SLOVENIA
Central bank forecasts 6.5% GDP drop for 2020, 4.9% growth for 2021
Slovenia's central bank forecasts that Slovenia's economy will contract by 6.5% this year before it bounces back to 4.9% growth in 2021 and 3.6% in 2022. This is the baseline forecast, there are also two alternative scenarios that factor in the gravity of the coronavirus crisis. (STA)
Healthy quarantined workers now only eligible for 50% of pay
Since the coronavirus epidemic formally ended in Slovenia on 31 May, healthy employees who are put in quarantine are no longer eligible for state compensation equalling to 80% of their pay but only for compensation of up to half their usual pay. The latter is covered by the employer. (STA)
INTERNATIONAL MARKETS
Dow jumps more than 800 points, Nasdaq hits a record after surprise jobs surge boosts recovery bets; European markets close higher after U.S. jobs data surprises; BELEX15 remains flat; Vinci expects 15m of passengers at Belgrade Airport at the end of concession period
Stocks rallied on Friday after an unexpected surge in U.S. jobs raised hope that the economy is starting to recover from the coronavirus pandemic. The Nasdaq Composite became the first of the three major averages to climb back to an all-time high, advancing 2.0%, or 198.27 points, to 9,814.08 on Friday and touching an intraday record of 9,845.69. After tumbling as much as 25% earlier this year, the tech-heavy index is now 9.3% higher for 2020.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average jumped 829.16 points, or 3.1%, to 27,110.98. The S&P 500 rose 2.6%, or 81.58 points, to 3,193.93.
U.S. employers added a shocking 2.5 million jobs last month — the largest gain on record — while the unemployment rate slid to 13.3%, the Labor Department said Friday. Economists polled by Dow Jones expected a drop of more than 8 million jobs and the unemployment rate to nearly reach 20%, which would have been the highest since the 1930s.
Shares of airlines jumped, adding to their big gains this week, as the industry added more summer flights. American Airlines jumped 11.1% Friday, while United Airlines shares gained 8.5%. Cruise-line operators such as Norwegian Cruise Line and Carnival both advanced more than 14% while Royal Caribbean gained 20.3%. Mall operator Simon Property gained 15.4%. Kohl’s and Nordstrom advanced 11% and 6%, respectively.
European markets provisionally closed higher on Friday after the latest U.S. jobs report revealed the country defied projections to add 2.5 million jobs in May, the largest monthly increase ever.
Britain’s FTSE 100 ended up over 2.3%, Germany’s DAX gained 3.4% and France’s CAC 40 jumped 3.6%, as most major bourses held in positive territory. Markets in Denmark were closed for the Constitution Day holiday.
German factory orders fell 25.8% in May, according to figures released Friday morning, a more drastic contraction than analysts expected as Europe’s largest economy continued to be hammered by industrial shutdowns as a result of the pandemic.
BELEX15 was almost with no changes as we saw only symbolic movements at major quoted names. The most tared stock was NIS with RSD 6.2m in volume. Major corporative event&news may be linked to Belgrade Airport, as France's Vinci Airports said that it is investing 5 billion dinars ($48 million/42 million euro) in an expansion of a terminal building and an upgrade of its aprons, the Serbian unit of Vinci Airports has said. The project is part of a 730 million euro project for modernization of Nikola Tesla international airport launched by Vinci Airports in July 2019. The upgrades will allow Vinci to increase the number of passengers handled annually in Belgrade to 15 million at the end of its 25-year concession period from 6.2 million passengers in 2019, Berisot said. The stock was up 0.22% on Friday. (CNBC, ILIRIKA)
