News about finance, currency, securities 9

Tech giants find ways to spend mountains of cash Microsoft spent nearly 70 billion USD in cash to buy game company; Apple pays dividends; while Alphabet, Meta Platforms buy treasury shares. On January 18, Microsoft announced that it would buy the game company Activision Blizzard. This deal attracts attention not only because of the largest scale in the technology industry, but also because Microsoft will pay nearly $ 70 billion entirely in cash. Many mergers and acquisitions (M&A) deals are paid for in stock, or both in stock and in cash. However, with $130.6 billion in cash on its balance sheet, as of the end of September, the software giant still has more than $60 billion to spend. Microsoft isn't the only company sitting on a mountain of cash. As of the end of the third quarter of 2021, Apple has $ 190.5 billion. Alphabet owns $142 billion. Amazon has $79 billion. And Meta Platforms holds 58.1 billion USD. Microsoft will acquire Activision Blizzard for nearly $70 billion. Ph...

 Canadian inflation highest in 30 years Canadian inflation spiked in December 2021 as food prices and home ownership climbed. Canada's consumer price index (CPI) increased by 4.8% in December 2021 compared to the same period in 2020, as announced by Statistics Canada. This is the highest level since September 1991, when inflation reached 5.5%. Last month's CPI increase was also higher than November 2021 (4.7%) and matched the market's forecast, according to TD Securities. Food prices rose 5.2% - the fastest in about 13 years. The cost of owning a home also increased by 5.2% - the highest in about 14 years. This week's data from the Real Estate Association of Canada shows that standard home prices in Canada jumped to a record 26.6% in December. Core inflation (excluding petrol and food prices) is also the highest in 30 years, with an increase of 2.93% in December. Andrew Kelvin, chief strategist at TD Securities, said that the CPI report will make the The Bank of Canada ...

 China cuts lending rates a series of times China continues to lower interest rates as the country's authorities try to prevent the economy from falling deeply. The People's Bank of China (PBOC) today lowered the one-year basic lending rate by 0.1% to 3.7% a year. This is the second time in a month they lower this rate. The PBOC also lowered its 5-year basic lending rate by 0.05% to 4.6%. This is the first time they have lowered this interest rate since April 2020. Interest rates on 1-year loans will affect new loans and existing loans that mature in a short time. The 5-year interest rate is often used as a reference for mortgage loans. Today's PBOC decision is the latest in a series of efforts China has made to ease monetary policy. Authorities are dealing with a plunging property market and slowing economic growth. China grew 8.1% last year. However, the growth rate slowed down in the last quarter of the year. Analysts predict the country will struggle even more this year...

 US home sales highest in 15 years In 2021, low interest rates and high demand helped drive US home sales to a 15-year high. The National Association of Realtors (NAR) has just said, US existing home sales will reach 6.12 million units in 2021, an increase of 8.5% compared to 2020. This is the highest level in the past 15 years. Homes are also selling faster than ever. Many homeowners switch hands within a week of listing, forcing buyers to make quick decisions. Low home loan interest rates have increased demand among all audiences, including first-time home owners, luxury vacation home buyers and investors. Besides, many households have saved more during the pandemic and benefited from the rising stock market. Demand for housing is also growing as more people can now work remotely. Millennials are also entering their early and mid-30s, the time to start buying a home. A house for sale in New Mexico, USA this month. Photo: Zuma Press A house for sale in New Mexico, USA this month. ...

 Evergrande's creditors get impatient A group of bondholders of a Chinese real estate firm threatened to take legal action over the "ambiguous" debt restructuring process. In a statement on January 20, the group said it was "considering serious legal measures" after Evergrande was unable to actively discuss with them the restructuring of its operations. "The company's lack of commitment and opaque decision-making to date is contrary to international standards for restructuring," the group said. The company's conduct has thus "reduced foreign investors' confidence" in being treated fairly when investing in a Chinese company. The group is "ready to do what is necessary to protect legitimate rights and interests". Evergrande declined to comment for this information. However, in a document submitted to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, Evergrande said it would hire more legal and financial advisers to "follow up" the c...

 Lack of drivers, the US wants to let people from 18 years old to drive trucks Instead of having to be 21, 18-year-olds will soon also be allowed to drive commercial trucks under a pilot program as the U.S. red-eyed for drivers. On Tuesday (January 18), the President and CEO of the Freight Association Chris Spear also said that the challenge for the US supply chain is due to "chronic staff shortages", leading to the loss of goods. Goods cannot be unloaded at ports. According to the association's calculations, the trucking industry is short of 81,000 drivers. The Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Administration, part of the U.S. Department of Transportation, has outlined details of a pilot program that will allow 18-year-olds to drive commercial trucks on public roads, except except Hawaii. Currently, the legal age for truck drivers in the US is 21. The program can last up to three years, piloting 3,000 young drivers. They will be required to complete 400 cumulative hours of ap...

 The increasingly difficult growth problem of the parent company TikTok Faced with challenges at home, ByteDance is increasingly leveraging TikTok to find growth opportunities abroad. Revenue of Chinese social media giant ByteDance 2021 reached 58 billion USD, up 70% compared to 2020. This is a slow growth compared to more than double the previous level. The reason is that Beijing tightens supervision of the Internet sector and the economic downturn affects advertising revenue. Over the past year, Chinese authorities have enacted antitrust and data collection regulations to limit the influence of leading technology companies. The country's leaders criticize the disorderly expansion of technology firms. At the same time, they are concerned about the cybersecurity and social stability risks arising from companies controlling data and affecting the daily lives of millions of people. The name ByteDance at a corporate headquarters. Photo: Nikkei The name ByteDance at a corporate headqua...

 Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos lost tens of billions of dollars because of stocks, cryptocurrencies Musk - the world's richest man lost $ 25 billion this week, while Bezos' fortune fell $ 20 billion. This week has been a traumatic week for global billionaires, as everything from e-commerce to cryptocurrencies to online games went down. US stocks even recorded the biggest weekly decline since the beginning of the pandemic, due to the possibility of the US Federal Reserve (Fed) raising interest rates. Elon Musk - the world's richest man lost $25.1 billion, or more than 9% of his fortune - this week. Amazon founder Jeff Bezos' fortune fell by $20 billion. CEO Changpeng Zhao of Binance cryptocurrency exchange lost $17.7 billion, now remaining $75 billion. Meanwhile, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg saw his fortune evaporated by 10.4 billion USD. Jeff Bezos (left) and Elon Musk (right). Photo: Reuters Jeff Bezos (left) and Elon Musk (right). Photo: Reuters Cryptocurrencies are one of th...

 Despite the loss, El Salvador still bought another 15 million USD in Bitcoin El Salvador started buying Bitcoin when the price was around 50,000 USD and now each coin is around 36,400 USD. El Salvador President Nayib Bukele – who is famous for “bottoming” Bitcoin in every sell-off – announced the Central American country was buying more of the digital currency when the price dropped 11% on January 21. On Twitter, he wrote: "I didn't miss. El Salvador just bought 410 Bitcoins for only $15 million. Some people sold it for real cheap." Based on his Twitter announcements, El Salvador bought at least 1,391 Bitcoins by January 21st. The country started buying Bitcoin in September 2021 when Bukele promoted plans to make El Salvador the first country to recognize Bitcoin as legal currency. El Salvador President Nayib Bukele. Photo: Bloomberg El Salvador President Nayib Bukele. Photo: Bloomberg Bitcoin was then worth about $50,000 a coin. El Salvador then continued to buy more wh...

 The year of strong acquisitions of Amazon, Microsoft, Alphabet US Big Tech just had 2021 with the most acquisitions of the past decade, according to financial technology platform Dealogic. According to Dealogic data, Microsoft, Amazon and Alphabet have announced more acquisitions in 2021 than in any other year in the past decade. Specifically, Alphabet's 22 deals, Microsoft's 56 deals and Amazon's 29 deals in 2021 are all 10-year highs. Dealogic data only takes into account publicly disclosed transaction value, but based on those records, Alphabet and Microsoft's total transaction volumes are also at 10-year highs, at $22 billion and $25, respectively. $ ,7 billion. Amazon's total transaction volume, at $15.7 billion, comes only after 2017, when it bought Whole Foods for $13.7 billion. The acquisition speed of technology giants (Big Tech) increasingly challenges the capacity of regulatory agencies. In the seven months since Lina Khan took over as Chair of the US Fe...

 Lotte acquires Ministop in Korea Ministop, a member of Aeon retail group (Japan), is about to sell its Korean subsidiary to Lotte. The deal is worth about 30.4 billion yen ($267 million) after it was approved by the antitrust watchdog. Ministop Korea is the fifth largest convenience store chain in South Korea with approximately 2,600 locations. The chain entered the market in 1990, but has suffered from increasingly stiff competition in recent years. For the fiscal year ended February 2021, the chain's operating revenue fell 6% to JPY 97.9 billion, and net loss increased to JPY 1.2 billion from a loss of JPY 100 million in the same period last year. before. Korea has 1.9 times more convenience stores per capita than Japan. Many of these stores are small in scale. Rising minimum wages have eroded the profits of both the franchisor and the parent company, leading to a protracted price war. The deal will provide Lotte - the operator of the 7-Eleven chain in South Korea - with dozens ...