Business

NEW YORK — Walmart reported a jump in quarterly revenues on Tuesday partly driven by inflation as the retail giant signalled it expects its US sales growth to moderate over the next six months.

The big-box retailer, which had cut its profit forecast three weeks ago due to shifting consumer behavior, said pricing pressures on consumers boosted sales of groceries, while denting demand for other items such as apparel, electronics and home products.

Revenues for its second fiscal quarter ending July 31 were $152.9 billion, up 8.4 per cent from the year-ago period.

Profits rose 20.4 per cent to $5.1 billion, with some of the increase connected to the accounting for an asset sale in Brazil.

Walmart's US comparable store sales rose 6.5 per cent from one year ago, but the company expects about three per cent growth in the second half of 2022.

Higher gasoline prices, along with elevated prices for grocery-item staples have been prompting more consumers to "trade down" to lower-priced goods.

On the positive side, gas prices have gradually fallen during the summer, mitigating this effect somewhat.

"We're pleased to see more customers choosing Walmart during this inflationary period, and we're working hard to support them as they prioritise their spending," Walmart Chief Executive Doug McMillon said in a news release.

McMillon said the company made "good progress" to manage supply chain costs "and that work is ongoing".

Shares of Walmart rose 3.7 per cent to $137.48 in Tuesday pre-market trading.

SAN FRANCISCO — In the height of the pandemic, video games offered people solace in isolation. But now that life is slowly returning to pre-crisis normal, and inflation is soaring, gaming companies are feeling the pinch.

Makers of consoles, accessories, and software for gaming are experiencing the same kind of post-pandemic effect as tech titans who saw business boom while COVID-19 fears kept people close to home.

The squeeze has been exacerbated by steep inflation spurring belt-tightening and gaming fatigue after years of relying on indoor entertainment.

Early in the pandemic, "people flocked to Twitch in droves — streamers and viewers alike", said Brandon Williams, who goes by the handle "BWpaco" on the Amazon-owned platform where gamers broadcast video game action.

"But I've talked to quite a few people who have stopped streaming because they've had burnout or because it's not for them," the 30-year-old streamer added.

"Or, they don't have the time anymore since they went back to work in person."

Twitch viewership that soared during the pandemic has ebbed but remains above what it was in 2019, according to twitchtracker.com.

 Games still in play 

Matt Piscatella, an analyst with market research group NPD, estimated that people in the United States will spend about $55.5 billion on gaming in total this year, less than last year but still up 28 per cent from the pre-pandemic year of 2019.

US video game giant Activision Blizzard, which Microsoft is in the process of purchasing, reported that sales in the first half of this year declined, with gamers spending less time in its powerhouse "Call of Duty" franchise.

Nvidia, the California-based maker of high-performance graphics cards popular with gamers, recently issued an earnings warning because of "declining revenues in video games". 

Even spending on mobile games is showing signs of weakening, according to analysts.

"Higher prices in everyday spending categories such as food and gas, the return of experiential spending such as travel and attending live events, a lighter release slate of new games, and continued new generation console hardware supply constraints were all likely contributors to the decline seen in the second quarter," Piscatella said.

Omdia analyst Steven Bailey said delayed releases of keenly-anticipated titles such as "Starfield" and "Suicide Squad" also contributed to a pandemic boom "correction" that was inevitable.

Lurking 

The bump that new titles give to video game sales is a wild card likely to benefit the industry going forward, as players typically throng to get their hands on hot releases.

Piscatella expressed hope the video game market will stabilise in the year ahead and then return to steady growth.

The rising cost of living from inflation is forcing gamers to make choices with their money, but that doesn't mean they are abandoning play, the analyst noted.

More than three-quarters of US consumers play video games, and subscription services such as Xbox Game Pass and PlayStation Plus help tamp down the cost, Piscatella said.

Pandemic effects on video game play have gone beyond the economic arena, giving rise to a trend of players seeking "comfort games" that emphasise cooperation rather than competition.

The explosion of Nintendo's "Animal Crossing" game devoted to community building is an example of this phenomenon, with players uniting to sustain virtual towns.

And, according to streamer BWpaco, viewers are taking to listening to Twitch channels as they might a radio broadcast while their attention is elsewhere.

"They're just lurking," the streamer said.

"I feel now that things have opened back up, and people are more busy, they have it on as background noise.

RIYADH — Saudi Arabia ‘s oil company, Aramco, on Sunday unveiled record profits of $48.4 billion in the second quarter of 2022, after Russia's war in Ukraine and a post-pandemic surge in demand sent crude prices soaring.

Net income leapt 90 per cent year-on-year for the world's biggest oil producer, which clocked its second straight quarterly record after announcing $39.5 billion for Q1.

Aramco's massive Q2 windfall was the biggest quarterly adjusted profit of any listed company worldwide, according to Bloomberg.

The state-owned Saudi firm heads a list of oil majors raking in eye-watering sums after ExxonMobil, Chevron, Shell, TotalEnergies and Eni also revealed multi-billion-dollar profits in Q2.

"While global market volatility and economic uncertainty remain, events during the first half of this year support our view that ongoing investment in our industry is essential," said Aramco President and CEO Amin H. Nasser.

"In fact, we expect oil demand to continue to grow for the rest of the decade," he added.

Net income rose 22.7 per cent from Q1 in "strong market conditions", Aramco said. Half-year profits were $87.9 billion, up from $47.2 billion for the same period of 2021.

Aramco will pay an $18.8 billion dividend in Q3, the same as it paid in Q2. It "continues to work on increasing crude oil maximum sustainable capacity from 12 million barrels per day to 13 million by 2027", its earnings announcement said.

The quarterly profits, the highest since Aramco's record-breaking IPO in 2019, beat a company-compiled analyst forecast of $46.2 billion.

Aramco shares closed down 0.9 per cent at 40.5 riyals ($10.8) on the Saudi stock exchange. They are up 25 per cent this year.

'Crown jewel' 

Aramco floated 1.7 per cent of its shares on the Saudi bourse in December 2019, generating $29.4 billion in the world's biggest initial public offering.

The "crown jewel" and leading source of income for the conservative kingdom temporarily supplanted Apple as the world's most valuable company in March. It now lies second in the list with a market valuation of $2.4 trillion.

Saudi Arabia has sought to open up and diversify its oil-reliant economy, especially since Mohammed Bin Salman's appointment as crown prince in 2017.

Despite raising production, Aramco has pledged to reach "operational net zero [carbon] emissions" by 2050. Carbon pollution is tallied in the country that uses the fuel, not where it is produced. Saudi Arabia’s gross domestic product jumped nearly 12 per cent in Q2 on the back of high oil prices, the government announced last month. Abu Dhabi-based energy expert Ibrahim Elghitany said the oil bonanza was a "golden opportunity" for the country."Saudi Arabia has recently achieved financial surpluses that it did not achieve during the last decade, which helps to provide financing for its development projects," Elghitany said.

Nasser said Aramco recovered quickly from a series of attacks by Yemen's Houthi rebels on its facilities earlier this year, including a dramatic strike in Jeddah that sent smoke billowing during a Formula One practice session in March.

"We were able to restore our production in all these facilities immediately. In a few weeks, all facilities were working and producing at full capacity," he told a media conference call.

Oil prices have dropped by $30 per barrel from a peak in June due to growing supplies, but remain close to $100. 

The Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries group of oil-producing countries has been gradually raising production, despite pressure from Western leaders including US President Joe Biden — who visited Saudi Arabia last month — to pump more.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has also visited Saudi Arabia since the Russian invasion in February.

High oil prices are contributing to the inflationary pain suffered by consumers worldwide. 

DHAKA — Nearly 150,000 workers at more than 200 Bangladeshi tea plantations went on strike Saturday to demand a 150 per cent rise to their dollar-a-day wages, which researchers say are among the lowest in the world.

Most tea workers in the overwhelmingly Muslim country are low-caste Hindus, the descendants of labourers brought to the plantations by colonial-era British planters.

The minimum wage for a tea plantation worker in the country is 120 taka a day — about $1.25 at official rates, but only just over a dollar on the free market.

One worker said that was barely enough to buy food, let alone other necessities.

"Nowadays we can't even afford coarse rice for our family with this amount," said Anjana Bhuyian, 50. 

"A wage of one day can't buy a litre of edible oil. How can we then even think about our nutrition, medication or children's education?" she said.

Unions are demanding an increase to 300 taka a day, with inflation rising and the currency depreciating, and said that workers in the country's 232 tea gardens began a full-scale strike on Saturday, after four days of two-hour stoppages. 

"Nearly 150,000 tea workers have joined the strike today," said Sitaram Bin, a committee member of the Bangladesh Tea Workers' Union.

"No tea worker will pluck tea leaves or work in the leaf processing plants as long as the authority doesn't pay heed to our demands," he noted.

Plantation owners have offered an increase of 14 taka a day, after an 18-taka rise last year and M. Shah Alom, chairman of the Bangladesh Tea Association, said operators were "going through difficult times with profit declining in recent times".

"The cost of production is increasing. Our expenses have increased as the price of gas, fertiliser and diesel have gone up," he told AFP.

Researchers say tea workers — who live in some of the country's most remote areas — have been systematically exploited by the industry for decades. 

"Tea workers are like modern-day slaves," said Philip Gain, director of the Society for Environment and Human Development, a research group, who has written books on tea workers.

"The plantation owners have hijacked the minimum wage authorities and kept the wages some of the lowest in the world."

AMMAN — The Amman Chamber of Commerce on Saturday signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Hebron Chamber of Commerce and Industry to consolidate economic relations between the two sides, the Jordan News Agency, Petra, reported. 

The MoU seeks to encourage, develop and facilitate joint cooperation in trade, economy and investment between Jordan and Palestine.

It also seeks to establish effective means of communication between the members of the two chambers in order to promote trade and encourage the establishment of joint investment projects, according to Petra.

Under the MoU, the two sides will exchange information on investment legislation, conduct visits by delegations and trade missions, and organise meetings, comprising members of the two chambers and Palestinian and Jordanian business owners to introduce partnership and investment opportunities.

The two parties will encourage business owners to participate in specialised international exhibitions held in Jordan and the Palestinian territories. 

They will also facilitate the exchange of publications, statistics and economic data. Moreover, the MoU paves the way for expertise and training exchange. 

GENEVA — The total global number of unemployed youths should fall to 73 million in 2022, down by two million from the year before, the United Nations said on Thursday.

However, the figure is still six million higher than the pre-pandemic level of 2019, with the recovery in youth unemployment lagging behind the bounceback in other age groups, the UN's International Labour Organisation (ILO) said.

Between 2019 and 2020, those aged 15 to 24 experienced a much higher percentage loss in employment than the rest of the labour market, the ILO said in a report.

Their 300-page "Global Employment Trends for Youth 2022" update on key youth labour market indicators and trends said the pandemic exacerbated the market challenges generally facing young people.

Many dropped out of the labour force, or failed to enter it altogether, due to the difficulty of finding a job during COVID-19 lockdowns and while businesses were closing due to the pandemic.

Gender gap 

"The COVID-19 crisis has revealed a number of shortcomings in the way the needs of young people are addressed, especially the more vulnerable such as first-time job-seekers, school dropouts, fresh graduates with little experience and those who remain inactive not by choice," said Martha Newton, the ILO's deputy director-general for policy.

"What young people need most is well? functioning labour markets with decent job opportunities for those already participating in the labour market, along with quality education and training opportunities for those yet to enter it."

The report said that 27.4 per cent of young women were projected to be in work in 2022, compared to 40.3 per cent of young men.

This gender gap "has shown little sign of closing over the past two decades", the ILO said.

The gap is largest in lower-middle-income countries, at 17.3 percentage points, and smallest in high-income states, at 2.3 points.

The share of youth not in employment, education or training in 2020 — the latest year for which a global estimate is available — rose to 23.3 per cent, up 1.5 percentage points from 2019 to a level not seen in at least 15 years.

Regional differences 

The global youth unemployment rate is projected to be 14.9 per cent in 2022.

The report highlighted the differences in youth unemployment between the regions.

In Europe and central Asia, the rate is predicted to be 16.4 per cent, "but the actual and potential shocks of the war in Ukraine are highly likely to affect the results".

The rate in Asia and the Pacific is set to match the global average at 14.9 per cent; In Latin America, it should hit a "worrying" 20.5 per cent; while in North America the figure should be 8.3 per cent.

The 12.7 per cent rate in Africa "masks the fact that many youths have chosen to withdraw from the labour market altogether".

But the Arab states have the highest and fastest-growing unemployment rate of young people worldwide at 24.8 per cent — a figure that hits 42.5 per cent for young women in the region.

Green and blue future 

On the positive side, the report said young people were well-placed to benefit from the expansion of the so-called green and blue economies, centred around the environment and sustainable ocean resources.

The study said an additional 8.4 million jobs could be created for young people by 2030 through green and blue investments, notably in clean and renewable energies, sustainable agriculture, recycling and waste management.

The report estimates that achieving universal broadband coverage by 2030 could lead to a net increase in employment of 24 million new jobs worldwide, of which 6.4 million would be taken by young people.

The report also estimates that investments in care sectors would create 17.9 million more jobs for young people by 2030.

WASHINGTON — Elon Musk sold nearly $7 billion worth of Tesla shares, according to legal filings, amid a high-stakes legal battle with Twitter over a $44 billion buyout deal.

The Tesla boss sold some 7.9 million shares between August 5 and 9, according to filings published on the Securities and Exchange Commission's website on Tuesday.

"In the [hopefully unlikely] event that Twitter forces this deal to close and some equity partners don't come through, it is important to avoid an emergency sale of Tesla stock," Musk, the world's richest man, wrote on Twitter late Tuesday.

Twitter is locked in a legal battle with the mercurial Tesla boss over his effort to walk away from the April agreement to buy the company, and a judge has ordered that a trial will begin in October.

Musk has filed a countersuit, accusing Twitter of fraud and alleging the social media platform misled him about key aspects of its business before he agreed to a $44 billion buyout.

The move comes after Musk sold around $8.5 billion worth of shares in the electric carmaker in April as he was preparing to finance the Twitter deal. He tweeted at the time: "No further TSLA sales planned after today."

Tesla rose 3.4 per cent to $879 before the start of regular trading on Wednesday, while Twitter jumped 4.3 per cent to $44.69, Bloomberg reported.

Musk has now sold about $32 billion worth of Tesla shares since November.

"He is cashing up for Twitter," Charu Chanana, a strategist at Saxo Capital Markets told Bloomberg News. 

Chanana said she believed Musk may be attempting to take advantage of a Tesla share price rebound of about 35 per cent since late May.

"The bear market rally has started to falter, and further repricing of Fed expectations could mean more pain for equities ahead, especially in tech."

Analysts say Musk may continue selling Tesla stock.

"Musk said at the Tesla shareholder meeting that any weakness in the share price was a buying opportunity, and then 24 hours later started selling stock himself," Jim Dixon, a senior equity sales trader at Mirabaud Securities, told Bloomberg News. 

Dixon added that it was "very unlikely" that Musk was finished selling Tesla stock.

Tesla share prices have been tied to the fate of Musk's Twitter deal in recent weeks, first slumping over concerns that pursuing the deal could distract him and lead to unnecessary financial risk, and then rebounding when he said he wanted to abandon the takeover.

Musk's deal to buy Twitter included a provision that if it fell apart, the party breaking the agreement would pay a termination fee of $1 billion under certain circumstances.

At a net worth of $250 billion, Musk tops the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, although he has lost $20.1 billion since the start of the year, mainly due to the decline in Tesla's stock price.

Bloomberg News contributed to this story