Aurelia Butler

More stories

  • 163 Shares109 Views

    in Economy

    Brazil’s economy likely surged back in Q1 powered by record crops: Reuters poll

    BUENOS AIRES (Reuters) – Brazil’s economy likely surged back to growth in the first quarter of the year, powered by record-breaking crops and solid crude oil output that more than offset the drag of subdued manufacturing activity, a Reuters poll of economists showed.Strong exports by commodities-producing sectors were seen adding to resilient private consumption in lifting gross domestic product (GDP), despite the negative effects of high interest rates and a worrying rise in government debt.GDP is forecast to increase 1.3% in January-March over the fourth quarter, after a 0.2% contraction in the last three months of 2022, according to the median estimate of 18 forecasts taken between May 24 and 30. The data is due on Thursday. “Economic activity indicators have been surprising to the upside throughout 1Q23. The agriculture sector has been performing very well and Brazil is set to have a record high harvest of grain this year,” HSBC analysts wrote in a report.The country logged big trade surpluses at the start of 2023, derived from extraordinary yields in its harvest of soybeans and corn. This coincided with a boom in oil exports as drilling operations multiply.Meanwhile, consumer spending has remained firm thanks to a pause in inflationary trends this year that is giving Brazilian households a boost and driving higher than expected retail sales.President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva’s initiative to reinforce welfare programmes is also expected to be reflected in last quarter’s figures, with rising public expenditure pushing primary deficits above estimates.But industrial production in general stayed relatively muted in the first three months, struggling to gather steam in the face of the central bank’s reluctance to cut its benchmark rate that, at a steep 13.75%, is choking credit.Such high financial costs, besides Lula’s increased social spending, is causing Brazil’s debt trajectory to worsen further. This has prompted the government and its allies to press on with the approval of new fiscal rules in Congress.Improving sentiment is leading to upgrades in growth estimates for this year and 2024. Last week, JPMorgan (NYSE:JPM) raised its 2023 GDP growth forecast to 1.7% from 0.9% and next year’s projection to 1.0% from 0.8%.Investors are giving Lula’s government the benefit of the doubt so far, which has translated into a spell of calm in financial markets. Stats agency IBGE is set to publish GDP data on Thursday at 0900 local time (1200 GMT). (Reporting and polling by Gabriel Burin; Editing by Jonathan Cable, Ross Finley and David Holmes) More

  • 125 Shares109 Views

    in Economy

    Renewable fuels to drive Neste’s growth this year – CEO

    By Trixie Yap and Florence TanSINGAPORE (Reuters) – Finnish refiner Neste expects renewable fuels from its new facilities in Singapore and the U.S. to drive its growth this year despite expectations of lower oil product margins in the second quarter, its chief executive said on Wednesday.”The macroeconomic situation is something that is affecting many businesses,” Matti Lehmus said in an interview.”We, for example, also highlighted that in our oil products business, we would expect the refining and margin environment in the second quarter to be clearly lower than in the first quarter,” he added.However, the company has opened a second 1.3 million tonne-per-year (tpy) renewable fuels plant in Singapore, bringing total capacity of sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) to 1 million tpy at the site.”For Neste, it is a year of growth. We are just starting up our expansion here in Singapore,” Lehmus said.The Singapore plant is ramping up production after it was started up in mid-April, said Lehmus. “It will take several quarters for it to come to 100% (nameplate) production.”Neste will also start up the second and third phases of its U.S. renewable diesel joint venture with Marathon Petroleum Corp (NYSE:MPC) in autumn that will include a feedstock pre-treatment unit, Lehmus said.In Singapore, Neste said on Wednesday it was buying a stake in a fuel storage and infrastructure joint venture at Singapore’s Changi Airport for SAF blending and supply to airplanes.Neste has also previously supplied SAF to a number of airports in Japan and New Zealand, Lehmus said.Neste produces renewable fuels, mainly from waste and residues such as used cooking oil and animal fat from food industry waste.The company expects waste and residues to account for over 90% of its feedstock for the foreseeable future, Lehmus said, while it continues to research new ones such as algae and hydrogen.Sourcing for sustainable raw materials is a major challenge faced by biofuels producers. Separately, Neste expects to make a final investment decision on its green hydrogen project at its Porvoo refinery in Finland in early 2024. If it goes ahead, production of the renewable fuel could start in 2026 and be primarily used in its refinery’s processes, replacing fuel produced from fossil feedstocks, the company said.”Longer term, if the availability of green hydrogen can be scaled up, it offers then the possibility to also further convert green hydrogen into fuels or chemicals,” added Lehmus.The production of synthetic fuels from green hydrogen and carbon dioxide hasn’t been commercialised and is costly. More

  • 125 Shares169 Views

    in Cryptocurrency

    Saifedean Ammous Joins El Salvador’s Bitcoin Team as Economic Advisor

    El Salvador’s National Bitcoin Office (ONBTC) has appointed esteemed economist and cryptocurrency advisor Saifedean Ammous as its newest economic advisor. President Nayib Bukele has enlisted the author of “The Bitcoin Standard,” a famous book in the cryptocurrency space, to join his Bitcoin team, according to a statement released on May 30.Bitcoiner Ammous, renowned for his expertise as an Austrian economist and best-selling author, brings a wealth of knowledge to the role. The Bitcoin Office stated, “Saifedean will make a great addition to President Bukele’s Bitcoin team.”ONBTC reported that Ammous would be an advisor for matters related to various economic policies. Notably, he has opted not to receive payment for his services, expressing his dedication solely to supporting President Bukele’s Bitcoin policy of economic liberty and Bitcoin.Expressing his excitement about his new role, Ammous took to Twitter, stating that he is “thrilled, honored, and excited to start working” in the first country in the world to adopt Bitcoin as a legal tender.During an interview with local media outlet Diario El Salvador, Ammous shared his perspectives on El Salvador’s Bitcoin strategy. He expressed his belief that over time, the people of El Salvador will seek to accumulate more Bitcoin than those in other countries. When asked if having a Bitcoin reserve could lead to a debt-free El Salvador, the advisor responded,Recently, Ammous traveled to El Salvador and met with President Bukele to discuss the significant advantages of embracing economic freedom as a policy approach. Their discussions covered various topics, including economics, hydroponics, cattle breeding, and urban planning.During his stay, Ammous also delivered lectures to students of CUBO+, a Bitcoin and Lightning Network developers program aimed at teaching locals the code and concepts surrounding these technologies.The post Saifedean Ammous Joins El Salvador’s Bitcoin Team as Economic Advisor appeared first on Coin Edition.See original on CoinEdition More

  • 113 Shares119 Views

    in Cryptocurrency

    Solana Labs Unveils v1.14 Upgrade, Bringing Enhancements to Network

    On May 31, Solana Labs announced that 97.4% of the stakeholders had embraced the v1.14 upgrade of the validator client. The platform published a blog unveiling what v1.14 unlocks and how the upgrade works.In the article, Solana Labs recapped that following a series of upgrades, Solana Labs engineers suggested that all mainnet-beta validators adopt v1.14 for the Solana Labs validator client on May 21. However, yesterday the 97.4% adoption news was published.Solana Labs highlights that the release of the validator client version 1.14 brings a range of noteworthy enhancements aimed at enhancing the Solana network’s user experience. It is important to note that while these features are part of the release, their availability is contingent upon the activation of the feature gate.Nevertheless, it also mentions that the network experience will largely remain unaltered until dApps and projects within the ecosystem leverage these new features.Moreover, version 1.14 include the permissionless deactivation of delinquent stake, addressing the issue of blocks being skipped and overall network performance degradation. It introduces the concept of minimum stake delegation, pending validator governance approval, and the implementation of a new RPC (NYSE:RES) for retrieving the current minimum stake delegation.Raj Gokal, the co-founder of Solana, expressed in a recent interview that he believes that Solana has the potential to become the Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) of the crypto industry.Gokal parallels Apple’s focus on user experience and performance over the years. He highlighted Apple’s decade-long dedication to perfecting touchscreen latency, which ultimately resulted in the groundbreaking release of the iPhone.The post Solana Labs Unveils v1.14 Upgrade, Bringing Enhancements to Network appeared first on Coin Edition.See original on CoinEdition More

  • 125 Shares189 Views

    in Economy

    Fed’s Bowman says housing market rebound could impact inflation fight

    “We expect lower rents will eventually be reflected in inflation data as new leases make their way into the calculations,” Bowman said in prepared remarks to a “Fed Listens” community event in Boston focused on the job market and affordable housing.Fed policymakers have for several months said they were counting on easing rental inflation to eventually lower the headline inflation numbers, since rents are factored into the data using a yearly average. But potentially offsetting that, “the residential real estate market appears to be rebounding,” Bowman said. Home prices have been “leveling out recently, which has implications for our fight to lower inflation.” Bowman, who has been among the more hawkish Fed officials, did not say how a housing rebound might influence her policy views or the Fed’s decision of whether or not to raise interest rates at its June 13-14 meeting.It does suggest skepticism, however, about one of the aspects of inflation that Fed officials have expected to turn in their favor.When the Fed began to signal it was going to raise rates in the fall of 2021, and then followed through with an aggressive rate hiking cycle that kicked off in March of the following year, home mortgage rates also escalated. A slowdown in sales and a drop in prices followed.But that process may have reached a bottom, with the S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller national index of home prices rising in February and March on a month-over-month basis.Building starts and permits may have also reached their low points, and sentiment among home builders has been improving. More

  • 150 Shares189 Views

    in Economy

    Germany home prices to fall modestly this year and next: Reuters poll

    BENGALURU (Reuters) – Home prices in Germany are forecast to correct modestly this year and decline a bit more in 2024 as a series of interest rate rises further cools hot demand for property during the pandemic, according to analysts polled by Reuters.Higher borrowing costs, along with still-elevated consumer inflation, dragged average residential prices down 3.6% in the final quarter of 2022 on a year earlier, their biggest decrease since the 2007-08 financial crisis.Rate rises have also pushed Europe’s biggest economic engine into a mild recession. But the recent decline in home prices is small compared to around a 25% surge since the COVID pandemic began.With the European Central Bank widely expected to deliver at least two more 25 basis point rate hikes, the cost of owning a home for the first time could remain prohibitive for many prospective buyers.Average home prices are expected to decline 5.5% this year, according to the median view from a May 16-31 poll of 10 property experts, broadly unchanged from a February survey.That would be the biggest annual fall since official data was first published a little over two decades ago. House prices were forecast to decline another 2% next year.”Higher interest rates significantly reduce the demand and therefore lead to price reductions … in this and the next few years. Nevertheless, supply will remain short, which prevents housing prices from slipping off,” said Sebastian Schnejdar, senior real estate analyst at BayernLB.”Despite light price reductions, home prices will still be high. Therefore, German first-time homeownership rates will stay low.”The median forecast for peak-to-trough fall was 10.0%, slightly lower than the 11.5% predicted in a February poll, with the steepest forecast at 12.5%.Over three-quarters of respondents, seven of nine, said a significant downturn was more likely than a rebound in home prices for the rest of 2023. But a tight supply indicates any decline in prices could be limited.Building permits for homes plummeted nearly 26% annually during the first quarter of 2023 partially due to high material costs, according to the Federal Statistics Office.Still, respondents were split on whether purchasing affordability for first-time home buyers would worsen or improve over the coming year.”Although house prices have fallen and wages have risen, affordability has continued to worsen,” said Carsten Brzeski, global head of macro at ING. “Looking ahead, house prices are not expected to fall sharply enough or wages to increase significantly enough to compensate for the rise in financing costs.” (For other stories from the Reuters quarterly housing market polls:) More

  • 100 Shares99 Views

    in Economy

    JPMorgan’s Dimon says US, China need ‘real engagement’

    Dimon is on his first visit to China since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic and his first since he joked in 2021 that JPMorgan will outlast China’s Communist Party, sparking outrage in China and prompting him to express regret.”If you have more uncertainty, somewhat caused by the Chinese government . . . it’s going to not just change foreign direct investment. It’s going to change the people here, their own confidence to invest,” Dimon said in an interview with Bloomberg TV.The world’s second-largest economy is emerging from three years of pandemic lockdowns, but the recovery has been uneven. China’s factory activity shrank faster than expected in May on weakening demand, according to data released on Wednesday.A two-year long crackdown on the technology sector has also led to some uncertainty about business prospects in the country. China has since eased the crackdown and stepped up support for private companies.Dimon, who has in recent years boosted JPMorgan’s China presence, also said that he favours East-West “derisking” rather than decoupling.”Let’s not try to decouple. Let’s not try to hurt China, the Chinese people,” he said at the three-day JPMorgan Global China Summit in Shanghai.”I liked the fact that Janet Yellen, Secretary of Treasury, President Biden, the National Security Adviser, and Secretary of State have been talking about derisking,” Dimon said.The CEO of the biggest U.S. bank said the countries’ disputes over security and free and fair trade issues are all “resolvable.””You’re not going to fix these things if you are just sitting across the Pacific yelling at each other. So I’m hoping we have real engagement,” Dimon said.The communist party chief of Shanghai shook hands with Dimon on Tuesday, telling him the city hoped the bank would continue to promote investment in the financial hub by international financial institutions.However, expansion in China is not all smooth sailing and is taking longer than the U.S. bank anticipated. “It will be a longer journey than we would wish to gradually build up scale and reputation to do business,” its China CEO Mark Leung said in a Bloomberg interview on Wednesday. More

  • 125 Shares189 Views

    in Cryptocurrency

    The Top 10 Crypto Categories That Investors Should Know Of

    With the current bear market reaching its end, many crypto investors are building their portfolios with the aim of generating the biggest returns in the next bull run. To help investors, Coin Bureau recently shared their top crypto picks in a video uploaded to YouTube yesterday.In the video, they broke down their list into 10 categories, as well as explained some of the challenges and opportunities associated with each category. This video comes after many altcoins printed lower lows on their charts for the past few months.The first category of cryptos covered in the video is Solana killers. The market used to focus on projects that would potentially overtake Ethereum (ETH), however, it has become abundantly clear that the Ethereum blockchain is here to stay, according to Coin Bureau. Solana killers mentioned in the video included Sui (SUI), Aptos (APT), and Near Protocol (NEAR).These 3 projects have the potential to overtake Solana provided the project is unable to survive the aftermath of the FTX collapse. Should Solana overcome the challenges that the recent FTX collapse has brought onto it, as well as maintain its lead against SUI, APT, and NEAR, then Coin Bureau believes that SOL will also be a crypto to watch in the next bull run.Since ETH has established its dominant market presence, investors will look to Layer-1 projects such as the ones mentioned in this article, which could lead to more than 10x gains for long-term investors. On the other hand, Coin Bureau warned that increasing interest rates will reduce the amount of capital that will flow into speculative cryptos, which could diminish returns.In addition, they believe that Solana killers could also be outperformed by Layer-2 projects that are being built on Ethereum (ETH), given ETH’s reputation in the crypto market. Should these projects garner the attention of investors, it could result in further diminished returns for projects trying to overthrow Solana.These are projects that are built on top of the Ethereum blockchain in an attempt to lower the network’s transaction fees as well as increase transaction speeds. In the video, Coin Bureau mentioned that these projects also come with the inherent security of the Ethereum network, which makes them an attractive option for decentralized applications.Projects such as MetisDAO (METIS), Polygon (MATIC), Arbitrum (ARB), and Optimism (OP) were all mentioned as candidates in this category. According to the video, there are more and more Layer-2 projects entering the market. Coin Bureau, therefore, warned that as more projects enter the market, the market cap competition between the projects will grow more intense.Projects included in the next category, decentralized storage, are Filecoin (FIL), Arweave (AR), and Akash Network (AKT). Coin Bureau shared that decentralized storage will be necessary for the future since many Layer-1 projects currently store data on centralized cloud servers. As these projects scale, centralized solutions may no longer be viable.The one caveat for projects in this category, however, is that Layer-1 and Layer-2 projects may just start creating their own decentralized storage solutions. Should this happen, it will remove the need for 3rd party decentralized storage solutions. Secondly, decentralized storage solutions are a new concept and have not been thoroughly tested by the market yet.Projects in the decentralized identification category will play a critical part in unlocking the next wave of crypto and blockchain use cases, according to Coin Bureau. Projects such as Civic (CVC), Kleros (PNK), KILT Protocol (KILT), as well as Polygon (MATIC) who have developed their own identification solution, are the projects to keep an eye on in this category.In the near future, it may become a regulatory requirement for users to have decentralized identities linked to their real-world identities before they can interact with DeFi products. Should this happen, it could result in cryptos in this category receiving a massive price pump.Projects in this category were created to replace institutions in the traditional financial system. Coin Bureau is bullish on this category of cryptos because they are the only projects, besides Ethereum (ETH), and Bitcoin (BTC), that generate fee revenues. A portion of these fees could go to governance participants, which will make them a more attractive investment as well.Crypto projects mentioned for this category include Aave (AAVE), Lido DAO (LDO), and Uniswap (UNI). In terms of caveats, these projects face a large regulatory risk given that they aim to replace traditional centralized financial institutions. Furthermore, these projects are more prone to hacks and cyber attacks.The next category covered in the video is projects that enable high levels of interoperability, which is the ability to share resources across multiple blockchain networks. In addition, these projects also provide blockchain projects with a connection to real-world and real-time data.Projects such as Chainlink (LINK), Flux (FLUX), Cosmos (ATOM), and Axelar (AXL) were discussed in the video. According to Coin Bureau, it is very unlikely that a single Layer-1 or Layer-2 project will be able to support decentralized applications that scale to a global level – making interoperability projects desirable.The potential demand for interoperability projects is further increased by the fact that many crypto use cases will require interoperability. Despite this, Coin Bureau cautioned that interoperability projects will only be used if the global crypto adoption rate grows.According to the video, decentralized social media projects such as LENS Platform (LENS) and Theta Network (THETA) could generate positive gains for investors in the long term. Social media users will slowly begin to use these decentralized social platforms as governments across the globe continuously try to censor the internet.Coin Bureau did state, however, that the adoption of these projects will depend on how easy it is to use these platforms. There is also the risk of decentralized social media platforms falling victim to the same regulatory scrutiny as DeFi products.Although much of the hype surrounding the Play-to-Earn space has subsided, Coin Bureau still mentioned 3 blockchain gaming projects that every investor should keep an eye on going into the next bull run. In the video, Axie Infinity (AXS), Gala (GALA), and Decentraland (MANA) were highlighted as some of the projects to watch.In the video, Coin Bureau stated that blockchain games will be one of the main drivers for mass crypto adoption, as they will open up many great use cases in the future. Unfortunately, there is still some work that needs to be done by each project’s team since there is not yet a blockchain game that can support millions of users.Many users in the crypto space are unaware of the vital role that blockchain wallets play in the crypto space. This is why wallets are the next category mentioned in Coin Bureau’s video. Popular wallet solutions currently in the market include Metamask, Fantom (FTM), Avalanche (AVAX), and ThorFi (THOR).It is predicted that these projects may also launch their own governance tokens in the future. Even Metamask’s team hinted at the possibility of Metamask getting its own token in the medium term. Should this happen, there could be a market cap competition between all of the wallet providers.The last category covered in the video is privacy coins, which aim to conceal the identities of holders and users transacting on the network. For this category, Coin Bureau named ProjectOasis (OASIS), Monero (XMR), and Secret (SCRT) as projects to watch going into the next crypto bull market.These projects currently face the highest levels of regulatory scrutiny since many illicit activities could take place on their networks. Coin Bureau mentioned that regulators may continue to crack down on these privacy-focused projects in the future, which may negatively impact their prices.The post The Top 10 Crypto Categories That Investors Should Know Of appeared first on Coin Edition.See original on CoinEdition More