World

Japan's household spending rose for a second consecutive month year-on-year in February, helped by a flattering comparison with last year's sharp pandemic-induced slump, but the consumer sector is now facing growing headwinds from soaring prices. Households cut spending from the previous month as pandemic curbs, rapid food and fuel price rises and the coronavirus kept wallets shut, casting a shadow over the world's third-largest economy. In a sign of trouble for consumer sentiment, real wage growth stagnated in February as global inflationary pressures weighed on household purchasing power. "Prices will outpace wage gains from now on, so consumption will be on a sluggish trend," said Takeshi Minami, chief economist at Norinchukin Research Institute. "While service spending is expected ...

Check out the companies making headlines in midday trading. Twitter — Shares of the social media rose 5.7% on news that Twitter would accept a buyout from Elon Musk to take the company private for $54.20 per share. Penn National Gaming — Shares of the casino and online betting company rose 4.9% after an upgrade from Morgan Stanley. The investment firm hiked its rating to overweight, saying that the recent slump for Penn National's stock made it an attractive valuation and that the company has a better strategy for gaining sports-betting customers than its competitors. Oil stocks — Energy stocks dipped amid renewed fears of a global slowdown as the country grapples with a Covid outbreak. Shares of Chevron and Exxon Mobil fell 2.2% and 3.4%, respectively. Advanced Micro Devices, Marvell ...

Ahead of the November 2019 election, Sri Lankan presidential challenger Gotabaya Rajapaksa proposed sweeping tax cuts so reckless the incumbent government thought it must be a campaign gimmick. The finance minister at the time, Mangala Samaraweera, called a briefing to assail the “dangerous” pledge to reduce the value-added tax to 8% from 15% and scrap other levies. To him, it was simple math: Sri Lanka collected relatively less revenue than nearly any other country, and its high debt load had forced it to seek cash from the International Monetary Fund. “If these proposals are implemented like this not only will the entire country go bankrupt,” the minister warned, “but the entire country will become another Venezuela or another Greece.” It took about 30 months for his prediction to com...

NEW YORK : The dollar surged to a nearly two-year high on Wednesday after minutes of the last Federal Reserve meeting reinforced expectations of multiple half percentage-point rate increases to control soaring inflation. The dollar index, which measures the greenback's value against six major currencies, climbed to 99.7780, its strongest level since late May 2020. It was last up 0.1per cent at 99.588. Fed officials viewed the hefty rate increases as appropriate at future meetings, especially if inflation pressures intensify, minutes showed. They would also have preferred a 50 basis point rise in the target range for the federal funds rate at the March meeting. "There's a realization that some of the doves have come over to the 50 basis point hike territory and that is likely what we're ...

Muslianshah Masrie | Photodisc | Getty Images Are you saving enough now for your eventual retirement? The odds are that you probably aren't. The latest Federal Reserve Survey of Consumer Finances for 2019 found that the median amount of savings in Americans' retirement accounts was $65,000. To say the least, that nest egg will not provide you with a very comfortable retirement. The figure, however, applies to Americans of all ages. When broken down by age groups, Americans between the age of 55 and 64 held a median savings amount of $134,000 — still far from ensuring a long, happy retirement — but significantly better than the national median. Americans under the age of 35, who still have a lot of time to ramp up their savings habits, had a total of $13,000. These days, that would buy you...

Select’s editorial team works independently to review financial products and write articles we think our readers will find useful. We earn a commission from affiliate partners on many offers, but not all offers on Select are from affiliate partners. There are many advantages when it comes to using a personal loan to cover a large expense. For one, personal loans tend to carry lower interest rates compared to credit cards, which makes them a more affordable option for borrowing money. While each lender has its own funding limit, you can also generally apply for up to $100,000, which should allow you to cover big expenses such as surprise medical bills or an emergency home repair. Not only that, funds are typically disbursed directly into your checking account so you can use the money quick...

Bearish bets on most Asian currencies eased as regional central banks sought to normalise policy due to surging inflation, while investors turned bullish on Singapore dollar for the first time in over a month, a Reuters poll found on Thursday. Long positions on the Chinese yuan firmed despite increasing vulnerability from COVID-19 lockdowns, divergence in global and domestic monetary policy cycle, narrowing yield differentials, and headwinds from the Russia-Ukraine conflict. Maybank analysts say strong fundamentals — a solid trade surplus, potential for more monetary accommodation and capacity to boost infrastructure investment to support growth has investors still betting long on the yuan. Traders polled by Reuters have been consistently bullish on the yuan since late October last year...

China’s lockdowns to contain the country’s worst COVID-19 outbreak since early 2020 have battered the economy, stalling production in major technology and financial hubs like Shenzhen and Shanghai, and halting spending by millions of people shut in their homes. The restrictions are intended to eradicate any trace of the virus in the community, but they’ve also pressured everything from manufacturing and trade to inflation and food prices. Premier Li Keqiang has repeatedly warned of risks to economic growth, telling local authorities on Monday they should “add a sense of urgency” when implementing existing policies. The government is holding firm to its “COVID zero” approach for now, a strategy economists say will push growth down to 5% this year, below the official target of around 5.5%....

Soaring fertilizer costs have rice farmers across Asia scaling back their use, a move that threatens harvests of a staple that feeds half of humanity and could lead to a full-blown food crisis if prices aren’t curbed. From India to Vietnam and the Philippines, prices of crop nutrients crucial to boosting food production have doubled or tripled in the past year alone. Lower fertilizer use may mean a smaller crop. The International Rice Research Institute predicts that yields could drop 10% in the next season, translating to a loss of 36 million tons of rice, or the equivalent of feeding 500 million people. That’s a “very conservative estimate,” said Humnath Bhandari, a senior agricultural economist at the institute, adding that the impact could be far more severe should the war in Ukraine...

Select’s editorial team works independently to review financial products and write articles we think our readers will find useful. We earn a commission from affiliate partners on many offers, but not all offers on Select are from affiliate partners. When it comes to investing, you've likely heard the arguments for putting your hard-earned money into exchange-traded funds (ETFs) or mutual funds to diversify your portfolio or to allocate more of your portfolio toward conservative investments like bonds as you age. Before you begin the investing process and siphon away thousands of dollars for retirement or other future financial goals, there's one term you should absolutely familiarize yourself with: expense ratios. Expense ratios can eat away at your investment earnings, so it's important ...