A total of 120,000 Turkish construction companies are set to halt activities on June 9 to protest a skyrocketing rise in iron prices and a visible undersupply in the material. The protests are expected to last one month, according to sector representatives. Source Hurriyet Daily
Real Estate
A downturn in Greece’s property market deepened in the first quarter, as uncertainty over its bailout program and chronic weakness in its banking sector further eroded a traditional pillar of the country’s ailing economy. Source ekathimerini
Italy is giving away more than 100 historic castles, farmhouses and monasteries for free in an effort to breathe new life into its disused public buildings. Source CBS
U.S. homebuilding fell in March in February and manufacturing output dropped for the first time in seven months, further indications that economic growth braked sharply in the first quarter. The data last week showed the second monthly decline in retail sales in March as well a decrease in consumer prices. Source Reuters
China’s efforts to weed speculation out of the housing market seem futile as data show you ‘Can’t Beat the Real Thing’. Prices not only edged higher in more of the nation’s biggest cities during March, they did so at a faster pace too — a fearless challenge to government orders to stamp out speculation in red hot real estate markets. Source Asia Times
French politicians have cautioned construction-materials giant LafargeHolcim about the consequences of supplying cement for the 3000km wall that US President Donald Trump intends to build along the border with Mexico. Source Global Cement
China’s property sales surged in the first two months of the year despite government measures to cool the market, though growth in real estate investment showed signs of easing, according to official data on Tuesday. Property sales by area rose 25.1 percent year-on-year in January and February. Source: Reuters
Urban violence broke out in Évreux (Eure) during the night of July 13 to 14. Eight gendarmes were injured and one house was notably set on fire. Source Actu17
China’s exports rose by 0.5 per cent in June from a year ago, while imports rose by 2.7 per cent, showing a big recovery in trade
Easing lockdowns overseas helped support a recovery, while a surge in imports suggests improved demand in China Source South China Morning Post
The German Foreign Ministry has removed the Taiwanese flag from its website where it describes bilateral relations. Taiwan has expressed its displeasure, citing how other territorial flags remain.
The national or territorial flags of all other countries and territories, including China’s Hong Kong and Macao special administrative zones, are on the ministry website. But there is a blank space on Taiwan’s page where an image of its flag had previously appeared. Source DW
A RATP bus and a gymnasium were set on fire overnight from Monday to Tuesday July 14 in Nanterre (Hauts-de-Seine). A few dozen vehicles were also burned in the Seine-Saint-Denis department. Source Actu17
Libya’s U.N.-recognized government will agree to a cease-fire only if warlord Khalifa Haftar withdraws his forces from the country’s central and western regions, the Turkish foreign minister said. Source Hurriyet Daily
Yemeni Houthi forces hit a large oil facility in the southern Saudi Arabian city of Jizan in drone and missile attacks overnight, a Houthi military spokesman said on Monday.
The Saudi-led coalition fighting the Houthis said earlier it had intercepted and destroyed four missiles and six explosive drones fired by the Houthis over the border towards Saudi Arabia. But there was no Saudi confirmation of where they were intercepted or whether anything was hit. Source Reuters
The municipality of Amsterdam is investigating the costs of having all its 15,000 civil servants undergo ‘privilege training’. For example, staff must become aware of their privileged position. This is stated in the 2019 Work Plan on Discrimination against Labor Market Discrimination. Source AD
Two police officers who were out of service were severely beaten this Monday evening in Courrières, near Lens (Pas-de-Calais). They were seriously injured. A resting prison guard was also hit. Source Actu17
Some Ford employees have been pressing the company to abandon the police vehicle market, while others suggest selling vehicles only to law enforcement agencies that have undergone reforms. Source NBC News
China will invest $400 billion in Iran energy and infrastructure but nothing in strategic pact allows for a Chinese troop presence or island handover. Two of the United States’ top “strategic threats” are getting more and more real within the scope of the New Silk Roads, the leading 21st-century project of economic integration across Eurasia. America’s Deep State will not be amused. Source Asian Times
The coronavirus state of emergency may be extended beyond July 31, Premier Giuseppe Conte said Friday. “Reasonably, there are the conditions to continue the state of emergency for the coronavirus after July 31,” Conte said. “The state of emergency serves to keep the virus under control. “Nothing has been decided yet, but reasonably we will go in this direction”. Source Ansa.it
Layoffs at Wells Fargo & Co. (NYSE: WFC) could be in the tens of thousands, according to a Bloomberg Law report, citing people familiar with the matter.
Job cuts will start this year, as Wells Fargo executives are under increasing pressure to cut costs. The San Francisco-based bank employs about 263,000 people, including 27,500 in the Charlotte region, its largest employment hub. It’s grown its Charlotte footprint by several thousand employees in the past decade. Source Charlotte Business Journal
The French government said Wednesday it was girding for a possible surge in coronavirus cases in coming months but would not respond to any new outbreak with another nationwide lockdown. Source France24
The US economy added a record 4.8 million jobs last month as the nation continued an economic rebound that’s now threatened by a surge in coronavirus infections, new data show. Source New York Post
Shell, one of the world’s largest oil companies, has warned that the low price of oil could reduce the value of its assets by up to $22bn (£17.9bn). It said it expects oil to change hands at $60 per barrel in the long term and to be priced at $35 this year and $40 next year. Source BBC
- In a report out Tuesday, the BIS warned that there are underlying financial fragilities despite some confidence among market participants in recent weeks regarding the reopening of many economies.
- Coeure said that addressing corporate solvency is a matter for national governments and not central banks. Source CNBC
The number of laid-off workers seeking U.S. unemployment aid barely fell last week, and the reopening of small businesses has leveled off — evidence that the job market’s gains may have stalled just as a surge in coronavirus cases is endangering an economic recovery. Source Fox
The Italian government has signed off on approximately $7 billion in loan guarantees for Fiat Chrysler Automobiles in an effort to shore up a key piece of the country’s manufacturing sector amid the turmoil caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. Source Detroit Free Pers
- The Fed in March unveiled lending programs it said could provide $2.3 trillion to the economy. So far, that has totaled just $143 billion, or 6.2% of the total firepower.
- There are several likely explanations for why what was supposed to be an infusion of cash into the economy instead has been a comparative trickle.
- The programs, particularly the Main Street lending initiative, are complicated. There also may be less of a need as the economy improves.
- “There are also early signs that demand for the new facilities has been relatively muted, perhaps because the terms on offer have proved relatively unattractive,” said economist Andrew Hunter of Capital Economics.
More than 20,000 municipal employees across all city agencies could lose their jobs to create $1 billion in cuts needed to balance the budget with the Big Apple’s coronavirus-starved coffers, Mayor Bill de Blasio announced Wednesday. Source New York Post
The European Central Bank is ready to cooperate with German “institutions” to resolve a legal dispute that jeopardises the participation of the euro zone’s biggest economy in the ECB’s hallmark stimulus programme, the bank’s vice president said.
The ECB is ready to provide the German central bank the necessary information to resolve the issue and the ECB it is willing to engage German institutions if this did not threaten its independence, Germany’s Der Spiegel quoted Luis de Guindos as saying on Monday. Source Reuters
The Finnish telecom group Nokia announced on Monday that it intends to cut 1,233 jobs from its operations in France. Unions and politicians have spoken out against the plan, calling for the government to step up and protect the workers. Source RFI
