Constrained by supply chain bottlenecks, the US economy grew worse than expected in the second quarter and eclipsed one of the largest increases in consumer spending in decades. Preliminary estimates released by the US Department of Commerce on Thursday showed that GDP in the second quarter grew at an annual rate of 6.5%, and the first quarter's data was revised to 6.3%. Federal government spending, residential investment and inventory dragged down the second quarter data. Personal consumption, which accounts for the largest proportion of the economy, grew at an annual rate of 11.8%.

The number of applications for unemployment benefits in the United States fell last week, indicating that the labor market continues to improve, despite the delta variant of the new crown virus raging. According to data released by the Labor Department on Thursday, the total number of people applying for regular state unemployment benefits for the week as of July 24 was 400,000, a decrease of 24,000 from the previous week. Economists surveyed by Bloomberg had a median forecast of 385,000 for the number of people who filed for unemployment benefits for the first time. In the context of rising labor demand, since the beginning of the year, the number of weekly jobless claims has fallen sharply. At the same time, the delta virus variant, which has recently caused a surge in new cases across the country, also poses a risk.

US President Joe Biden will require federal employees to either prove that they have been vaccinated against the new crown, or wear masks and frequently undergo new crown tests. The highly infectious delta strain has caused a surge in the number of cases in the United States. The White House said that the new regulations will involve millions of federal government workers, including the military and contractors. Biden will announce this decision on Thursday. He also asked the team to take steps to apply similar standards to all federal contractors and encourage private sector employers to adopt the same approach.

The agency responsible for overseeing the transition period for the suspension of the London Interbank Offered Rate (LIBOR) in the United States has officially recognized a series of forward-looking regular benchmark interest rates linked to the guaranteed overnight financing rate (SOFR). Many people expect this move to promote the widespread adoption of these interest rates in the market. The Alternative Reference Rates Committee, backed by the Federal Reserve, approved CME Group's 1-month, 3-month and 6-month interest rates based on SOFR futures trading on Thursday.

After the anti-epidemic blockade was lifted, European companies began to recover, and the Eurozone economic confidence index rose to a record high in July. Boosted by the strong recovery of the global economy, factories in the Eurozone have been fully fired, and consumers have begun to enjoy travel and services that were not available during the epidemic. The Eurozone economic confidence index rose to 119 in July from 117.9 in June, the highest level since the data began to be recorded in 1985. In the industrial sector, strong market demand boosted executive confidence, but it also squeezed production capacity and created a bottleneck. The service industry confidence index hit the highest level since 2007.

With the removal of restrictions to fight the epidemic and the restart of the economy, Germany's inflation rate rose to its highest level since 2008. The inflation rate in July was 3.1%, higher than the 2.9% expected by economists, which may intensify the debate about whether the inflation spike will eventually fall. Prices are being boosted by several special factors, such as the cancellation of last year's consumption tax reduction measures and the adjustment of the commodity and service basket that measures the CPI.

Amazon’s second-quarter sales and forecasts for the current quarter were worse than analysts’ expectations, indicating that as people resume their old shopping habits, a period of rapid growth driven by the new crown epidemic is coming to an end for the largest Internet retailer. Its stock price fell about 7% in after-hours trading. The company announced that its sales in the second quarter rose 27% to $113.1 billion, which was lower than the expected $115 billion; profit for the quarter was $15.12 per share, with an average estimate of $12.28.

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