Live news: Cathay CEO says labour shortages limit airline to 70% of pre-Covid capacity
Cathay CEO says manpower shortage will limit airline capacity to 70% of pre-coronavirus levels
Hong Kong-based Cathay Pacific Airways said staffing constraints are preventing it from raising its goal of returning to 70% of its pre-pandemic capacity by the end of this year.
“We are facing a number of constraints, mainly on the staffing side,” Chief Executive Ronald Lamb said at the company’s annual meeting on Wednesday. “I don’t think there’s much room to increase the 70 percent capacity target further.”
The company said it expected to return to 50% of its pre-coronavirus capacity in March and be fully seated by the end of 2024. Lam added that he expects airfares to drop “slightly” as capacity increases.
Asian Stocks Fall as Investor Mood Depends on US Inflation
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index fell 0.3% on Tuesday’s slowdown in US markets that investors sidelined © Miguel Candela/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock
Asian stocks fell Wednesday morning as traders refrained from releasing US inflation data later in the day.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index fell 0.3%, China’s CSI300 index fell 0.5%, and Japan’s TOPIX fell 0.4%. The move came after a quiet day in the US on Tuesday, when investors sat on the sidelines awaiting the release of the consumer price index.
Those numbers will form part of the Federal Reserve’s calculations on the future direction of interest rates, but investors are divided on whether the central bank will continue its tightening policy.
Oil prices edge lower as oil inventories rise and investors wait for Fed reaction
Crude prices fell slightly on Wednesday after investors got ahead of inflation data that will influence the Federal Reserve’s monetary policy, as the US weekly crude oil inventories data showed a build-up in reserves.
International benchmark Brent crude fell 0.2% to trade at $77.27 a barrel, while US benchmark West Texas Intermediate fell by a similar amount to $73.53.
Crude inventories rose by about 3.6 million barrels last week, according to American Petroleum Institute data, which could indicate weak demand.
The US consumer price index, released later on Wednesday, is expected to influence next month’s Fed monetary policy meeting, showing headline CPI rose by 5% annually in April.
British citizen pleads guilty to hijacking celebrity Twitter accounts
Joseph James O’Connor, known online as “Plugwalk Joe”, was arrested in Estepona, Spain in July 2021. He was then extradited to the United States © Jon Nazca/Reuters
A British citizen pleaded guilty Tuesday to charges of hacking a US computer. Those charges include an attack on Twitter that hijacked dozens of celebrity accounts and demanded over $115,000 in cryptocurrency in 2020.
Joseph James O’Connor, known online as “Plugwalk Joe”, was extradited from Spain to the United States on April 26.
“O’Connor has used a high degree of technical prowess . . . to steal large amounts of cryptocurrency, hack Twitter, perform computer intrusions to hijack social media accounts, and even kill two victims, including minors. and cyberstalking,” said U.S. Attorney Damian Williams.
He compromised the Twitter accounts of Joe Biden, Barack Obama, Bill Gates, Kanye West, Elon Musk and others. O’Connor, 23, was arrested on the Costa del Sol in 2021.
What to see in Asia today
India: Voters head to polling stations for state elections in Karnataka, which includes India’s tech hub Bengaluru, also known as Bangalore. The election has been unusually close, with the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) pumping money to keep the opposition parliament from losing its last foothold in the south and requiring Prime Minister Narendra Modi to make a five-day campaign.
Earnings: As Toyota, Softbank, Panasonic, Nippon Steel and others report today, it’s a big day for Japanese companies.
market: Japanese futures fell slightly on Wednesday morning, while Hong Kong futures rose slightly. US stocks fell on Tuesday, but traders were mostly on the sidelines ahead of the release of key inflation data. Wall Street’s benchmark S&P 500 Index fell 0.5%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite Index ended the day down 0.6%.
culture: The Sovereign Arts Foundation Asia Art Awards Exhibition opens in Hong Kong. The Financial Times is the media partner for the exhibition, which runs until May 18th at 80 Queens Road Central.
Kevin McCarthy says ‘no new moves’ in White House debt ceiling talks
House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, left, speaks with reporters as he leaves the Capitol to attend the White House’s debt ceiling meeting on Tuesday © Julia Nikhinson/Reuters
US President Joe Biden and Republicans in Congress have failed to reach a breakthrough after their first big meeting to defuse a crisis over the debt ceiling, but they will continue talks and hold another summit on Friday. agreed.
Republican House Speaker Kevin McCarthy said Tuesday afternoon in front of the White House that “there was no new activity” after a meeting of US political leaders. “Everyone repeated their position,” McCarthy said.
Despite no immediate progress, the meeting set the stage for negotiations that could dominate US politics and affect global financial markets in the coming weeks.
read the top Republicans demand.
Tucker Carlson plans to resume show on Twitter after being kicked out of Fox
Tucker Carlson plans to resume his show on Twitter after being fired from Fox, telling his followers that he’s being “manipulated” by TV news and that Elon Musk’s social media sites are “free speech”. “I admit it’s the last remaining big platform,” he said.
In a three-minute video posted to his Twitter page, Carlson announced that a new version of the show was “coming soon,” but didn’t provide further details.
“At the most basic level, the news you consume is a lie,” Carlson lashed out at the US media. “You are being manipulated.”
Click here for details Carlson’s Media Plan.
Occidental Buys Back Berkshire Shares, Falls Below Wall Street Expectations
Oxy has announced it will begin buying back preferred stock, which pays hefty dividends, four years after its investment in Berkshire Hathaway © Mario Anzuoni/Reuters
Occidental Petroleum reported lower-than-Wall Street earnings as it began buying back about $10 billion worth of preferred stock in Berkshire Hathaway.
The Houston-based oil and gas production company known as Oxy reported revenue of $7.3 billion and a net profit of $983 million in the first three months of 2023. Analysts had expected $7.4 billion and $1.2 billion, respectively, according to S&P Capital IQ.
Oxy also begins buybacks of preferred shares that pay big dividends, four years after Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway invested heavily in Anadarko Petroleum to help it make a dramatic acquisition. said to do.
Shares fell 2% in after-market trading in New York.
Airbnb shares drop 10% after weak booking outlook
Shares of Airbnb fell more than 10% in after-hours trading after the company said it expected bookings for the quarter to fall from a year earlier.
The company reported revenue of $1.82 billion, representing a 20% increase in annual revenue, and profits exceeded Wall Street forecasts by nearly 150%, earning $117 million, a first for the company. was in the black for the first quarter.
Gross bookings, a key corporate metric, increased 19% to $20.4 billion.
Earnings were overshadowed by Airbnb’s outlook for the quarter, which predicted a slowdown in bookings. “We expect year-over-year growth in room and experience bookings in the second quarter of 2023 to be lower than revenue growth in the quarter,” the company said.
