Tausi Insider

The number of Americans filing new claims for unemployment benefits fell last week, showing widespread layoffs remain low, keeping the labour market tight despite the Federal Reserve’s aggressive interest rate hikes to cool demand in the economy. Initial claims for state unemployment benefits dropped 4,000 to a seasonally adjusted 222,000 for the week ended Nov. 12, the Labor Department said on Thursday. Data for the prior week was revised to show 1,000 more applications filed than previously reported. Economists polled by Reuters had forecast 225,000 claims for the latest week. There has been an increase in layoffs in the technology sector, with Twitter, Amazon and Meta, the parent of Facebook, announcing thousands of job cuts this month. Companies in interest-rate sensitive sectors like housing and finance are also letting workers go. The layoffs have so far not been evident in official data, with claims hovering in the middle of their 166,000-261,000 range this year. Economists sa...

Goldman Sachs GS-N expects that the growing ability of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) to raise prices without hurting demand too much will limit downside risks to its bullish oil forecast for 2023. The Wall Street investment bank sees global oil demand growth of 2.7 million barrels per day in 2023, pushing the market into deficit in the second half and lifting Brent prices to $105 per barrel by the fourth quarter. “This tightening, in turn, should allow OPEC to start unwinding its October production cut in H2,” analysts at Goldman said in a note dated Jan. 9. OPEC and allies including Russia, together called OPEC+, last month agreed to stick to their October plan to cut output by 2 million barrels per day from November through 2023. Brent futures were trading around $80 a barrel on Tuesday, while U.S. crude was above $75 per barrel. “However, if the market turned out to be softer, then OPEC could stick to its October cuts or cut production even further g...

A worker on the production line at a factory of Velong Enterprises, a manufacturer of kitchen and grilling equipment in Guangdong, China, on Dec. 27, 2022. GILLES SABRIE /The New York Times News Service The Chinese economic machine is whirring back to life, but the Canadian stock market is oddly indifferent. China has been dismantling its framework of harsh COVID-19 restrictions, setting the stage for a revival of the world’s second-largest economy. This prospect has enlivened several major stock markets around the world, most notably in Europe. The Toronto Stock Exchange, on the other hand, appears to be taking its cues from U.S. stocks, which are still under the pall of a bear market. While investor sentiment in North America has improved over the past three months, the gains have been modest – roughly 11 per cent, compared with nearly 25 per cent in German and French stocks. Britain’s benchmark index, meanwhile, is on the verge of a setting a record high. While Eu...

New York City comptroller Brad Lander and three of the city’s pension funds are offering shareholder proposals calling on several banks including Royal Bank of Canada RY-T to disclose absolute greenhouse gas emissions targets for 2030. The shareholder proposals call for an absolute reduction target aligned with a science-based net-zero emissions pathway and request a report within one year. The pension funds backing the plan are the New York City Employees’ Retirement System, Teachers’ Retirement System, and Board of Education Retirement System. The funds combined to hold 293,000 shares of Royal Bank of Canada as of November 2022. The proposals filed at Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase and Royal Bank of Canada request the absolute GHG emissions targets cover lending and underwriting for oil and gas and power generation sectors. At Bank of America, the proposal co-filed with the New York State Common Retirement Fund asks the emissions reduction targets cover lending and underwriting in t...