Money Talks

Qatar is keeping its eye on the ball as it welcomes hundreds of thousands of football lovers from across the globe. After years of preparation and hundreds of billions of dollars in spending, the gas-rich Gulf nation is now hoping to reap the benefits of hosting the prestigious FIFA World Cup. Paolo Montecillo reports.

#Qatar2022 #WorldCup #FIFA

Shares in the Asia-Pacific region are falling today, and oil prices are also down by nearly a dollar as COVID concerns in China are on the rise. The nation recorded its first virus-related deaths since May this year.

For more on this, we spoke to Han Tan, who is the chief market analyst at Exinity Group.

#China #COVID19 #OilPrices

There's a lot riding on the success of Downing Street's new budget, given the current state of the world's fifth largest economy. The main concern for most consumers will be inflation, which reached a multi-decade high of more than 11% in October. The British economy is also on the brink of a recession, with GDP shrinking slightly in the third quarter. That means fewer jobs and lower incomes for households, and smaller profits for businesses.

For more on this, we spoke to Denis MacShane, who is former British MP and Minister for Europe.

#UnitedKingdom #Budget #Inflation

Singapore state investor Temasek Holdings said it would write down the value of its entire investment of $275M in collapsed crypto currency exchange FTX. FTX's other backers such as SoftBank Group's Vision Fund and crypto-focused hedge fund Sequoia Capital have also marked down their investment to zero after FTX, founded by Sam Bankman-Fried, filed for bankruptcy.

We spoke to Susannah Streeter, who is investment analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown in the UK.

#FTX #Temasek #SoftBank

The safe-haven US dollar edged higher against major peers on Wednesday as markets continued to assess news of a rocket striking NATO-member Poland, and whether it could lead to an escalation of the Ukraine war.

We spoke to Craig Erlam for the details. He is a senior market analyst at OANDA in London.

#Dollar #Poland #MissileStrike

Amazon is planning to lay off approximately 10,000 employees in corporate and technology roles beginning this week, according to a report from The New York Times. Separately, the Wall Street Journal also cited a source saying the company plans to lay off thousands of employees. The cuts would be the largest in the company's history and would primarily impact Amazon's devices organization, retail division and human resources.

We spoke to Danni Hewson, who's a financial analyst at AJ Bell in the UK.

#Amazon #Layoff #ECommerce

One reason Apple has been spared from the slump is because it doesn't rely on ads. The decline of other Silicon Valley giants is partly due to crypto ads drying up. The cryptocurrency market was worth an eye-watering $3T just one year ago. Crypto's global market cap is now less than $900B.

We discussed this further with crypto market analyst Jessica Walker, who's also Chief Marketing Officer at the fintech company, Fluid Finance.

#Cryptocurrency #AdRevenues #JessicaWalker

Some Big Tech companies like Meta and Alphabet have recovered their recent losses off the back of the US October inflation report that showed consumer prices were cooling off faster than expected. The industry's biggest names reported disappointing results, leading to a sharp fall in stock prices and mass layoffs. Is the worst over for tech or do they have further to fall? Tayyibe Aydin takes a look.

#TechFirms #TechStocks #Earnings

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Moving on now to the Indonesian island of Bali, where finance industry leaders and politicians have gathered for the B20 conference. The group is considered the business arm of the G20, and provides recommendations to governments regarding economic policy.

Our correspondent Melinda Nucifora met with B20 host, Arsjad Rasjid. He says wealthy countries need to pay more attention to emerging economies if the world as a whole is to prosper.

#G20 #Inflation #EmergingCountries

A famed Japanese candy company, which survived even after World War Two, has succumbed to inflation. Sakuma Seika has decided to close its doors after more than a century as the country's economy sours.

#SakumaSeika #Candy #Inflation