- At a G7 summit over the weekend, President Biden pressed world leaders to take concrete steps to counter China's rising influence and put a heavy focus on the path toward decarbonization. The result? A global infrastructure project called "Build Back Better for the World" that would kill two birds with one stone. It calls for spending $100B per year to help developing nations' climate change transitions, while sticking to climate standards and labor practices.
Bigger picture: The plan would specifically create a "higher quality" alternative to China's Belt and Road Initiative, which has been criticized for its leverage in creating political goodwill, massive debt and a way to spread Beijing's influence. The new G7 plan, dubbed by some as the "Green Belt and Road" or the "Green Marshall Plan," would be funded by multilateral development banks like the IMF and World Bank, as well as the private sector (think wind farms, railways and other low-carbon projects). The Biden administration also plans to work with Congress to increase U.S. contributions to the G7's Development Financing Toolkit.
Quote: "As the G7, we are united in our vision for a cleaner, greener world. A solution to the problems of climate change," said U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who chaired the conference. "I think that is what the peoples of our countries now want us to focus on... and that we're building back better together."
Response from China: "Those fanning confrontation are definitely on an ill-advised path... Ganging up, pursuing bloc politics and forming small cliques are unpopular and doomed to fail," Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin declared. "The days when global decisions were dictated by a small group of countries are long gone," added a spokesman for the Chinese embassy in London. "We always believe that countries, big or small, strong or weak, poor or rich, are equals, and that world affairs should be handled through consultation by all countries."
Other headlines at the G7 summit: Leaders vowed to phase out gas and diesel cars and shut down coal plants that do not apply emissions-capturing technology as soon as possible. They also promised to protect 30% of the planet's land and oceans by 2030. On an interesting note, NATO, which includes many G7 nations, are set to agree on a climate action plan today that would make their armed forces carbon-neutral by 2050. (318 comments)
| | Top News  Shutterstock At a G7 summit over the weekend, President Biden pressed world leaders to take concrete steps to counter China's rising influence and put a heavy focus on the path toward decarbonization. The result? A global infrastructure project called "Build Back Better for the World" that would kill two birds with one stone. It calls for spending $100B per year to help developing nations' climate change transitions, while sticking to climate standards and labor practices.
Bigger picture: The plan would specifically create a "higher quality" alternative to China's Belt and Road Initiative, which has been criticized for its leverage in creating political goodwill, massive debt and a way to spread Beijing's influence. The new G7 plan, dubbed by some as the "Green Belt and Road" or the "Green Marshall Plan," would be funded by multilateral development banks like the IMF and World Bank, as well as the private sector (think wind farms, railways and other low-carbon projects). The Biden administration also plans to work with Congress to increase U.S. contributions to the G7's Development Financing Toolkit.
Quote: "As the G7, we are united in our vision for a cleaner, greener world. A solution to the problems of climate change," said U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who chaired the conference. "I think that is what the peoples of our countries now want us to focus on... and that we're building back better together."
Response from China: "Those fanning confrontation are definitely on an ill-advised path... Ganging up, pursuing bloc politics and forming small cliques are unpopular and doomed to fail," Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin declared. "The days when global decisions were dictated by a small group of countries are long gone," added a spokesman for the Chinese embassy in London. "We always believe that countries, big or small, strong or weak, poor or rich, are equals, and that world affairs should be handled through consultation by all countries."
Other headlines at the G7 summit: Leaders vowed to phase out gas and diesel cars and shut down coal plants that do not apply emissions-capturing technology as soon as possible. They also promised to protect 30% of the planet's land and oceans by 2030. On an interesting note, NATO, which includes many G7 nations, are set to agree on a climate action plan today that would make their armed forces carbon-neutral by 2050. (318 comments)
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| Stocks Traders are beginning the week with the Fed on their minds as the FOMC meets Tuesday and Wednesday to discuss policy monetary. An accompanying press conference from Jerome Powell is likely to reiterate that recent price increases will be "transitory," though it will be interesting to watch if the concerns will have any effect on the central bank's forecasts. Another area of note is quantitative easing, and if tapering talk even makes it into the conversation.
Bigger picture: Investors have so far shrugged off inflation concerns, with equities ending at highs last week despite the CPI expanding at a blistering 5% Y/Y in May. Stock futures inched higher overnight, with the Dow and S&P 500 up 0.1%, respectively, and the Nasdaq ahead by 0.3%. "Because the S&P 500 Index reached yet another new record high last week, investors will be watching to see if this signals even higher levels near term," added Jim Paulsen, chief investment strategist at the Leuthold Group.
Another post-pandemic milestone was notched before the weekend, with more than 2M people passing through U.S. airport security checkpoints on Friday. That's the first time screenings hit that figure since March 2020 and represents a big turnaround for the travel industry. While still losing money, airlines are recalling employees from voluntary leave and planning to hire small numbers of pilots later this year.
How will the meme trade fare this week? Usual suspects AMC (NYSE:AMC), BlackBerry (NYSE:BB) and GameStop (NYSE:GME) are all up in premarket trade, as well as newcomers Clover Health (NASDAQ:CLOV), Clean Energy Fuels (NASDAQ:CLNE) and GEO Group (NYSE:GEO). While sentiment changes quickly in the sector, WallStreetBets founder Jaime Rogozinski is defending the trade. "I mean what is market manipulation? You have people that are buying and you have people that are selling, right? If you have a fraudulent intent - if somebody goes up there and lies and says oh, BlackBerry has this new hologram cellphone that does whatever and it's a lie, that is market manipulation. But people coming together and saying let's just push this price to the moon and being really transparent and no defrauding taking place, that is absolutely what the market is." | |
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