Other news

Nike Inc said gross margins will be under pressure throughout the year. One of the largest manufacturers of sportswear and footwear warned its customers about this, referring to the expectation of a possible blow due to increased markdowns and a rapid strengthening of the dollar, joining its competitors in this.

A series of measures for the property market has recently been announced by the Government of Singapore. New measures were partially taken to respond to an increase of interest rates. In particular, tightening lending limits for housing loans is part of the response. There are also further steps of suppressing demand among the new measures adopted for the property market.

On Thursday, Google closed the streaming service Stadia.

On Thursday, a federal judge dismissed two antitrust lawsuits against Amazon.com Inc. and five major publishers accusing them of plotting to fix the price of e-books and traditional books in the US.

On Wednesday, the onshore yuan has fallen to its lowest level since 2008 (7.2521 yuan per US dollar). This event caused another verbal warning against currency speculations from the People’s Bank of China. The bank’s representatives highlighted that it has a considerable experience in coping with such currency turmoil.

India is planning to encourage localization of tablet and laptop production by attracting such companies as Apple Inc. and Dell Technologies Inc. The country is ready to compete with China to become a manufacturing hub.

Verizon Communications Inc. is preparing to launch a home wireless Internet service with a pay-per-use option. The service will come out next month available to members of bonus programs. Thus, the company doubles its own development prospects in the prepaid market, since increasing the number of new customers is quite a challenge.

On Wednesday, a statement was released by drugmaker Merck & Co, according to which the company will allow the Chinese company Sinopharm to distribute and import the COVID-19 antiviral drug molnupiravir on China’s territory in case of its approval.

Amazon.com Inc. has reported an hourly workers wage increase in the United States. According to the company’ statement, it will increase the average starting wage to more than $19 an hour for most employees working in warehouses and transportation.

The UK is enduring a huge package of unfunded tax cuts by its government. The consequence was the fall of the pound sterling.