NCB Financial Group Limited (NCBFG) has advised that a connected party sold 741,494 NCBFG shares on June 15, 2018.

Blue Power Group Limited (BPOW) has advised that a meeting of their Board will be held on July 2, 2018, at 4:30 p.m., and that among the items the Board will consider will be: The declaration of a dividend Whether the Board should recommend a stock split to the shareholders.

Caribbean Producers Jamaica Limited (CPJ) has advised that a connected party purchased 4,550 CPJ shares on June 18, 2018.

Supreme Ventures Limited (SVL) has advised that a connected party purchased 540,000 SVL shares on June 12, 2018.

Wisynco Group Limited (WISYNCO) has advised that Mr. Sean Scott, member of the Company’s Executive Management Committee, has resigned effective June 29, 2018.  

Wisynco  Group Limited (WISYNCO) further advised that effective July 2, 2018 a 3% price increase will take effect for the Company’s imported portfolio of products due to the devaluation of the Jamaican Dollar to its US counterpart.

Analysts are increasingly expecting the U.S./China trade dispute to turn into a war of attrition, with neither side willing to bow to pressure from the other. “The country that wins a trade war is the country that can endure most pain,” said Andrew Polk, co-founder of research firm Trivium China in Beijing, adding that China “thinks it can outlast the U.S.” because it doesn’t have elections to worry about. With President Donald Trump under pressure to appease his base ahead of the November mid-terms, President Xi Jinping determined to stick to his plan to make China a global technology leader, and neither side willing to appear weak by compromising first, a significant increase in tensions still seems the most likely outcome. 

Source: Bloomberg

OPEC and its allies are discussing an output increase of between 300,000 and 600,000 barrel per day over the next few months, according to people briefed on the talks. Oil trimmed earlier losses after the Bloomberg News report, with the output increase significantly lower than the 1.5 million barrels a day proposed by Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak last week. Iran, Venezuela and Iraq are opposed to any increase in production at all, Iran’s OPEC representative Hossein Kazempour Ardebili said on Sunday. There are also moves to make Russia a permanent member of the oil-exporters’ alliance. A barrel of West Texas Intermediate for July delivery was trading at $64.78 by 5:45 a.m. Eastern Time. 

Source:  Bloomberg

On Wednesday of last week, as expected the Fed opted to raise rates for the second time this year, taking the target rate from 1.75% to 2.00%, while signalling the possibility of two more rate hikes by the end of the year. This comes on the back of strong economic fundamentals in May with economic growth “rising at a solid rate”, a stable decline in the unemployment rate along with a pick-up in household spending. Committee members indicated in the update to their quarterly economic forecast that they expected core inflation to reach the Fed's 2 per cent target by the end of the year, and now see economic growth hitting 2.8 per cent for the full year. In addition to the upward projections for GDP and inflation, committee members also cut their forecast for unemployment. They now see a 3.6 per cent rate by year's end, compared with the current 3.8 per cent, which was the full-year projection in March. Despite the added hike, officials still see the long-run funds rate at 2.9 per cent after peaking at 3.4 per cent in 2020.

While rates are on an upward trajectory (less accommodative) in the US, the situation is different for many other central bankers who are perennially stuck in an accommodative mode amidst increasingly uneven and disappointing economic activity.

Earlier in May, the Bank of Jamaica announced its decision to lower the policy interest rate by 25 basis points to 2.50 per cent. This was done to support further credit expansion and faster GDP growth. When adjusted for expected inflation, the policy rate remains negative in real terms.