Tag Archives: dent

Business

Hawkish Fed remarks dent global stocks

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Minneapolis Fed President Neel Kashkari on Tuesday reiterated the central bank’s commitment to bringing inflation under control through monetary policy tightening, and said his biggest fear is that the persistence of price pressures is underestimated.

Anjali Sundaram | CNBC

LONDON — European markets were muted on Wednesday as new hawkish comments from a U.S. Federal Reserve policymaker kept investors hesitant.

The pan-European Stoxx 600 index hovered around the flatline by mid-morning. Basic resources fell 1.4% while household goods added 0.5%.

Minneapolis Fed President Neel Kashkari on Tuesday reiterated the central bank’s commitment to bringing inflation under control through monetary policy tightening, and said his biggest fear is that the persistence of price pressures is underestimated.

The comments came as markets prepare for a much-anticipated speech from Fed Chairman Jerome Powell on Friday addressing the central bank’s tightening path, following its annual economic symposium in Jackson Hole, Wyoming.

Shares in Asia-Pacific were mixed on Wednesday after the Dow Jones Industrial Average and S&P 500 posted a third consecutive day of a losses in the previous session. China’s Shenzhen Component led losses regionally.

U.S. stock futures were flat in early premarket trading on Wednesday as Wall Street tries to halt further losses ahead of Powell’s speech on Friday.

Back in Europe, investors will be perusing the European Central Bank’s accounts of its latest monetary policy discussions, due to be published on Wednesday.

Having hit a 20-year low of $0.9901 on Tuesday, the euro recovered slightly overnight to trade at $0.9950 by mid-morning in London on Wednesday.

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Technology

Engineering Values Handbook – Put a Dent in the Universe > News

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“My best memory of something like this is the process we went through when we built Cross Save. Every step of the way, we were challenging what we thought was possible, what was expected, what was obvious. Our approach was always, “Let’s throw out what we think we know, and make the experience smooth and pleasant.”

The whole thing started with a small project built by five people in a week during Bungie’s first Carnival (a week dedicated to self-directed projects that we aim to have annually) in January 2017, just to show what was possible. Here’s how I got roped into that:

It was a remarkably complicated problem to solve. Summarizing it was easy: we want to give players a way to play using one set of characters on all the platforms they use. Naively, it seems like we should give players a dropdown box with a platform list, and a button to make that their primary and cross-platform account. Here’s what that looked like in the Carnival version:

But there were many more things to account for—what are the side effects of cross saving? What happens to existing characters on the accounts that I can’t access anymore? What if I bought Silver on those accounts? What if I have purchased different expansions on different platforms? What if I haven’t migrated my Blizzard account to Steam yet? Can this system be exploited? Are there any features that are exclusive to certain platforms?

We wanted to build something that felt simple to use but also accounted for all of these concerns players might have, which is a monstrous task, and one that took many iterations of designs between dozens of small teams and hundreds of playtest person-hours to get right. We were doing something with few-to-no reference examples (at the time we were designing it), and it had to work smoothly on day-one, particularly because to solve for some of our requirements, players who mistakenly chose the wrong primary account would be unable to fix it for 90 days.

After the project was over, we met to do a postmortem with everyone involved, to record the successes and failures and what we’d like to keep doing or change in the future. We talked about a lot of things, but I think the main reason that group worked so well together was that we were all so invested in the idea that we were building something fundamentally nascent, a new spark of originality in our corner of the universe. There was some kind of magic that kept us all on the same page, with the same goals, working as a unit to make this thing that was truly new, that would actually put a dent in the universe, and I think we succeeded.”
     Jake Lauer, 2013-

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Business

Bruised stocks find support as growth fears dent commodities By Reuters

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© Reuters. FILE PHOTO: Men wearing protective masks amid the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak, use mobile phones in front of an electronic board displaying Japan’s Nikkei index outside a brokerage in Tokyo, Japan June 16, 2022. REUTERS/Kim Kyung-Hoon

By Tom Westbrook and Sam Byford

SINGAPORE/TOKYO (Reuters) – Global stocks and bonds headed for their first weekly gain in a month on Friday, with growth concerns tempered by hopes that sliding commodity prices can help brake runaway inflation.

MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan rose 1.4% on Friday, helped by short sellers bailing out of Alibaba (NYSE:) – which rose nearly 7% – amid hints that China’s technology crackdown is abating.

rose 1.2% for a 2% weekly gain, while extended overnight gains by 0.76%. EuroSTOXX 50 futures rose 1% and futures rose 0.6%.

The week has been marked by steep declines for commodities on worries that the world economy is looking shaky and that interest rate hikes will hurt growth – which in turn is also prompting traders to pare back some bets on the size of rate hikes.

, a bellwether for economic output with its wide range of industrial and construction uses, is heading for its steepest weekly drop since March 2020. It fell in Shanghai on Friday and is down about 8% on the week.

Oil is also headed for a weekly loss. futures are down 2.5% on the week to $110.35 a barrel, while benchmark grain prices sank with Chicago wheat off more than 8% for the week. [O/R][GRA/]

The falls have made for some relief in equities since energy and food have been the drivers of inflation. After heavy recent losses, MSCI’s World equities index is up 2.3% this week, setting it up for the first weekly gain since May.

“While market worries about an abrupt slowdown are the culprit behind recent moves lower in raw materials prices, lower commodity prices do feel like they could be just what the doctor ordered for the global economy,” said NatWest markets strategist Brian Daingerfield.

“So much of our hard landing fears relate to concerns that link back to commodity prices.”

Soft data through this week has been to blame.

Gauges of factory activity in Japan, Britain, the euro zone and United States all softened in June, with U.S. producers reporting the first outright drop in new orders in two years in the face of slumping confidence.

Bonds rallied hard on hopes the bets on aggressive rate hikes would have to be curtailed, with German two-year yields down 26 basis points on Thursday in their biggest drop since 2008. [GVD/EUR]

The benchmark fell 7 bps on Thursday and was steady at 3.0908%. [US/]

The U.S. dollar has slipped from recent highs, but not too far as investors remain cautious. It was last fairly steady at $1.05395 per euro and bought 134.73 yen. [FRX/]

The battered yen has steadied this week and drew a little support on Friday from Japanese inflation topping the Bank of Japan’s 2% target for a second straight month, putting more pressure on its ultra-easy policy stance.

European Central Bank and Federal Reserve speakers will be watched closely later in the day, as will British retail sales data and German business confidence. Beyond that, the main worry is what it all means for company performance.

“Second quarter earnings reports will send shockwaves to the market as the earnings outlook hasn’t deteriorated materially so far, and that will further build concerns of a recession,” said Charu Chanana, market strategist at brokerage Saxo in Singapore.

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Business

Chip Shortage Makes Big Dent in Automakers’ U.S. Sales

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Four of the biggest sellers of cars and trucks in the United States said Friday that their sales had plunged recently, reflecting the intense squeeze that a global semiconductor shortage has put on auto production.

General Motors, Honda, Nissan and Stellantis reported significant declines in sales in the three months that ended in September — in G.M.’s case, a drop of one-third from a year earlier — as chip shortages forced them to idle plants, leaving dealers with few vehicles to offer customers.

Toyota had a slight increase for the quarter, but its sales in September fell sharply after it was forced to slash global production because of the chip shortage and other disruptions to its parts supplies stemming from the coronavirus pandemic.

“We are in uncharted waters,” said Alan Haig, president of Haig Partners, an automotive consultant. “We’ve never seen a vehicle shortage like this. There are just not enough cars to sell.”

The shortage of semiconductors stems from the beginning of the pandemic, when automakers around the world closed factories for weeks and suddenly cut their orders for computer chips. At the same time, manufacturers of laptops, game consoles and other electronics were demanding more chips as sales of their products took off among homebound consumers.

When automakers resumed production, chip makers had much less production capacity to allocate for automotive chips.

Strong auto sales, spurred in part by government stimulus checks, helped prop up consumer spending during the first year of the pandemic. But now production delays and depleted inventories are hurting sales when waning government support and the rise of the Delta variant of the coronavirus are acting as a drag on consumer spending.

The forecasting firm IHS Markit on Friday lowered its estimate of third-quarter consumer spending growth to an annual rate of just 0.4 percent, down from 12 percent in the second quarter, contributing to a sharp slowdown in overall economic growth.

Automakers have tried to use the electronic components they have in stock for their most profitable vehicles, such as pickup trucks and large sport utility vehicles. But in recent months those models have been affected, too.

With fewer vehicles rolling off assembly lines, dealers’ inventories have become skimpy. On Friday, Kenosha Toyota in Wisconsin had a single new vehicle for sale — a two-wheel-drive Tacoma pickup. Suburban Chevrolet of Ann Arbor in Michigan was displaying just 11 new models for sale on its website.

Despite the shortage, automakers and dealers alike are reaping hefty profits because tight inventories have forced consumers to pay higher prices. J.D. Power estimated that the average selling price of a new vehicle in September was $42,802, up more than $12,000 from the same month in 2020.

“It’s a bonanza for the dealers and the factories, despite the shortage of inventory,” Mr. Haig said.

With new cars scarce, prices of used cars have also shot up. And the latest sales figures raise concerns that the inventory shortage is worsening and crimping sales.

“There are simply not enough vehicles available to meet consumer demand,” said Thomas King, president of J.D. Power’s data and analytics division.

At General Motors, sales were down 33 percent in the quarter. The automaker sold 446,997 vehicles, compared with 665,192 light trucks and cars a year earlier. In the same quarter of 2019, G.M. sold 738,638.

Honda’s sales were down 11 percent in the quarter, to 354,914 cars and trucks. But a decline in September of nearly 25 percent from the prior year showed the increasing squeeze on production. Stellantis, which was formed by the merger of Fiat Chrysler and France’s Peugeot, reported a 19 percent drop in third-quarter sales. At Nissan, the decline was 10 percent.

Toyota said its sales in the quarter were about 1 percent higher than a year earlier, at 566,005. But its sales for September were down 22 percent.

General Motors does not report monthly sales figures. Ford is expected to report its third-quarter sales on Monday.

The shortage of semiconductors has forced manufacturers to idle plants for weeks at a time. G.M. idled several pickup truck plants for parts of August and September. Toyota cut global production by 40 percent in September, and expects a similar cut in October.

General Motors emphasized that a lack of potential buyers was not the problem. “Underlying demand conditions remain strong, thanks to ample job openings, growing pent-up vehicle demand and excess savings accumulated by many households during the pandemic,” Elaine Buckberg, G.M.’s chief economist, said in a company statement.

And the company signaled that the chip supply was improving. “We look forward to a more stable operating environment through the fall,” said Steve Carlisle, the president of G.M. North America.

At the end of September, G.M. had 128,757 vehicles in dealer inventories, down from 211,974 at the end of June and more than 334,000 at the end of the first quarter. In years past, the figure was often about 800,000.

Toyota had 37,516 vehicles on dealer lots at the end of the quarter, and 61,208 at ports serving the U.S. market. At the current sales rate, that is enough to last about 18 days.

Ben Casselman contributed reporting.

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Business

Jeff Bezos is making a ‘dent’ in Van Horn Texas

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Blue Origin founder Jeff Bezos and three passengers react to the historic launch aboard the New Shepard. 

The whole world tuned in Tuesday to watch the richest man in the world, Jeff Bezos, head to space in Blue Origin’s New Shepard rocket. The trip was remarkable to watch, followed by the exciting celebration after landing.

But where did this all take place?

A small town situated between the beautiful Guadalupe Mountains called Van Horn, Texas.

Looking east on Broadway street in downtown Van Horn, Texas on September 17, 2019. There is only one doctor in town but another doctor will have full privileges at the local hospital soon. Dr. Ed Garner is the only doctor for 11,000 square miles of territory in West Texas. He practices out of Culberson Hospital, the only hospital available to serve three counties in and around Van Horn, Texas. The hospital and staff can handle light to mid-level emergencies but for more serious incidents local must travel 120 miles to El Paso, Texas. | Getty Images

Bezos celebrated the quaint town, saying “I also want to thank the town of Van Horn. This is a small and amazing little town. And you know, we’re making a dent in it. And we appreciate you for allowing us to be part of your town” said Bezos after completing his 10 min trip to outer space on Blue Origin’s New Shepard rocket.

Bezos’ Blue Origin flight had been in the works for over a decade, which makes us wonder, why did he choose Van Horn, Texas of all places?

BLUE ORIGIN ALREADY HAS $100M IN PRIVATE SALES AND 2 MORE HUMAN MISSIONS SET FOR THIS YEAR

The town is situated in West Texas, located right off Interstate 10, with a population of a little over 2,000. It is 458 miles from Austin Texas, the lone star state’s capital, and about 30 miles from the Mexico border.

In the mid-2000s, Bezos actually bought more than 150k acres of land just 25 miles away from Van Horn, thinking the land was perfect for designing and testing rocket engines, according to NewsWest9.

Bezos also interviewed with a local newspaper back in 2005, where he expressed his desire for land in West Texas. He mentioned that as a young boy he spent his summers in South Texas at his grandfather’s ranch.

In terms of Van Horn, he felt it was secluded and away from heavily populated areas, making it the perfect spot to test rockets.

RETIRED ASTRONAUT ON BEZOS’ BLUE ORIGIN LAUNCH: THE DOOR OF PRIVATE TOURISM SPACE FLIGHT OPEN

Only a short drive away from Guadalupe Mountains National Park, the town’s economy relies heavily on tourism. A little bit further, about 60 miles to the north is Big Bend and Carlsbad Caverns, as well as an ancient barrier reef that includes the four highest peaks in Texas, which also frequents tourists.

According to the Texas State Historical Association, an estimated 10,000 vehicles pass through the town on Interstate Highway 10, making stops in the town’s hotels, restaurants, convenience stores, and truck stops, while on their way to other destinations.

Interestingly, one famous visitor who frequented the town was football commentator John Madden, who mentioned in Time Magazine a favorite Mexican restaurant in Van Horn, according to TSHA.

Mayor of Van Horn, Rebecca Brewster, said “our biggest driving force is the tourism dollar. We often plug ourselves as the crossroads of the Texas Mountain Trail,” Brewster continued. “[Van Horn] can be your hub for all your adventures in far West Texas.”

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Besides tourism, the town’s residents are also known for working in ranching, mining, and irrigated farming. The oil industry plays an important role in the economy as well.

A member of Culberson County, Van Horn sits in the Permian Basin, which is known as North America’s premier crude-producing region, making it an active spot for corporations involved in the oil industry, including Chevron Corp., Apache Corp, and Conocophillips, according to Bloomberg.

Now with Jeff Bezos making his mark on the town, it will be interesting to see the economic stimulus resulting from Blue Origin, if any.

Housing is lacking in Van Horn and Blue Origin hasn’t helped the problem.

The median home value in Van Horn is estimated at just over $247k, according to Zillow, but much of the available housing has been rented out to Blue Origin employees in recent years. Although the employees are trying to co-exist with the locals, this has posed a problem for the townspeople who now lack housing options.

BLUE ORIGIN, VIRGIN GALACTIC, SPACEX HUBS COULD HELP BOOST LOCAL REAL ESTATE PRICES

Blue Origin employees have made an effort to fit into the small community, many joining the local school board and the town council, as well as becoming volunteer firefighters, but most of these people are still seen as outsiders to Van Horn.

Blue Origin, itself, said it has helped bring in more than one million for the Van Horn community, through grants to benefit the school district, food bank, and town infrastructure, according to Bloomberg. It has also voiced its plan to support higher education and jobs skills funding.

Despite this, Mayor Brewster said there was barely any input from the town’s residents on whether they approved of the launch site being in their home land, NewsWest9 stated.

Back in 2005, when Bezos came to Van Horn to talk through the FAA permitting process, the residents didn’t show much resistance to Bezos’ plans, NewsWest9 continued, and soon after, Blue Origin’s spaceport was built.

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Few jobs at the spaceport have actually went to local residents and many say they have no idea what even goes on at the launch site. Additionally, some feel Blue Origin has actually hurt the town, making them ineligible for state and federal grants due to the influx of Blue Origin workers, Bloomberg stated.

Historically a quaint town, born on the Texas and Pacific Railway, Van Horn has now garnered international fame for better or worse. It will be interesting to see if space tourism is in the cards for this small town’s economy and future.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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