how are you? (July 24-30)
A not-so-good day for the meta
Wednesday was not a good day for the company formerly known as Facebook. First came a lawsuit from the Federal Trade Commission, after which the company announced a decline in earnings for the first time since going public. Led by one of Big Tech’s biggest critics, Lina Khan, the FTC has announced that Meta will acquire Within, the virtual reality company that helped Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg make the leap into the Metaverse. I’m suing Meta to stop it. In the lawsuit, the FTC accused Meta of trying to buy a company it had to compete with. Meta said the agency put together the case “based on ideology and speculation.” The company then reported a 1% year-on-year decline in revenue in the second quarter. Yet he appears to be relentlessly pushing forward with his vision for the next era of his business, and who is not on board. But I tell my employees that they can quit.
recession? or not?
The economy contracted for the second quarter in a row, meeting one criterion of the common definition of a recession. Taking inflation into account, gross domestic product in the second quarter fell by 0.2%, the Department of Commerce said Thursday. But GDP isn’t the only indicator of a deep recession, albeit closely watched. in recession. Seen through the eyes of Federal Reserve officials, the latest GDP numbers show their efforts to slow the economy are working. But the outlook is certainly dim, especially with the slowing housing market and rising layoffs.
Fed’s massive interest rate hike
The US Federal Reserve (Fed) last week raised interest rates by three-quarters of a percentage point, continuing its single-minded effort to contain inflation. Policy makers unanimously agreed to a mega-sized increase, following his June increase by the same amount, the largest since 1994. But the day after the Federal Reserve Board, President Biden reached an agreement with his Virginia Joe West his Manchin his third Senator to go ahead with a package known as the Inflation Reduction Act. announced. Cecilia Rouse, chair of Biden’s economic advisory board, said the plan would make a “meaningful contribution” to the government’s efforts to ease inflation.
what’s next? (July 31st to August 6th)
Booming Oil Profits
Global markets have one clear winner as all other sectors struggle with factors such as rising production costs, shortages, supply chain disruptions, changing consumer habits and the strength of the dollar against foreign currencies. I have. It’s energy. Shell reported last week that second-quarter revenue hit $11.5 billion. This is a new record for the company as the high oil and gas prices fueled by the war in Ukraine have resulted in huge profits. Exxon Mobil and Chevron followed suit, posting record profits in the quarter, and BP will likely announce similarly fast-growing results on Tuesday. The company said he wiped out $25.5 billion by pulling out of Russia in the first quarter, but overall delivered an “exceptional” performance, with earnings more than doubling from his previous year. rice field. By the end of the week, the world’s major oil companies will report adding tens of billions of dollars in profits as soaring energy prices roil their economies.
Another Notable Jobs Report
June employment growth exceeded expectations and the labor market remains buoyant, indicating that the economy is growing. But that hasn’t always been a good outcome for the Fed, which has been keeping an eye on a range of economic data for signs that the economy is slowing from an overheated pace. A strong jobs report is a useful messaging tool for the Biden administration when faced with questions about whether the U.S. is in recession. The July jobs report is out on Friday, giving economists new numbers to parse as they try to get a handle on the state of the economy.
Inflation is high in the UK
At its final meeting in June, Bank of England officials suggested they may be less conservative about the rate hike in August after a series of quarter-point hikes. , the highest since 2009. But like elsewhere, Britain’s inflation rate is soaring at its fastest pace in decades, and some central bank officials worry they aren’t moving fast enough. doing. deal with it. In June, three of his nine on the Interest Rate Setting Committee voted in favor of his half-point hike, but it was overruled by a majority. Policymakers may now be feeling pressure from other central banks that are acting more aggressively.
what else?
JetBlue Airways and Spirit Airlines announced their merger plans a day after Spirit called off merger talks with Frontier Airlines. Trader Joe’s in Hadley, Massachusetts was the first of his more than 500 stores in the company to join the union. Instagram has rolled back some of its product changes after celebrities joined the user-driven backlash.