analysis

Speculation of the company’s overseas suppliers has ramped up production of the long-anticipated new iPads, according to people with knowledge of the matter. The move marks an end to the longest stretch without new products in the history of iPad, which was introduced by Apple co-founder Steve Jobs in 2010. It’s been about 18 months since the last updates — a drought that has contributed to the already-familiar demand for tablets.

The annual inflation rate in France slowed to 2.3% on March 2024, from 3.6% in February, and lower than the revised forecast of 2.6%, preliminary figures showed. There was a broad based slowdown in the consumer prices, including food (3% vs 3.2% in February ), services (3% vs 3.2% ), tobacco (10.7% vs 18.7% ), energy (3.4% vs 4.3%) and manufactured goods (0.1% vs 0.4% ),

Huawei said Friday its net profit for 2023 more than doubled thanks to better product offerings. The company attributed the profits to revenue growth of 9.6% to 704.2 billion yuan ($99.18 billion) in late August despite U.S. restrictions on Huawei’s ability to access high-end tech from American suppliers. Huawei finished fourth place in the Chinese smartphone market by market share, ahead of Xiaomi, according to data from Canalys.

Indonesian Prabowo meets Xi Jinping in China

The top official of the Japan currency said recent yen weakness is odd and out of line with current economic fundamentals, reaffirming his commitment to act if needed to prevent excessive exchange rate drops following the Bank of Japan’s decision last week to raise interest rates for the first time since 2007. The currency slid to a 34-year low of 151.97 yen per dollar on Wednesday, prompting Finance Minister Shunichi Suzuki to send verbal warnings this year of Japan’s potential interventions https://tinyurl.com/293dfofp

The unemployment rate was 2.6% in February 2024, compared to market forecasts and the January figure of 2.4%. The number of unemployed increased by 120 thousand to 1.82 million and employment increased 220 thousand to 67.83 million. The labor force rose by 310 thousand to 69.66 million, while the absence from the labor force dropped by 240 thousand to 40.28 million. The non-seasonally adjusted labor force participation rate was up from 62.1% in that month a year earlier to 1.

**** Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway ****$BRK****.B is now less than $100 Billion away from the milestone of the marketcap of $1 Trillion**

Kara sabotages Kawa - Karung - Border Force tilts away from Myanmar military regime

Australia doubles down on rare earths despite China dominance

**BREAKING: Country Garden, once one of China’s largest real estate developers, has delayed reporting 2023 results.** The delay will likely result in the suspension of its stock trading on 2 April, in September the sales of Country Garden fell 81% to just $846 million.