Usa Financial News

Suez Canal. Supply chain struggles are now back on the agenda. Container ships are being forced to avoid the Red Sea and Suez Canal, the main route for shipments from Asia to Europe and an important one for deliveries to the US East Coast, after Iran-backed Houthi rebels started attacking ships as part of a campaign against Israel.

Gold rate today: Despite swift recovery from the one-month low, gold price ended 0.30 per cent lower in the week gone by. The gold futures contract for February 2024 expiry on Multi Commodity Exchange (MCX) finished at ₹62,390 per 10 gm level on Friday, logging a marginal intraday gain of ₹28 per 10 gm. In the international market, spot gold price closed at $2,048 per ounce level.

Mint takes a closer look at the situation. For close to two months, attacks on ships on the vital Red Sea routes have troubled the international community. The Houthis, a rebel group in northern Yemen, have launched these attacks in an effort to punish Israel, a key link along the trade route, for its military offensive in Gaza.

India will become the third largest economy in FY28, finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman said at the recent Vibrant Gujarat summit. This is the view of the International Monetary Fund as well, and is a good thing, but it won’t by itself bring major improvements to the quality of life of the average Indian. Unless India can achieve double-digit growth for a decade or more, GDP per capita will remain low, not just relative to that of larger economies, but to those of middle-income countries as well.

bank earnings offset cooler-than-expected inflation news that buoyed hopes for interest-rate cuts from the Federal Reserve. On Friday, data showed U.S. producer prices unexpectedly fell in December as the cost of goods such as food and diesel fuel declined, while prices for services were unchanged for a third consecutive month, in contrast to Thursday's hotter-than-expected consumer inflation reading. Expectations for a rate cut of at least 25 basis points by the Fed in March moved up to 79.5%, according to CME's FedWatch Tool, from 73.2% in the prior session.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Friday raised concerns over China's human rights issues in a meeting with senior Chinese official Liu Jianchao in Washington, the State Department said, adding they also discussed «maintaining peace and stability» in the Taiwan Strait. WHY IT IS IMPORTANT

struggling group. The energy sector has slumped nearly 3% since late October, a period during which the S&P 500 has surged 16%. The benchmark index rose 24% for all of 2023, while energy fell 4.8%, the second-largest drop last year among S&P 500 sectors. The sector's struggles have continued even as other economically sensitive groups such as banks and small-cap stocks have benefited from investors' growing belief that the economy will be able to navigate a «soft landing» where growth remains stable while inflation subsides. One key reason for the sector's underperformance has been a sharp downturn in oil prices.

information technology shares as investors judged the third-quarter earnings of sector leaders-TCS and Infosys-weren't as adverse as expected. The optimism inspired markets to overlook the escalating tensions in the Red Sea, which caused a jump in oil prices to $80 a barrel, and a hotter US consumer inflation report in December. The BSE Sensex gained 847.27 points, or 1.2%, to close at 72,568.45, off the record high of 72,720.96.

U.S. Navy on Friday warned American-flagged vessels to steer clear of areas around Yemen in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden for the next 72 hours after the U.S. and Britain launched multiple airstrikes targeting Houthi rebels. The warning in a notice to shippers came as Yemen's Houthis vowed fierce retaliation for the U.S.-led strikes, further raising the prospect of a wider conflict in a region already beset by Israel's war in Gaza. U.S.

Yemen that they have determined was putting commercial vessels in the Red Sea at risk. That's according to two U.S. officials who spoke anonymously to The Associated Press to discuss an operation that hadn't yet been publicly announced.

Europe’s governments rushed to borrow money this week, drawing record demand from global investors keen to secure bonds with solid yields while they still can.

By Julie Zhu and Anirban Sen

‘Ram Mandir’ consecration ceremony that is scheduled to take place in the temple town of Uttar Pradesh, Ayodhya, on January 22. The grand event will be live-streamed at the iconic Times Square in New York City.

Meghan Markle’s memoir likely to put spotlight on Royal family members: Report The relationship of Harry with William and his wife Kate Middleton hit rock bottom that day. Prince Harry and his wife Meghan Markle were leaving the Royal Family as working family members. Kate Middleton can’t trust Harry-Meghan anymore In the book Spare, Harry penned, "He'd used the secret code".

By Noel Randewich

Tesla shares dropped in trade after the carmaker said its lone European factory will be disrupted by attacks in the Red Sea. It also cut car prices in China. The company reduced starting prices of the Model 3 sedan by 5.9% to 245,900 yuan ($34,300) and marked down the Model Y sport utility vehicle by 2.8% to 258,900 yuan, according to its website. Hours earlier, Tesla told Reuters it will suspend most production at its Model Y plant near Berlin from Jan.

rupee closed at its strongest level in four months on Friday, kicking off 2024 as an outperformer among Asia-Pacific currencies, as US dollar flows have poured in ahead of India's inclusion in global bond indices, while an optimistic view on GDP growth burnishes the country's appeal. So far in January, the rupee has gained 0.4%, with the currency closing at 82.92/$1 on Friday, its strongest closing level since September 12, 2023, Bloomberg data showed. The rupee, which closed at 83.03/$1 on Thursday, weakened 0.6% in 2023 on a closing basis.

Investors started trading in Bitcoin Exchange-Traded Funds (ETFs) in the US on Friday after the Securities Exchange Commission (SEC) allowed 11 asset managers, including BlackRock, Fidelity, Invesco, and ARK Investments to launch the product. This is considered a watershed moment for the crypto industry, which includes all kinds of digital currencies, including bitcoin, as investors now have a chance to buy these digital currencies in a regulated environment. What's a bitcoin exchange traded fund (ETF)? Bitcoin ETFs are instruments which are traded publicly on a stock exchange that enable investors to gain exposure to bitcoin without actually owning the cryptocurrency. An ETF is an investment fund that tracks the performance of an underlying asset. The underlying asset could be a portfolio of stocks, or fixed income securities, or a precious metal like gold or silver or bitcoin. ETFs trade real time on traditional stock exchanges, and the price moves up or down in line with that of the underlying asset. How do bitcoins in the ETF format help investors? When you invest in a bitcoin ETF, you're not directly purchasing it but instead buying units in a mutual fund that holds bitcoin. Since ETFs are regulated, it is easier for investors to gain exposure to bitcoin's price movements without having to worry about buying and storing the digital currency and the associated risks of an unregulated product. Also, now investors can bet on crypto without opening an account with a crypto exchange or setting up a digital wallet for the storage, which is considered a complicated process.

Ram Temple in Ayodhya on January 22, giant billboards of Lord Ram and the majestic shrine in the temple town of Uttar Pradesh have gone up in more than 10 states, thousands of miles away in the United States. The Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP), US chapter, in association with Hindus from across the US, have put up more than 40 billboards in 10 states and more, displaying the message around the the grand 'Pran Pratishtha' ceremony at the birthplace of Shri Ram Lalla in Ayodhya on January 22.

Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) said late on Friday it will require inspections of 40 Boeing 737 MAX 9 airplanes and will review data from those checks before allowing the planes to resume flights. The announcement will push any resumption of flights into next week at the earliest.

HCLTech, India's third-largest software exporter, bucked the prevailing trend of tepid growth in the $245-billion IT services industry to post better-than-expected numbers in the third quarter of the current financial year. Its net profit rose 6.2% on year to Rs 4,350 crore for the October-December 2023 period, while revenues rose 6.5% to Rs 28,446 crore. Meanwhile, Wipro — the fourth in the quartet of India's top IT firms — reported a steep 12% year-on-year fall in profits and a 4.4% dip in revenue in what is traditionally viewed as a slow quarter for the technology industry.