“Elevated financial vulnerabilities could pose risks, should global financial conditions tighten swiftly,” the 24-member committee said. “The crisis may cause extended scarring and exacerbate poverty and inequalities, while climate change and other shared challenges are becoming more pressing.”
IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva told a news conference that all IMFC members had strongly endorsed a $650 billion expansion of the Fund’s Special Drawing Rights monetary reserves, especially those representing middle-income countries.
The distribution of the reserves would especially help these countries to bolster their financial resources, which remain strained by the year-long pandemic, she said.
Twitter support for Milk Tea defies China
Twitter has thrown its support behind the Milk Tea Alliance of democracy movements in Hong Kong, Taiwan and other parts of Asia, defying China at a time when Beijing is punishing Western companies for commenting on what it considers internal matters.
The social media company on Thursday prominently displayed flags of Hong Kong, Taiwan, Myanmar and Thailand while unveiling an emoji to support pro-democracy activists in places that have all seen historic protests in recent years and share a love for the milky, caffeinated drink popular in Asia. It will automatically show up when users post the hashtag #MilkTeaAlliance, which the company said appeared 11 million times since first popping up a year ago.
Although Twitter gets the majority of its revenue from the United States and is banned in China along with Facebook and Google, Asia is generally considered a growth area for the company.
Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian told reporters during a regular news conference on Thursday that the Milk Tea Alliance has “consistently held anti-China positions, and is full of biases against China.” After the briefing, Zhao added he hopes Twitter can be “fair to objective” in providing its services.
The number of Americans filing new claims for unemployment benefits unexpectedly rose last week, but the increase likely understated the rapidly improving labor market conditions as more parts of the economy reopen and fiscal stimulus kicks in. The second straight weekly increase in claims reported by the Labor Department on Thursday was at odds with reports this month showing the economy created 916,000 jobs in March, the most in seven months, and job openings increased to a two-year high in February.
Netflix reached a deal to offer new “Spider-Man” movies and other films from Sony Pictures to U.S. customers after they play in theaters, the companies said on Thursday. The five-year arrangement will begin with the 2022 slate of movies, which is scheduled to include Marvel film “Morbius,” best-selling book adaptation “Where the Crawdads Sing” and the Brad Pitt thriller “Bullet Train.” Future releases are expected to include new installments in the Spider-Man, Venom, Jumanji and Bad Boys franchises.
Apple plans to argue at a trial that consumers and developers will suffer if Epic Games succeeds in upending how the iPhone maker’s app marketplace is run. The games maker will counter that Apple’s “anti-competitive” conduct allows it to profit at their expense. In the high-stakes antitrust fight over how much Apple’s App Store charges developers, both companies presented road maps of their cases to a California federal judge on Thursday.
8:30 a.m.: Labor Department releases the Producer Price Index for March.
