The energy agency projects demand for natural gas falling 4% on the continent in 2022
Europe’s natural gas demand is set to decline this year as buyers begin to favor lower-priced coal, the International Energy Agency said in the latest edition of its quarterly gas market report.
According to the IEA, gas demand on the continent is seen declining by 4% this year, after rising by more than 5% last year. The decline will be partially driven by a reduction in gas burning in the power sector, the agency said, which is seen declining by 6% this year.
The decline will be partially compensated by renewables, according to the IEA, which should see a “strong expansion” this year, but also “high gas prices continue to weigh on its competitiveness vis-à-vis coal-fired generation.”
“Exceptionally high gas – and by extension electricity – prices have hurt consumers, utilities and wholesalers, and are likely to have a lasting negative impact beyond the current seasonal tension,” the agency warned, adding that the adverse effects of the gas shortage were not limited to Europe.
The report noted that developing markets were particularly vulnerable to energy supply shocks that they were already experiencing. On top of this, there was also concern for food supply due to tighter availability of gas-based fertilizers, the International Energy Agency also said.
Global gas supply is seen remaining tight, the IEA also said, citing production outages, project delays, and a slow pace of new investment decisions on new production capacity.
“In the absence of strong policies to curb demand growth to achieve net zero emission targets, gas supply adequacy could emerge as a concern for the medium term on a combination of recent LNG project delays, the relatively small number of new LNG final investment decisions (FIDs) in 2020-2021 and a structural decline in upstream spending since the early 2010s,” the IEA said in the report.
Consumers may have to pay more for everything from candy to Kleenex amid soaring inflation
Major consumer product makers in the US announced this week they will raise prices more than previously proposed in 2022, announcing the news during post-earnings calls on fourth quarter results.
Household chemicals maker Clorox said on Thursday it would hike prices on 85% of its products by mid-year, planning multiple price increases on a number of products. The company previously planned to hike the costs of only 70% of products.
“We stand prepared to take more pricing [action] if necessary. We want to see how inflation will play out this fiscal year [which ends on June 30],” CFO Kevin Jacobsen said, as cited by Reuters. He added that Clorox is in active talks with retailers regarding the size and frequency of the price hikes, and pointed to an “extreme level of cost inflation” as the reason for the price boost. The firm also cut its full-year earnings forecast, with Jacobsen noting that “it’s going to take several years for us to rebuild margin [to pre-pandemic levels].”
Tide maker Procter & Gamble also plans price hikes on detergents, possibly by the end of the month, the company said this week. In the spring, price hikes on some personal healthcare products will follow.
Chocolate producer Hershey signaled further price increases in the first half of the year, while previously adopted price hikes are to go into effect before March 31. The firm unveiled a somewhat pessimistic forecast for 2022, with executives expecting gross profit margins to drop despite the price increases.
Kleenex maker Kimberly-Clark said last week it will also hike prices amid pulp, labor, and transportation costs increases. The company raised prices four times in 2021. Moreover, a number of consumer-packaged goods firms have scratched some of their traditional discounts in recent weeks, which also effectively raises prices at the checkout counter. The number of promotions on packaged food products like frozen and refrigerated meals dropped dramatically in January 2022 compared to last year, data from analytics firm IRI shows.
“With supply constraints, there is no point in promoting,” IRI’s head of client engagement, Krishnakumar Davey, said.
Oreo cookies maker Mondelez last month announced “multiple pricing waves” this year, while toothpaste producer Colgate said it will move planned price hikes to the first half of the year instead of the previously planned second half. Colgate CEO Noel Wallace warned that sales will fall across all product categories when consumers realize they have to pay more for the same products.
The plannd price boost comes as firms try to make ends meet amid higher costs on raw materials as Covid-19 pandemic-driven supply chain issues persist. Transportation and labor costs have also surged, pressuring producers further, while supply-and-demand imbalance propelled US inflation, which accelerated to 7% in the last month of 2021, its peak in four decades.
Media dubs e-commerce giant the ‘anti-Facebook’ after the social media site’s historic one-day drop the day before
US e-commerce giant Amazon gained a record $190 billion in market capitalization on Friday, which is the biggest single-day increase in a company’s stock market value in US history, Refinitiv data shows.
The company’s shares soared 13.5% after Amazon posted a blockbuster quarterly report late Thursday and said it would raise the price of its annual US Prime subscriptions by 17%. The market rally propelled Amazon’s overall value to around $1.6 trillion and allowed it to beat the previous record-holder, Apple, which logged a $181 billion one-day gain last month after its own quarterly report.
The surge in Amazon’s capitalization overshadowed the value of Wall Street darlings such as AT&T and Netflix. It also came one day after Facebook owner Meta Platforms’ stock lost nearly $200 billion in market value, posting the largest single-day loss for a US company on record. Meta’s nosedive followed the social media giant’s gloomy forecast for fiscal 2022. Meta slid around 0.3% more on Friday, ending the day at an estimated value of about $660 billion.
Despite the massive gain, Amazon did not make Wall Street’s top-three most valuable companies. Apple, Microsoft, and Google owner Alphabet keep the top spots, with respective market capitalizations of $2.8, $2.3, and $1.9 trillion.
This will be the first update to the SE model in two years
Apple is planning to release its new low-cost iPhone on or near International Women’s Day, March 8, Bloomberg reported on Friday, citing sources in the company.
The company is also set to unveil an updated iPad.
According to Bloomberg’s sources, the new smartphone will be the first update to Apple’s iPhone SE model in two years. It will support 5G networks, have an improved camera, and a faster processor. Apple also reportedly plans for the phone to be medium-priced, although its exact cost has not yet been revealed.
Sources say, however, that the launch date could be postponed amid production delays and supply-chain issues. Like nearly all tech firms, Apple is still overcoming the shortage in semiconductor chips, widely used in the brand’s products.
Investors seem to have recovered their appetite for risk amid the recent stock market rally
The world’s largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization, Bitcoin, topped $40,000 for the first time in two weeks, surging nearly 10% and trading at around $41,550 per coin as of 11:00 GMT on Saturday.
On Friday, Bitcoin gained over 11% – its biggest single-day rise since mid-June 2021, and the first major rally after weeks of trading well below $40,000. The token also saw a 27% rise from the year’s low of $32,950.72, which it hit on January 24.
Despite two consecutive days of gains, Bitcoin remains well under its all-time high of around $69,000, which it reached in December last year.
Other tokens followed suit, with Ethereum passing the $3,000 threshold for the first time since January 21.
The crypto gains came alongside a rally in US stocks, with the tech-focused Nasdaq index ending the week up despite the volatile performance of certain stocks – Amazon experienced record growth, while Facebook-owner Meta Platforms suffered a historic plunge.
The crypto market also reacted positively to the news of North American crypto mining firm Marathon Digital Holdings boosting its Bitcoin holdings to about 8,595 BTC ($338 million). The move was dubbed a “mammoth increase” by crypto analysts.
