So that was quite the surprise. The US economy shrank 0.1% last quarter, while expectations had averaged on 1% growth. This is the first contraction of the economy in three years. To blame are, in part, a decline in business inventories, the fiscal cliff and government spending cuts, including the largest cut in defense spending since the Vietnam war. Employment data released tomorrow, could shed more light on whether the US is actually slowing down. read article
Elsewhere, in China, local government are also feeling the impact of the global economy. Frantic to meet their tax targets, North-Eastern cities demand taxes two years in advance from local steel mills. Now that’s sustainable. While China produces almost half of global steel supplies, the mills’ profits slumped 98% last year. read article
In happier news, RIM has managed to use the defibrillator on itself, officially rebranding to BlackBerry (BBRY) and introducing a new phone… with a touchscreen. Like they don’t know that the keyboard is the best feature. Shares fell 12%. Either way, the company has bought some time until private equity firms will start circling over its Canadian headquarters again. Winning in the category of most puns in single headline: the FT with “Rimless BlackBerry hopes to regain touch.” read article
Deutsche Bank reported losses worth €2.6bn in Q4 2012, mostly related to legal matters and writedowns. €1bn alone was allocated to legal costs arising from the Libor scandal. Over in London, Barclays, RBS, Lloyds and HSBC have to pay a total of £5bn in compensation after mis-selling interest-rate derivatives to SMEs. read article
Otherwise, Bundesbank president Jens Weidmann called for a more conservative approach to bailouts in Europe, in order to protect wealthier economies from throwing themselves in the deep end out of misunderstood solidarity, and Greek retail sales fell almost 17% in November, indicated that, no, the crisis is indeed not over.
So long.
