Business this week (2020.04.25) Part.01

Oil prices tanked amid forecasts that demand will tumble this year. Brent crude dropped below $16.50 a barrel, a two-decade low. May contracts for West Texas Intermediate, the benchmark for American oil, fell into negative territory for the first time, plunging at one point to -$40 a barrel, meaning traders in effect paid for someone else to hold the commodity. Concern that storage facilities at a key delivery point were full, just as the contracts were due to be settled, added to the panic. Prices surged later in the week after Donald Trump stoked tension with Iran.

• tank
  • to suffer rapid decline, failure, or collapse 骤跌，（公司）倒闭，（产品）失败
• tumble
  • （价格或数量）暴跌，骤降
• Brent crude
  • 布兰特原油，是一种国际原油评价观测体系，属于甜油（低硫原油），用来衡量油价高低。
  • crude
    • oil in its natural state, before it has been treated with chemicals 原油；石油
• barrel
  • 桶（石油计量单位，相当于 120 到 159 升）
• low
  • 低点
    • fall to an all-time low 跌至空前的低点
• benchmark
  • 基准
• plunge
  • （价格、温度等）骤降，暴跌
• in effect
  • used when you are stating what the facts of a situation are 实际上，事实上
• commodity
  • a product or a raw material that can be bought and sold 商品
• facility
  • facilities [pl.] 设施，设备
• surge
  • （价格、利润等）急剧上升；飞涨
• stoke
  • to increase the activity, intensity, or amount of 加剧，刺激……的发展
  • 给……添加（燃料）

Baker Hughes, one of the world’s biggest providers of oilfield services, recorded a $10bn quarterly loss, in part because it has had to write down the value of its assets.

• oilfield
  • 油田
• quarterly
  • 季度的
• in part
  • partly; to some extent 部分地；在某种程度上
• write down
  • (business) to reduce the value of assets when stating it in a company’s accounts 减记，划减（资产的账面价值）
• asset
  • [usually pl.] 资产，财产

Puff goes the dragon

China’s GDP shrank by 6.8% in the first quarter, year on year, the first contraction in decades. The economy is expecting to pick up later this year, though not enough to meet the government’s ambitions. China’s untrammelled growth since the end of the Mao era has boosted countless global industries. Many hope that the quarter’s decline is just a pause, not an end, to the boom.

• shrank
  • （使）缩小，减少
• contraction
  • 收缩，缩小
• pick up
  • 改善，好转；增强
• untrammelled
  • 不受限制的，无拘束的
• boost
  • 使增长，使兴旺
• boom
  • a period of high economic growth characterized by rising wages, profits, and prices, full employment, and high levels of investment, trade, and other economic activity（贸易和经济活动的）激增，繁荣

The news about the Chinese economy did not stop BHP and Rio Tinto, the world’s two biggest mining companies, from giving upbeat assessments about their business in China. BHP noted that most industrial activity had restarted there and that if a second wave of infections was avoided, steel production could rise this year.

• mining
  • 采矿，采矿业
• upbeat
  • 乐观的
• assessment
  • 评价，看法
• steel
  • 钢

Alibaba, China’s biggest e-commerce company, said it would invest 200bn yuan ($28bn) in cloud computing over the next three years. Alibaba faces fierce competition over cloud services in its home market, and is eager to challenge Amazon and Microsoft in international markets.

• e-commerce
  • 电子商务
• fierce
  • vehement, intense, or strong 激烈的

Cyril Ramaphosa, South Africa’s president, announced a huge stimulus package worth 500bn rand ($26bn) to shore up the economy, which was already struggling before covid-19, and fell into recession late last year. Millions of people rely on informal work to make ends meet, which has been made harder by a strict lockdown enforced by the army. The government has turned to the IMF and other global institutions for emergency health-care funding.

• stimulus package
  • 刺激方案
  • package
    • （必须整体接收的）一套东西，一套建议；一揽子交易
• shore up
  • to help to support sth that is weak or going to fail 支撑，稳住
  • shore
    • [noun] （海洋、湖泊等大水域的）岸
• recession
  • 经济衰退/萎缩
• make ends meet
  • 使收支相抵，勉强维持生计
• health-care funding
  • 医疗资金

Legislation to provide more than $300bn in additional aid to small businesses wound its way through Congress. The money earmarked for firms to retain workers in the recent $2trn stimulus act has already run out amid huge demand.

• legislation
  • 立法，制定法律
  • 法规
• wind (wound, wound)
  • （路、河等）蜿蜒，曲折而行
• earmark
  • [usually passive] 指定……的用途；预先安排，确定（未来发生的事情）
• retain
  • 保持
• amid
  • in the middle of or during sth, especially sth that causes excitement or fear 在 … 过程中；在 … 中