Why Ted Leonsis Is Bullish on Women's Sports
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
USA Today
40 minutes ago
- USA Today
Former Lady Vol scores 27 points in overtime victory for Sparks
Three former Lady Vol basketball players competed in the WNBA on Friday. Los Angeles (12-15) defeated Seattle (16-12), 108-106, in double overtime at Climate Pledge Arena in Seattle, Washington. Rickea Jackson started and played 47 minutes for the Sparks. She totaled 27 points, nine rebounds, three assists and one steal. She converted 11-of-23 field goal attempts and 5-of-5 free throw attempts. The former Lady Vol is in her second professional season after being selected in the first round of the 2024 WNBA draft (No. 4 overall). Rae Burrell recorded two points, two rebounds and one assist for Los Angeles. She converted 1-for-3 field goals. Burrell played for the Lady Vols from 2018-22 and was selected by Los Angeles in the first round (No. 9 overall) of the 2022 WNBA draft. Connecticut (5-21) defeated New York (17-10), 78-62, at Mohegan Sun Arena in Uncasville, Connecticut. Isabelle Harrison recorded six points, one rebound and one steal in 17 minutes for the Liberty. She converted 2-of-7 field goal attempts and 2-of-2 free throw attempts. Harrison played at Tennessee from 2011-15 under head coaches Pat Summitt and Holly Warlick. She was SEC Tournament MVP in 2014 and First-Team All-SEC. The former Lady Vol was selected in the first round of the 2015 WNBA draft (No. 12 overall) by Phoenix. Follow Vols Wire on Facebook and X (formerly Twitter).
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
Charting the Global Economy: US Job Market Wavers in Cue for Fed
(Bloomberg) -- The US labor market is wavering after a slowdown in economic growth during the first half of the year — implications of heightened uncertainty tied to trade policy. The World's Data Center Capital Has Residents Surrounded An Abandoned Art-Deco Landmark in Buffalo Awaits Revival We Should All Be Biking Along the Beach San Francisco in Talks With Vanderbilt for Downtown Campus Seeking Relief From Heat and Smog, Cities Follow the Wind President Donald Trump unveiled a slew of new tariffs that boosted the average US rate on goods from across the world, forging ahead with his effort to reshape international commerce and bolster American manufacturing. The baseline rates for many trading partners remain unchanged at 10% from the duties Trump imposed in April. Signs of a sluggish job market and the risk of a reacceleration in inflation due to higher import duties are dueling forces dividing Federal Reserve officials over the path of interest rates. In the wake of a weak jobs report on Friday, Treasury yields declined on bets the Fed will lower interest rates as soon as September after keeping them unchanged this week. In Canada, central bankers left interest rates unchanged, while keeping the door open to more cuts if the economy weakens and inflation pressures stay in check. The Bank of Japan also held the line on borrowing costs. Here are some of the charts that appeared on Bloomberg this week on the latest developments in the global economy, markets and geopolitics: US Job growth slowed sharply over the past three months and the unemployment rate rose in July, showing the labor market is shifting into a lower gear amid widespread economic uncertainty. Not only is job growth cooling markedly and unemployment rising, it's harder for unemployed Americans to get a job and wage gains have largely stalled. That poses further risks to a slowdown in consumer and business spending that's already underway. Economic growth moderated through the first half of the year as consumers tempered their spending after a late-2024 splurge and companies adjusted to frequently shifting trade policy. While gross domestic product increased at a solid 3% annual rate, final sales to private domestic purchasers, a narrower metric of demand, rose at the slowest since the end of 2022. Factory activity contracted in July at the fastest pace in nine months, dragged down by a faster decline in employment as orders continued to shrink. A measure of employment slid to the lowest level in more than five years, suggesting producers are stepping up efforts to control costs amid higher tariffs and softer demand. Europe The euro-area economy unexpectedly eked out growth in the second quarter, benefiting from better-than-predicted performances in France and Spain. Gross domestic product increased 0.1%. While the results suggest some resilience in the 20-nation bloc at a time of heightened uncertainty, they mask economic contractions in Germany and Italy, the region's biggest and third-largest members. As European Union leaders work through the consequences of their new trading arrangement with the US, they are confronting the bitter reality of just how far they have fallen. Even with the unpalatable terms, the EU may struggle to deliver on its new commitments to the US. Asia Bank of Japan Governor Kazuo Ueda kept investors guessing over the timing of his next interest rate hike with comments that cooled expectations of a near-term move and weakened the yen. The BOJ kept the overnight call rate at 0.5% at the end of a two-day policy meeting in a widely expected unanimous vote. China's top leadership emphasized its determination to reduce excess competition in the economy, with President Xi Jinping endorsing a campaign targeting one major cause of deflation and tensions with trade partners. Trump said Thursday he would impose a 25% tariff on India's exports, before following through a day later, and threatened an additional penalty over the country's energy purchases from Russia. India is weighing options to placate the White House, including boosting US imports, and has ruled out immediate retaliation, according to people familiar with the matter. Emerging Markets The global trade war that Trump unleashed from the Rose Garden that afternoon shook investor confidence in the US economy so much that it sparked a stampede out of the dollar. Much of that money has flowed into other developed countries but billions have washed up in developing nations, reviving a market that for more than a decade had been relegated to a mere afterthought in investing circles. Chile's economic activity unexpectedly fell for the second month in June as a plunge in mining offset gains across other sectors in one of Latin America's richest nations. Mexico's quarterly economic growth came in higher than expected in the three months through June as manufacturing and services powered Latin America's second-largest economy despite US tariffs. World At an average of 15%, the world is still facing some of the steepest US tariffs since the 1930s, roughly six times higher than they were a year ago. Trump's latest volley outlined minimum 10% baseline levies, with rates of 15% or more for countries with trade surpluses with the US. The months of negotiations, marked by Trump's social-media threats against US allies and foes alike, ended with new rates that were largely in line or lower than those on April 2. The world economy will keep weakening and remains vulnerable to trade shocks even though it is showing some resilience to Trump's tariffs, the International Monetary Fund said. Its updated projections are slightly better than those in April, but largely reflect distortions such as front-loading in anticipation of tariffs. In addition to the US, Canada and Japan, central bankers in Pakistan, Georgia, Singapore, Brazil, Colombia, Dominican Republic, Malawi and Eswatisi held interest rates steady. Chile, South Africa and Mozambique cut rates. Ghana lowered borrowing costs by the most on record. --With assistance from Nazmul Ahasan, Vinícius Andrade, Maya Averbuch, Ruchi Bhatia, Matthew Burgess, Katia Dmitrieva, Toru Fujioka, Selcuk Gokoluk, Philip J. Heijmans, William Horobin, John Liu, Yujing Liu, Matthew Malinowski, Mark Niquette, Swati Pandey, Jana Randow, Augusta Saraiva, Zoe Schneeweiss, Shruti Srivastava, Jorge Valero and Fran Wang. How Podcast-Obsessed Tech Investors Made a New Media Industry Everyone Loves to Hate Wind Power. Scotland Found a Way to Make It Pay Off It's Not Just Tokyo and Kyoto: Tourists Descend on Rural Japan Russia Builds a New Web Around Kremlin's Handpicked Super App Cage-Free Eggs Are Booming in the US, Despite Cost and Trump's Efforts ©2025 Bloomberg L.P.
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
Andurand Pulls Back From Cocoa Misadventure After ‘Extreme' Volatility Drives Losses
(Bloomberg) -- Famed oil trader Pierre Andurand has pulled back from a bullish bet on cocoa after a series of mistimed trades led to deep losses, according to a letter sent to investors that was seen by Bloomberg. The World's Data Center Capital Has Residents Surrounded An Abandoned Art-Deco Landmark in Buffalo Awaits Revival We Should All Be Biking Along the Beach San Francisco in Talks With Vanderbilt for Downtown Campus Seeking Relief From Heat and Smog, Cities Follow the Wind The gyrations underscore the risk for fund managers that drift away from their core expertise into other markets that carry unfamiliar risks. Andurand, whose main fund was down over 57% through the end of June, began trading cocoa in early 2024 after more than a decade focused primarily on oil. 'Recent performance has been very disappointing,' the recent letter to investors said. 'Pierre Andurand has further reduced long cocoa exposure in all Andurand funds.' A spokesperson for Andurand declined to comment. Andurand's ill-fated foray into cocoa began in January 2024, when an analyst from his firm approached him and proposed a new trade. 'Pierre, you should look at cocoa,' the analyst said, according to a retelling by Andurand on the Odd Lots podcast in May last year. 'Okay, I don't know anything about it, tell me,' Andurand replied. Until that point, Andurand was primarily known for trading energy. He found initial success buying and selling oil at commodities trading house Vitol Group, before leaving to start hedge fund BlueGold Capital Management in 2008 with the firm's former head of trading Dennis Crema. Their new venture returned over 200% in its first year thanks to lucrative bets on the price of oil. BlueGold lasted only a few years, suffering steep losses and returning money to its investors in 2012. Andurand launched his eponymous firm the following year, making bets on oil that drove double-digit gains in its early years. Andurand branched out from oil to invest in other commodities, including metals. His firm also made profitable bets in recent years on a sharp rise in the price of European carbon allowances. Cocoa Strategy The cocoa-trading strategy suggested by the analyst at Andurand's firm was a basic story of a mismatch in supply and demand. A majority of the commodity is grown in just two countries, the Ivory Coast and Ghana. Supplies there looked set to decline for a variety of reasons, such as adverse weather conditions and a fungal disease called Black Pod. Any supply scarcity could have an outsized impact on cocoa futures, because typically demand for chocolate doesn't respond much to shifts in the price of the raw commodity, Andurand said. Chocolate consumption keeps rising 'when you have a recession or not, when prices go up a lot or not,' he said on Odd Lots. Initially, the analyst's assessment of the market proved to be correct. By the end of February 2024, cocoa futures were already up some 50% for the year. Andurand's firm initiated a small position in cocoa the following month, according to a letter sent to investors. By the end of 2024, bets on cocoa helped drive a 50% gain in his flagship Andurand Commodities Discretionary Enhanced Fund. Those profits were short-lived. The fund dropped some 17% in January 2025 and nearly 25% in February, with losses driven by falling cocoa prices due to worries about demand, according to information sent to investors. The less volatile Andurand Commodities Fund is also down 26% through June. In April, Andurand increased the fund's bullish cocoa position in expectation that figures on bean processing set to be published later that month would drive up prices. The prediction proved to be correct, but the trading strategy nevertheless foundered amid the chaos caused by Trump's so-called Liberation Day tariff announcement on April 2. As the US president launched his trade war, Andurand took a short position on the S&P 500 as a hedge against the risk that tariffs posed to the price of commodities. At first it worked, as stocks fell and cocoa rose, but the trend was quickly reversed when Trump announced a 90-day tariff pause. Amid the volatility, Andurand sought to stem losses by unwinding both positions. The bullish cocoa-bean processing data was eventually confirmed, but Andurand's fund missed out on the subsequent price rally and his fund slumped some 18% in April. 'In hindsight, if we had maintained the same positions throughout the month and not traded following Trump's various announcements, the funds could have generated positive performance,' Andurand explained to investors in a letter. 'At the time it was extremely difficult not to react to Trump's tariff announcement.' With Andurand's prediction of bullish cocoa-processing data vindicated, he put his bullish bet back on. 'Our top conviction today is that we will see higher cocoa prices,' according to the letter sent to investors that detailed April's performance. 'The majority of our risk remains in cocoa given our fundamentally bullish view.' While cocoa prices did rise again in May, they slumped in June and July, often with huge intraday swings, as a slowdown in demand from Europe's cocoa factories deepened. Unfamiliar Market Some of Andurand's losses may stem from fundamental differences in the market for cocoa and the much larger oil trade. Cocoa is a relatively small market, so if you make a big bet and the market moves against you there may not be enough buyers to shrink your exposure without drastically reducing prices, said Ole Gjolberg, a professor at the School of Economics and Business at the Norwegian University of Life Sciences. 'Cocoa is not like the markets that Andurand has been in before, like oil and gas and metals. So that's also part of the risk picture,' said Gjolberg, who teaches about hedging and speculation in commodities. 'If you're going in big you can be stuck with your positions.' It appears that Andurand has come to the same conclusion — even if his thesis is correct that there's a fundamental mismatch between the supply and demand of cocoa, that doesn't make it a profitable trade. 'We still believe in the constructive cocoa story,' a recent letter to investors said. 'But the price action and volatility has been too extreme.' --With assistance from Mumbi Gitau. How Podcast-Obsessed Tech Investors Made a New Media Industry Everyone Loves to Hate Wind Power. Scotland Found a Way to Make It Pay Off It's Not Just Tokyo and Kyoto: Tourists Descend on Rural Japan Russia Builds a New Web Around Kremlin's Handpicked Super App Cage-Free Eggs Are Booming in the US, Despite Cost and Trump's Efforts ©2025 Bloomberg L.P. Sign in to access your portfolio
