Pandemic Financial News

Some investors are overestimating the stockpile of Chinese money that could be converted back into yuan, as firms may not yet be ready to abandon dollar holdings, according to Goldman Sachs Group Inc.

The Fountain, produced by Darren Aronofsky and Ari Handel, about a man searching for everlasting youth, had this chilling dialogue: “Death is a disease, it’s like any other. And there’s a cure. A cure—and I will find it." No other words are more apt than this film dialogue to describe this moment in human endeavour when Death is the unparalleled villain.

The policy was introduced in August 2020 to assist visitors in Canada who were unable to return home because of border closures related to the COVID-19 pandemic. Under the policy, they could apply for a work permit without having to leave Canada. Also, anyone who had held a work permit within the preceding 12 months but had changed their immigrations status to “visitor” became eligible to “work legally in Canada while waiting for a decision on their new work permit application.”

With fewer Canadians working from home full-time, the “era of shorter commuting times has come to an end,” according to Statistics Canada.

Maruti Suzuki, Hyundai Motor India and Toyota Kirloskar Motor are among automakers gearing up to introduce more than half a dozen seven-seater utility vehicles over the next year to capitalise on surging demand for larger passenger vehicles, with buyers opting to travel more with families since the pandemic. While first of the block will be the facelift version of Hyundai’s Alcazar model in early September, Maruti Suzuki and Toyota are readying seven-seater versions of the Grand Vitara and the Hyryder sport-utility vehicles respectively for launch in 2025. Korea’s Kia too is likely to roll out a seven-seater EV based on its popular UV model, Carens next year, people said. Others include upgraded versions of MG Motor’s Gloster, Jeep’s Meridian and Kia’s Carnival models at the more premium end of the market.

Fintechs with names like Chime Financial and Credit Sesame are advertising an unusual perk on some of their products: Customers can boost their credit scores without ever borrowing or paying back any money. Millions of Americans have opened these so-called credit-builder cards since the first major ones came onto the market around the start of the pandemic. Customers deposit money into these accounts to pay bills or make purchases, much like with a debit card.

Vice President Kamala Harris has a new advertising push to draw attention to her plan to build 3 million new homes over four years

American consumers felt more confident as their outlook for the future improved.

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg says senior Biden administration officials pressured Facebook to “censor” some COVID-19 content during the pandemic

While many costs have come down for small business, rents remain high and in some cases are still rising, forcing many owners into some uncomfortable decisions

An Equifax Canada report says missed credit payments were higher among younger Canadians in the second quarter due to living costs and unemployment.

Since last March, Taylor Swift has donated the equivalent of hundreds of thousands of meals to help feed the growing number of Americans grappling with rising food and housing costs

National Association of Home Builders CEO Jim Tobin discusses Vice President Kamala Harris pushing a tax incentive to build homes on ‘Maria Bartiromo’s Wall Street.’

Canada’s government says it is imposing a 100% tariff on imports of Chinese-made electric vehicles that matches U.S. tariffs and follows similar plans announced by the European Commission

Canadian real estate investment trusts are primed for a rebound as investors grow more confident in near-term interest rate cuts across North America, according to TD Cowen.

Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell all but proclaimed mission accomplished in the fight against inflation and signaled that interest rate cuts are coming in a much-anticipated speech in Jackson Hole, Wyoming

Even as the trains start to chug again along Canadian railways, there are fears of another labour dispute among pilots at Air Canada grounding jets across the country in just a few weeks’ time.

North Carolina’s highest court says a racetrack shuttered for defying state gathering limits during the pandemic can sue the state’s top health regulator

₹3,01,684 crore into the Indian stock markets till 21 August, up nearly threefold from ₹1,08,887 crore a year earlier. At the same time, foreign institutional investors (FIIs) cut their investments to ₹15,940 crore from ₹1,40,105 crore a year earlier.

India's flexible inflation targeting has been a useful tool to deal with unexpected shocks of various kinds, said Jayanth Varma, the Monetary Policy Committee's (MPC) consistent dissenter who attended his last meeting as an external member in August. Since his first meeting at the Reserve Bank of India's rate-setting panel four years ago, Varma's view on interest rates and monetary policy stance has diverged from the consensus opinion. At a time of accommodative monetary policy after the pandemic outbreak, Varma had argued for normalizing the policy stance.

Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said on Friday «the time has come» for the U.S. central bank to cut interest rates as rising risks to the job market left no room for further weakness and inflation was in reach of the Fed's 2% target, offering an explicit endorsement of an imminent policy easing. «The upside risks to inflation have diminished. And the downside risks to employment have increased,» Powell said in a highly anticipated speech to the Kansas City Fed's annual economic conference in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. «The time has come for policy to adjust. The direction of travel is clear, and the timing and pace of rate cuts will depend on incoming data, the evolving outlook, and the balance of risks.» Referencing the two goals that the Fed is tasked by Congress to achieve, Powell said his «confidence has grown that inflation is on a sustainable path back to 2%,» after rising to about 7% during the COVID-19 pandemic, while unemployment is increasing.