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Economic activity in the services sector contracted in April for the first time since December 2022, ending a period of 15 consecutive months of growth, say the nation's purchasing and supply executives in the latest Services ISM® Report On Business®. The Services PMI® registered 49.4 percent; it indicated sector expansion in 45 of the previous 47 months. The report was issued today by Anthony Nieves, CPSM, C.P.M., A.P.P., CFPM, Chair of the Institute for Supply Management® (ISM®) Services Business Survey Committee: "In April, the Services PMI® registered 49.4 percent, 2 percentage points lower than March's reading of 51.4 percent. The composite index indicated contraction in April after 15 consecutive months of growth since a reading of 49 percent in December 2022, the first contraction since May 2020 (45.4 percent). The Business Activity Index registered 50.9 percent in April, which is 6.5 percentage points lower than the 57.4 percent recorded in March. The New Orders Index ex post: US ISM Services Index Apr: 49.4 (est 52.0; prev 51.4) - Prices Paid: 59.2 (est 55.0; prev 53.4) - Employment: 49.5 (est 49.0; prev 48.5) - New Orders: 52.2 (est 54.5; prev 54.4)
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Since peaking in mid-April, crude oil prices have slumped nearly 10% in the spaces of just a few weeks. The sharp drop reflects in part the removal of war risk premium that was slowly priced in as the tensions in the Middle East intensified with Iran and Israel attacking each other directly. But as tensions have eased and hopes for a ceasefire between ...
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A former Societe Generale trader who was fired for unauthorized risky bets has lambasted the French bank for making him a “scapegoat” and failing to take its share of responsibility for missing the trades. Kavish Kataria, who was dismissed from the bank’s Delta One desk last year, said the profits and losses on his trades were reported on a daily basis to ...