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Hello, my name is Gustav and welcome to the most relevant weekly news about financial markets, finance, the Portuguese economy, and also political factors that I consider pertinent. This new series currently has the support of ft for, and for that I want to thank them in advance. Let's start with US inflation, which fell to 2.9% in July, the lowest value since March 2021.
This is an important development that will very likely influence the Fed's decisions at the September meeting. In fact, support for a possible interest rate cut by the Fed in September is gaining strength among committee members. On the other hand, in the United Kingdom, inflation rose in July, contrary to the trend in recent months, and settled at 2.2%.
In the business sector, Walmart maintained a 5% increase in first-half profits, as in the previous year, and even raised expectations for the future. Alibaba, however, registered a 29% drop in second-quarter profits, reflecting the challenges that Chinese companies have faced in the global scenario.
In fact, we can even see this in my portfolio on the ft for that I acquired. Alibaba, which I recently had a Ceda here, is still showing a profit of approximately 24%. Interestingly, Michael Bury, famous for his controversial investments during the 2008 crisis, forced his positions into Chinese technology stocks, with Alibaba being his largest investment.
In the aviation sector, JetBlue plummeted after suffering several funding cuts from companies like ICP and Mud, reflecting greater uncertainty about the company's future. This happened after JetBlue issued approximately $3 billion in debt, resulting in a drop in its shares of about 20%. On the other hand, Greenland Holdings soared more than 500 percent after announcing an agreement to be the exclusive distributor of safety strips in the United States.
An interesting piece of news, at least for AIDS, is that its trucks will start being sold in Portugal by Salvador Citan Auto, thus expanding the Chinese brand's presence in the European market. I personally consider this positive news for AIDS and especially for my portfolio here at T for, because I own this company.
But at the moment I'm down approximately 2%, so I really hope that this news can positively impact my entire portfolio in emerging markets. Foxon reported a 25% increase in first- half profits, reinforcing its position as one of the leading technology providers globally. Queel also showed positive results with a 28.4% increase in first-half operating profit, standing out in the consumer goods sector.
And in the United States, we had news that I believe will have a major impact: the government is considering breaking up Google after the Department of Justice concluded that the company illegally monopolized the global search market to end the US market. I'd like to highlight that next week, on August 28th, we will have Nvidia's Jennings report, which is the last of the big tech companies to release its Jennings report for this second quarter.
Regarding news from China, the founder of Teme became the richest man in China, showing the impact of e-commerce companies on the global market. Once again, I share with you that I have Teme's parent company... This is the PDD (Provision for Doubtful Debts) which, in a short time, has already appreciated by approximately 18%, which is not bad at all.
I also highlight that the real estate sector and domestic consumption hampered China's economic recovery in July, showing that the world's second-largest economy is struggling to return to sustainable growth. And lastly, in news related to China, we saw that in June, sales of Chinese electric cars in the European Union decreased by 45% compared to the previous month of June.
This happened due to the increase in tariffs applied to imports of electric vehicles manufactured by Chinese companies. In the energy sector, OPEC reduced its forecast for global oil demand growth for 2024, now pointing to an increase of only 2.07 percent. This review reflects global uncertainties, including an uneven economic recovery and energy transactions.
Finally, important news for the Eurozone is that the European Central Bank is expected to cut its key interest rate six times by the end of 2025, aiming to reach 2.25 percent. From this we see that there is a high possibility that interest rates may fall, and we even have a more accurate estimate of when this will happen for those who are adopting a more cautious position regarding the markets and investments, and who have even used fixed-income options to make idle money profitable.
This is good news because it says that at this time interest rates are at a favorable value for fixed incomes, at least compared to the future. Now, moving on to Portugal, buying a house continues to become more expensive, with prices rising 7.7% in the last 12 months, and Lisbon continues to be the most expensive city to buy housing.
In addition, rents in Portugal have increased by 9.1% in the last 12 months, with some cities registering even more pronounced increases, such as Coimbra, where the increase was 18.30 per month. And lastly, in real estate news, we had a relevant change in local accommodation where the license now accompanies the property, illuminating the law on the non-transferability of licenses implemented by the last government.
In the world of cryptocurrencies, a pyramid scheme was discovered, as expected, that defrauded around 3 million people, including 156 Portuguese, through the Omega Pro platform. Even public figures like Figo and Ronaldinho appeared at events organized by the company. The news outlet did a short report showing exactly this, and so I'll share some screenshots here for you to see.
It's already considered one of the most sophisticated pyramid schemes ever; the list of victims in 55 different countries exceeds 3 million investors, according to the Público newspaper. At least 156 are Portuguese. To attract investors, more than 20 football stars, including former players Luís Figo and Ronaldinho, participated in events organized by Omega Pro.
This case highlights the risks associated with unregulated investments, showing the importance of financial literacy and understanding that... This way, our money is protected in case of bankruptcy of the platforms or brokers where we invest. And speaking of this, we had excellent news that could help reduce the number of cases like this: seven schools will have a new subject called financial literacy, within which topics of financial literacy will be taught.
This is great news, and I hope it reaches more schools. And to conclude, unfortunately, I end with a worrying reality: only 1 in 3 of Portuguese people manage to save at the end of the month, showing the financial difficulties that many families face. Even worse, the study indicates that 51% cannot manage to save money when faced with an unexpected expense within 3 months.
It's true that it's not always easy to save, but we should try to do everything we can to save some money and build an emergency fund. Because we never know what kind of situation might happen to us, and to increase our capacity to respond to emergencies, we can also make our savings profitable, provided we do so in a way that we consider safe.
Leave in the comments what you thought about this video and also your prediction for Nvidia's results. Will they surprise us? Or not? I hope this video was helpful. If this was helpful, don't forget to like it to show your support, and until next time!
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