SLOVENIA
Koper to see 100,000 cruise passengers this year
Koper, 22 July - The passenger terminal at Koper, Slovenia's sole maritime port, is seeing another busy season, having already welcomed 41 passenger ships with a total of 46,500 passengers on board this year.
Source: STA
HSE's profit down due to drought
Slovenia's largest electricity producer HSE's net profit plummeted by 64% to EUR 7.71m in 2017 over 2016, mostly because its hydro power stations' output was affected by unfavourable hydrological conditions. Consequently, total output hit a ten-year low.
Source: STA
Drug wholesaler Salus to take over akin dealer
Pharmaceuticals wholesaler Salus has been given the go-ahead from its shareholders to take over Sanolabor, a company marketing and distributing medical, pharmaceutical and lab products. Salus is to pay EUR 10.38m for a 58% stake in Sanolabor.
INTERNATIONAL MARKETS
Stocks close little changed as strong earnings offset Trump’s comments on trade; European stocks close lower
Stocks closed little changed on Friday as strong quarterly results from some of the largest U.S. companies, including Microsoft and Honeywell, counterbalanced threats made by President Donald Trump to increase tariffs on China. The S&P 500 slipped 0.1 percent to 2,801.83, with real estate and utilities lagging. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell just 6.38 points to 25,058.12 as losses in IBM offset gains in Microsoft. The Nasdaq Composite declined 0.1 percent to close at 7,820.20.
Microsoft
General Electric also reported a stronger-than-expected profit, but it still represented a 30 percent drop year over year. The stock pulled back 4.4 percent.
So far, about 16.4 percent of S&P 500 companies have released their latest quarterly results, with 83 percent of them topping analyst expectations, according to FactSet. Wall Street has high expectations for this earnings season, with analysts expecting earnings growth of 20 percent, FactSet said.
Shares in Europe closed lower on average on Friday afternoon following remarks from President Donald Trump over imposing tariffs on $505 billion worth of goods. The pan-European Stoxx 600 ended provisionally lower by 0.09 percent.
The share price of Orion rose 4.26 percent, after a ratings upgrade kicked in for the Finnish pharma. Luxury retailer Hermes ended 0.48 percent above the flat line after posting its second-quarter sales. These came in stronger than the numbers reported in the first quarter, thanks to strong demand in China.
In other corporate news, Fiat Chrysler has started the process to spin-off parts-maker Magneti Marelli, Reuters reported.
Source: CNBC
SERBIA
For the first time ever Fiat’s export drops to below half a billion
According to the data released by the Ministry of Finance, Fiat Automobili Srbija (FAS) has exported from Serbia vehicles worth EUR 471.4 million to Europe and North America in the first half of this year. Although, FAS remains the biggest exporter in Serbia for the sixth consecutive year, the export value has dropped relative to previous years.
Source: Serbiamonitor
Fiscal Council: Budget for 2019 should pay more attention on public investments
After execution of expected increase in pensions and salaries, for the end of this year, state administration should be more focused on plans for public investments, Fiscal Council chief, Pavle Petrovic said to local press. In his opinion, fiscal space should not be used for populism anymore, while large scale public investments should be a priority.
Source: Beta, Ilirika
Number of employed people in June up 6.5% m/m
June saw 26,300 newly employed people, which is up 6.5% vs. May, National Service for Employment reported. According to the statistic of this institution, currently, there are 597,000 unemployed people in Serbia, which is record low. However, seasonal effect needs to be considered since summer is traditionally period with huge number of temporary deployed workers.
Source: Ekapija. Ilirika