US economy In rocket mode: Donald Trump
US President Donald Trump said the country’s economy is in rocket mode after surprisingly better than expected jobs report in May. US economy added 2.5 million jobs in May after a staggering 20.5 million people lost their jobs in April. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite index hit an all-time high recovering from a 25% drop in the post corona sell-off in March.
OPEC-Russia meet today
Energy ministers from the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries OPEC as well as Russia and other states are holding a meeting by video conference today. It is expected that Saudi Arabia and Russia will agree to extend by a month the production cut agreed upon in April. Crude oil supply was cut by a record 9.7 million barrels per day (bpd) during May-June to prop up prices that collapsed due to the Coronavirus. In April US oil benchmark WTI had fallen into the negative region.
India’s Forex Reserves Soar to record high
The country’s foreign exchange reserves surged USD 3.43 billion to a fresh all-time high of USD 493.48 billion for the week ended May 29 according to the RBI. India’s forex reserves comprise foreign currency assets (FCAs), gold reserves, special drawing rights (SDRs) and India’s reserve position with the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
AstraZeneca ties up with Serum Institute for COVID-19 vaccine
AstraZeneca is the latest among other world-wide vaccine manufacturers who have entered into an agreement with the Pune-based Serum Institute of India (SII) to produce the vaccine currently under trial at the University of Oxford on a mass scale, if successful. AstraZeneca recently agreed to supply 400 million doses to the US and UK after reaching a license agreement with Oxford for its recombinant adenovirus vaccine.
Silver Lake to buy additional stake in Reliance Jio
The U.S. private equity firm Silver Lake is buying an additional stake worth $600 million in Reliance Jio, which has now raised $12.2 billion in less than two months at the height of a global pandemic. Silver Lake had invested nearly $750 million in Reliance Jio Platforms last month. With this latest investment, it has increased the stake to 2.08%, up from 1.15%.
