Category: 3. Business

The U.S. economy continues to send mixed signals. On Thursday, the Bureau of Labor Statistics will report job figures for June that may help clear up the picture.

Economists surveyed by The Wall Street Journal forecast that 110,000 new payrolls were added in June. That would be the fewest since February, and it would be the fourth monthly decline in the past six months. The unemployment rate, meanwhile, was expected to have climbed to 4.3%, the highest since October 2021.

Consumers and businesses are still grappling with the uncertainty caused by President Donald Trump’s policies, something further reflected in volatile data.

On one hand, the inflation rate has so far proven stable, while average earnings continue to grow at a healthy clip. Stocks have returned to all-time highs, and in testimony last week, Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell described overall economic conditions as “solid.”

“Look at labor force participation, look at wages, look at job creation,” Powell said. “They’re all at healthy levels now. I would say you can see perhaps a very, very slow continued cooling but nothing that’s troubling at this time.”

On the other hand, Powell’s assertions have not sat well with Trump, who has continued to harangue him to lower the federal interest rate. On Wednesday evening, the president said Powell should “resign immediately.”

Commentary from U.S. firms and various other data points paint a more worrisome portrait of the economy. The latest survey of manufacturers from the Institute for Supply Chain Management found some firms describing the business environment as “hellacious” and “too volatile” for long-term procurement decisions.

On Wednesday, the private payrolls processor ADP reported a net decline in jobs added, which hasn’t occurred since March 2023 — and before that, the depths of the Covid-19 pandemic. The May job growth figure was revised even lower, to just 29,000 jobs added, from 37,000.

“Though layoffs continue to be rare, a hesitancy to hire and a reluctance to replace departing workers led to job losses last month,” Nela Richardson, ADP’s chief economist, said in a news release published Wednesday morning.

Clarity about tariffs was supposed to have arrived by next week, with Trump having set July 9 as the deadline to negotiate new deals. While he said this week he does not plan to extend the deadline, the White House said last week that the key date was “not critical.”

Meanwhile, Trump’s tax cut and spending bill continues to be debated in Congress even as it has cleared some key hurdles.

“Companies need business visibility in taxes and policy if they are going to take the risk of hiring a new employee,” Peter Boockvar, chief investment officer of Bleakley Financial Group, wrote in a note to clients. “And tariffs, on again/off again, have just thrown mud into the gears of business activity.”

The ADP report has a mixed track record of predicting the official BLS figure, which is usually published a day or two later. Earlier in the week, the BLS reported data showing a somewhat more sound picture of the job market, with job openings having unexpectedly increased in June.

Yet, even then, the bulk of those openings were in the leisure and hospitality sector, while openings declined in manufacturing and professional and business services.

“The leisure/hospitality sector alone cannot support the labor market amidst a broader weakening,” analysts with Citi Research wrote in a note to clients.

An additional hiring report released this week by the job consultancy Challenger, Gray and Christmas showed that through June, U.S. employers have announced 82,932 planned hires, a 19% increase over the 69,920 announced at this point in 2024.

Yet that rate remains historically low, it said.

“Hiring announcements in 2025 suggest a cautious but stabilizing labor market,” firm Senior Vice President Andrew Challenger said in a release. “While companies are clearly adding workers at a higher rate than in 2024, the restraint shown relative to previous years indicates continued uncertainty around costs, automation, and the broader economic outlook. Without a strong economic driver, hiring may remain measured through the rest of the year.”

CNN
 — 

Electric vehicles are a common sight on roads across the world — but not everywhere.

In Saudi Arabia, electric vehicles (EVs) account for just over 1% of overall car sales, according to PricewaterhouseCoopers’ (PwC) “eMobility Outlook 2024: KSA Edition,” published in September 2024. Globally, about 18% of all cars sold in 2023 were electric, according to the International Energy Agency.

There are several roadblocks to the rollout of cleaner cars in the desert kingdom, but things are changing quickly.

The Electric Vehicle Infrastructure Company (EVIQ) is at the forefront of that transformation. EVIQ was founded in late 2023 as a joint venture between the country’s sovereign wealth fund — the Public Investment Fund (PIF) — and Saudi Electricity Company.

By the end of 2023, there were around 285 public charging points in the country, according to the PwC report, mostly slow chargers. In January 2024, EVIQ opened its first fast charging station in the country’s capital, Riyadh. By 2030, it plans to have 5,000 fast chargers installed across 1,000 locations.

“Very few people are willing to buy an electric vehicle without having the comfort of seeing infrastructure being available,” EVIQ CEO Mohammad Gazzaz, told CNN. “We’re paving the way.”

Today, EVs are mostly purchased by people that “can charge at home with their private wall boxes,” said Heiko Seitz, Global eMobility Leader, PwC Middle East, and an author of the eMobility report.

A lack of charging stations isn’t the only reason for the slow uptake of EVs in Saudi. In 2024 more than 60% of models available cost more than $65,000, according to PwC’s report, while nearly 73% of gasoline-powered models cost less than that. Generous fuel subsidies mean a liter of gasoline, about a quarter of a gallon, currently costs Saudi drivers around 60 cents.

EV batteries can struggle with the temperatures typical of a Saudi summer, and the additional energy needed for cooling them can significantly impact their charging speed and range. And the country is vast — just over a fifth of the size of the US — with the distance between its two largest cities more than 950 kilometers (almost 600 miles), longer than the average range of most EVs.

But the country has ambitious plans for reducing its dependence on oil revenues and its carbon emissions. Oil accounted for 60% of government revenue in 2024, with crude oil and natural gas accounting for more than 20% of the country’s GDP over the same period.

It wants 30% of the cars in its capital Riyadh to be electric by 2030. But Saudi isn’t just adopting EVs, it’s “building an entire industrial ecosystem” around them, said Seitz. The country is embracing “eMobility as a strategic lever to decarbonize, diversify its economy, and localize manufacturing at scale.”

That includes plans to become an EV manufacturing hub. PIF is the largest shareholder in the US-automaker Lucid, which in 2023 opened the first car manufacturing facility in the country.

CEER, a joint venture between PIF and the Taiwanese company Foxconn, plans to launch its first Saudi-produced EV by 2026. And a joint venture between PIF and Hyundai has broken ground on a manufacturing plant in the country.

Major EV producers are now selling in the country. China’s BYD opened its first showroom there in May 2024, and in April, Tesla launched in Saudi Arabia.

Seitz said the introduction of Chinese models is likely to help drive prices down. BYD’s Saudi website lists its Atto 3 model with a starting price of approximately $27,000.

More than 40% of Saudi consumers are considering purchasing an EV in the next three years, according to PwC.

Today, there are EVIQ chargers in Riyadh and Jeddah. In April, the company rolled out its first highway EV charging station. “It’s still really foundational work,” said Gazzaz.

He said that EVIQ is targeting 50 to 60 new charging sites this year, including in smaller cities like Mecca and Medina. By the end of 2026, Gazzaz anticipates that the country will have a “minimum viable network.”

“We’re not talking only tier-one, but even tier-two cities, and covering some of those main highways,” he said. “Ultimately we’re trying to cover about 70 to 80% of travel requirements across the Kingdom by 2026.”

Gazzaz declined to share how much would need to be invested to reach the targets.

Seitz said that the country’s official target of 30% electric cars in Riyadh is likely to be met, but that “an additional push” might be required to make EVs a mass product for the entire country.

A survey published in May 2024 by Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah Petroleum Studies and Research Center, and University College London, concluded that large-scale uptake of EVs in Riyadh would likely require the government to introduce financial incentives such as VAT exemption for new vehicles, subsidized charging, and free installation of home chargers, “at least in early stages of deployment.”

The government says it has introduced some financial incentives and subsidies for EV buyers.

Better infrastructure will help push forward the country’s EV revolution, experts say.

“EV prices are falling, model options are growing, and government signals are clear — yet range anxiety remains,” said Seitz. “Public charging is the main gap, and it’s now a top priority to fix.”

Chinese AI app DeepSeek could be facing another ban, this time in Germany. Data protection official Meike Kamp has filed a formal request with both Apple and Google to remove DeepSeek from digital storefronts.

Kamp, the Commissioner for Data Protection and Freedom of Information, has accused the app of sending personal data to China, a violation of European Union law.

The United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR) has released a free to use Resilience Maturity Assessment (ReMA) tool[1] to evaluate and enhance organizations’ capacity to withstand disruptions and adapt to change.

The assessment tool was developed by UNDRR and the Corporate Chief Resilience Officers (CCRO) network through consultations with a diverse range of stakeholders. It features a straightforward, checkbox-style assessment that benchmarks resilience maturity across six core pillars of resilience, and offers targeted improvement guidance, including practical templates and resources to support enhancement efforts.

The assessment’s six pillars of resilience are policy and governance, leadership and culture, organization, capacity, operating model, and value chain. Practitioners are asked up to three questions on each pillar, for example, value chain measures the ability to meet client obligations and supply chain resilience. Final scores are measured on 1-4 basis, and scores falling short of full marks offer suggestions to improve. For example, a supply chain level 3 score produced recommendations including ‘Consider the risks and cost benefits/drawbacks of diverse suppliers against single suppliers with better pricing’.​

Alongside the guidance, relevant templates are included to support and enhance implementation, as well as benchmarking against specific sectors or regulations for meaningful measurements that are scalable across industries.

The ReMA tool is particularly valuable given that BCI research[2] shows one-third of organizations (33.3%) do not use any specific performance indicators to measure resilience. This highlights the current challenges in standardising resilience measurement and the need for more effective, data-informed approaches.

The Resilience Framework 1.0

Last year the BCI released the Resilience Framework 1.0, a strategic guidance and framework cycle that organizations can use to ensure resilience is strategically led, clearly defined, and aligned with an organization’s realities for long-term effectiveness. It is aimed at top leadership and based on guiding fundamental concepts in the form of eight core principles, with a cycle to help implement them in a structured way,

The Resilience Framework and the UNDRR’s ReMA are grounded in the same principles. Both emphasise the importance of leadership, clear direction, comprehensive understanding, collaboration, strategic planning, adaptability, and continuous improvement in building resilience. The Resilience Framework serves as an in-depth strategic resource for leadership, while the ReMA resource is designed with a more practical, operational approach focused on measuring and enhancing resilience within operational environments.

As global resilience tools, both are designed for repeated use and offer structured support to professionals working to strengthen resilience and, with research showing global operational resilience programmes have increased 10% on last year[3], the need for good quality guidance is clear.  Used together, these tools can enhance resilience programmes from strategic leadership to boots-on-the-ground implementation.

Advocating for globally relevant resources

The BCI is an advocate for innovative, globally relevant tools that organizations of all sizes, sectors, and locations can use to assess, measure, and strengthen their resilience. Building resilience is a continuous endeavour, and tools such as ReMA play a vital role in guiding organizations as they strengthen and adapt over time, developing their resilience capabilities and responding effectively to emerging risks in the disruptive environment of evolving global change.

More on

“India certainly is in discussions with the United States. It is going to be in the interest of the United States to make sure that a deal is worked out and that it benefits both sides. India is a very important counter point for geopolitical purposes to China. And so, the United States is going to be somewhat easier on India than it has been on some of the other countries,” says Ed Yardeni, Yardeni Research.

Several developments overnight, one with respect to tariff where US has gone ahead and now probably announced a deal with Vietnam. Tell us what does this mean for several other countries and do you expect US to sign deals with other countries as well ahead of that July 9 tariff deadline?
Ed Yardeni: We will hear about a few more deals, but I do not think we are going to have all of the deals and maybe not even half the deals. Looks like they are happening, but rather slowly. So, on July 9th the president may just impose some tariffs, negotiations continue to go on, and maybe by doing that the negotiations will speed it up.

Now, let us stay with the tariff deadline that we were talking about. I wanted to understand what is your view on India’s position in this global investment landscape, especially the kind of defence developments that we have had. How do you see India placed versus the other emerging markets given that tariff deadline is looming on July 9th?
Ed Yardeni: Well, India certainly is in discussions with the United States. It is going to be in the interest of the United States to make sure that a deal is worked out and that it benefits both sides. India is a very important counter point for geopolitical purposes to China. And so, the United States is going to be somewhat easier on India than it has been on some of the other countries.But also wanted your thoughts on the kind of impact tariff could have on inflation and consequently its impact on the bond market. How do you assess the situation as of now?
Ed Yardeni: Well, at this point we have all been surprised that we have not seen much of any impact of tariffs on inflation. Looking at the latest numbers through May, inflation has been remarkably moderate. The Fed Chairman Powell has said that he does not anticipate that there could be inflation showing up at summer months, in other words, the data for June, July, August.

And I agree with that. We will see some upward pressure on inflation. And, of course, we also have the very weak dollar. Though very weak dollars also going to put some upward pressure on inflation. But I would point out at the same time that there is a lot of deflation coming out of China.
China just continues to produce more than they can consume and they are dumping it in global markets everywhere and that is keeping a lid on a lot of inflation around the world. So, I do not think inflation is going to be a serious problem. I think it will be a problem for the next few months. It is probably one of the reasons that the Fed will hold off on any easing move anytime soon.
Now I want to talk about the markets. Now you had some time ago said that the geopolitical crisis are 2025’s dominant bull market and that one could look to rotate into safe heaven assets like gold and defence stocks. But do you still hold that view given the kind of rally we have seen in the US benchmark indices, especially driven by tech stocks?
Ed Yardeni: Well, I have been bullish on this market since November of 2022. The bull market started in the United States in October of 2022. And back then I was recommending and still recommend overweighting information technology, overweighting communication services, industrials, and financials.

Those have all worked out very well. It was painful, of course, during the correction because they fell most sharply but they have also come back most quickly. I also came up with the idea of overweighting energy, but so far that has not worked out and I have kind of scaled back on that recommendation.

And on a global asset basis, gold has been excellent way to a portfolio against the risk that tariffs represent, against the geopolitical risk especially. Defence stocks still look very good to me on a global basis. So, there is still plenty of opportunities in this market which is still very much a bull market here and by the way in India too.

Salary criteria

What should investors keep in mind?

Manoj Nair, the Gulf News Business Editor, is an expert on property and gold in the UAE and wider region, and these days he is also keeping an eye on stocks as well.

Manoj cares a lot for luxury brands and what make them tick, as well as keep close watch on whatever changes the retail industry goes through, whether on the grand scale or incremental.

He’s been with Gulf News for 30 years, having started as a Business Reporter. When not into financial journalism, Manoj prefers to see as much of 1950s-1980s Bollywood movies. He reckons the combo is as exciting as it gets, though many will vehemently disagree.