A tearful Lionel Messi leaves Barcelona, calls Paris Saint-Germain move a possibility
Where he will play next is not yet official, but Lionel Messi put the only team he has played for behind him Sunday, saying goodbye to Barcelona in a tearful news conference in Camp Nou stadium.
“My family and I were convinced we were going to stay here, at home,” the five-time winner of the Ballon d’Or said (via the BBC). “This is the end with this club and now a new story will begin. …Yes, it’s one of the most difficult moments for me. I don’t want to leave this club – it’s a club I love and this is a moment I didn’t expect.
“Last year I wanted to leave, this year I wanted to stay. That’s why I’m so sad. It was like my blood ran cold. I was really sad. It was really difficult right up to now. I’m still trying to process it all. When I get home I will still feel bad; it will be even worse. I’m not ready for this.”
The moment had been looming since June 30, when Messi became a free agent, and fans lined the streets outside Camp Nou, with first-team members joining him for the news conference. ESPN reported Sunday, citing unnamed sources, that he has a two-year agreement to join Paris Saint-Germain. A recent photo of Messi with PSG’s Neymar, a former teammate with Barcelona, and others in Ibiza fueled that speculation. On Sunday, he called a PSG move “a possibility, but added, “I have not agreed anything with anyone. I have got different clubs interested. Nothing is definitive but clearly we are talking to them.”
Messi noted that he arrived in Barcelona 21 years ago, coming to Spain from his native Argentina when he was 13 and making his first-team debut as a 17-year-old in October 2004. He scored 672 goals in 778 games as Barcelona won 34 trophies.
“I arrived when I was very young, 13 years old, and after 21 years I am leaving with my wife and three Catalan-Argentine children,” he said. “I cannot be more proud of everything I did and lived in this city. I have no doubt that, after a few years away, we will return because it is our home.”
He insisted that he had done all he could to stay, agreeing to a five-year deal that was half of his $170 million annual contract and was contingent on the departure of other players so that the team could comply with La Liga’s limit. But it all fell apart and Barcelona President Joan Laporta said Friday that trying to keep Messi was a “risky” investment that would have hurt the club for 50 years.
“I offered to reduce my salary by 50 percent and they didn’t ask me for anything else,” Messi said. “It is not true that they asked me for anything more. I only know that it was not possible because of La Liga, because the club did not want to go into more debt.”
ESPN reported that Messi would arrive in Paris for a physical later Sunday.
Olympic magic cut through the pandemic gloom, but the Tokyo Games legacy is complex
TOKYO – The flame that burned throughout one of historys most controversial Games was extinguished Sunday as Japan brought the curtain down on the Tokyo Olympics with closing ceremonies that were as unusual as the event itself.
Most of the athletes weren’t even present; they were sent home within 48 hours of competing as part of the strict rules meant to contain the pandemic. For those who attended, organizers offered a show of music, juggling and dance that was supposed to replicate the experience of visiting a grassy Tokyo park – an experience that had been off-limits to athletes during the Games.
“In these difficult times, you gave the world the most precious of gifts: hope,” International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach told the athletes. “For the first time since the pandemic began, the entire world came together, sport returned to center stage, billions of people around the globe were united by emotion, sharing moments of joy and inspiration.”
It was a fitting, bittersweet end to a complicated Games. While the ban on spectators meant the Games looked and felt nothing like the electric showcase of Japan for which organizers had hoped, the Olympics nonetheless provided a much-needed respite, a burst of joy and human wonder, for viewers around the world exhausted by the pandemic.
Day after day over two weeks, the magic of Olympic sporting competition cut through the gloom and isolation of the long coronavirus pandemic. Hour after hour, athletes emerged from long years of sacrifice, self-discipline and often adversity into the global spotlight and lit up the world’s hearts with their modesty, grace and joy.
“Life seems very divisive just now. Everybody’s in polarized positions and there’s so much just controversy and frustration in life,” British Olympic cyclist Chris Hoy told the BBC. “It’s just wonderful to see the power of sport and the way it’s brought us all together and reminded us about the Olympic Games and the wonderful role that it plays in all our lives.”
Former U.S. Olympic sprint champion Michael Johnson agreed.
“This Games, even though it was a struggle getting it to start and getting it going, I think ultimately it was the relief that a lot of people needed,” he said.
New sports brought new audiences and new subcultures to the Games. The obvious camaraderie of the BMX riders, skateboarders and sports climbers shone brightly – and never more so than when 15-year-old Misugu Okamoto from Japan was carried off the skateboarding park on the shoulders of her fellow competitors after falling on her final run.
For Team USA, there were uncountable moments of enchantment, from 17-year-old Lydia Jacobs’ shock victory in the 100-meter breaststroke to Allyson Felix’s bronze in the 400 meters at her fifth Olympics, and her first as a mother, to become the most decorated female track and field athlete in Olympic history.
There was Sunisa Lee’s emergence from the shadow of Simone Biles to win the women’s all-around gymnastics, and the joy and relief for Biles herself when she won bronze on the balance beam after returning from her well-documented withdrawal.
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There were Japan’s judo brother and sister Hifumi and Uta Abe who won gold medals within an hour of each other, and Jason Kenny’s seventh gold in track cycling on the final day to become Britain’s most successful Olympian ever, beautifully capped by his fellow medalists lifting him on their shoulders on the podium.
For host country Japan, which suffered 18 months of anguish and anger over the pandemic-delayed event, there was a welcome burst of national pride as it recorded easily its greatest haul of 58 medals including 27 golds.
Japan proved to the world that, despite all the criticism, it could hold an Olympic Games in the midst of a global pandemic. Some of the rules, forcing athletes to wear masks on the podium and put medals around their own necks, might have seemed suffocating, but the thick web of restrictions ultimately proved effective in allowing the competition to go ahead.
Public opinion, so long skeptical or, in some cases, downright hostile, appeared to turn around, at least in part, with crowds turning out on the streets of Sapporo to cheer on the marathon runners in the Games’ final days.
Yet there was still an emptiness, a sense of loneliness and even a bitterness that the joy and achievement couldn’t wash entirely away.
The feeling that the International Olympic Committee (IOC) forced these Games on an unwilling public left an impression of arrogance and materialism, some critics said, and the sexist and discriminatory attitudes of Japan’s conservative and elderly male elite in the run-up to the event was exposed to global scrutiny and caused national embarrassment.
There were signs of incremental progress: These were the most gender-balanced Games and the most diverse in terms of openly LGBTQ participation. The choice of Naomi Osaka to light the Olympic torch at the Opening Ceremonies was a well-received nod to Japan’s marginalized mixed-race populations.
Japan boasted that it had used the Games to boost its citizens’ participation in sport and exercise, sailing into a global head wind of rising inactivity, and significantly improved disabled access to everything from venues and Metro stations. On television, commentators talked more respectfully about mixed-race or transgender participants, even if intolerance and cruelty still raised its head on social media.
Yet the were also wounds, the biggest of which was partly self-inflicted.
Japan inexplicably dragged its feet over its coronavirus vaccination campaign, forcing it first to ban overseas fans and then even domestic spectators.
Olympians clustered in the empty stands to cheer their teammates along, but this made-for-television Games was deprived of the communal passion, the fervor and the fun that come with a hyped-up crowd.
Athletes clutching medals gamely waved at their far-off families on specially set-up video screens, but the absence of their families and friends was palpable.
Bach boasted that 1 out of 10 Japanese people had seen some part of the Games, but outside the fenced-off and policed competition venues, it sometimes felt as if the city of Tokyo had turned its back on the Olympics.
It’s true there were some moments of enthusiasm: More than an hour before the closing ceremony began, Tokyo residents lined up outside the stadium to get the best views of the fireworks. But there was no trace of the festival atmosphere that the Games usually brings to its host cities.
Instead of welcoming foreigners with open arms and showing Japan’s famous hospitality, the mood toward outsiders seemed at times to crystallize into silent mistrust of the tens of thousands of strangers who might be bringing in new strains of the coronavirus. Outward-facing Japan seemed to turn its face inward.
And all the while, in Tokyo and across Japan, the pandemic worsened, setting records with metronomic regularity. Daily cases rose by nearly four times during the two weeks of the Olympics alone.
The IOC and Tokyo 2020 organizers boasted every day of their extensive testing regime and how few people involved in the Games had tested positive – 430 since the beginning of July.
On Sunday, Tokyo 2020 President Seiko Hashimoto said there was no “medical or scientific” proof that cases had spread from the Olympics bubble to the general public.
But many public health experts were unpersuaded. They argued the Games undermined the government’s already unconvincing calls for self-restraint and suggested the Olympic “bubble” was far more porous than organizers had claimed.
“I thought of the legacy of this Olympics,” said Kenji Shibuya, the former founding director of the Institute for Population Health at King’s College London who recently moved back to Japan to help with mass vaccination efforts here. “First, it clearly showed that unless the pandemic is tackled, a safe and secure Olympics is a fantasy.”
Shibuya said the Games have “left a scar on Japanese society,” causing division and distrust as well as a “health and economic debt.”
The IOC will walk away from these Games with its broadcast revenue intact and its finances in good shape. The Japanese taxpayer, though, will be left footing a multibillion dollar bill, a huge hangover without having been invited to the party.
“The athletes should be the focus of the Games, and they have gone a long way in rescuing the extravaganza from the venal and feckless global sports aristocracy and Japan’s political elite,” said Jeff Kingston, a professor of political science at Temple University Japan.
But “the stories of resilience and indomitable spirits overcoming adversity” couldn’t mask the unpalatable truths the Games exposed, he said.
“The Pandemic Olympics featured some glorious performances, but the empty venues made them an eerie rather than epic experience, a brief diversion from the surging delta curse.”
Published : August 09, 2021
By : The Washington Post · Simon Denyer, Michelle Ye Hee Lee
Remembering all of the firsts at the Tokyo Olympics
The Tokyo Olympics delivered historic moments from start to finish. Some athletes set records for long-standing dominance in their sports. Others became the first in their nations histories to win a medal of any kind. And sports such as surfing and karate made their Olympic debuts.
With the Closing Ceremonies complete, here’s a look back at the most impactful firsts of the Tokyo Olympics:
– First skateboarding medal: The street and park competitions made their debuts in Tokyo, and the host country dominated, with three of four gold medals won by Momiji Nishiya (women’s street), Sakura Yosozumi (women’s park) and Yuto Horigome (men’s street).
– First Hmong American Olympic gymnast: Sunisa Lee was the first Hmong American to make the Olympic team in gymnastics, and she ended up winning the all-around gold medal for the U.S. She also won a silver medal in team all-around and a bronze in individual uneven bars.
– First women’s 1,500-meter freestyle: Katie Ledecky won the race finally added to the Olympic program, inserted in part because of her dominance in the event. She won gold in 15:37.34, ahead of American teammate Erica Sullivan at 15:41.41 and one of her four medals in Tokyo.
– First track and field gold medal for India: The world’s second-most populous nation has competed in the Summer Olympics since 1900 and sent 192 athletes in track and field, but had never won a gold medal until Neeraj Chopra did so in the javelin.
– First mixed-medley relay in swimming: Great Britain won the mixed-medley relay in world record time, while the Americans finished in a disappointing fifth place.
– First basketball players to win five golds: Sue Bird and Diana Taurasi continued to lead a dominant U.S. women’s team, which has now won 55 straight games after the gold-medal triumph against Japan.
– First gold medal for Philippines: In women’s weightlifting, Hidilyn Diaz gave her country of 108 million people its first Olympic gold medal, after 97 years of trying. She set two Olympic records in the 55-kilogram division.
– First medals of any kind for San Marino: San Marino (population 34,000) became the smallest country ever to medal. In shooting, Alessandra Perilli won bronze in the women’s trap competition, while the mixed team won silver in team trap. Myles Nazem Amine won bronze in men’s freestyle wrestling at 86 kilograms.
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– First out trans athlete to medal: Quinn earned a gold medal as part of the Canadian women’s soccer team, which outlasted Sweden in penalty kicks for its first gold medal in soccer.
– First surfing medal: Honolulu native Carissa Moore, a member of surfing’s hall of fame, won gold on the women’s side. Brazil’s Italo Ferreira won the men’s competition.
– First gold medals for Qatar: Qatar’s first gold medals came in a pair, with Mutaz Essa Barshim winning the men’s high jump (and sharing the honor with his friend, Gianmarco Tamberi of Italy) and Fares Elbakh taking the men’s weightlifting competition at 96 kilograms.
– First medal of any kind for Turkmenistan: Polina Guryeva gave Turkmenistan its first medal with silver in women’s weightlifting at 59 kilograms.
– First gold medal for Bermuda: Flora Duffy won the women’s triathlon for the small Atlantic island’s first gold medal. Bermuda entered this year with only one Olympic medal, a bronze from 1976.
– First karate medal: Karate joined the Olympics in the country where it was born, and Okinawa native Ryo Kiyuna, a three-time world champion, won gold in men’s kata.
– First Black woman to win gold in wrestling: Tamyra Mensah-Stock defeated Nigeria’s Blessing Oborududu in the women’s 68-kilogram freestyle final, also becoming the second American woman ever to win gold in wrestling.
– First sport climbing medal: Spain’s Alberto Ginés López won the men’s combined competition, while Janja Garnbret of Slovenia earned gold on the women’s side.
– First medal of any kind for Burkina Faso: By earning third in the men’s triple jump, Hugues Fabrice Zango put his country on the podium for the first time. Burkina Faso sent a record seven athletes to this year’s Olympics.
KCC Thailand provide ‘Online K-pop Academy’ and Korean puppet performance ‘Dallae’s Story’
The Korean Cultural Center in Thailand (KCC Thailand) provide the free online K-pop classes and Korean puppet performance in August, while many people need to spend their spare time during staying at home by the lockdown. There will be limitation for the number of participators as 1,000 people, due to the online meeting system. If you would like to learn K-pop singing or dancing by the famous expert in Korea, please be hurry up for the registration.
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Enjoy K-culture while staying at home
1. Online K-Pop Academy
KCC’s ‘K-Pop Academy’ invited the professional K-pop trainer every year, and given free lessons to students in Thailand. However, due to pandemic, the class operation has been stopped from 2020. From this year, KCC launches ‘Online K-pop Academy’, which famous vocal/dance trainers in K-pop industry can teach Thai students by the online system. Ms. Park, Jun Hee, who choreographed for popular K-pop idols such as GFRIEND, IZ*ONE, Weki Meki, and appeared as a dance trainer in famous TV show ‘Idol School’, ‘UHSN’ by Mnet Korea, will teach the real K-pop dance. As a vocal teacher, Mr. Kevin Yoon who currently work as a vocal trainer in YG Entertainment, join to this online class. For K-pop fans, it is a rare chance to get lessons from big names in Korea.
Enjoy K-culture while staying at home
Pre-registration will be from 3rd to 12nd August at posting from KCC Thailand’s Facebook page(facebook.com/koreanculturalcenterTH), and class period will be from 16th August to 2nd September (Dance), 17th August to 3rd September (Vocal).
Enjoy K-culture while staying at home
2. Korean puppet performance ‘Dallae’s Story’
KCC Thailand also provide the free online nonverbal puppet performance ‘Dallae’s Story’, sponsored by Seoul Art Center(SAC), a big arts complex in Korea. The story would be about an ingenuous child named Dallae and her ordinary family whose lives are interrupted by Korean War (1950–1953). The piece does not directly discuss the war itself, but rather portrays the efforts of a family to overcome the hardships of wartime in a fairy tale-like fantasy along with Korean traditional music, glamorous sets, and a uniquely vivid combination of human performers and puppets for an exciting performance that appeals to both children and their parents. Look forward to a topical piece that graphically conveys the magnificence and importance of love between human individuals and family members. The performance will be opened by KCC Thailand’s Facebook page (facebook.com/koreanculturalcenterTH) on 20th August at 7PM.
Carabao Group and CJ Express Group recognized in Deloitte’s prestigious Thailand’s Best Managed Companies 2021 Awards
Carabao Group and CJ Express Group recognized in Deloitte’s prestigious Thailand’s Best Managed Companies 2021 Awards. With accolades emphasizing excellence in strategy, innovation and organizational culture
Carabao Group Public Company Limited and CJ Express Group Company Limited have won awards from Thailand’s Best Managed Companies 2021, the inaugural award program by Deloitte in Thailand. The award ceremony, which was held virtually via online channels, recognizes top privately-owned Thai companies with annual revenues over USD25 million for their organizational success as well as their contribution to industry and to the economy.
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Carabao Group and CJ Express Group recognized in Deloitte’s prestigious Thailand’s Best Managed Companies 2021 Awards
The Thai awards are derived from Deloitte’s global Best Managed Companies awards programs – a well-regarded international awards program that applies a proven evaluation process to assess the businesses’ quality of management in areas including strategy, capabilities and innovation, culture and commitment, as well as governance and financial management. The evaluation of the Thai awards is based on more than 25 years of observed practice from the global awards program that has been rolled out to 37 countries worldwide.
The inaugural winners include Carabao Group Public Company Limited for Food and Beverage industry sector; Better Pharma Company Limited for the Industrial Products sector; CJ Express Group Company Limited for the Grocery and Convenience Store industry sector; Shera Public Limited for the Engineering and Construction industry sector; S.Khonkaen Foods Public Company Limited for the Food and Beverage industry sector and WICE Logistics Public Company Limited for the Transportation industry sector.
Mr. Sathien Setthasit, Chief Executive Officer of Carabao Group Public Company Limited, said that the Thailand’s Best Managed Companies 2021 award reflects the firm’s vision of “World class product, World class brand” and the determination to become a global organization.
Mr. Veeratham Setthasit, Chief Executive Officer of C.J. Express Group Company Limited, said that receiving Thailand’s Best Managed Company award from Deloitte confirms that the new generation have the power to move the company forward and in the right direction. He accepts this award on behalf of all the staff and management of CJ Express Group that have been working together through many challenges over the years.
Carabao Group Public Company Limited was established on 8 July 2014 and became a listed company on the Stock Exchange of Thailand on 21 November 2014. The company launched their energy drink, its first product, under the Carabao Dang trademark, onto the Thai market on 28 October 2002.
Throughout the operation, since its inception, Carabao Group has expanded gradually and steadily. Its business covers the procurement of main ingredients, manufacturing, marketing and distribution of energy dinks and other beverages, as well as manufacturing glass bottles and aluminum cans for packaging factories. Carabao Group also manages and oversees distribution through participating store networks and business partners both locally and internationally under the vision of World Class Product, World Class Brand.
CJ Express Group operates a new model of retail shops that offers comprehensive consumer packaged goods at affordable prices under the management of PSD Rakthai Company Limited, founded on 4 January 2005. The enterprise then changed its name to CJ Express Group Company Limited on 1 August 2013.
Throughout 15 years of operation, CJ Express Group Company Limited has grown exponentially, especially with the 2020 launch of the new business CJ MORE under the concept More Than Anyone, More Than a Supermarket to distinguish itself from competitors. The CJ MORE flagship store was launched on Silom Road to become the blueprint for the future expansion of CJ MORE. The venture is driving forward and developing its own retail brand to better cater to its customer segments, with a future plan to become a listed company.
An independent judging panel comprising of business and academia representatives determined the winners based on the leading practices of Best Managed Companies. This year’s jury members are Krittinee Nuttavuthisit, Associate Professor of Sasin Graduate Institute of Business Administration of Chulalongkorn University; Darutsakorn Wisootthisin, Assistant Secretary General of Thai Bankers’ Association; and Orawan Hoichan, Managing Editor at Forbes Thailand.
The contenders in the award program were evaluated for their skills and management direction, which included strategic analysis, business analysis and comparison with the same business evaluation framework used with 1,000 best private enterprises around the globe. Business owners can implement the knowledge, direction and know-how from the program to their own strategies and planning in order to further improve their ventures.
Ajinomoto debuts campaign “Ajinomoto, the Umami helper” to support food vendors through COVID-19 crisis
Ajinomoto Co., (Thailand) Ltd. supported all restaurants, especially SMEs, by creating the campaign “Ajinomoto, the Umami helper” via LINE OA as a community for food vendors to register.
Ajinomoto Co., (Thailand) Ltd. supported all restaurants, especially SMEs, by creating the campaign “Ajinomoto, the Umami helper” via LINE OA as a community for food vendors to register. This community provides many secret menu recipes and professional business management techniques that food vendors can take and adapt to their own restaurant, including entertaining activities for vendors to join and get rewards. In addition, the registered vendors will get promoted by Facebook: อายิโนะโมะโต๊ะ ผู้ช่วยร้านอร่อย as another way to get more customers.
Ajinomoto would like to encourage all food vendors who got affected from COVID-19 to get pass this crisis together. This is one of the Ajinomoto Group’s intentions to create various kinds of product in order to serve customers’ and food vendors’ need as creating “Eat Well Live Well society” in accordance with our Ajinomoto Group Creating Shared Value policy (ASV).
The campaign has received great attention and participation from a lot of food vendors. Therefore, Ajinomoto decided to continue this campaign in Phase 2. For food vendors who are interested can register in Line OA (Lind ID: @AjinomotoTH) to get a chance to Free Promotion in total value 5,000 Baht through Facebook อายิโนะโมะโต๊ะ ผู้ช่วยร้านอร่อย that will help promote within 5 KM. distance from your restaurant, together with other big rewards.
The Stock Exchange of Thailand (SET) Index rose by 3.98 points, or 0.26 per cent, to 1,544.17 on Tuesday morning.
The SET Index closed at 1,540.19 on Monday, up 18.47 points or 1.21 per cent. Transactions totalled THB69.89 billion with an index high of 1,543.71 and a low of 1,525.29.
Krungsri Securities predicted the index on Tuesday would fluctuate between 1,530 and 1,550 points amid hopes of the lockdown being eased as domestic Covid-19 cases are declining.
It added that mass buy-ups of stocks related to export, and stocks of companies whose second-quarter business turnover is expected to improve, would help boost the index.
“However, falling oil price and outflow of foreign funds would pressure the index,” Krungsri Securities said.
It advised investors to follow the US Consumer Price Index for July as consensus expectation is that it would rise by 4.3 per cent year on year.
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It recommended selective buying as an investment strategy:
▪︎ HANA, KCE, TU, CPF, GFPT, ASIAN, EPG, SUN and NER, which benefit from the weakening baht.
▪︎ BCH, CHG, BDMS, DOHOME, CKP, CBG, OSP, ICHI, BEC, GUNKUL, JWD, WICE, SONIC, TTA, RCL, SINGER, JMT and JMART, whose second-quarter business turnover is expected to improve.
Amid weak sentiment, baht seen sliding towards 34 to the dollar
The baht opened at 33.46 to the US dollar on Tuesday, its lowest in three years, weakening from Monday’s closing rate of 33.41.
The Thai currency was likely to move between 33.40 and 33.55 during the day, Krungthai Bank market strategist Poon Panichpibool said.
He said the baht might weaken further if importers accumulated dollars to hedge their risk from the baht sliding quickly and sharply.
Poon believed the Thai currency could easily fall to 34 to the US dollar in the short term, if the Covid situation worsens and dollar gains momentum. The dollar momentum would depend on the US Federal Reserve reducing quantitative easing or the US economy performing better than expected.
Poon did not expect the baht to strengthen soon as it continued to face downward pressure until the virus situation got better, which he expected to be in early September.
The price of gold in Thailand dropped by THB100 per baht weight in the morning trade on Tuesday.
The Gold Traders Association report at 9.23am showed buying price of a gold bar at THB27,450 per baht weight and selling price THB27,550, while gold ornaments were priced at THB26,954.48 and THB28,050, respectively.
At close on Monday, buying price of a gold bar was THB27,550 per baht weight and selling price THB27,650, while gold ornaments were priced at THB27,060.60 and THB28,150, respectively.
U.S. stocks dropped from record highs, and commodities slumped as investors weighed concerns about a pullback in stimulus and a resurgence in the fast-spreading delta virus variant.
The S&P 500 and Dow Jones Industrial indexes closed lower to start the week, with the energy and real estate sectors leading the declines. Moderna kept the Nasdaq Composite in the green. Treasury yields edged higher and the dollar strengthened. Crude oil touched the lowest in three weeks on concern the delta virus strain will hamper demand growth.
“Most of the sectors within the S&P 500 continue to trade above their long-term averages and while there is some deterioration in the technical picture, stocks still look to seesaw higher through the last dog days of summer, wrote Paul Nolte, a portfolio manager at Kingsview Investment Management.
Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta President Raphael Bostic said the central bank should move to taper its asset purchases with another strong month or two of employment gains, and proceed with that scaling-back process faster than in past episodes.
“His comments are another trial balloon preparing us for an end-of-year start to tapering,” said Sam Stovall, chief investment strategist at CFRA Research. “Investors in general would prefer a sooner and more drawn-out tapering, than a delayed one that would then require sharper action. The big concern is that a delayed tapering would put the Fed behind the curve — if they aren’t there already.”
Precious metals also sold off, with gold touching the lowest since March before paring losses. Silver dropped to its lowest since November. Strong U.S. payrolls data on Friday raised the prospect of higher rates, which would make precious metals less attractive relative to other assets.
Asian stocks were mixed, as shares rose in Hong Kong and China and fluctuated in South Korea. The U.S. 10-year Treasury yield climbed to about 1.32%, while the dollar pushed higher. Chinese bond yields gained after inflation data came in above expectations.
Friday’s payrolls report fanned expectations that the Fed may soon start paring back its massive monetary stimulus. Along with the rampaging delta variant, that’s hitting commodities as investors also keep an eye on rising price pressures. U.S. inflation data later this week will be a key marker ahead of the Jackson Hole symposium later this month.
Elsewhere, Chinese technology shares remained under pressure amid concerns about Beijing’s crackdown. Bitcoin rose to more than $45,000.
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These are the main moves in markets:
Stocks
– The S&P 500 was little changed as of 4:01 p.m. EDT
– The Nasdaq 100 rose 0.2%
– The Dow Jones industrial average fell 0.3%
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– The MSCI World index was little changed
Currencies
– The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index rose 0.2%
– The euro fell 0.2% to $1.1736
– The British pound fell 0.2% to $1.3848
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– The Japanese yen was little changed at 110.32 per dollar
Bonds
– The yield on 10-year Treasurys advanced three basis points to 1.32%
– Germany’s 10-year yield was little changed at -0.46%
– Britain’s 10-year yield declined three basis points to 0.58%
Commodities
– West Texas Intermediate crude fell 2.2% to $66.78 a barrel
– Gold futures fell 1.8% to $1,731.40 an ounce
Published : August 10, 2021
By : Syndication Washington Post, Bloomberg · Kamaron Leach, Vildana Hajric
Enjoy K-culture while staying at home
Enjoy K-culture while staying at home
Enjoy K-culture while staying at home
Carabao Group and CJ Express Group recognized in Deloitte’s prestigious Thailand’s Best Managed Companies 2021 Awards
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