Watson’s Weekly 01-04-2023

This is an amalgamation of the “best bits” of the daily weekday newsletter/blog woven together to form a concise and coherent view on the things that matter in the commercial and economic news of the week. 

THE COLOURED HIGHLIGHT REFERS TO THE EDITION WHERE THE STORY APPEARED IN WATSON’S DAILY. Clicking on the day will take you to the appropriate edition of Watson’s Daily.

IN BIG PICTURE NEWS...

This was the week of CPTPP, Germany showing Europe who’s boss and Disney ditching the metaverse…

  • IN CHINA NEWS – we see that China is retaliating against the West by shutting down access to China’s biggest academic database, the China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI). China continues to pull away from the West (or the West is pushing it away, depending on your point of view). This will make research into China much more difficult.
  • IN RUSSIA NEWSPutin is looking at deploying tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus, it’s now recognising China’s renminbi as one of its main international reserve currencies and it’s now changed the rules so that any Western company leaving Russia will be forced to make a 10% “voluntary contribution” of the sale to the Russian state.
  • IN EUROPESpain is making tough calls on how to deal with its pension shortfall by making its young people contribute more to its social security system. Separately, Spain’s inflation slowed down in March – as did Germany’s – which means that the pressure has eased on the ECB for now.
  • IN TURKEYPresident Erdogan is trying to be nice to the electorate by promising to cut residential and business electricity bills by 15% next month. He is facing elections in the middle of May, so clearly he’s trying to get into everyone’s good books after a patchy response to the terrible recent earthquakes.
  • IN THE UKBritain became a member of the CPTPP trade agreement to great fanfare but it’s difficult to see much practical upside from this as we’ve already got bilateral trade deals with most of the members!
  • MEANWHILEFinland got the clearance to join NATO thanks to Hungary eventually approving its application. Both Sweden and Turkey are now dragging their feet on Sweden’s membership but I would have thought Finland’s entry was more urgent given that it shares a 1,304km border with Russia!

IN OIL NEWS…

  • Commodity trader Vitol saw massive profits last year thanks to the energy crisis. Although rivals including Trafigura, Glencore and Mercuria also did well, Vitol’s performance was even better.

IN BUSINESS TRENDS NEWS…

  • Deal-making over the first quarter was at its lowest levels for ten years as falling valuations and rising interest rates have killed the vibe. Wall Street bonuses have hit their lowest level since 2008 and prospects for this year aren’t looking great either at the moment (although I’d say we have to wait until the dust settles on all this banking stuff first).
  • UK business confidence hit a ten-month high, according to a Lloyds Bank survey. Companies are getting more upbeat about their ability to fill vacancies and the direction of the wider economy.

IN FINANCIALS SECTOR NEWS...

THE IMPACT OF THE BANKING CRISIS CONTINUES…

IN US BANKING NEWS…

IN EUROPEAN BANKING NEWS…

IN OTHER FINANCIALS NEWS…

IN TECH NEWS...

IN AI NEWS…

IN TIKTOK NEWS…

IN OTHER TECH NEWS…

IN CAR-RELATED NEWS...

IN CONSUMER AND RETAIL NEWS...

IN CONSUMER TRENDS…

IN RETAIL NEWS…

IN OTHER NEWS...

BANTER

My favourite “alternative” story this week was actually the video of Jordan Belfort of Wolf of Wall Street fame explaining the concept of sales. I’m not a fan of his or the way he acted but this is a brilliant explanation 👍

 

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