월스트리트저널 읽기 - Cuba's Economy, Stocks Rise, Ford's Hybrids etc.

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 5, 2023

 

◈ Small Businesses Injuct Life Into Cuba's Ailing Economy(중소기업들이 쿠바의 병든 경제에 생명을 불어넣다)

 

 

MIAMI—Newly licensed private businesses are becoming a lifeline for Cuba, bringing in about half of the country’s total food imports as the cash-strapped Communist government struggles to keep power plants running and provide public transport because of acute fuel shortages.

 

Havana passed laws allowing Cubans to form small businesses that can employ up to 100 people in the wake of countrywide protests that shook the impoverished island two years ago. Since then, more than 8,000 small and midsize businesses have registered with the government. They are involved in activities that range from tourism and construction to computer programming.

 

These businesses are now leading importers in a country that relies on imports of everything from fuel to most of its food. Cuba’s economy minister, Alejandro Gil Fernández, said in a report that imports by private companies could top $1 billion this year. They are on track to provide more than half of Cuba’s food imports, said Pavel Vidal, a Cuban economist at the Universidad Javeriana in Colombia.

 

◈ Stocks Rise as Bond Selloff Eases(채권매도 완화에 따라 주가 상승)

 

 

The autumn bond rout eased Wednesday, dragging Treasury yields lower and bringing calm to the stock market after an intense selloff that kicked off the fourth quarter.

 

The S& P 500 wavered for much of the day before finishing up 0.8%. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 127.17 points, or 0.4%. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite added around 1.4%, with gains accelerating in the final hour of the trading session.

 

A sharp selloff in government bonds has sparked turbulence across markets this week, sending the Dow into negative territory for the year and driving losses in everything from tech stocks to real-estate companies. The intense selling in global government bonds continued early Wednesday before easing later in the session, helping steady the stock market.

 

The yield on the 30-year U.S. Treasury bond briefly breached 5%, while Germany’s 10-year bund yield touched 3% for the first time in 12 years. Treasurys rallied later in the session, pulling yields for bonds maturing in two to 30 years lower for the day. The yield on the 10-year Treasury note fell to 4.735%, notching the biggest one-day decline in more than a month.

 

◈ Ford's Hybrids Help Boost Sales(포드의 하이브리드 자동차가 판매를 늘리다)

 

 

Ford Motor posted a 7.7% increase in third-quarter unit sales in the U.S. Wednesday, lifted by strong customer demand for its large gas-engine pickup trucks and a surge in hybrid-vehicle sales.

 

The Dearborn, Mich., company closed the third quarter with a 41.4% rise in sales of hybrid models, including gas-electric variants of the Maverick small pickup and Escape SUV. Hybrids save fuel by combining a gasoline engine with an electric motor and don’t rely solely on battery power.

 

Electric-vehicle sales grew at a slower clip, rising 14.8% in the June-to-September period, as demand overall for battery-powered cars has leveled off after an early burst of sales for these models.

 

Ford said the weaker EV sales were driven in part by a 45.8% drop in sales of its Ford F-150 Lightning EV pickup. This past summer, the automaker temporarily shut down the plant where it builds the electric truck for six weeks during an expansion.

 

◈ SAS Rescue Plan Sends Stock Diving(SAS 구조 계획으로 주식 잠수 가능)

 

 

Shares in SAS fell 82% after the airline presented a recapitalization plan that will leave existing shareholders empty-handed.

 

To avert bankruptcy, the Scandinavian airline agreed to an investment plan late Tuesday that will see investors including Air France-KLM , the Danish state, and investment firms Castlelake and Lind Invest put in a total of $1.18 billion to rescue the airline in return for around 86% of the company.

 

The remaining stake will likely be distributed among creditors, and a delisting of the shares will follow next year.

 

◈ The World's Dollar Addiction Is Hard to Kick(세계의 달러 중독은 해결하기 어렵다)

 

 

Many central banks and governments around the world want to kick their dollar addiction. They aren’t getting very far—except when forced.

 

The percentage of official foreign- exchange reserves allocated to U.S. dollars globally was 58.9% in the second quarter of the year, figures published a few days ago by the International Monetary Fund show, broadly unchanged from the 25-year-low first reached in the fourth quarter of 2020.

 

Though the dollar serves as the bedrock of international financial markets, the backlash against globalization in recent years has prompted much talk of “de-dollarization.” Since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which dealt another blow to the established order, dollar reserves have fallen 2.9%, despite a jump in the currency’s value. At constant exchange rates, the drop would have been 6.6%.

 

오늘도 경제신문으로 세상을 봅니다.

 

 

2023.10.05 - [경제신문 읽기] - 월스트리트저널 읽기 - Bond Yields, Netflix, China Evergrande's etc.

월스트리트저널 읽기 - Bond Yields, Netflix, China Evergrande's etc.