Tourists carrying shopping bags walk through Times Square on August 10, 2021 in New York City.

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• Nearly half of young adults are living at home in the US — a historical high not seen since the Great Depression, per the US Census Bureau.
• They are helping fuel a luxury boom, Morgan Stanley analysts say.
• Living at home is freeing up their budget and leaving them with more disposable income for spending.

A record level of young adults in the US is currently living at home, and all that saved rent is sparking a luxury boom.

Recent data from the US Census Bureau shows that nearly half of young Americans between ages 18 and 29 are living with their parents today. That’s a historical high not seen since the Great Depression era, Morgan Stanley analysts wrote in a Friday note.

The analysts estimate that around 48% of young adults are living with parents in 2022, similar to levels seen in the 1940s.

The levels of young adults living at home peaked at 49.5% around 2020, coinciding with the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic. The data was compiled from a Pew Research Center analysis, USA Today, the University of Minnesota, and Morgan Stanley research.

But that’s great news for luxury retailers, because saving on daily necessities like rent and groceries is freeing up disposable income for discretionary spending, per a team of Morgan Stanley analysts led by Edouard Aubin.

“This is of course not the only reason luxury goods consumers are getting younger in the West (social media playing also an important part) but we see it as fundamentally positive for the industry,” the analysts wrote in the note.

Factors like high rental costs, enrollment in higher-education programs, and delayed marriage are also keeping young adults at home, the analysts wrote.

“When asked about the incentives to move in with parents, 51% of the young adults said that it was to save money and 39% of them said that it was because they could not afford rent,” according to a December 5 PropertyManagement.com survey. The survey of about 1,200 US participants was conducted online by survey platform Pollfish on December 1.

Similar themes are emerging among British youth

Similar themes are emerging across the pond in the United Kingdom, where about 42% of young adults lived with their parents in 2021. That’s the highest level on record, based on data compiled from 1996 onwards by the Office for National Statistics and Morgan Stanley research.

In the first half of 2022, imports of luxury Swiss watches into the UK rose 31% year-on-year, the Guardian reported in June, citing data from Federation of the Swiss Watch Industry. The watches on average cost about £6,000, or about $7,400 at current exchange rates. Sales of mid-range watches — those below £2,500 — were falling at the time, the Guardian reported.

British luxury brand Burberry reported an 11% year-on-year increase in sales in the quarter ending September. Luxury-goods maker LVMH, which owns brands including Dior, Tiffany, Moët Hennessy, and Louis Vuitton, reported a 19% on-year increase in third quarter of 2022 revenues — thanks to robust demand from Europe, the United States, and Japan.

An Insider Intelligence report on September 14 found that luxury goods sector in the US and China has bounced back post-COVID, but economic headwinds — like an impending recession — will weigh heavy on middle class spenders.

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) attends a rally held by U.S. President Donald Trump at the Dayton International Airport on November 7, 2022 in Vandalia, Ohio.

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• Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene said a group of Republican is meeting every week in Kevin McCarthy’s office.
• The meeting is called “the five families,” she said, in an apparent mafia reference.
• McCarthy, a strong contender for House Speaker, is planning a series of investigations next year.

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia says a group of Republicans called “the five families” meets every week to discuss strategy and policy in Kevin McCarthy’s office.

Greene made the mob reference while speaking on a Tuesday episode of conspiracy theorist Steve Bannon’s show, “The War Room.”

She claimed the Biden administration and House Democrats are “terrified” of Republican congressional leaders, now that the latter has taken the majority in the House.

“Because they’re hearing us talk, and they know we’re organizing,” she told Bannon.

“What we’ve been doing, and it’s really interesting, people are arguing, people are clashing, people are also starting to agree,” said Greene. “And there’s a meeting happening every week, and we meet in Kevin McCarthy’s office.”

“And it’s called the five families. And the five families, you know my reference, the five families are parts of our conference, all the different parts,” she continued. “And we are coming together and having discussions on how we are going to govern in the majority.”

—PatriotTakes 🇺🇸 (@patriottakes) December 13, 2022

The Five Families often refer to five major organized crime families in the Italian American mafia who were prominent in New York City in the 20th century.

Bannon joked that he hoped the Republicans’ “five families” meetings fare better than the ones in the 1972 mafia movie “The Godfather.”

“They went to war,” he said, as the show cut to a break.

Greene, a controversial figure in the GOP and a loyal supporter of former President Donald Trump, may soon see a resurgence in her political influence if House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy puts her on his planned oversight committee.

She’s thrown in her support for McCarthy’s bid to be House Speaker, and is in turn expected to be handed a committee assignment in the next Congress. The House previously stripped Greene of her committee appointments on February 4, 2021, with her critics saying she promoted baseless conspiracy theories, racism, and violence against Democrats.

Greene said in November that she’s set to secure a spot on the oversight panel, which McCarthy wants to use to launch a litany of investigations into the Biden administration, China, the FBI, big tech, and other parties.

Representatives for Greene and McCarthy did not immediately respond to Insider’s requests for comment sent outside regular business hours.

U.S. lawmakers have introduced a bipartisan bill to sanction Chinese tech company Huawei Technologies Ltd and Chinese 5G companies, restricting them from accessing U.S. banks.

The bill, introduced by Republican senator Tom Cotton and backed by lawmakers such as Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, a Democrat, seeks to “severely sanction” Huawei, and other “untrustworthy” Chinese 5G producers who they say engage in economic espionage against the U.S.

The bill will add these entities to the Treasury Department’s Specially Designated Nationals (SDN) List, effectively freezing out of the U.S. financial system.

Huawei did not immediately respond to Reuters’ request for comment.

Lawmakers have tried to curb Huawei’s access to U.S. banks in the past, proposing a similar bill in 2020 when President Donald Trump was in office.

“We’ve made great strides in recent years at home and abroad in combatting Huawei’s malign attempts to dominate 5G and steal Americans’ data,” Cotton said in a statement on Tuesday.

“We cannot allow Huawei and the Chinese Communist Party to have access to Americans’ personal data and our country’s most sensitive defense systems,” he added.

In October, U.S. prosecutors charged two Chinese intelligence officials with trying to tamper with the Huawei investigation. The two Chinese nationals had attempted to recruit a U.S. law enforcement agent to work as their spy, but the recruit was actually working as an agent for the United States, prosecutors said.

Last month, the U.S. Federal Communications Commission adopted rules banning new telecommunications equipment from Huawei.

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The post Russians fired over 50 projectiles at Nikopol, Marhanets last night appeared first on Ukraine Intelligence.

Kyiv’s air defence systems shot down 10 Russian drones on Wednesday, the city’s mayor said, while the United States is close to finalising plans to send its Patriot air defence system to Ukraine in a potentially pivotal move in the conflict.

Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said that air-defence systems shot down 10 Iranian-made Shahed drones and that there were explosions in the central Shevchenkivskyi district.

The Kyiv administration said that according to preliminary information, two administrative buildings in Shevchenkivskyi were damaged and information about potential casualties was being clarified.

Reuters was not able to independently verify the information.

Washington could announce a decision as soon as Thursday on providing the Patriot, two officials told Reuters on Tuesday. The Patriot is considered one of the most advanced U.S. air defence systems and is usually in short supply, with allies around the world vying for it.

Former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has warned NATO against equipping Kyiv with Patriot missile defences, and it is likely the Kremlin will view the move as an escalation.

The Patriot system would help Ukraine defend against waves of Russian missile and drone attacks that have pounded the country’s energy infrastructure.

The General Staff of Ukraine’s armed forces morning report on Wednesday highlighted the need for air defence systems throughout the country.

It said in the past 24 hours in Kharkiv, Donetsk and Zaporizhzhia regions “the enemy launched 1 air and 11 missile strikes, 3 of them on the civilian infrastructure…(and) launched more than 60 attacks from multiple rocket launchers”.

Gaining Patriot air defence capability would be “very, very significant” for the Kyiv government, said Alexander Vindman, a retired Army lieutenant colonel and onetime leader of Ukraine policy at the White House.

“These are going to be quite capable of dealing with a lot of different challenges the Ukrainians have, especially if the Russians bring in short-range ballistic missiles” from Iran.

The Pentagon declined comment. There was no immediate comment from Ukrainian officials.

Kyiv held high-level military talks on Tuesday with Washington, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s office said. The United States has given Ukraine $19.3 billion in military assistance since Russia’s invasion on Feb. 24.

One of the U.S. officials said Ukrainian forces would likely be trained in Germany before the Patriot equipment was delivered. Vindman said the training could take several months.

The Pentagon says Russia’s recent surge in missile strikes is partly designed to exhaust Ukraine’s supplies of air defences so it can dominate the skies above the country.

For that reason, the United States and its allies have been delivering more air defences to Kyiv, everything from Soviet-era systems to more modern, Western ones. Washington has provided NASAMS air defence systems that the Pentagon says have flawlessly intercepted Russian missiles in Ukraine.

Millions of civilians who are enduring Europe’s biggest conflict since World War Two have had to contend with cuts to power, heat and water as harsh winter conditions take hold.

In Paris, about 70 countries and institutions pledged just over 1 billion euros ($1.05 billion) to help maintain Ukraine’s water, food, energy, health and transport in face of Russia’s attacks, French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna said.

Sergey Kovalenko, the head of the YASNO power company, said on Facebook that repairs continued on the electric grid but that Kyiv still only had two-thirds of the power it needed.

In a video speech to the New Zealand parliament on Wednesday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said the environmental harm from Russia’s war will affect millions of people for years.

Russian attacks have contaminated the country’s oceans and 3 million hectares (7.4 million acres) of forest, he said.

“Dozens of rivers are polluted, hundreds of coal mines are flooded, dozens of the most dangerous enterprises, including chemical ones have been destroyed by Russian strikes,” he said, according to translation provided by the parliament.

“All this … will have a direct impact on millions of people,” he said, referring to leaks of hazardous chemicals and contamination from mines and munitions.

“You cannot rebuild the destroyed nature, just as you cannot restore the destroyed lives,” Zelenskiy added.

There are no peace talks under way to end the conflict that began on Feb. 24, which Moscow describes as a “special military operation” against security threats posed by its neighbour. Ukraine and its Western allies call it an unprovoked, imperialist land grab.

Russia on Tuesday dismissed a peace proposal from Zelenskiy that would involve a pullout of Russian troops and demanded that his government accept Russia’s annexations.

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Ukraine’s military said Russia had pulled some troops from towns on the opposite bank of the Dnipro River from Kherson city, the first official Ukrainian report of a Russian withdrawal on what is now the main front line in the south..

* Spain has stepped up security at public and diplomatic buildings after a spate of letter bombs, including one sent to Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez and another to the Ukrainian embassy in Madrid, where an official suffered minor injuries.

* Air raid alerts were issued across all of Ukraine following warnings by Ukrainian officials that Russia was preparing a new wave of missile and drone strikes. “An overall air raid alert is in place in Ukraine. Go to shelters,” country’s border service wrote on Telegram messaging app.

* Ukraine’s military said it had found fragments of Russian-fired nuclear-capable missiles with dud warheads in west Ukraine, and that their apparent purpose was to distract air defences.

* The recently liberated Ukrainian city of Kherson has lost its power supply after heavy shelling by Russian forces, the regional governor said.

* European Union governments tentatively agreed on a $60 a barrel price cap on Russian seaborne oil, with an adjustment mechanism to keep the cap at 5% below the market price, an EU diplomat said.

* Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on that big problems had accumulated in the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), accusing the West of spurning the chance to make it a real bridge with Russia after the Cold War.

* Lavrov said that discussions with Washington about potential prisoner exchanges were being conducted by the two countries’ intelligence services, and that he hoped they would be successful.

* The European Union needs patience as it sanctions Russia for its invasion of Ukraine, as most measures will only have an impact in the medium and long term, Lithuania’s prime minister said in an interview at  the  Reuters NEXT conference.

* Switzerland has frozen financial assets worth 7.5 billion Swiss francs ($7.94 billion) as of Nov. 25 under sanctions against Russians to punish Moscow for its invasion of Ukraine, the State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO) said.

* Russia said the German parliament’s move to recognise the 1932-33 famine in Ukraine as a Soviet-imposed genocide was an anti-Russian provocation and an attempt by Germany to whitewash its Nazi past.

* Ukraine sacked a top engineer at the Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, accusing him of collaborating with Russian forces, and urged other Ukrainian staff at the plant to remain loyal to Kyiv.

* Russia must withdraw its heavy weapons and military personnel from the Zaporizhzhia plant if the U.N. atomic watchdog’s efforts to create a protection zone are to succeed, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said.

* In a grim sign of the energy crisis caused by Russian attacks on Ukraine’s electricity grid, nine people have been killed in fires over the past 24 hours as Ukrainians resorted to emergency generators, candles and gas cylinders in violation of safety rules to try to heat their homes after power outages.

* “Remember one thing – the Russians are afraid. And they are very cold and no one will help them, because they do not have popular support,” – Andriy Yermak, chief of Ukrainian presidential staff.

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The post 10 suicide drones already shot down over capital, Kyiv region appeared first on Ukraine Intelligence.

When President Joe Biden speaks to African leaders in Washington on Wednesday, expect to hear about support for democracy, economic development and new financial commitments for a region that in recent years has taken a backseat to other U.S. priorities.

But there will be another, likely unspoken message: The United States is a better partner for Africa than China.

Delegations from 49 countries and the African Union, including 45 African national leaders, are attending the three-day summit, which began on Tuesday, the first of its kind since 2014, where Washington will also tout its support for food security and climate change.

It’s part of a renewed push to boost ties with a continent where U.S. interests have been challenged by China’s security ambitions and trade, investment and lending drives. By contrast, Beijing has held its own high-level meetings with Africa every three years for more than two decades.

While Sino-U.S. competition is a clear backdrop, U.S. officials have been reluctant to frame the gathering as a battle for influence. Washington has toned down its criticism of Beijing’s lending practices and infrastructure projects amid calls from some African leaders for more U.S. leadership.

To that end, Biden is expected to announce his support for the African Union’s joining the G20 group of the world’s largest economies as a permanent member.

U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai told African counterparts on Tuesday she wants to improve the continent’s U.S. trade preferences program, and national security adviser Jake Sullivan said Washington will “bring resources to the table” and commit $55 billion to Africa over the next three years.

“We are not looking for a relationship that is transactional, that’s extractive, that is burdensome, or leaves various countries in a more fragile, poor state after a deal is done,” State Department spokesman Ned Price told reporters on Monday, skirting mention of China but using language that mirrored Washington’s critique of its behavior in Africa.

China’s economic influence in Africa is undeniable.

According to a Eurasia Group analysis, in 2021 China-Africa trade, at $254 billion, greatly outstripped U.S.-Africa trade, which stood at $64.3 billion. Those figures are up from $12 billion and $21 billion, respectively, in 2002. China has also become an important creditor by offering loans with less stringent conditions than Western lenders.

That has led to Western charges that China has mired African countries in debt. Beijing’s ambassador to Washington, Qin Gang, rejected the idea ahead of the summit, citing a report that African countries owe three times more debt to Western institutions, while noting that Chinese-built hospitals, highways, airports and stadiums are “everywhere” in Africa.

China remains the region’s largest bilateral investor, but its new loan commitments to Africa have declined in recent years as pressure has built up both inside and outside China for its infrastructure investments to be more sustainable.

Offering loans to Africa on the same scale as China has not been a viable option for the United States. Instead, U.S. officials stress an approach focused on facilitating private investment.

Don Graves, deputy secretary of commerce, said this week that U.S. companies brought leading technologies and standards “as opposed to bringing in tens of thousands of our own workers,” thinly veiled criticism of long-standing practices by Chinese companies that have angered Africans.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Tuesday the United States would announce investments for exchange programs for African students, and to support African entrepreneurs and small businesses.

It’s not all about economic sway – Washington has been alarmed by China’s efforts to establish a military foothold on including on the Atlantic coast in Equatorial Guinea.

For their part, many African leaders reject the idea that they need to choose between the United States and China.

“The fact that both countries have different levels of relations with African countries makes them equally important for Africa’s development,” Ethiopia’s U.N. ambassador, Taye Atske Selassie Amde, told Reuters. “However, it should be known each African country has the agency to determine their respective relationship and best interest.”

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U.S. Forces Korea launched a new space forces unit on Wednesday as the allies ramp up efforts to better counter North Korea’s evolving nuclear and missile threats.

The U.S. Space Forces Korea is the second overseas space component of the Space Force and tasked with monitoring, detecting and tracking incoming missiles, as well as bolstering the military’s overall space capability.

U.S. Forces Korea commander Gen. Paul LaCamera hosted a ceremony at Osan Air Base in the South Korean city of Pyeongtaek to mark the creation of the unit, which will be led by Lt. Col. Joshua McCullion.

The launch came as Seoul and Washington seek to boost security cooperation to deter North Korea, which has tested intercontinental ballistic missiles capable of reaching U.S. mainland this year.

South Korea’s air force also set up its own space unit this month to bolster its space power and operation capability together with the U.S. Space Force.

Around 28,500 U.S. troops are stationed in South Korea under a mutual defence treaty forged after the 1950-53 Korean War ended in an armistice, not a peace treaty.

The U.S. Indo-Pacific Command and Central Command set up their space units last month in Hawaii and Florida.

Asian stocks advanced on Wednesday, bonds were firm and the dollar nursed losses after data showed U.S. consumer prices barely rose in November, stoking hopes inflation has peaked and interest rate increases will slow and eventually stop in 2023.

Nervousness about policymakers’ next moves, though, kept the mood in check ahead of a Federal Reserve meeting later in the day and central bank meetings in Britain and Europe on Thursday. Investors are also turning watchful on the global economy, despite China’s reopening from tight COVID restrictions.

The U.S. consumer price index increased 0.1% last month, 0.2 percentage points slower than economists expected, and in the 12 months through November, headline CPI climbed 7.1% – its slowest pace in about a year.

European markets were set for a higher open with pan-region Euro Stoxx 50 futures up 0.15%, German DAX futures flat and FTSE futures rising 0.05%. U.S. stock futures, the S&P 500 e-minis , meanwhile, advanced 0.35%.

In Asia, MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan (.MIAPJ0000PUS) rose 1%. The index is up 1.2% so far this month.

Japan’s Nikkei (.N225) was up 0.78% while Australian shares (.AXJO) advanced 0.67%.

China and Hong Kong stocks also jumped on Wednesday as easing COVID-19 curbs and refocus on economic growth underpinned sentiment.

China’s blue-chip CSI 300 Index (.CSI300) rose 0.3% while the Hang Seng Index (.HSI) climbed 0.89%.

“If CPI comes off and China fully reopens, that’s still not really enough to go gung-ho in Asia markets, because we’re facing a scenario where the more developed markets, the major markets are facing a recessionary environment in 2023,” said Sat Duhra, Portfolio Manager on Janus Henderson Investors’ Asia ex Japan Equity Team.

“There will be some upside from China reopening, but I think it’s not enough to offset the negatives.”

Overnight Wall Street surged, before paring gains to leave the S&P 500 (.SPX) up 0.7% at the close. The index was up nearly 2.8% at one stage, while the Nasdaq (.IXIC) rose as much as 3.8% before closing 1% higher.

The dollar, which is falling from 20-year highs as U.S. interest rate expectations retreat, dropped broadly and sharply, while bonds rallied.

The yield on benchmark 10-year U.S. Treasuries fell 11 basis points overnight and was steady at 3.4956% in afternoon Asia trade. Two-year yields , which track short-term interest rate expectations, touched 4.2053% compared with a U.S. close of 4.229%.

The U.S. dollar fell 1.5% against the yen after the inflation data and was steady at 135.37 yen in Asia. The U.S. dollar index , which tracks the greenback against a basket of currencies of other major trading partners, fell to a six-month low of 103.57, before steadying at 104.04. It is down more than 9% from a two-decade high made in September.

Futures pricing shows markets expect the Fed will slow the pace of hikes, but still raise its Funds rate target range by 50 bps to between 4.25% and 4.5% later on Thursday.

Much of the focus then falls on the “dot plot” chart of committee members projections about future rate movements, and the tone chairman Jerome Powell strikes in his press conference.

“There are now clear signs that inflation is softening, but it is still at elevated level,” said Tareck Horchani, head of dealing, Prime Brokerage, at Maybank Securities in Singapore.

“The market wants to know if the Fed will change their stance on the dot plot,” he said, with the median projection in September being for a peak in the Fed funds rate of around 4.6% next year.

Oil was carried 1% higher with the broader mood, before trimming gains a bit in Asia with Brent futures last at $80.35 a barrel and U.S. crude at $75.12 a barrel.

Bitcoin got a bounce overnight, but was unable to hold onto gains above $18,000.

Cryptocurrency markets have been unmoved, but transfixed, by the arrest of FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried, who was accused by U.S. prosecutors on Tuesday of misappropriating billions of dollars in customer funds from the cryptocurrency exchange.