All posts tagged: Rate

Russian rate of losses in Ukraine almost triples in one year | Russia-Ukraine war News

Russian rate of losses in Ukraine almost triples in one year | Russia-Ukraine war News

Published by Sam Flores

Evidence of Russia’s poor performance in its war in Ukraine, both militarily and economically, has been mounting over the past week. The US Defence Intelligence Agency (DIA) has confirmed earlier assessments that Russia has lost territory it previously occupied in Ukraine. “Ukraine retook approximately 400 square kilometres in and around Dnipropetrovsk – more territory than at any time since late 2022 – during the quarter,” a report to Congress revealed on May 18. Russia has still made a net territorial gain in 2026, but its advance is slowing down, according to the Institute for the Study of War (ISW), a Washington-based think tank. The ISW found that Russia advanced by a net 104 sq km (40 sq miles) between January 1 and May 26, 2026, compared to its seizure of 1,619 sq km (625 sq miles) during the same period last year. It said Russian forces had infiltrated and contested another 628 sq km (242.5 sq miles), but did not take control. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Russian casualties had increased to 145,000 this year, …

One Key Signal Says Rate Hikes Could Be Coming

One Key Signal Says Rate Hikes Could Be Coming

Published by Jenni Sidey

Submitted by QTR’s Fringe Finance For a while now markets have operated under the assumption that inflation was cooling, rate cuts were inevitable, and the Federal Reserve was slowly steering toward a soft landing. Hell, Jim Cramer started celebrating Jerome Powell’s “soft landing” some 925 days ago with inflation at 3.1%. Today, inflation is at 3.8% and Powell is leaving his post at the Fed and turning over his impossible task to Kevin Warsh. Which is to say the consensus is starting to unravel fast. Treasury markets are repricing aggressively, Fed officials are openly acknowledging hikes are back on the table, and fresh inflation data continues coming in hotter than expected. And it is now being reported that one of the bond market’s most closely watched signals continues to point to a higher-for-longer policy, and potentially another rate hike cycle altogether. More importantly, this is exactly the shift I warned about days ago when I argued the “cuts only” narrative was beginning to crack under mounting inflation pressure. Bloomberg’s latest reporting reinforces the exact shift that markets have been slowly waking up …

Sri Lanka stuns with 100-bp rate hike as Iran war rattles currency, fuels inflation

Sri Lanka stuns with 100-bp rate hike as Iran war rattles currency, fuels inflation

Published by Sam Flores

COLOMBO, May 26 : Sri Lanka’s central bank stunned markets by raising its policy rate by an outsized 100 basis points on Tuesday, the biggest hike in four years, as policymakers scrambled to stem inflation and support a currency buckling under soaring energy prices.  Economic growth in the South Asian nation, only just recovering from a devastating 2022 financial crisis that left businesses and households deeply scarred, is expected to take a hit from the turmoil in the Middle East. The Central Bank of Sri Lanka (CBSL) raised the overnight policy rate to 8.75 per cent from 7.75 per cent, blaming higher inflation and a depreciating rupee due to the U.S.-Israeli war with Iran.  Seven out of a dozen economists and analysts polled by Reuters had forecast only a 25 basis-point or slightly higher change to the rate, citing the deepening impact on foreign reserves from the conflict and the rupee currency’s 8.7 per cent tumble since early March.  “Today’s sharp increase in interest rates in Sri Lanka highlights the country’s vulnerability to the crisis …

Trump swears Kevin Warsh in as Fed chair, seeking interest rate cuts

Trump swears Kevin Warsh in as Fed chair, seeking interest rate cuts

Published by Sam Flores

President Donald Trump led a ceremony swearing in Kevin Warsh as chair of the Federal Reserve, putting him in charge of a central bank that must navigate a tumultuous economy and a president with very specific expectations on interest rates. Trump, whose actions toward the Fed have spurred bipartisan alarms about executive influence on the historically independent central bank, said he wanted Warsh to “just do your own thing and do a great job.” “I want Kevin to be totally independent,” Trump said at the start of the event Friday morning. “Don’t look at me, don’t look at anybody.” But the swearing-in ceremony itself highlighted the the president’s unprecedented involvement with the Fed during his second term: Warsh is the first Fed chair to be sworn in at the White House since Alan Greenspan in 1987. The event in the East Room was attended by a range of high-profile figures, including Supreme Court Justices Clarence Thomas and Brett Kavanaugh, House Speaker Mike Johnson and many other politicians and Cabinet officials. Thomas delivered the oath to …

White Paper on fertility and child development in the works as Singapore pushes to reverse birth rate decline

White Paper on fertility and child development in the works as Singapore pushes to reverse birth rate decline

Published by Sam Flores

COGNITIVE GAINS, BEHAVIOURAL RISKS Research presented at the conference found that better workplace policies, shifting gender norms and stronger community support are needed to improve children’s development outcomes and Singapore’s fertility outlook. One study found that children placed in non-parental care – such as infant care centres or with grandparents – in their first 18 months showed stronger cognitive development between the ages of three and six. But they also faced a higher risk of behavioural problems. The reason, said Professor Jean Yeung, who heads the Population Association of Singapore, is that extended non-parental care raises parental stress, which in turn affects parenting quality. For example, primary caregivers, usually mothers, were more likely to use punitive methods of discipline as a result. More than half the children in non-parental care were there for more than 50 hours a week. “The context is these mothers have to leave their babies for very long hours … I think that’s creating a lot of anxiety and stress among women,” said Prof Yeung, who is also with NUS Medicine’s …

BOJ board member Masu calls for early rate hike, joins hawkish chorus

BOJ board member Masu calls for early rate hike, joins hawkish chorus

Published by Sam Flores

TOKYO, May 14 : The Bank of Japan should raise interest rates as soon as possible if there are no clear signs of an economic slowdown, board member Kazuyuki Masu said in comments that appear to increase the chances of a June rate hike. The remarks by Masu, who voted to keep rates steady in April, suggest he may join hawkish dissenters in calling for a rate hike at the BOJ’s next meeting in June as surging oil costs from the Middle East war heighten inflationary pressures. “I myself judge that the situation did not warrant a hasty hike,” Masu said in a speech on Thursday. “That said, if data do not indicate clear signs of an economic downturn, I believe it is desirable to raise rates at the earliest stage possible.” The BOJ kept its policy rate steady at 0.75 per cent last month, but three of the nine board members dissented and called instead for a hike to 1.0 per cent, in a sign of growing alarm over inflationary pressures from the Iran …

Young Chinese facing ‘life pressure’ resist government push to boost marriage rate

Young Chinese facing ‘life pressure’ resist government push to boost marriage rate

Published by Sam Flores

BEIJING — The streets around Beijing’s iconic Forbidden City are often filled with brides and grooms, posing for wedding photos against auspicious red backdrops in a place that strongly reflects Chinese culture and tradition. But the tradition of marriage itself is in sharp decline and is spurring a demographic crisis in what was once the world’s most populous nation. Subscribe to read this story ad-free Get unlimited access to ad-free articles and exclusive content. Though Ding Ying, 29, has Forbidden City photos with her husband, she told NBC News she “wasn’t too keen” on getting married until she happened to meet the right person. As for what dissuaded her and her peers from tying the knot, she said the answer was simple: “Life pressure.” FORSUBSCRIBERS Why people in China are choosing pets over parenthood 02:18 Marriage has long been considered a given in China, where it is still very much a social prerequisite to having a family. But both marriage and parenthood appear to be losing appeal to young Chinese as they fret over fierce …

Oil settles lower on US rate hike fears; investors watch Trump-Xi meeting

Oil settles lower on US rate hike fears; investors watch Trump-Xi meeting

Published by Sam Flores

HOUSTON: Oil prices settled lower on Wednesday (May 13) as investors worried about possible US interest rate hikes and awaited updates on a high-stakes summit in Beijing between US President Donald Trump and China’s Xi Jinping. Brent crude futures closed down US$2.14, or 2 per cent, to US$105.63 a barrel. US West Texas Intermediate futures fell US$1.16, or 1.14 per cent, to US$101.02.  Boston Federal Reserve President Susan Collins said on Wednesday the US central bank may need to raise interest rates if inflation pressures do not abate, a sign that the war has begun to weigh on the US economy. Higher oil prices have pushed up fuel costs and economists expect to see effects in the months ahead. US producer prices in April posted their biggest increase in four years, boosted by soaring costs for goods and services, the latest sign of accelerating inflation during the war with Iran. In April, US consumer prices rose sharply for a second straight month, producing the largest annual increase in inflation in nearly three years.  Higher interest rates …

Headspace’s New Apple Watch App Uses Your Heart Rate to Know When You Need a Break

Headspace’s New Apple Watch App Uses Your Heart Rate to Know When You Need a Break

Published by skeptic

Headspace is bringing its mental health tools right to your wrist. The company on Wednesday launched and updated the Apple Watch app that uses biometric data to figure out when you need to take a deep breath. With your permission, the app analyzes your heart rate variability data from Apple Health to identify moments when you may be more receptive to a mindful pause. It can send a nudge to your wrist and guide you through a 60-second breathing exercise. “Though a single breath can’t solve the unpredictability of what is happening in the world, it’s an important micro-intervention we often need to be reminded of,” said Fay Kallel, chief product and design officer at Headspace, in a statement. The idea, she added, is to help members build resilience through small, consistent practices that fit seamlessly into their lives. What’s new in the app The updated Headspace app experience has a few core features: Each morning, a personalized meditation session surfaces directly on your watch. An SOS mode for when you’re in a stressful moment …

Anthropic says it hit a billion revenue run rate after ‘crazy’ 80x growth

Anthropic says it hit a $30 billion revenue run rate after ‘crazy’ 80x growth

Published by skeptic

Dario Amodei is not the kind of CEO who talks loosely about numbers. The Anthropic co-founder and chief executive, a former VP of research at OpenAI with a PhD in computational neuroscience from Princeton, has built a reputation for measured public statements — particularly around the financial performance of a company that, until recently, disclosed almost nothing about its business. So when Amodei took the stage at Anthropic’s Code with Claude developer conference on Wednesday and offered a genuinely striking piece of financial candor, the room paid attention. “We tried to plan very well for a world of 10x growth per year,” Amodei said during a fireside chat with Anthropic’s chief product officer, Ami Vora. “And yet we saw 80x. And so that is the reason we have had difficulties with compute.” Anthropic had planned for tenfold growth. But revenue and usage increased 80-fold in the first quarter on an annualized basis, a rate Amodei described as “just crazy” and “too hard to handle.” The number demands context. Annualized growth rates can overstate sustained performance …