News by subject: Economic News/Analysis

Customer satisfaction with full-service and limited-service restaurants was already reeling before the pandemic turned both industries upside down. Yet, even in the face of billions of dollars in lost revenue, there's reason to feel encouraged....

After flights were largely grounded and travelers stayed home in 2020, the return to travel has become one of the most anticipated?and uncertain?activities of 2021. Today, Mastercard released Recovery Insights: Ready for Takeoff?, a view into key...

First American Financial Corporation , a leading global provider of title insurance, settlement services and risk solutions for real estate transactions, today released the sixth annual First American Homeownership Progress Index (HPRI), which...

A recent independent financial audit of the World Health Organization (WHO) has revealed "an increasing trend of cases of misconduct, especially relating to fraud, harassment, non-compliance to professional standards and sexual misconduct." In light...

AM Best is maintaining its negative market segment outlook on Japan's life insurance segment, citing the social and economic impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on life insurers' top-line growth and significantly dampened investment income due to low...

KBRA Analytics releases this month's edition of The Bank Treasury Newsletter, the Bank Treasury Chart Deck, and Bank Talk: The After-Show. This month's newsletter, Bank Treasurers See a Plot in the Dots, describes how bank treasurers remain...

First American Financial Corporation , a leading global provider of title insurance, settlement services and risk solutions for real estate transactions, today released the April 2021 First American Real House Price Index (RHPI). The RHPI measures...

Today, McAfee's Advanced Threats Research team released its Mobile Threat Report 2021, which found hackers are using fake apps, Trojans and fraudulent messages to target consumers. Last year, McAfee revealed that hidden apps were the most active...

Stibo Systems, a global leader in Master Data Management (MDM) solutions, reports to have experienced the pandemic as a business accelerator. "In the course of the pandemic, more and more companies have realized the importance of organized and...

Ruark Consulting, LLC today released the results of its 2021 industry studies of variable annuity (VA) policyholder behavior, which include surrenders, income utilization and partial withdrawals, and annuitizations. Highlights are available on the...

Housing Is A Human Right (HHR) and key state and local legislators will host a "Community Hearing on Homelessness, Housing and Hunger" on Friday, June 25th in Downtown Los Angeles. The hearings will include 3 panel discussions with public testimony...

According to new research from Strategy Analytics, half the world's entire population now owns a smartphone in June 2021. Some 4 billion people use a smartphone today. It has taken 27 years to reach this historic milestone. Yiwen Wu, Senior Analyst...

Russell Investments' latest quarterly survey of fixed income managers found about 70% expect inflation for the next 12 months to exceed 2%, surging from 38% who expressed that view in the Q1 survey. The 72 bond and currency managers who responded to...

About 50% of grocery shoppers began buying online and picking up in store during the pandemic, but only half of those customers will continue this behavior in the future, according to new research by ChaseDesign, the human-centered design agency. Buy...

doxo, the innovative web and mobile bill pay service, today released two new doxoINSIGHTS reports, revealing that Americans as a whole spend $698 billion annually on Auto Loans and Auto Insurance combined. A statistical analysis of actual household...

A new report from Guidehouse Insights examines the sensing and digital technologies that support IoT for smart agriculture, providing global market forecasts through 2030. Smart farming and agriculture follow the Industry 4.0 trends of leveraging...

While COVID-19 cases are no longer an inhibitor of demand for office space, the pandemic has fundamentally changed the way we work, and the effects are being felt in the office leasing market. Markets with a greater percentage of remote-friendly jobs...

The COVID-19 pandemic had a positive impact on the tablet market in 2020 as consumers, businesses, and schools sought tablets to stay connected, entertained, or productive. According to a new forecast from the International Data Corporation (IDC)...

COVID-19 continues to cause unparalleled disruption to international mobility, prompting companies to re-evaluate how they will manage a mobile workforce in a post-pandemic world. Cost of living data, mobility research conducted by Mercer and the...

Cantaloupe, Inc. ("Cantaloupe" or the "Company"), a digital payments and software services company that provides end-to-end technology solutions for the unattended retail market, today announced the findings of a joint study with Michigan State...

The exponential growth of business data, coupled with advancements in cloud computing, artificial intelligence (AI), and the Internet of Things has unleashed an era of digital transformation across the globe. This is why data integrity is an urgent...

First American Financial Corporation , a leading global provider of title insurance, settlement services and risk solutions for real estate transactions, today released First American's proprietary Potential Home Sales Model for the month of May...

A new report from Guidehouse Insights examines sales of light duty (LD) EV technologies, including battery EVs (BEVs), plug-in hybrid EVs (PHEVs), and supporting charging infrastructure, with global market forecasts that extend through 2030. Since...

Nostromo (https://www.nostromo.energy), a pioneering cold-energy storage company, is commercializing the world's most advanced energy storage technology based on modular ice cells for commercial and industrial buildings. The technology harnesses the...

The auto dealership buy/sell market once again set records in 2021, a result of a unique confluence of market factors that resulted in 66 completed transactions, up 20% quarter over quarter, according to the First Quarter 2021 Blue Sky Report® by...

AM Best is of the view that the recent Supreme Court ruling upholding the Affordable Care Act (ACA) is favorable for U.S. health insurance companies and membership that participates in the ACA marketplaces and Medicaid managed care, as it maintains...

ION Acquisition Corp 1 Ltd. (the "Company") announced today that upon the closing of the previously announced proposed business combination (the "Business Combination") with Taboola.com Ltd. ("Taboola"), it intends to voluntarily delist its issued...

HSBC Continental Europe (?HBCE') has today signed a Memorandum of Understanding (?MOU') with Promontoria MMB SAS (?My Money Group'), its subsidiary Banque des Caraïbes SA (the ?Purchaser') and My Money Bank (?MMB'), regarding the potential sale of...

Moderna, Inc., a biotechnology company pioneering messenger RNA (mRNA) therapeutics and vaccines, today reaffirmed its commitment to job creation in Massachusetts. Over the last year, Moderna nearly doubled the size of its workforce, from...

Subprime auto market participants are expecting some deterioration in 2021 as concerns shift from the economic uncertainty brought about by the pandemic, to regulatory uncertainty ushered in with the new presidential administration. The potential for...

Total construction starts dropped 1% in May to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of $902.8 billion, according to Dodge Data & Analytics. The brunt of the decline was borne by residential starts, while nonresidential and nonbuilding starts continued...

There are 17.5 million men and women who have the legal responsibility for managing the assets of pension plans, foundations, endowments, health and welfare plans, and personal trusts. These "Lay Fiduciaries" generally come from outside the financial...

Despite COVID-19's operational and sales impacts on the U.S. individual annuity industry, the bigger issue for writers remains the low interest rate environment, according to a new AM Best report. The Best's Market Segment Report, "Individual...

This replaces the announcement made at 3:10 AM ET on June 16th 2021 due to an editing error in paragraphs six and seven. The updated release reads: REWE Group, Viola Growth Investment Takes Trigo's Total Funding Over $100M Trigo, an Israel-based...

Wipro Limited , a leading global information technology, consulting and business process services company, today announced that it has joined the World Economic Forum's Partnership for New Work Standards initiative to establish a healthy, resilient...

Schulte Roth & Zabel (SRZ), a preeminent law firm in the private investment funds industry, has released the June 2021 edition of the SRZ Private Funds Market Trends Report, the latest in a series of reports produced by SRZ on market conditions...

KBRA Analytics releases topical and timely commentary on credit markets, compiled from our weekly podcast, 3 Things in Credit, hosted by our Chief Strategist, Van Hesser. This recap, 12 Things in Credit, is a transcript of every episode in the month....

Retail sales remained at elevated levels in May despite month-to-month fluctuations that masked near-record performance, the National Retail Federation said today. "While May retail sales were down slightly, largely due to supply chain constraints,...

ConocoPhillips will host a virtual market update on Wednesday, June 30 beginning at 9:00 a.m. Central time. The meeting will feature presentations by ConocoPhillips executives, including Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Ryan Lance. A live...

Wells Fargo Investment Institute (WFII) today released its "2021 Midyear Outlook: Fuel for Growth," calling for an intensified 2021-2022 U.S. economic recovery thanks to COVID-19 vaccines, expectations for accelerated spending of last year's...

The global workforce is on the brink of a digital skills crisis. More jobs than ever require an understanding of new technologies but a third of American workers lack digital skills.1 Questionmark, the online assessment provider, is calling on...

MACIF, Aéma Groupe's affiliate, announces the successful issuance of a multi-tranche ?1.75bn subordinated debt issuance comprising: - a ?400mn Perpetual Non-Call 2029 Restricted Tier 1 fixed resettable rate notes bearing interest at an initial fixed...

According to the latest research from Strategy Analytics, 7 in 10 Chinese who plan to buy a new smartphone in the next six months are open to a completely new smartphone brand if it had good reviews and prices. Only half of Chinese smartphone users...

The Identity authentication access market is set to grow by 13.4% in revenues in 2021 reaching $28.5bn, according to Omdia's latest Identity Authentication Access Market Tracker. By 2025 the IAA market is projected to increase to $49.5bn,...

International Data Corporation (IDC) recently published new forecasts for the worldwide hard disk drive (HDD) and solid state drive (SSD) markets. While both markets were affected the COVID-19 pandemic, the outlook looks good as demand for storage...

New research from IHS Markit shows that the average age of light vehicles in operation (VIO) in the U.S. has risen to 12.1 years this year, increasing by nearly 2 months during 2020 and elevated by the COVID-19 pandemic. The increase in average age...

Kroll Bond Rating Agency (KBRA) releases its RMBS Credit Indices (KCI) for May 2021. The indices track early-, mid-, and late-stage delinquencies, observed modifications, prepayment speeds, and other performance metrics across four major RMBS 2.0...

mce Systems Ltd. ("mce" or the "Company") announces it has entered into a strategic engagement with Amdocs, a leading provider of software and services to communications and media companies. Amdocs has selected mce to join the global Amdocs Partners...

According to the International Data Corporation (IDC) Worldwide Quarterly Server Tracker, the worldwide server market grew 12.0% year over year to $20.9 billion during the first quarter of 2021 (1Q21). Worldwide server shipments grew 8.3% year over...

A coalition of leading educators, students, and policy experts are calling on legislators to fully fund Governor Gavin Newsom's historic proposal for Zero Textbook Cost (ZTC) degree pathways for California students. "The Governor's proposed funding...