Stock news - rates in England, deficits in Europe and the USA, corporate reviews

• British inflation may have returned to its 2% target for the first time in almost three years, setting the stage for the Bank of England to cut interest rates. Wage growth and underlying price pressures remain a concern for the central bank, which said a return to target for inflation alone is not enough to start cutting interest rates. Data on Wednesday showed annual consumer price inflation was 2% in May, slowing from April's 2.3%, although service price inflation, which the Bank of England says provides a better picture of medium-term inflation risk, was 5.7%. exceeding estimates.

Bank of England Governor Andrew Bailey has no choice but to wait as markets fully price a rate cut in November. Nearly all 65 economists polled by Reuters last week expect the bank to take action in August, with traders putting the likelihood of that happening at 30%.

• Surveys by economists showed it would not be a surprise if the Swiss National Bank cut its key interest rate by 25 basis points later in the day amid persistent inflation. Norway's central bank is expected to remain unchanged.

• Futures contracts pointed to a sluggish start on European bourses after Asian shares took a breather from a technology rally driven by US chipmaker Nvidia.

• French shares and the euro came under pressure as political uncertainty in France and the possibility of a far-right-dominated parliament dampened sentiment following President Emmanuel Macron's decision to call early voting.

• Nikkei: Malaysia has asked China to support its bid to join BRICS.

• Erdogan plans to meet with Putin at the SCO summit in Astana on July 3-4.

• Italy, France and five other countries face fines for excessive budget deficits. The European Commission has initiated punitive measures against seven countries due to excessive budget deficits.
According to the rules, the budget deficit of EU member states should not exceed 3% of GDP, and the total public debt should not exceed 60% of GDP. Belgium, Hungary, Italy, Malta, Poland, Slovakia and France violated fiscal rules, the EC report says.

• The official US budget deficit forecast increased from $1.5 trillion to $1.9 trillion.

• Apple has convinced the European Commission and can avoid a multi-billion dollar fine in the Apple Pay case - FT.
At the beginning of this year, the company offered a number of concessions, and now the regulator has accepted some of them, three of the publication’s interlocutors said.
Apple is ready to give developers free access to NFC technology on iOS devices without the need to use Apple Pay or Apple Wallet. There will be no charges from third party providers. These concessions are valid for 10 years.

• Pfizer hid data on the dangers of its vaccine against COVID-19 - the prosecutor of the US state of Kansas.
“Pfizer made several misleading statements to deceive the public about its vaccine at a time when Americans needed the truth,” he claims in the lawsuit that the shot caused pregnancy complications, including miscarriage, as well as myocarditis and pericarditis.
The company itself responds that their statements were accurate and scientifically based, and the prosecutor’s claim has no basis.

• European shares rose slightly as the dust settled from Macron's election announcement.
The Stoxx Europe 600 index ended the session 0.7% higher, with all sectors in the green except consumer staples stocks. France's CAC 40 index rose 0.8%.

• Binance recorded record Ethereum trading volumes following ETF pre-approval in the US.
It is noted that the volume of purchases exceeded the volume of sales by $530 million - the largest such mark for ETH ever recorded on Binance.

• Dell Technologies (DELL) and SMCI are each building half the racks for the xAI supercomputer.
Billionaire Elon Musk announced this in a post on social network X on Wednesday.
The xAI Gigafactory is set to become the world's largest supercomputer.

• The capitalization of Taiwan's TSMC is approaching $1 trillion. The chip manufacturer became the eighth in the world in terms of this indicator. Investors are increasingly beginning to believe in TSMC's success amid the ongoing artificial intelligence boom. Analysts expect that by 2028, up to 35% of the company's revenue will be provided by AI components.

• Amazon is investing $11 billion to expand cloud services and logistics in Germany. Amazon is investing 10 billion euros as demand for its cloud services and retail products continues to grow in Europe's largest economy.

• US chipmaker Onsemi is investing up to $2 billion to increase semiconductor production in the Czech Republic.
The EU is seeking self-sufficiency in critical supplies.

• The US divisions of electric vehicle startup Fisker have filed for bankruptcy. Fisker Inc and its other U.S. subsidiaries have entered Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings, the firm said, adding that negotiations for asset sales were ongoing. According to the court filing, Fisker Inc's assets are valued at between $500 million and $1 billion.

• The manufacturer of KitKat sees demand for chocolate falling due to rising cocoa prices. Consumers are likely to reduce chocolate purchases as historic increases in cocoa prices this year are gradually passed on to producers and force them to raise prices, a Nestle SA spokesman said.

• US mortgage rates fell below 7% last week for the first time since March. This has led to an increase in applications for financing home purchases.

• Swedish lithium-ion battery maker Northvolt is reconsidering plans to build a new plant in Borlange in central Sweden.

• A further ECB rate cut is possible if inflation slows – Bloomberg. Said Board of Governors member Mario Centeno.

• Golden Goose, the Italian fashion brand that makes the scruffy sneakers worn by Taylor Swift, has delayed its IPO
in response to a "significant deterioration in market conditions" caused by political turmoil in Europe.
The Italian company was bought by private equity firm Permira in 2020 for €1.28 billion. The initial IPO price was expected to be between €9.50 and €10.50 per share, implying a market capitalization of Golden Goose of between €1.69 billion and €1.86 billion.

Today

- WTI crude oil futures for June are expiring. Volatility is possible.
- Richmond Federal Reserve Bank President Thomas Barkin will speak to the Risk Management Association.
- Reports from Accenture (ACN), Kroger Company (KR), Darden Restaurants (KRI).
- The Census Bureau reports new home construction starts and building permits for May
- The Labor Department will report initial jobless claims for the week ending June 15. Economists are hoping for a decline. The fact can confirm the cooling of the US economy. Labor market data is now key to assessing the situation.
- The Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia will release its manufacturing business outlook for June.
- The Bank of England and the Swiss National Bank will announce their decisions on monetary policy - the Bank of England will most likely not change the rate (5.25%), but the SNB may reduce it again by 0.25% to 1.25%.