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Vice President Kashim Shettima says the Federal Government has generated over 300,000 businesses through various Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) interventions.

This, he said will create over one million job opportunities, primarily for youth and women, within a year, according to Nigerian Tribune.

Speaking during a one-day working visit to Jigawa State on Tuesday, July 23, the vice president said: “President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has initiated multiple interventions for SMEs, which have generated over 300,000 businesses and will provide over one million jobs within a year.”

He emphasised that the Renewal Hope Agenda of President Tinubu is designed to tackle poverty and create job opportunities by encouraging and supporting medium and small-scale businesses, which constitute over 65 per cent of investment and employ 83 per cent of labour in Nigeria.

He further stated that the current administration is working tirelessly to formulate and implement policies and programmes that will improve the social and economic lives of Nigerians.

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Philip Morris International (PM) shares rose Tuesday to their highest level in more than two years after the tobacco giant posted better-than-expected results and raised its full-year outlook on growing demand for its smokeless products.

The maker of Marlboro cigarettes and the IQOS tobacco heating system reported second-quarter adjusted earnings per share (EPS) of $1.59, with revenue advancing 9.6% from a year ago to $9.47 billion. Both exceeded analyst estimates. 

The company’s sales of smoke-free products jumped 23.5% to 243.8 million cans. Nicotine pouch sales soared 50.6% to 149.9 million cans, boosted by its Zyn brand, which had a 50.3% gain in cans delivered.

Heated tobacco items had a 13.1% gain in shipment volume, and cigarette shipment volume was 0.4% higher.

CEO Jacek Olczak said “the excellent momentum of our smoke-free business continued.”

Philip Morris lifted its outlook for full-year adjusted EPS growth, excluding currency impacts, to 11% to 13%, up from the earlier 9% to 11%. It anticipates shipment volume of nicotine pouches in the U.S. to be 560 million to 580 million cans, compared with the previous forecast of about 560 million cans for 2024.

Philip Morris shares closed 2.2.% higher Tuesday at $109.56 and have added about 16.5% since the start of the year. 

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Microsoft (MSFT) is set to report fiscal fourth-quarter earnings after the closing bell on July 30, with investors likely to be watching for cloud segment growth and updates on the company's artificial intelligence (AI) initiatives.

The tech giant is projected to report revenue of $64.38 billion, according to estimates compiled by Visible Alpha, representing a 14.6% rise over the year-ago period. Net income is expected to come in at $21.88 billion, or $2.93 per share, a 9.3% increase from the final quarter of fiscal 2023.

Investors will likely be watching for sustained revenue growth in Microsoft's cloud platform, Azure, which fueled the tech giant's earnings beats in previous quarters.

Azure has benefited from the AI boom as customers train and run AI workloads using the cloud platform. The cloud business has helped support Microsoft's increased capital spending as big tech invests in AI.

Goldman Sachs analysts expect cloud revenue of $37.2 billion, representing growth from both the quarter prior and the year-ago period.

The analysts said that they "think share gains in Azure and leadership in [generative artificial intelligence] could continue to set Microsoft on a separate trajectory as long as we are in the ‘Infrastructure’ build phase of the Gen-AI cycle."

Microsoft's earnings report and call will likely be focused on the company's position in the evolving AI marketplace. The tech giant has established itself as an early AI leader through its ongoing partnership with OpenAI.

The company could provide updates about its Windows PCs designed for AI workloads and how the new devices are expected to affect Microsoft's computing business.

Microsoft shares were up 0.3% at just above $444 on Tuesday afternoon, contributing to the stock's roughly 18% year-to-date gain.

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President Bola Tinubu’s media aide, Olusegun Dadahas reacted to Nigerians digging up old tweets of him calling for protest against former President Goodluck Jonathan’s administration.

Recall that Dada had earlier taken to his X account to warn that those planning to burn the country down would be met with strong resistance from the majority that placed President Bola Tinubu in power.

The strong warning comes at a time when some Nigerians are planning a nationwide protest against economic hardship and harsh government policies driven by the fuel subsidy removal and the floating of the naira.

Dada’s post has elicited various reactions, with some netizens sharing old posts of the media aide calling for protests during Jonathan’s regime.

Serving a rejoinder to his earlier post, the aide stated that he didn’t say people shouldn’t protest, however, ‘burning the country’ will be resisted.

He also said that his old tweets should teach people that chest-thumping on social media cannot bring them the leaders they want.

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Potential buyers fed up with high prices sat out of the housing market in June, but the tide could soon be turning in their favor.

Existing home sales were down 5.4% from both the prior month and the same time last year, according to data from the National Association of Realtors (NAR) released Tuesday. Sales were lower than economists expected as prices hit record highs for the second month.

"Sales may be close to rock bottom as they approach Housing Bubble crash levels," said Robert Frick, Navy Federal Credit Union corporate economist. "That’s cold comfort for Americans looking to become homeowners, especially as existing home prices hit a new high."

Despite the dour situation last month, the outlook for buyers is improving.

There were 1.32 million units of single-family homes, townhomes, condominiums and co-ops, an increase of 3.1% from May. That marked a vast improvement—more than 23% higher—from the same time last year, when buyers were competing for the historically small number of homes for sale.

“We're seeing a slow shift from a seller's market to a buyer's market," said NAR Chief Economist Lawrence Yun in a statement. "Homes are sitting on the market a bit longer, and sellers are receiving fewer offers."

High interest rates have discouraged sellers from listing homes, increasing competition among buyers and driving up prices. However, a growing number of homes on the market could change that.

Buyers have protested high prices by sitting out of the market, letting available homes pile up to the highest level since May 2020 and leading sellers to cut their asking prices.

“Despite more homes being listed for sale, actual home sales have not picked up," wrote Doug Duncan, Fannie Mae chief economist, in a report this week. "We continue to expect home price growth on a national level to decelerate—but remain positive—over the near term."

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