- US stocks closed the week higher following an announcement by the country’s Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin that they had discussed plans to reopen the economy while he dismissed reports that a second wave of coronavirus had hit the country. During the week, Fed Chairman Jerome Powell on Wednesday said the institution will continue to use its powers to support the US economy amid downturn caused by the pandemic. He warned that the decline in the country’s Q2 GDP will be the most severe on record.
- Adobe Systems revenue for the second quarter of 2020 rose by 14% to $3.13 billion with net income up to $1.1 billion from $633 million in the same period in 2019. The firm’s product revenue declined to $128 Million from $152.8 million while its diluted EPS grew by 76% to $2.27.
- German multinational automotive manufacturing company Volkswagen AG on Friday announced that its global sales fell by 34% in May compared to the same month in 2019 to stand at 609,400 units. Western Europe recorded a decline of 57% to 147,400 vehicles, while North America sales fell by 39% to 52,800. Surprisingly, Chinese sales rose by 5.7% to 330,300 vehicles sold in May. Global deliveries between January and May fell 30% to 3,089,000 units.
- Microsoft in the week joined the list of tech firms that have decided to limit the use of its facial-recognition systems, announcing that it will not sell the technology to police departments until there is a federal law regulating it. Amazon announced it was imposing a 1-year ban on police use of its facial recognition software Rekognition, while IBM has announced it was leaving the facial recognition business. Following Microsoft’s decision on Thursday, Trump retweeted a user for Microsoft to be banned from holding federal contracts.
- Despite multiple reports that the second wave of coronavirus has hit the United States, the county’s director of the National Economic Council Larry Kudlow said they will not shut down again, supporting sentiments by Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin.
- UK PM Boris Johnson on Friday said he wasn’t surprised the country’s record slump in GDP in April saying his government has always “recognised that this wasn’t going to be just a public health crisis but also a really serious crisis for our economy.”
READ; Lockdown Shrinks UK Economy by a Record 20% in April
- According to Reuters, Italy’s Minister of Economy Roberto Gualtieri announced on Friday that the country’s economy could contract by more than 8% in 2020 driven by COVID19 pandemic. The government in May approved a stimulus package worth €55 billion aimed at boosting Italy’s businesses and citizens overcome the negative impact of the virus.
- Rating agency Fitch Ratings expects Germany to suffer the worst recession since World War II, with a 6.7% GDP contraction for the full year of 2020, it said in a statement.
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