What to watch for today
Emerging markets drag the world down. The International Monetary Fund is likely to cut its global growth forecast for 2013 because of a slowdown in the emerging markets. The Fund had predicted in April that the world economy would expand 3.3% this year.
Mixed picture in China. Consumer inflation is expected to increase 2.5% on an annual basis in June, well below the government’s threshold of 3.5%. But the producer price index, another measure of demand, is expected to decline 2.6%.
BlackBerry faces irate shareholders. Top management will face tough questions about the company’s future at its annual meeting in Ontario. Some investors have called for a sale of the company or individual parts, after the smartphone maker reported disappointing sales last week.
UK continues to struggle. Industrial production probably fell 1.4% year-on-year in May, led by a 1.5% decline in manufacturing. The trade deficit is expected to widen from £8.2 billion to £8.5 billion ($12.7 billion) in May.
South Sudan turns two. But the economy of the world’s youngest country is still in critical condition.
While you were sleeping
Political face-off in Egypt. The Al Nour party, the Islamist rival to the Muslim Brotherhood, pulled out of attempts to form an interim government after at least 51 demonstrators were killed and more than 300 were wounded outside the barracks said to be holding deposed president Mohamed Morsi.
Greece got a lifeline, for now. International creditors agreed to give €6.8 billion ($8.7 billion) on the condition that Greece would keep its promise of cutting public sector jobs and drive through unpopular reforms.
Michael Dell got a shot in the arm. Influential shareholder advisory firm Institutional Shareholder Services backed his $24.4 billion plan to buy out the PC maker he founded. Activist investor Carl Icahn, who had floated a rival proposal, could still end up a winner even if he loses the bid to buy Dell.
High-speed traders lost their two-second edge. Thomson Reuters will stop releasing consumer sentiment data two seconds early for clients who pay extra, a practice that New York’s attorney general has been investigating.
Global recovery will remain uneven. The OECD expects economic growth in the US and Japan to pick up in the months ahead. Leading indicators for May show that Germany will lead the modest revival in Europe, while Russia and Brazil appear set for slowdowns.
Warren Buffett made a $2 billion donation. The boss of Berkshire Hathaway gave 17.5 million Class B shares in his investing company to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
Quartz obsession interlude
Gwynn Guilford on what China’s probe into dairy price-fixing really means for foreign firms. “Though the government’s complaint is that milk powder has gone up 30% in price since 2008, when tainted formula killed six babies, this probably isn’t just about price […] What the government is really after is ‘industry consolidation.’ This is Chinese Communist Party-speak for squeezing out hard-to-regulate smaller players, while underwriting acquisitions by ‘national champion’ state-owned enterprises.” Read more here.
Matters of debate
Tighter security won’t bring peace in China’s Xinjiang province. Bridging the wealth gap between ethnic groups is the only solution.
Why Brazil’s middle classes are protesting. They’re still struggling to make ends meet.
Be loved first, then be feared. What research shows managers should know about Machiavelli’s famous conundrum.
A brash New York City comptroller could keep Wall Street in check. Eliot Spitzer could turn the city’s pension funds into the country’s angriest activist investor.
Surprising discoveries
S&P’s surprising defense. The rating agency says its credit ratings didn’t defraud investors because they shouldn’t have relied on them anyway.
Keep track of Google’s tracking. You can find out everything that Google knows about you.
But why the mice? The US Department of Commerce destroyed $170,000 of computer equipment, including mice, to root out a piece of malware.
Life beneath a glacier. A buried lake supports a thriving ecosystem two miles beneath the surface of Antarctica.
Russia’s fleet of floating nuclear plants. The reactors will provide electricity to remote areas by 2016.
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