Week July 15 2011 – Weekly Recap & The Week Ahead
“The worse a situation becomes the less it takes to turn it around, the bigger the upside.” — George Soros
1. News Corp. contagion spreading — U.K. MPs have been listening to police testimony about the hacking scandal at News Corp. (NWSA), which has widened to include other problematic practices and spread to The Sun and The Times newspapers.
2. China economic growth slows to 9.5% — China’s economy expanded a fraction faster than expected in the April-to-June quarter, while other data released last Wednesday suggested domestic conditions remain relatively upbeat, even as concerns spread over the resilience of the global economy.
3. Moody’s downgrades Ireland to “junk” — Moody’s Investors Service on Tuesday lowered Ireland’s foreign- and local-currency government bond ratings by one notch to non-investment grade of Ba1 from Baa3.
4. Moody’s Investors Service put the U.S. credit rating on review for possible downgrade — Moody’s has become the first ratings agency to place the U.S.’s AAA rating on review for a possible downgrade, citing the “rising possibility” that the $14.29T borrowing limit won’t be raised.
The week ahead — Economic data from Econoday.com:
