US Business Newsletter

January 01 - January 31, 2023

Greetings from Consulate General of India,

New York!

Welcome to the January 2023 edition of our newsletter, bringing you important policy and high-impact news.

We hope you find it useful.

U.S. Pursues India as a Supply-Chain Alternative to China

 The Biden administration is turning to India for help as the U.S. works to shift critical technology supply chains away from China and other countries that it says to use that technology to destabilize global security. Administration officials hosted meetings this week with a delegation of Indian officials and U.S. industry executives, seeking to facilitate technology development and investment in India as part of a broader U.S. push to cultivate alternatives to China.

 North American pension-fund investment in private-market loans reached an eight-year high in 2022, even as banks pulled back on lending and default rates inched upward.The average share of these retirement funds parked in the illiquid, typically unrated debt has crept up steadily to 3.8%, the highest on record, according to analytics company Preqin. Though a fraction of the overall portfolio, private credit now amounts to more than $100 billion in the retirement savings of U.S. and Canadian teachers, police and other public workers, according to a Wall Street Journal estimate based on Federal Reserve data and pension financial reports. And the pensions are planning to add more: Their average target allocation is 5.9%.

Microsoft Expands Access to Open AI’s Tools to More Customers

 Microsoft Corp. said Monday, January 16 2023 that it is allowing more customers access to the software behind popular artificial-intelligence tools made by OpenAI. The startup has been the center of the tech industry’s recent surge in excitement about AI, thanks to its futuristic products such as chatbot ChatGPT, which can answer questions and write essays and poems, and image generator Dall-E 2, which turns language prompts into novel images.

U.S. Nears Debt Ceiling, Begins Extraordinary Measures to Avoid Default

 The Treasury Department began taking special measures to keep paying the government’s bills on Thursday, January 19 2023 as the U.S. bumped up against its borrowing limit, kicking off a potentially lengthy and difficult debate in Congress over raising the debt ceiling. With the federal government constrained by the roughly $31.4 trillion debt limit, the Treasury Department began deploying so-called extraordinary measures. Those accounting maneuvers, which include suspending investments for certain government accounts, will allow the Treasury to keep paying obligations to bondholders, Social Security recipients and others until at least early June, the department said last week.  

Bright Start to Year for Bonds Eases Market Pressures

 Another strong week for the U.S. bond market is giving investors increasing hope that they can turn the page on a brutal 2022. Yields on U.S. Treasurys, which fall when bond prices rise, have plunged this year even more than they shot upward last January, at the start of what ultimately became the worst year for bonds on record. It is still extremely early, and many analysts believe that bonds will face challenges ahead. But the rally so far has exceeded most expectations, providing a boost to other assets, including stocks, and improving vibes across exhausted trading desks.

Boeing Bets on Experimental Jetliner Flight in 2028

  Boeing Co. won a NASA-backed contest to build a prototype of a new, fuel-efficient jetliner that officials said the company aims to fly for the first time in 2028. The plane the aerospace giant plans to develop would install longer, thinner wings supported from below on a single-aisle fuselage, a design that officials said would cut down on fuel needs. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration didn’t disclose the names of rivals who participated in its competition, which aimed to kick-start the development of more environmentally friendly aircraft.