Recognition…Ed Kashi for the New York Times

The government’s $ 788 billion relief effort to small businesses hit by the coronavirus pandemic, Paycheck Protection Program, is ending as it began. The last days of the initiative are full of chaos and confusion.

Millions of applicants seek money from the scarce handful of lenders who still provide government-sponsored loans. Hundreds of thousands of people are stuck in the air waiting to find out if they will get their approved loans – some of which have been stalled for months due to errors or malfunctions. According to the New York Times’ Stacy Cowley, lenders are overwhelmed and borrowers are panicking.

The aid program should continue until May 31st. Two weeks ago, its manager, the Small Business Administration, announced that $ 292 billion in funding for the forgeable loan program was nearly depleted this year and that it would cease processing most new applications immediately.

Then the government tossed another curve ball: the Small Business Administration ruled that the remaining money, roughly $ 9 billion, would only be available through Community Financial Institutions, a small group of specially designated institutions focused on underserved communities.

Recognition…Taylor Glascock for the New York Times

The American steel industry is making a comeback that only a few months ago would have predicted.

Steel prices are at record highs and demand is rising as companies ramp up production amid the easing of pandemic restrictions. Steel makers have consolidated over the past year so they can have more control over supply. Tariffs on foreign steel imposed by the Trump administration have kept cheaper imports out. And steel companies are hiring again, reports Matt Phillips of the New York Times.

It’s not clear how long the boom will last. This week, the Biden government began talks with European Union trade representatives on global steel markets. Some steel workers and executives believe this could lead to an eventual decline in Trump-era tariffs, widely believed to be the catalyst for the turnaround in the steel industry.

Record prices for steel will not reverse decades of job losses. Employment in the steel industry has fallen by more than 75 percent since the early 1960s. More than 400,000 jobs disappeared as foreign competition increased and the industry shifted to manufacturing processes that required fewer workers. The price hike, however, is fueling optimism in steel cities across the country, especially after job losses during the pandemic brought American steel employment to its lowest level in history.

Shareholders in Tribune Publishing, the owner of major city newspapers like The Chicago Tribune and The New York Daily News, will vote on Friday on whether to sell the company to Alden Global Capital, a financial investor with a reputation for cutting costs and increasing costs should lower, approved jobs. Alden already has a 32 percent stake in Tribune, so the deal depends on approval from the shareholders who own the other two-thirds of Tribune shares. Dr. Patrick Soon-Shiong, a multi-billion dollar medical entrepreneur who owns the Los Angeles Times and other California newspapers, has a 24 percent stake in Tribune with his wife, Michele B. Chan. Dr. Soon-Shiong has not publicly commented on how he plans to vote.
CNN said Thursday that its prime-time host, Chris Cuomo, gave inappropriate public relations advice to his brother, New York Governor Andrew M. Cuomo, after a series of sexual harassment allegations threatened the governor’s political career earlier this year would have. CNN said Chris Cuomo would refrain from further similar talks with the governor’s staff. However, the network said it would not take disciplinary action against the anchor, whose program was CNN’s top-rated show in the first quarter of the year. Chris Cuomo apologized to viewers and colleagues at the start of the show on Thursday for the calls to the governor’s staff, saying, “It won’t happen again. It was a mistake. “But he also defended himself, saying that he” naturally “gave advice to his brother and that he was” family first, job second “.