Category: Uncategorized

Euro zone inflation rate eases slightly to 10% as surge in energy prices slows

https://www.cnbc.com/2022/11/30/euro-zone-inflation-rate-eases-to-10percent-in-november-as-energy-prices-slow.html

Scotiabank reports $2.09B Q4 profit, down from $2.56B a year ago

Scotiabank reported fourth-quarter net income of $2.09 billion, down from $2.56 billion in the same quarter last year.

The first of Canada’s big banks to report its fourth-quarter results said Tuesday the profit amounted to $1.63 per diluted share for the quarter ended Oct. 31, down from $1.97 per diluted share a year earlier.

Revenue for the quarter totalled $7.63 billion, down from $7.69 billion in its fourth quarter last year.

Provisions for credit losses totalled $529 million, up from $168 million in the same quarter a year ago.

On an adjusted basis, Scotiabank said it earned $2.06 per diluted share, down from an adjusted profit of $2.10 per diluted share a year earlier.

Analysts on average had expected a profit of $2.00 per share, according to financial markets data firm Refinitiv.

Scotiabank said its Canadian banking operations earned $1.17 billion in net income in its latest quarter, down from $1.24 billion in the same quarter last year due to an increase in provisions for credit losses in its most recent quarter.

Meanwhile, Scotiabank’s international banking operations earned $679 million in net income in its latest quarter, up from $607 million a year ago.

Global wealth management net income totalled $363 million for the quarter, down from $387 million a year ago, while global banking and markets earned $484 million in net income, down from $502 million in the same quarter last year.

For its full financial year, Scotiabank said its net income totalled $10.17 billion or $8.02 per diluted share on $31.42 billion in revenue, compared with a profit of $9.96 billion or $7.70 per diluted share on $31.25 billion in revenue in the same period a year earlier.

On an adjusted basis, Scotiabank said it earned $8.50 per diluted share for its full financial year, up from an adjusted profit of $7.87 per diluted share a year earlier.

Hawaii’s Mauna Loa, world’s largest active volcano, starts to erupt for first time in nearly four decades

The world’s largest active volcano, Hawaii’s Mauna Loa, has started to erupt for the first time in nearly four decades, prompting volcanic ash and debris to fall nearby, authorities said Monday.

The eruption began at approximately 11:30 p.m. Sunday in Moku‘āweoweo, the summit caldera of the Mauna Loa volcano, inside Hawai‘i Volcanoes National Park on the Big Island. 

As of 2:43 a.m. local time, “the eruption continues at the summit of Mauna Loa,” according to the latest Hawaiian Volcano Observatory Status Report from the  U.S. Geological Survey (USGS). “All vents remain restricted to the summit area,” the report said. “However, lava flows in the summit region are visible from Kona. There is currently no indication of any migration of the eruption into a rift zone.”

https://www.foxnews.com/us/hawaiis-mauna-loa-worlds-largest-active-volcano-starts-erupt-first-time-nearly-four-decades

Shanghai hit by Covid protests as anger spreads across China

• Hundreds of demonstrators and police clashed in Shanghai on Sunday night as protests over China’s stringent Covid restrictions flared for a third day and spread to several cities in the wake of a deadly fire in the country’s far west.
• The wave of civil disobedience is unprecedented in mainland China since President Xi Jinping assumed power a decade ago, as frustration mounts over his signature zero-Covid policy nearly three years into the pandemic.
• The Covid measures are also exacting a heavy toll on the world’s second-largest economy.

https://www.cnbc.com/2022/11/27/shanghai-hit-by-covid-protests-as-anger-spreads-across-china.html

Federal government posts $1.7-billion surplus for April to September period

The federal government posted a surplus of $1.7-billion during the first six months of the 2022-23 fiscal year.

In its monthly fiscal monitor, the finance department says the surplus between April and September compares to a deficit of $68.6-billion reported for the same period last year.

Compared to the same period in the previous fiscal year, government revenues were up $32.8-billion, or 18.6 per cent, as revenue streams continue to improve.

Program expenses were also down $40.3-billion, or 17.9 per cent, largely due to the expiration of COVID-19 measures.

Higher interest rates and inflation have driven up the cost of public debt charges by $5.6-billion, or 47.8 per cent, compared to the same period last year.

Net actuarial losses were down $2.8-billion, or 36.1 per cent.

‘Heated’ and ‘really ugly’: Europe fails to thrash out details on gas price cap as talks turn sour

• “The gas price cap which is in the document currently doesn’t satisfy any single country. It’s a kind of joke for us,” Anna Moskwa, Poland’s minister for climate, said in Brussels Thursday.
• Speaking at a press conference Thursday, Jozef Sikela, Czech minister for industry and trade, also said: “we’re not opening the champagne yet, but putting the bottle in the fridge.”

https://www.cnbc.com/2022/11/25/heated-and-really-ugly-europe-fails-to-thrash-out-details-on-gas-price-cap.html

Black Friday online sales top $9 billion in new record

• Consumers spent a record $9.12 billion online shopping during Black Friday this year, according to Adobe.
• Overall online sales for Black Friday were up 2.3% year-over-year.
• Buy Now Pay Later payments increased by 78% compared with the past week, beginning Nov. 19, as consumers continue to grapple with high prices and inflation.

https://www.cnbc.com/2022/11/26/black-friday-online-sales-top-9-billion-in-new-record.html

Shanghai hit by Covid protests as anger spreads across China

• In Shanghai, China’s most populous city, residents gathered on Saturday night at Wulumuqi Road – which is named after Urumqi – for a candlelight vigil that turned into a protest in the early hours of Sunday.
• On Sunday, Xinjiang officials said public transport services will gradually resume from Monday in Urumqi.
• Many of its 4 million residents have been under some of China’s longest lockdowns, barred from leaving home for as long as 100 days.

https://www.cnbc.com/2022/11/27/shanghai-hit-by-covid-protests-as-anger-spreads-across-china.html

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