2025 Qatar Economic Forum Day One Highlights
Highlights from day one of the 2025 Qatar Economic Forum, Powered by Bloomberg. World leaders and international CEOs share unique perspectives on how the global economy is transforming in Doha, Qatar. (Source: Bloomberg)
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
29 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Investors don't think the safest bonds of all are a sure thing anymore
With deficit concerns swirling, the market for the safest government bonds has been volatile. Bloomberg reported on Monday that top fixed income firms are staging a "buyers' strike." Investors are hesitant to buy bonds with long maturities amid doubts about the US fiscal position. A corner of the ultra-safe US Treasury market is losing its shine amid concerns about America's long-term fiscal health. It's an increasingly worrisome situation given the importance of Treasurys as a component of long-term portfolios for millions of Americans, as well as their role as an investment safe haven during times of turbulence. The market for US bonds with the longest maturities has seen a pronounced slowdown in the last few weeks. Bloomberg wrote on Monday that top fixed income firms, including Pimco and Jeffrey Gundlach's DoubleLine Capital, have been staging a "buyers' strike" of 30-year debt in favor of shorter-dated bonds. It continues a trend of investors balking at the idea of essentially lending the US government money for decades. A weak auction of 20-year bonds last month saw tepid demand, resulting in the highest yield on the bond since 2020. Pimco was already whittling its exposure to longer-dated bonds, it wrote at the end of 2024. "We have been reducing allocations to longer-dated bonds, which we find relatively less attractive. Over time, and at scale, that's the kind of investor behavior that can fulfill the bond vigilante role of disciplining governments by demanding more compensation," the bond firm wrote at the time, adding it was seeing better risk-reward in bonds with shorter maturities. Indeed, the bond vigilantes that Pimco hinted at have been credited with sending yields higher this year amid trade war and deficit angst. And more recently, KKR warned that investors shouldn't count on government debt to be the "shock absorbers" that they've relied on to shield them from volatility in the past. In fact, the market for the debt has been so volatile that it's possible the US Treasury could reduce or even cancel future sales of 30-year bonds to stabilize yields, JPMorgan Asset Management's fixed income head, Bob Michele, said in a TV interview last week. Michele added that the 10-year and 30-year bonds are trading more like risk assets. "I'm concerned it's going to get worse before it gets better," Michele said of the bond market volatility. The next auction of 30-year bonds is scheduled for June 12. The 30-year yield is back below 5% this week after climbing above that threshold to the highest level since 2008 in May. However, the concerns that drove yields up haven't abated. America's fiscal position is still an issue, and the GOP budget bill that passed through the House of Representatives in May could add trillions to the national deficit. Meanwhile, the US is now without a top-tier credit rating after Moody's downgraded its government debt in May. "We have witnessed what can happen with interest rates if investors are concerned about the fiscal health of an economy," Verdence Capital Advisors CIO, Megan Horneman, said in a recent note. "It is important to remember that long-term rates are tied to net interest costs and many loans, especially mortgages." She added that the coming 30-year auction would be highly important. But it's not just the US that's seeing investors demand more compensation to hold long-term debt. Governments around the world are seeing yields spiral higher while investors protest heavy government spending and a rapid pace of borrowing. Read the original article on Business Insider Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
Yahoo
39 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Nintendo denies Switch 2 report claiming that Japanese retailers are getting a bigger cut of each sale following a timely drop in stocks and shares
When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. Nintendo has publicly debunked a report claiming that the company is allowing Japanese retailers to earn more from each Nintendo Switch 2 console sold. While the Nintendo Switch 2 looks poised to be a success no matter how you shake it, Nintendo has taken some unconventional approaches to the launch of its new console. For example, a Japanese-only version of the console which is selling for 20,000 Yen less than the multi-language version. Even the Mario Kart World bundle is a bit of an unconventional choice, since the last Nintendo console to come bundled with a game at launch was the Wii back in 2006 (and even then, Wii Sports was only a pack-in after Reggie Fils-Amié fought for it). Just ahead of the Nintendo Switch 2 launching later this week, Bloomberg reported that Nintendo would be giving a bigger cut of every Nintendo Switch 2 sold to retailers. "Store operators will be able to make a gross margin of about 5% on each Switch 2 sold, higher than the informal industry standard of roughly 2%" the report said, adding "The decision will help bolster domestic retailers and ensure the new console is given prominent placement at outlets across the country." Around four hours later, Nintendo took to Twitter to debunk the rumour: "A news report related to the wholesale price of Nintendo Switch 2 in the Japanese market was published. We want to clarify that this report is not true. Nintendo does not disclose any information regarding business conditions with distribution and retail partners."While Nintendo is well known for not commenting on rumours, on Monday (when this report was published) Nintendo shares dropped which likely led the publisher to make a public statement about the report. The list of Nintendo Switch 2 launch games is pretty packed, huh? Sign in to access your portfolio
Boston Globe
an hour ago
- Boston Globe
US manufacturing activity contracted in May — for a third month
Get Starting Point A guide through the most important stories of the morning, delivered Monday through Friday. Enter Email Sign Up LABOR Advertisement AG Campbell fines Boston restaurant $1.8 million for tip pool violations Chefs at Zuma in the Back Bay in 2019. Aram Boghosian for The Boston Globe The state Attorney General's office fined a high-end Boston restaurant more than $1.8 million for illegally requiring service workers to share pooled tips with managers. Massachusetts Attorney General Andrea Campbell announced Monday that it had cited the parent company of Japanese sushi restaurant Zuma, and its manager Garrett Ronan, about $1,813,850 in total for the tip pool violations. Some workers will receive up to $50,000 which includes penalties and unpaid wages. Campbell's office charges that between July 2022 and July 2024, some managers at Zuma participated in a tip pool at the restaurant, which violates state wage laws. Zuma and its parent company did not immediately respond to a request for comment Monday afternoon. In Massachusetts, tip pooling is only permitted for wait staff, bartenders, and other service employees. Staff with managerial responsibilities cannot share in a tip pool, even if they help serve customers, according to Massachusetts laws. An employee complaint alleging that workers promoted to managerial roles remained a part of the restaurant's tip pool prompted the investigation, which was handled by the Fair Labor Division at the attorney general's office. Boston's Zuma location at the Four Seasons Hotel at One Dalton is one of its London-based parent company Azumi's 28 permanent and 11 residency locations across the world, according to the company's website. The fine announced Monday is part of Campbell's broader push to 'protect workers from exploitation, ensure workers are paid the wages they are owed, and hold employers who violate labor and wage laws accountable,' the attorney general's office said. — STELLA TANNENBAUM Advertisement CRYPTO Circle, backers seek $896 million after boosting IPO size The Circle website. Gabby Jones/Bloomberg Circle Internet Group Inc. and its shareholders have increased the size and price of the company's initial public offering, suggesting strong investor demand for the stock. The stablecoin issuer and some of its backers are now offering 32 million shares at a price range of $27 to $28 a pop, according to a filing Monday with the US Securities and Exchange Commission. Circle and the selling shareholders were previously offering 24 million shares at a range of $24 to $26 each. The sale could raise as much as $896 million at the top of the new range, and hand Circle a market capitalization of nearly $6.2 billion, according to Bloomberg calculations. Accounting for employee stock options, restricted share units, and warrants, the company would have a fully diluted value of about $7.2 billion. The IPO has drawn orders for stock in double digit multiples of the shares available, according to people familiar with the matter. The offering is set to close to orders at 4 p.m. New York time on Tuesday, the people said, asking not to be identified as the information isn't public. A representative for Circle declined to comment. — BLOOMBERG NEWS Advertisement PHILANTHROPY Majority of $200 billion Gates Foundation funds to go to Africa The Gates Foundation campus in Seattle. Lindsey Wasson/Associated Press Africa is set to be the largest beneficiary of the $200 billion that the Gates Foundation plans to give away over the next two decades, cofounder Bill Gates said. 'The majority of that funding will be spent on helping you address challenges here in Africa,' he told an African Union gathering in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, Monday, according to an emailed statement from his foundation. The organization said last month that it plans to give away the money over 20 years before shutting down in 2045. That implies Gates — currently the fifth-richest person in the world — plans to transfer many billions to his foundation as part of a goal to give away 99 percent of his wealth. He's currently worth about $175 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. — BLOOMBERG NEWS ENERGY Trump wants to sell 1 million barrel reserve of diesel fuel President Trump departed the White House in Washington on May 30. HAIYUN JIANG/NYT The Trump administration wants to put a 1 million barrel cache of diesel fuel on the market, saying the reserve meant to provide an emergency supply of home heating oil for the Northeast has never been used for its intended purpose. The sale and closure of the Northeast Home Heating Oil Reserve would generate $100 million to be used for deficit reduction, according to Department of Energy budget details recently made public. The sale of the reserve would require approval by Congress, which gave the Biden administration the green light to sell off and close a 1 million barrel emergency cache of gasoline last year. The 1 million barrels of diesel is equal to roughly a quarter of overall US daily demand, while the US Energy Information Administration estimates that about 4 percent of the nation's households use heating oil to warm their homes. The diesel fuel reserve, which is housed in commercial storage facilities across the Northeast, was used in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy in 2012 to provide fuel for emergency responders in New York and New Jersey, as well as in the wake of snow storms that same year, according to the Energy Department. Created under former president Bill Clinton, the reserve is designed to provide Northeast consumers with 10 days of supply, the time required for ships to carry additional heating oil from the Gulf of Mexico to New York Harbor, according to the Energy Department. — BLOOMBERG NEWS Advertisement PHARMACEUTICALS Bristol to pay BioNTech up to $11.1 billion in cancer deal BioNTech headquarters in Mainz, Germany. Michael Probst/Associated Press Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. will pay BioNTech SE as much as $11.1 billion to license a next-generation cancer drug, as competition intensifies in an area of oncology that seeks to harness the immune system to attack tumors. The German biotech will receive $1.5 billion upfront and $2 billion in installments through 2028, the companies said Monday. BioNTech will also be eligible for as much as $7.6 billion in milestone payments, and the partners will split development and manufacturing costs and profits equally. It's the latest in a slew of deals as pharmaceutical companies battle for a share of a market currently led by Merck & Co.'s Keytruda, the world's best-selling drug. Global sales of immuno-oncology treatments could reach $60 billion a year by 2027, according to Bloomberg Intelligence. Bristol-Myers has been pumping billions into its pipeline ahead of a patent cliff. Its deal for BioNTech's compound — dubbed BNT327 — comes weeks after rival Pfizer Inc. agreed to pay 3SBio Inc. as much as $6.1 billion, a record for a Chinese biotech, to license a similar cancer asset. It also marks a major payoff for BioNTech, which licensed BNT327 from Chinese biotech Biotheus in 2023 and later bought the company outright for up to $950 million. — BLOOMBERG NEWS Advertisement
