Author: Richard Madden

The pace of China’s economic recovery rose modestly in the second quarter after signs of sluggishness in the world’s second-biggest economy stoked expectations of greater policy support.On a quarter-on-quarter basis, China’s gross domestic product expanded 1.3 per cent in the three months to the end of June, up from a 0.4 per cent expansion in the previous quarter, the National Bureau of Statistics said on Thursday. Economists had predicted quarter-on-quarter growth of 1 to 1.2 per cent, according to polls by Bloomberg and Reuters.Second quarter GDP was 7.9 per cent higher than a year earlier, compared with year-on-year growth of…

On July 13, the Securities and Exchange Commission, or SEC, pushed back its decision on Wisdom Tree’s Bitcoin ETF with a request for public feedback. This request will allow members of the public to communicate their position on whether the trust should be approved or denied. The SEC’s notice stated:“The Commission requests that interested persons provide written submissions of their views, data and arguments with respect to the issues identified above, as well as any other concerns they may have with the proposal.”Public comments are required to be submitted to the Federal Register within 21 days, and rebuttals filed in…

Lagging attendance at the home of the King of Rock and Roll continues to batter the tourist-tax municipal bonds that were issued to gussy it up.The bonds were sold in 2017 for a development project at Graceland, the former residence and now resting place of Elvis Presley, which has become a worldwide tourist attraction in Memphis, Tennessee.Loss of revenue from fewer visitors during the coronavirus pandemic is cited as the reason the bonds have been unable to generate enough money to pay the interest and now the principal on the debt service for some of the series. Visitors pose for…

David Solomon, chief executive officer of Goldman Sachs & Co., speaks during a Bloomberg Television interview at the Milken Institute Global Conference in Beverly Hills, California, U.S., on Monday, April 29, 2019.Patrick T. Fallon | Bloomberg | Getty ImagesGoldman Sachs CEO David Solomon said that China’s recent moves boosting oversight of its technology industry surprised him and will likely delay “a large number” of companies from listing shares in the U.S.Last week, shares of riding hailing giant Didi Chuxing plunged after China declared that new users couldn’t download the app amid a cybersecurity review. Didi had been advised by Chinese…

Traders on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange.Source: NYSEEarnings season begins with two major tailwinds:  sky high prices and sky-high expectations. On paper, second quarter earnings looks like the mother of all earnings reports, with estimates having risen steadily for the past six months, from expected 45% growth in January to 65% growth today compared to the same period last year.It’s the strongest rate of growth since 2009, when earnings were just starting to recover from the disaster of the Great Financial Crisis. But the gap between earnings expectations and the actual reported growth rates has been huge for nearly…

In this articleEAJPMGSCAGPEPBABoeing employees walk by a new Boeing 737-900 at Boeing Field in Seattle Thursday, July 15, 2004.Barry Sweet | Bloomberg | Getty ImagesCheck out the companies making headlines in midday trading.Boeing — Shares of Boeing fell more than 3%. The plane maker cut production of its 787 Dreamliners after a new flaw was detected on some of the jets. Boeing also cut its delivery target for the planes.PepsiCo – Shares of the snack and beverage company advanced more than 2% to a new all-time high after the company beat top and bottom line estimates during the second quarter. Pepsi earned…

by Erik Sherman Keep living in an apartment without paying rent? In the “before times,” it would have been unthinkable — at least without a concerted legal battle with an angry landlord.  During the COVID-19 pandemic, though, all that went out the window. Congress first put an eviction moratorium into place from March 27 to July 24, 2020, during a time when many millions were out of work. Then the pandemic continued, and Congress and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control started taking turns extending moratoriums to stop people being turned out into a world of contagion and potentially spreading…

The revived New York City real estate market is seeing strong demand and attractive prices relative to recent history, a top broker told CNBC on Tuesday. ”The story that I’m seeing across the board: All segments are transacting. New York is back, and people want to be here,” Christopher Kromer, a broker with Brown Harris Stevens, said on ”Power Lunch.” ”We’re coming off a record number of signed contracts in the second quarter, and what’s driving that is buyers are seeing value. They’re sensing opportunity, and there’s a real sense of hope for an economic boom in September when it opens up.”Kromer said…

Municipals were little changed Tuesday, ignoring another rise in U.S. Treasuries and a weaker stock market, with the focus on the primary which saw deals bumped in repricings. Another day of UST weakness after less-than-stellar auctions and municipals stayed in their own lane. Some participants said without the UST rise in yields, municipal benchmarks likely would have kept up with their strength. Municipal-to-UST ratios fell Tuesday as UST rose with the 10-year dipping below 60%. The 10-year was at 59% and 65% in 30, according to Refinitiv MMD. ICE Data Services had the 10-year muni-to-Treasury ratio at 61% and the…

The breakneck pace of US consumer price increases seen since the start of the year accelerated in June, challenging the Federal Reserve’s case that the burst of inflationary pressures accompanying the economic reopening will prove temporary.The consumer price index rose 5.4 per cent in June from a year ago — above the nearly 13-year high of 5 per cent reported in May and surpassing the 4.9 per cent increase forecast by economists.On a monthly basis, data released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics showed price gains of 0.9 per cent, well above the 0.6 per cent seen in May. Stripping…

American inflation expectations have surged according to the results of the latest New York Federal Reserve Survey of Consumer Expectations. The presumed inflation rate tapped the highest point since 2013 and alongside the forecast of lower purchasing power, consumer debt and fears of a housing bubble in the U.S. are on the rise. New York Fed’s Consumer Expectations Report Expects Inflation to Be 4.8% Over the Next Year U.S. citizens are worried about inflation after the government locked down the nation for more than a year and the Federal Reserve increased the M1 supply by 30%. Inflation has been so…

As the pressures placed on the market by China’s cryptocurrency crackdown begin to subside and the Bitcoin (BTC) hashrate starts to show signs of recovery, traders are now focused on how the price will be affected by this week’s unlocking of more than $550 million worth of Grayscale’s GBTC shares.Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView shows that the early morning downtrend in BTC on July 12 continued into the afternoon as the price of BTC dropped below the $33,000 support level after bears took control of the market. BTC/USDT 4-hour chart. Source: TradingViewGrayscale attracted further attention on Monday after various…

Puerto Rico’s financial oversight board struck a bankruptcy deal with the main group of the island’s unsecured creditors, a breakthrough that promises to make it easier to win final court approval of its plan for cutting $35 billion of the government’s debt.The board and the unsecured creditors reached the understanding on Monday, Brian Rosen, a lawyer at Proskauer Rose LLP, told U.S. Judge Laura Taylor Swain during a hearing Tuesday. The deal may put pressure on the remaining bond insurers that are among the last still fighting a proposed debt-restructuring plan. A new deal between Puerto Rico’s oversight board and…

Hop Protocol, a team working on interoperability within Ethereum’s layer-two ecosystem, has launched its Hop bridge for the first time. A July 12 blog post notes the bridge has been launched with limited functionality, currently supporting “instant” USD Coin (USDC) transfers between the Ethereum mainnet, Polygon, and xDai Chain.Hop plans to expand the number and assets it supports over “the next couple of weeks,” including crypto assets Ether, Matic, and Wrapped Bitcoin, stablecoins Dai and Tether, and forthcoming layer-two networks Optimism and Arbitrum.We’re proud to officially launch the Hop bridge starting with instant $USDC transfers between @ethereum, @0xPolygon and @xdaichain.➡ https://t.co/z8K0uAa2xg…