Intel Corp scrapped its $5.4 billion deal to buy Israeli contract chipmaker Tower Semiconductor Ltd after their merger agreement expired without regulatory approval from China. U.S.-listed shares of the Israeli company fell about 11% in premarket trading. Intel, which had decided to buy Tower last year, will pay a termination fee of $353 million to the latter, […]
The S&P 500 and Dow rose on Wednesday as Target’s upbeat quarterly profit lifted the retail sector, while investors awaited minutes of the Federal Reserve’s July policy meeting for cues on the central bank’s interest rate path. Target shares gained 3% after the big-box retailer’s second-quarter profit beat estimates, dwarfing its annual forecast cut. Department stores […]
The Dutch economy has entered a recession as it shrank 0.3% on a quarterly basis in the second quarter, a first estimate published by Statistics Netherlands on Wednesday showed. The euro zone’s fifth largest economy shrank for the second consecutive quarter, after a 0.4% contraction in the first three months of the year. Economic growth […]
The World Bank’s food price index has been relatively stable during the past seven months as declines in the prices of grains offset increases in other food items. However, the index remains over 50 percent above its pre-pandemic nominal average (2015-19). Despite the non-renewal of the Black Sea Grain Initiative and India’s export ban of […]
It is commonly believed that adjustable-rate mortgages make contractionary monetary policy stronger, by allowing a faster pass-through of policy rates and therefore decreasing aggregate demand. This column argues that this view is incomplete and does not account for the favourable impact of higher interest rates on bank interest income and credit supply. Using US banking […]
Increasing numbers of countries are introducing privacy legislation to protect users’ data. But while consumers value their privacy and protection from potential misuse of data, fintech firms often rely on personal data to innovate and provide new products and services. This column presents evidence that the California Consumer Privacy Act in the US mitigated this […]
AMC Entertainment Holdings said on Monday its 10-to-1 reverse stock split will take place on Aug. 24 and its preferred shares “APE” will be converted to common stock on Aug. 25. The common shares of the theatre chain operator fell 38% to $3.25 in premarket trading, while its preferred shares rose 18% to $2.09. AMC aims […]
Shares of U.S. Steel jumped about 33% in mid-day trade on Monday, after the steelmaker rejected a $7.3-billion buyout offer from Cleveland-Cliffs but said it would review its options following “multiple unsolicited proposals” from other unnamed bidders. Even though U.S. Steel has so far rejected entreaties from Cleveland-Cliffs, shares surged on Monday, reflecting expectations that the Pittsburgh-based […]
The S&P 500 and the Nasdaq rose on Monday as chipmaker Nvidia spearheaded gains among megacap growth stocks while investors also awaited earning reports from U.S. retail giants and economic data later in the week. Shares of Nvidia rose 5.4%, pushing the information technology index up 1.4% at the top of the S&P 500 sectoral gainers. Other […]
Statistical learning models are increasingly used for decision-making in private and public organisations. This column discusses how they could be usefully applied to predict export success with firms’ financial accounts. After training algorithms on the experience of exporters and non-exporters, one can obtain out-of-sample probabilistic scores that catch the distance of a company from exporting […]
