UNITED STATES
Fed poll sees faster growth
The economy grew at a somewhat faster pace in April and last month, despite disruptions that choked supplies to the nation’s manufacturers, the Federal Reserve reported on Wednesday. In the Fed’s latest survey of economic conditions around the nation, known as the “beige book,” several of the central bank’s districts reported that increased vaccination rates and relaxed social distancing measures were having a positive impact on the economy. However, offsetting those gains were headwinds coming from supply chain problems, the report said, adding that the supply chain disruptions added to price pressures. The report is to form the basis of discussion when Fed policymakers meet on June 15 to 16 to decide interest rate trends.
SHIPPING
Ships avoid virus-hit port
The world’s shipping lines are avoiding a key port in China hit by a COVID-19 outbreak, causing increased congestion at other seaports across the nation that could delay the delivery of goods to the US and Europe. Tightened health and safety checks have caused congestion and reduced productivity at the port of Yantian, prompting the cancelation of calls there, a notice from Mediterranean Shipping Co on Wednesday said. The port in Shenzhen stopped accepting export-bound container boxes last week and suspended three berths after a COVID-19 cluster emerged among the port staff and broader community. Shenzhen is the world’s fourth-busiest container port.
TRADE
UK, Australia hold talks
Britain is seeking to remove a 5 percent tariff on exports of Scotch whisky to Australia in an upcoming trade deal, British Secretary of State for International Trade Liz Truss said yesterday. “A UK-Australia trade agreement would be significant for Scotch whisky and the Union,” she said in a statement. Britain and Australia held another round of talks to progress a free-trade deal, the British High Commissioner to Australia Vicki Treadell said in Canberra, as they seek to strike an agreement in the middle of this month. The proposed deal with Australia is the most advanced of several pacts London is pursuing.
MEXICO
Economy to grow 6%: bank
The COVID-19 pandemic-hit economy is expected to grow by 6 percent this year, the Bank of Mexico said on Wednesday, upgrading its outlook for the second time since March. The central bank had predicted growth of 4.8 percent for Latin America’s second-largest economy this year. The brighter outlook reflects strong external demand, mainly from the US, as well as an easing of the pandemic in the nation, one of the worst affected by the virus. The economy shrank 8.5 percent last year, in the worst slump since the Great Depression about nine decades ago.
CRYPTOCURRENCY
Google to allow crypto ads
Alphabet Inc’s Google, the world’s largest digital advertising seller, is to allow companies offering cryptocurrency wallets to run ads beginning in August. Starting in August, Google is to let wallets run ads on search, YouTube and other properties as long as they go through the company’s certification process. Google is making the change “in order to better match existing FinCEN regulations and requirements,” a spokesperson said in a statement on Wednesday. In a blog post, Google specified that the ad ban still exists for initial coin offerings and services that aggregate or compare issuers of cryptocurrencies.
South Korea’s equity benchmark yesterday crossed a new milestone just a month after surpassing the once-unthinkable 5,000 mark as surging global memory demand powers the country’s biggest chipmakers. The KOSPI advanced as much as 2.6 percent to a record 6,123, with Samsung Electronics Co and SK Hynix Inc each gaining more than 2 percent. With the benchmark now up 45 percent this year, South Korea’s stock market capitalization has also moved past France’s, following last month’s overtaking of Germany’s. Long overlooked by foreign funds, despite being undervalued, South Korean stocks have now emerged as clear winners in the global market. The so-called “artificial intelligence
Chinese artificial intelligence (AI) start-up DeepSeek’s (深度求索) latest AI model, set to be released as soon as next week, was trained on Nvidia Corp’s most advanced AI chip, the Blackwell, a senior official of US President Donald Trump’s administration said on Monday, in what could represent a violation of US export controls. The US believes DeepSeek will remove the technical indicators that might reveal its use of American AI chips, the official said, adding that the Blackwells are likely clustered at its data center in Inner Mongolia, an autonomous region of China. The person declined to say how the US government received
‘SEISMIC SHIFT’: The researcher forecast there would be about 1.1 billion mobile shipments this year, down from 1.26 billion the prior year and erasing years of gains The global smartphone market is expected to contract 12.9 percent this year due to the unprecedented memorychip shortage, marking “a crisis like no other,” researcher International Data Corp (IDC) said. The new forecast, a dramatic revision down from earlier estimates, gives the latest accounting of the ongoing memory crunch that is affecting every corner of the electronics industry. The demand for advanced memory to power artificial intelligence (AI) tasks has drained global supply until well into next year and jeopardizes the business model of many smartphone makers. IDC forecast about 1.1 billion mobile shipments this year, down from 1.26 billion the prior
FORTUNES REVERSED: The new 15 percent levies left countries with a 10 percent tariff worse off and stripped away the advantage of those with a 15 percent rate In a swift reversal of fortunes, countries that had been hardest hit by US President Donald Trump’s tariffs have emerged as the biggest winners from the US Supreme Court’s decision to strike down his emergency levies. China, India and Brazil are among those now seeing lower tariff rates for shipments to the US after the court ruled Trump’s use of the International Emergency Economic Powers Act to impose duties was illegal. While Trump subsequently announced plans for a 15 percent global rate, Bloomberg Economics said that would mean an average effective tariff rate of about 12 percent — the lowest since
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