7 Things You Need to Know About Finance and the Economy Today

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By Douglas A. McIntyre Updated Published
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7 Things You Need to Know About Finance and the Economy Today

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China had unusually high imports and exports in May. Worries about a slowing economy took a blow as these key indicators showed its factories are working at high capacity and its consumer appetite for goods and services is strong. Exports were up 8.7% from May of last year, and imports by 14.8%, according to information released by the General Administration of Customs, a government agency.

The Fortune 500 list was released. One of the oldest business lists in media showed Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (NYSE: WMT) at the top with revenue of $485 billion, followed by Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (NYSE: BRK-B) at $223 billion and Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) at $215 billion.

Crude oil prices plunged as U.S. oil and gas supplies showed surprising strength. According to Reuters:

Crude stocks in the United States grew 3.3 million barrels to 513 million barrels, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA). That confounded forecasters who had predicted a drop of 3.5 million barrels, especially a day after data from the American Petroleum Institute indicated an even bigger fall.

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Pinterest became one of the most valuable “unicorns” as it raised $150 million, which set its valuation at $12.5 billion.

Amazon.com Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN) announced it had loaned $1 billion to small companies in the past year. It added:

Amazon today announced Amazon Lending surpassed $3 billion in loans to small businesses to date since the program launched in 2011.

Famous bond investor Bill Gross told attendees at the Bloomberg Invest New York summit that market risk is as high as it has been in 2008 before the Great Recession.

Tech sit Recode reported that the combination of AOL and Yahoo would trigger 1,000 layoffs. Both will be owned by Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE: VZ), which is closing a deal to buy Yahoo.

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Photo of Douglas A. McIntyre
About the Author Douglas A. McIntyre →

Douglas A. McIntyre is the co-founder, chief executive officer and editor in chief of 24/7 Wall St. and 24/7 Tempo. He has held these jobs since 2006.

McIntyre has written thousands of articles for 24/7 Wall St. He is an expert on corporate finance, the automotive industry, media companies and international finance. He has edited articles on national demographics, sports, personal income and travel.

His work has been quoted or mentioned in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, NBC News, Time, The New Yorker, HuffPost USA Today, Business Insider, Yahoo, AOL, MarketWatch, The Atlantic, Bloomberg, New York Post, Chicago Tribune, Forbes, The Guardian and many other major publications. McIntyre has been a guest on CNBC, the BBC and television and radio stations across the country.

A magna cum laude graduate of Harvard College, McIntyre also was president of The Harvard Advocate. Founded in 1866, the Advocate is the oldest college publication in the United States.

TheStreet.com, Comps.com and Edgar Online are some of the public companies for which McIntyre served on the board of directors. He was a Vicinity Corporation board member when the company was sold to Microsoft in 2002. He served on the audit committees of some of these companies.

McIntyre has been the CEO of FutureSource, a provider of trading terminals and news to commodities and futures traders. He was president of Switchboard, the online phone directory company. He served as chairman and CEO of On2 Technologies, the video compression company that provided video compression software for Adobe’s Flash. Google bought On2 in 2009.

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