Fed official on Friday said he favours a lower rate hike in their next interest rate policy update as rates are already high enough to be slowing the economy. Meanwhile, strong earnings reports by US tech giants is also supporting the positive mood
Reliance’s Q3 net profit beats Street on retail boost
Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Industries Ltd beat analysts’ expectations for quarterly profit as its new consumer ventures compensated for the decline in its chemicals business. Net profit fell 15% to ₹15,792 crore in the three months ended 31 December from ₹18,549 crore in the year earlier on rising expenses. However, the December quarter profit beat the ₹14,537 crore consensus analyst estimate, according to a Bloomberg survey.
The company’s consumer-facing ventures, Reliance Jio and Reliance Retail, posted strong growth, even as improved refining margins boosted the oil-to-chemicals (O2C) business despite weakness in the petrochemicals segment. Additionally, higher gas prices benefited the oil and gas exploration and production business. (Read More)
Back IT, startups may cut up to 20,000 jobs in next 6 months
India’s IT and startup sectors may lay off 15,000 to 20,000 employees in the next six months, battling slowing demand after the hiring frenzy of the last two years inflated salary costs. Recruitment consultants expect fewer hiring mandates in the months ahead and have decided not to enter new businesses for now.
However, even as some IT and startup companies will shed staff to manage costs, others within the same sectors are hiring, too.
“We expect about 20,000 layoffs over the next few quarters. Over the last year, companies faced the fear of missing out on talent hiring and recruited in large numbers and paid them many folds more than inflation and market standards,” said Lohit Bhatia, president of workforce management for recruitment firm Quess Corp. (Read More)
Rally for US tech stocks on Friday helps soften Wall Street’s rough week
A rough week on Wall Street dominated by worries about a weakening economy ended Friday with a broad rally that gave the market its best day in two weeks.
The S&P 500 rose 1.9%. Despite the gains, the benchmark index still ended with its first weekly loss in the last three. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 1% and the Nasdaq composite closed 2.7% higher.
Technology and communication services stocks powered much of the gains as investors cheered another big quarterly surge in Netflix’s subscribers. Remarks from a Federal Reserve official also helped build hope among investors that the central bank may decide to slow its pace of interest rate hikes as soon as next month.
The major indexes started the week in the red largely because of worries that the economy may not be able to avoid a scarring recession. Several reports on the economy came in weaker than expected, as the full weight of the Federal Reserve’s hikes to interest rates last year started to make their way through the system.
Not long ago, bad news on the economy was often perversely good news for Wall Street. That’s because investors took it to mean the Fed may ease up on its rate hikes. But the bad news on the economy is increasingly becoming bad news for Wall Street, too, which is worrying more about the prospects of a serious recession.
But on Friday, Fed Gov. Christopher Waller said he favors just a quarter-point hike on Feb. 1, when the central bank gives its next interest rate policy update. Waller also said that rates are already high enough to be slowing the economy. The remarks could have helped calm rising-rate worries in the market. (AP)
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