Day: June 3, 2022

The Boston Celtics beat the Golden State Warriors 120-108 with a commanding fourth quarter play in the 2022 NBA Finals Game 1 on Thursday.

The Celtics, who were the visitors at San Francisco’s Chase Center, scored 40 points in the fourth quarter to take the first win in this year’s final series.

Meanwhile, the Warriors racked up 16 points in the final 12 minutes of the clash.

The Celtics were trailing by 15 points in the third quarter. The Warriors were leading the game by 87-72 after their small forward Andrew Wiggins scored from the free-throw line with two minutes and 10 seconds remaining.

Celtics center Al Horford hit a career-high six three points to score 26 points, one of the key players for the victory.

Jaylen Brown scored 24 points and took seven rebounds for the Celtics. Derrick White racked up 21 points to contribute to the win.

Marcus Smart, another Celtics guard, tallied 18 points against the Warriors.

Celtics star Jayson Tatum posted a double-double with 12 points and 13 assists.

Meanwhile, Warriors superstar Stephen Curry was the game’s top scorer as the 34-year-old scored 34 points.

He made five assists and had three steals as well.

Meanwhile, Curry hit six three-pointers in the first quarter as it was the most three-pointers in a single quarter of the NBA Finals.

In addition, he scored 21 of his 34 points in the first quarter of the match.

For a player, it was the highest scoring in a quarter in an NBA Finals game since 1993 as Chicago Bulls legend Michael Jordan scored 22 points against the Phoenix Suns in a single quarter.

Wiggins scored 20 points for the Warriors in Game 1, and his teammate Klay Thompson, a US shooting guard, added 15 points.

The Celtics will stay in San Francisco as Game 2 will be held at Chase Center on Sunday.

Next week the Warriors will visit the Celtics for Games 3 and 4.

The Finals are played in a best-of-seven format, meaning four wins will be enough to win the title.

Source: Anadolu Agency

French forward Alexandre Lacazette will leave Arsenal when his contract expires at the end of June, the English Premier League club announced on Friday.

“Thank you, Laca, we wish you all the best for the next chapter in your career,” the Gunners wrote in a statement.

In an Instagram post, Lacazette thanked the English club, saying: “5 years ago, my dream came true.. To sign for Arsenal.. It’s been an honor to wear the jersey, to be a part of this family.”

Mikel Arteta, Arsenal manager, said: “Laca has been a fantastic player for us. He’s been a real leader on and off the pitch and has been a very important influence to our younger players.”

“His commitment with us has been exceptional and we wish him and his family success and happiness,” Arteta added.

The 31-year-old joined the Gunners from France’s Olympique Lyon in 2017. The French striker scored 71 goals and made 36 assists in 206 games for Arsenal.

Lacazette helped Arsenal win the 2017 FA Community Shield and the 2020 English FA Cup.

Source: Anadolu Agency

US commercial crude oil inventories decreased by 1.2% during the week ending May 27, according to data released by the Energy Information Administration (EIA) on Thursday.

Inventories fell by 5.1 million barrels to 414.7 million barrels, against the market expectation of a drop of 1.18 million barrels.

Strategic petroleum reserves, which are not included in commercial crude stocks, also declined by 5.4 million barrels to 526.6 million barrels last week, the data revealed.

Gasoline inventories decreased by 700,000 barrels to 219 million barrels over the same period.

-Crude production rises

According to EIA data, US crude oil imports decline by 268,000 barrels per day (bpd) to around 6.21 million bpd during the week ending May 27, while crude oil exports fell by 351,000 bpd to 3.99 million bpd.

US crude oil production, meanwhile, decreased by 10,000 bpd to approximately 12.35 million bpd during the same period.

In the May Short-Term Energy Outlook (STEO), the EIA forecasts that crude oil output in the US will average 11.91 million bpd in 2022, up from 11.2 million bpd in 2021.

In 2023, crude oil output in the country is forecast to reach 12.85 million bpd.

Source: Anadolu Agency

The highest electricity price rate for one megawatt-hour on Türkiye’s day-ahead spot market for Saturday will be 3,184.01 Turkish liras at 21.00 local times (1800 GMT), according to official figures on Friday.

The lowest rate is determined as 750 liras at 15.00 local time (1200 GMT), the figures showed.

The Energy Exchange Istanbul (EXIST) data for the trade volume on Friday’s electricity market showed a decrease of 12.2% to 1.20 billion liras compared to Thursday.

The arithmetical and weighted average prices of electricity on the day-ahead spot market are calculated as liras 2,308.52 and 2,300.17 liras, respectively.

The highest electricity price rate for one megawatt-hour for Friday was set as 3,195 Turkish liras at 14.00 and 21.00 local times (1100 and 1800 GMT) while the lowest rate was determined as 1,300 liras at 13.00 local time (1000 GMT), the figures showed.

US$1 equals 16.50 liras at 1100 GMT on Friday.

Source: Anadolu Agency

Basketball superstar LeBron James has officially become a billionaire, the American business magazine Forbes announced Thursday.

The 37-year-old NBA player, who had total earnings of $121.2 million last year, just saw his net worth hit $1 billion.

James has more than $1.2 billion in pre-tax earnings, according to Forbes’ estimates.

The four-time NBA champion racked up over $385 million in salary during his tenure with the Cleveland Cavaliers, Miami Heat and Los Angeles Lakers by being the league’s highest-paid active player.

The two-time Olympic gold medalist is estimated to have accumulated more than $900 million in income from business ventures and endorsements such as Nike, AT&T, Pepsi and Walmart.

The 18-time NBA All-Star has become the first active NBA player in history to make the billionaires list.

The only other basketball player who is on the list is the legendary Michael Jordan, but his net worth did not hit $1 billion until 2014, more than a decade after he retired, Forbes said.

The six-time NBA champion Jordan’s net worth stood at $1.7 billion as of Thursday, according to the Forbes Real-Time Billionaires List. The 59-year-old is the first former player to become the majority owner of an NBA team — the Charlotte Hornets.

James, born in Akron, Ohio to a single-mother household, moved a dozen times in three years during his childhood.

He became the top-ranked high school basketball prospect of his time before signing his first deal with Nike in 2003 at the age of 18 for a whopping $90 million.

James signed a lifetime deal with Nike in 2015, with sales for his line of sneakers that year estimated to be over $400 million.

Regarded as one of the greatest NBA players ever, James is a four-time NBA champion (2012, 2013, 2016, 2020), winning titles with the Miami Heat (two), the Cleveland Cavaliers and the Los Angeles Lakers.

He has been playing for the Lakers since 2018 but received criticism from the fans over the last season after the Lakers missed the playoffs.

Source: Anadolu Agency

The trade volume on Türkiye’s spot natural gas market showed an increase of 90.79% to 132.40 million Turkish liras on Thursday, Türkiye’s Energy Exchange Istanbul (EXIST) data showed on Friday.

Total trade on Wednesday amounted to 69.39 million liras.

On Thursday’s spot market, 1,000 cubic meters of natural gas cost 12,102.82 liras, while the cumulative natural gas trade volume amounted to around 10.94 million cubic meters.

Türkiye received 119.05 million cubic meters of pipeline gas on Thursday.

US$1 equals 16.50 liras at 1100 GMT on Friday.

Source: Anadolu Agency

Türkiye’s benchmark stock index opened at 2,611.22 points on Friday, gaining 9.66 points, or 0.37%, from the previous close.

On Thursday, Borsa Istanbul’s BIST 100 index saw a new record-high closing at 2,601.56 points, before climbing to an all-time high of 2,603.34 during trading hours. The daily trading volume was 40.8 billion Turkish liras ($2.5 billion).

The US dollar/Turkish lira exchange rate stood at 16.4924 as of 10.00 a.m. local time (0700GMT) up 0.15% from Thursday’s close.

The euro/lira exchange rate was at 17.7285 for a daily gain of 0.27%, while a British pound traded for 20.7229 liras – a 0.23% increase.

Brent crude oil was trading around $117 per barrel with a 0.49% loss at the time.

Source: Anadolu Agency

Germany’s trade surplus in April fell sharply to €1.3 billion ($1.4 billion), the lowest since 1992, as the country’s imports surged 25.2% year-on-year to €120.9 billion, official figures showed on Friday.

Exports increased 9.2% to €122.2 billion in April compared to same month last year, according to the Federal Statistical Office (Destatis).?

In April 2021, the trade surplus was €15.3 billion.?

On a nominal basis, Germany exported goods to the value of €0.8 billion to Russia in April 2022.

Sales to Russia dropped by 10% in April, after sinking 60% in March due to sanctions imposed on Moscow.

Most shipments were sent to the US (7.7%) and the EU (4.2%). Imports from China went up 12.3% and those from the euro area 2.4%. Purchases from the US went down 1.2%.

Russia ranked only 30th among the major countries of destination for German exports in April 2022.

Source: Anadolu Agency

Global food prices went down modestly in May for the second consecutive month, although prices of wheat and poultry rose, the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) said on Friday.

The FAO Food Price Index, which tracks monthly changes in the international prices of a basket of commonly-traded food commodities, dropped 0.6% month-on-month to 157.4 in May of 2022, yet still close to a record high of 159.7 points hit in March.?

Main decreases were observed in the vegetable oil index (3.5%), amid lower prices across palm, sunflower, soy, and rapeseed oils, due to the removal of Indonesia’s export ban on palm oil.

The dairy price index also went down 3.5%, the first decline in eight months.

“Prices of milk powders declined the most, linked to market uncertainties from the continued COVID-19 lockdowns in China, while robust retail sales and high demand from restaurants in the Northern Hemisphere prevented cheese prices from falling significantly despite weakened global import demand,” FAO said.

The sugar price index diminished 1.1% as a bumper crop in India buoyed global availability prospects.

“The weakening of the Brazilian real against the US dollar, along with lower ethanol prices, also pressured world sugar prices downwards,” FAO said.

Meanwhile, meat prices saw a new all-time high, increasing by 0.6% in May even as world bovine meat prices remained stable and those of pig meat fell.

The rise in prices is due to continued supply chain disruptions in Ukraine and recent cases of avian influenza amid a surge in demand in Europe and the Middle East.

“Export restrictions create market uncertainty and can result in price spikes and increased price volatility, the decrease in oilseeds prices shows how important it is when they are removed and let exports flow smoothly,” FAO Chief Economist Maximo Torero Cullen said in a statement.

Global cereal output likely to decrease

Also, early prospects for global cereal production in 2022 now point to a likely decrease, the first in four years, to 2.8 million tons, down 16 million tons from the record output estimated for 2021, according to FAO’s latest Cereal Supply and Demand Brief.

“The largest decline is foreseen for maize, followed by wheat and rice, while barley and sorghum outputs will likely increase. The forecasts are based on conditions of crops already in the ground and planting intentions for those yet to be sown,” it said.

World cereal utilization is also predicted to diminish marginally in 2022/23, by around 0.1% from 2021/22 to 2.8 million tons, marking the first contraction in 20 years.

“The decline mainly stems from foreseen decreases in the feed use of wheat, coarse grains and rice, while global food consumption of cereals is expected to increase, keeping pace with world population trends.”

World trade in cereals is projected to decline by 2.6% from the 2021/22 level to 463 million tons, a three-year low, even as prospects for international trade of rice remain positive.

Source: Anadolu Agency