Macro chatter: A little good news from the US and Italy
Workers of the CAM Museum (Casoria Contemporary Art Museum) place a German flag at the entrance of the museum in Casoria. Antonio Manfredi, director of the CAM in Naples, planned to burn three works of art a week in protest of budget cuts, he said on April 18, 2012.
Need to know:
Demand for durable goods in the US bounced back in May.
Orders for long-lasting items like toasters, refrigerators, cars and airplans were up 1.1 percent, according to the latest data from the US Commerce Department.
While it is a positive, the US manufacturing sector isn't quite back with a bang, according to Reuters. It's just not quite falling apart.
Want to know:
It's going to be a while until Facebook shares get back up to their IPO price.
Analyst estimates suggested it could take Facebook a year to reach that $38 a share offering price, the Wall Street Journal said.
Facebook shares closed at $33.10 yesterday.
Dull but important:
Barclays was fined $450 million by the US and UK for attempted LIBOR manipulation.
Barclays traders worked with colleagues to tailor LIBOR estimates from the bank to benefit the banks derivatives trading positions, Financial Times said, citing a settlement between the bank and a US regulatory agency.
LIBOR, the London interbank offered rate, impacts the interest rates on pretty much everything.
Just because:
Silicon Valley is heading to London.
The Silicon Valley Bank, which is said to back companies including Mozilla, the brains behind the Firefox browser, is opening an east London office aimed at profiting from its growing start up scene.
London has the third most successful ecosystem for digital innovation, GlobalPost's Barry Neild notes.
Strange but true:
Italian businesses grew more confident in recent months even as the euro crisis dragged on and an increasing number of its neighbors sought bailouts from the EU and IMF.
A closely watched index from Italy's national statistician has been rising as optimism about new sales and strong production have been growing, Dow Jones reported. In May, it bounced off its three-year low.
The world however had to wait a little longer to learn this bit of good news. The data was released later than usual because of an employee strike at the Italian statistics agency.