Archives for November 2020

The fresh rally comes after the cryptocurrency tumbled on Thursday, falling as low as $16,200. However, bitcoin added 15 percent over the past four days, reaching almost $18,700 earlier on Monday. Its 24-hour trading volume stood at $24.8 billion.

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Analysts say that the latest movements signal bitcoin has finished correcting. Prior to last week’s slump, bitcoin saw a monster rally that pushed its price to an almost three-year high. It fell short of reaching an all-time peak and started to sink shortly after breaking past the $19,000 threshold for the first time since December 2017.

Most of the other top 10 cryptocurrencies by market cap, which usually follow bitcoin’s trend, were also up on Monday. Ripple’s XRP and Tether were the only ones trading lower, losing 1.7 percent and around half a percent, respectively.

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The report estimates that 2020 emissions will be 9.2 percent lower than in 2019, reaching a level last seen in 1983.

Although US carbon dioxide emissions have been declining for a dozen years, BNEF estimates that this year’s decline will be the largest on record. Without the impact of Covid-19, the report estimates that emissions would have still fallen by about one percent. Thus, the pandemic alone was responsible for about an 8 percent decrease in emissions.

The report breaks down emissions by sector, and also includes the impacts of this year’s forest fires. On the sector-by-sector impact, BNEF Chief Content Officer Nathaniel Bullard wrote:

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“Transport, now the biggest contributor to US greenhouse gas emissions, has taken its biggest year-on-year hit ever. Emissions from transportation will probably be down more than twice as much as during the early days of the 2008-2009 financial crisis. Power emissions are likely to drop by a record proportion too, but industrial emissions won’t.”

Forest fires were a significant contributor to US emissions this year. Although the transport and power sectors are experiencing estimated declines of 4.0 percent and 2.8 percent, respectively, forest fires are estimated to have added 2.8 percent to US emissions this year. That would offset the decline from the power sector. However, the report also notes that the impact from forest fires is usually temporary, as atmospheric carbon dioxide is removed as the forests regrow.

The flip side of the historic emission decrease this year is that BNEF expects a significant rebound in emissions after the pandemic. However, the report highlights that the silver lining in this year’s pandemic is that it puts the US back on track to meeting our commitments from the Paris Accord prior to leaving the agreement:

By Robert Rapier for Oilprice.com

Article source: https://www.rt.com/business/508201-covid-19-pandemic-lower-emissions/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=RSS

The announcement comes ahead of a debate on new telecoms legislation in parliament.

“I am setting out a clear path for the complete removal of high-risk vendors from our 5G networks,” digital minister Oliver Dowden said in a statement, as quoted by Reuters. “This will be done through new and unprecedented powers to identify and ban telecoms equipment which poses a threat to our national security.”

London has also announced a new strategy to diversify the 5G supply chain, consisting of an initial £250 million ($333.5 million) investment, trials in collaboration with Japanese firm NEC, and the establishment of new research facilities.

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The UK has already banned the purchase of new Huawei 5G kit after the end of the year. It initially allowed and then banned the use of equipment made by the Chinese tech giant in 5G mobile phone networks from the end of 2027, citing concerns that sanctions by the United States meant the Chinese company would not be a reliable supplier.

Beijing has criticized those decisions, while Huawei said last week that it was disappointed by the fact Britain was looking to exclude it from the 5G rollout after the publication of new laws that could see firms fined £100,000 ($133,140) if they break the ban.

For more stories on economy finance visit RT’s business section

Article source: https://www.rt.com/business/508186-britain-huawei-5g-ban/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=RSS

The PMI, a key indicator of the health of a country’s manufacturing sector based on a survey of sentiment among factory owners, rose by 0.7 points compared to last month, according to data released by China’s National Bureau of Statistics on Monday. The reading continued to beat market expectations, with analysts polled by Reuters forecasting November’s reading to stand at 51.5.

Meanwhile, China’s non-manufacturing PMI, which reflects sentiment in the services and construction sectors, also finished higher than expected, increasing to 56.4 this month versus 56.2 recorded in October.

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The composite PMI that covers both manufacturing and non-manufacturing sectors also showed growth. “The composite PMI was 55.7 in November, up 0.4 from previous month, showing that corporate production and operation activities continued to accelerate in China and the stable recovery trend was further consolidated,” senior NBS statistician Zhao Qinghe said, as quoted by media.

The statistics agency said that the strong performance of the manufacturing sector was driven by sub-gauges of production and new export orders and import, which hit the best levels of the year. The strong performance of those spheres compensated for weaker growth in the textile and clothing sector, which was still in the contraction territory this month, according the NBS.

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An increase in exports and imports came despite the rising number of coronavirus infections across the globe. While some economies started to reopen, the resurgence of the virus may eventually push demand for China’s exports down, some analysts warned.

China, which was the first country to suffer from the coronavirus outbreak which forced a strict lockdown in the affected regions, is set to see the weakest economic growth in three decades this year, with its gross domestic product (GDP) expected to expand around two percent. The modest growth would still be much better than in most parts of the world, with all major economies except China expected to see contraction this year.

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Article source: https://www.rt.com/business/508181-china-manufacturing-activity-expands/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=RSS