Economic activity in the United States increased in almost all districts, but remained well below where it was prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, according to the US Federal Reserve’s Beige Book, issued on Wednesday. “Consumer spending picked up as many nonessential businesses were allowed to reopen.” “Retail sales rose in …

Gold prices increased on Wednesday, supported by a decline by the US Dollar (USD), and investors seeking safe havens. However, the yellow metal gains were capped by the stock markets rise due to positive sentiments surrounding news about positive results for a COVID-19 vaccine. Gold futures for August delivery rose …

The stock of Moderna surged by as much as 18% on Wednesday as the company announced positive results for a coronavirus disease (COVID-19) vaccine that it is developing and is currently under clinical trials. In phase one of the clinical trials, there were positive immune responses in all 45 cases …

The European Union’s (EU) General Court has ruled in favor of Apple Inc. in an appeal against the European Commission’s decision in 2016 to impose a fine of EUR 13 billion ($14.9 billion) due to tax evasion, CNBC reported. The decision was based on the premise that the government of …

European stocks closed Wednesday on big gains, supported by positive sentiments after it was reported that new progress has been made on the way to develop a vaccine for the coronavirus disease (COVID-19). The pan-European Stoxx 600 index rose by 1.76% and settled at 373.87. FTSE100 surged by 1.83% and …

The US Federal Reserve does not measure market functioning based on the level of the Treasury bond yields, said Lorie Logan, executive vice president in the Markets Group of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. Logan, who also serves as the manager of the System Open Market Account (SOMA) …

President of the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia, Patrick Harker, said in a TV interview with Bloomberg that the Fed should maintain interest rates until the inflation target is achieved. “We’ve been saying for a long time that the 2% inflation goal is symmetric, which means we should overshoot it. …

The Bank of Canada (BoC) plans to maintain its main interest rate near zero until the 2% inflation target is sustainably achieved. This comes as the BoC decided to maintain its benchmark interest rate at 0.25% on Wednesday BoC is also committed to buying $3.7 billion worth of Canadian government …

Factory sales in Canada increased by a record 10.7% during May, after falling in April by 27.9%, according to data by Statistics Canada on Wednesday. Manufacturing sales were 28.4% below their level in February, before the COVID-19 crisis emerged. A majority of market analysts believe that it would take at …

The Democratic Party’s candidate to the US 2020 Presidential Elections is proposing a plan to combat climate change with investments of $2 trillion in four years. Joe Biden’s plan focuses on investments in renewable energy sources and eliminating carbon emissions from power generation to zero by 2026. The strategy proposed …