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The Ondo State government has appealed to Nigerian students, particularly those from the state, to shun the planned August 1st nationwide protest against hardship in the country.

The Senior Special Assistant on Students’ Affairs to the state government, Kevin Olaolu, who made the appeal in a statement said the government urged its citizens to embrace peace and dialogue.

“We urge all students to support the Renewed Hope Agenda, which aims to bring about positive change and development in our country.

In the spirit of unity and progress, we call for peace among all Nigerian students and emphasize the importance of constructive engagement and dialogue in addressing our challenges.

It is important to note that Ondo state students firmly dissociate themselves from any planned protests, vi%lence, or d£§truction of public properties belonging to the government. We believe that change takes time, and as the saying goes, ‘Rome wasn’t built in a day.

Let us remain steadfast in our commitment to the progress and prosperity of our great nation. Together, we can overcome our challenges and build a better future for all. Nigeria shall be great,” the statement reads.

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The Area Controller of Nigeria Customs Service, NCS, Cross River/Akwa Ibom Command, Chukwudi Gabriel Ogbonna, has stressed that Nigeria requires more manufacturing firms instead of hotels.

Speaking in Calabar on Wednesday, July 24, the Customs boss said there seems to be more hotels in the country compared with manufacturing facilities.

According to the News Agency of Nigeria, he said: “The local or national economy cannot survive without manufacturers. Manufacturing or productive economy energizes any economy.

But there seems to be more hotels than manufacturing facilities in Cross River and many other states. It shouldn’t be that way.

We ourselves are affected when manufacturers are not working. We take in revenues when manufacturers are working. We should give more support to local manufacturers.”

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Canada's central bank isn’t waiting for its economy to get any worse before making interest rate cuts—and some say the Federal Reserve shouldn't either.

After becoming the first Group of Seven (G7) economy to cut its interest rate in the face of a global fight against inflation, the Bank of Canada again reduced its rate by a quarter-percentage point Wednesday. The move comes as inflation in Canada decreased to 2.7% in June, down from May levels.

Central bankers in both Canada and the U.S. have been watching closely to see signs that inflation was moving lower. However, Canadian officials are now raising worries that their inflation may fall too fast as a result of weakening economic conditions.

"With the target in sight and more excess supply in the economy, the downside risks are taking on increased weight in our monetary policy deliberations. We need growth to pick up so inflation does not fall too much, even as we work to get inflation down to the 2% target,” Bank of Canada Governor Tiff Macklem said today.

Some U.S. economists echoed those messages this week. Some argue the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) shouldn’t wait until its September meeting to cut, and should instead take action at its meeting next week.

Canada’s rate cuts have come as the country faces economic conditions that are unwinding faster than in the U.S. Canadian economists are particularly worried about employment levels and the health of consumer spending.

“Household spending, including both consumer purchases and housing, has been weak. There are signs of slack in the labor market. The unemployment rate has risen to 6.4%, with employment continuing to grow more slowly than the labor force and job seekers taking longer to find work,” the Bank of Canada said in a statement accompanying the decision.

Economists following the U.S. have seen similar economic trends, with some believing the Federal Reserve already has enough evidence to act on interest rates. Recent employment reports show that job growth has been slowing in the U.S., with the unemployment rate ticking up.

Former New York Fed President Bill Dudley joined that group Wednesday when he warned in a Bloomberg column that the labor market in the U.S. could also rapidly decline, which he argued is an impetus for the Fed to act at its upcoming meeting at the end of July.

"Although it might already be too late to fend off a recession by cutting rates, dawdling now unnecessarily increases the risk," he wrote.

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It’s been a good week for Davido’s side Israel DMW, as he recently took to Instagram to celebrate another visa approval for the second time.

This time around, Israel DMW was celebrating the approval of his Canadian visa, and he still found an avenue to thank his ‘oga’ Davido.

Prior to this post, Israel DMW had celebrated getting a ten-year visa for the U.K, and he had thanked Davido for facilitating it.

He also didn’t forget to include Davido in this post too, as he seemingly had a hand in the success of the visa approval.

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The Magnificent Seven tumbled on Wednesday after earnings reports from Tesla (TSLA) and Alphabet (GOOGL) raised concerns about slowing earnings growth at America's tech titans. 

Shares of the Roundhill Magnificent Seven ETF (MAGS) fell 6.1% Wednesday, their largest daily decline since the ETF launched in April 2023. Wednesday's rout plunged the index into correction territory.

The tech giants, which were cumulatively worth about $16 trillion as of Tuesday’s close, weighed heavily on the major indexes. The S&P 500 slumped 128 points, its biggest drop since September 2022; the Mag Seven accounted for approximately 85 of those points.

Earnings season got off to a rough start for the group Tuesday afternoon when Tesla missed quarterly earnings estimates. The electric vehicle maker reported a 45% decline in profit as artificial intelligence (AI) development costs increased and average vehicle sales prices declined. Tesla shares tumbled more than 12% Wednesday as Wall Street parsed the earnings and digested a delayed rollout of its robotaxi. 

Spending on AI also sank Google-parent Alphabet’s stock on Wednesday despite it beating earnings estimates for the quarter. The company reported spending $13.2 billion on property and equipment in the quarter, nearly double the same period a year ago. CFO Ruth Porat warned on a call with analysts that capital expenditures would remain near that level for the remainder of the year. Alphabet shares fell 5%. 

Microsoft (MSFT) is the next of the seven to report earnings, with its report slated for Tuesday afternoon. Meta (META), Apple (AAPL), and Amazon (AMZN) are also scheduled to report next week.

The Magnificent Seven is, as a group, expected to report earnings grew 30% in the second quarter, according to Bank of America analysts. That’s well ahead of the 10% rate forecast for the entire S&P 500, but it would make the group’s second consecutive quarter of slowing growth.

Even before Wednesday's slide, mega-cap tech names, which had powered broader market gains all year, had started to fall out of favor as investors rotated into shares of smaller companies that stand to benefit most from widely anticipated rate cuts by the Federal Reserve.

Despite the steep declines recently, all but one of the Magnificent Seven stocks are in positive territory for the year, with Tesla being the outlier.

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