Media

6 Most Important Things in Business Today: China Holdings of US Debt

Douglas A. McIntyre

Published: October 17, 2018 5:02 am

Last Updated: January 11, 2020 4:20 pm

OPEC members are worried about a lawsuit. According to Reuters:

OPEC has urged its members not to mention oil prices when discussing policy in a break from the past, as the oil producing group seeks to avoid the risk of U.S. legal action for manipulating the market, sources close to OPEC said.

Netflix Inc. (NASDAQ: NFLX) posted another quarter of extraordinary growth. According to The Wall Street Journal:

For the third quarter, Netflix added 6.96 million subscribers globally, beating the five million that the company forecast for the period in July and the 5.18 million analysts surveyed by FactSet predicted. The additions bring Netflix’s total global subscriber count to 137 million.

International Machines Corp.’s (NYSE: IBM) revenue fell, again. According to The Wall Street Journal:

International Business Machines Corp.’s streak of revenue growth ended after three quarters.

The computing giant Tuesday reported third-quarter revenue that fell 2.1% from a year earlier, snapping a brief return to growth that had ended nearly six years of shrinking sales and given IBM Chief Executive Ginni Rometty breathing space to talk about the company’s future.

Uber could be valued at $120 billion in an IPO. According to The Wall Street Journal:

Uber Technologies Inc. recently received proposals from Wall Street banks valuing the ride-hailing company at as much as $120 billion in an initial public offering that could take place early next year, according to people familiar with the matter.

That eye-popping figure is nearly double Uber’s valuation in a fundraising round two months ago and more than General Motors Co., Ford Motor Co. and Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV are worth combined.

YouTube was down for a period. According to The New York Times:

Google-owned YouTube said on Tuesday a widespread issue with some of its services has been resolved, almost two hours after several people took to social media to complain about broadcasting issues.

The video streaming service earlier said it was looking into reports about access issues with YouTube, YouTube TV and YouTube Music.

China’s ownership of U.S. Treasuries fell to the lowest level in over a year. According to CNBC:

China trimmed its holdings of U.S. Treasurys in August by about $6 billion, to the lowest level since June 2017.

China’s holdings of Treasury bills, notes and bonds fell to $1.165 trillion, from $1.171 trillion in July, according to U.S. Treasury data. It is the third month of decline, and well below the recent high of $1.2 trillion a year earlier.