The RBI was the first of the world’s major central banks to cut interest rates this year, Australia, New Zealand, Malaysia followed suit.
The What: The RBI on Thursday cut repo rate by 25 bps, third time in a row, changes stance to “accommodative”.
The Why: The move, much along expected lines, came as the growth in the gross domestic product (GDP) declined to a 21-quarter low to 5.8% in Q4FY19, and is perhaps suggestive of the more policy easing which might follow.
Leading the Pack: The RBI was the first of the world’s major central banks to cut interest rates this year. Since then Australia, New Zealand, Malaysia and others have followed suit as policy makers seek to shore up their economies against the escalating US-China trade war.
Even the Fed is being pressured to ease, while the European Central Bank President Mario Draghi has said that the policy makers are “determined” to act if needed to support the euro zone’s economy.
Bonus Read: The next big target of the Indian economy is to get to double its size and reach $5 trillion.
http://bit.ly/2XzJklq.
TECH
Uber’s Chief Operating Officer and Chief Marketing Officer stepping down.
FANG Lose Together: Last Monday, Facebook, Amazon, Netflix, and Google (FANG) together lost over $137bn in stock market value amid news of antitrust scrutiny by the US Federal Trade Commission into Facebook and the Justice Department into Google. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite fell 1.6% on the news.
Amazon, Apple, and the Nasdaq managed to finish the week in positive territory, but Facebook and Alphabet shares declined more than 2%.
Please Don’t Ignore: Nevertheless, Monday’s selloff shouldn’t be ignored. Investors are worried about regulation, and the headlines won’t go away anytime soon.
For investors, the stock price volatility is a chance to step back and analyze each company on its own merits. Would government regulatory action materially affect the economic business models of these core four tech giants?
Here’s a company-by-company breakdown on regulatory risk.
The departures, which CEO Dara Khosrowshahi explained in an email to employees, were prompted by his decision to more directly control core parts of the business.
Khosrowshahi told employees that he wants to be even more involved in the day-to-day operations of its biggest businesses, the core platform of Rides and Eats, and has decided they should report directly to him.
US
Main progress on US-China trade to be at Trump-Xi summit. US reaches agreement with Mexico to reduce the flow of migrants to the southwestern border, Trump calls off plan to impose tariffs on Mexico.
Next Big Thing: On the sidelines of the G20 finance leaders meeting in Japan, US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said on Saturday he would discuss trade issues with People’s Bank of China Governor Yi Gang, but the
main progress in the US-China trade dispute would take place later this month at a meeting between President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping.
Trump had last week said that the US will impose a 5% tariff on all Mexican imports from June 10, and duties of up to 25% will be added in the coming months if Mexico does not take action to “reduce or eliminate the number of illegal aliens” crossing into the US.
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