contraction

Europe’s economy likely contracted at the end of 2022 but showed signs of resilience, suggesting the downturn could be milder than feared just a few months ago, business surveys released Friday showed. While S&P Global’s composite output index for the eurozone—which includes services and manufacturing activity—remained below the 50 mark in December, indicating a contraction, it rose by one point to 48.8 from November, pointing to a smaller fall in activity than expected earlier. The latest purchasing-manager data is…

U.S. business activity contracted in July on the sharpest pullback in output since early in the Covid-19 pandemic, according to surveys of purchasing managers, while eurozone surveys pointed to a higher probability the continent could soon slide into a recession.Data firm S&P Global said its Composite PMI Index for the U.S.—which combines the manufacturing and services sectors—dropped to 47.5 in July from 52.3 in June. The services index slid to 47 in July from 52.7 the prior month, while…

The European Union’s economy would likely contract during the remainder of this year if supplies of natural gas from Russia were to be halted soon, with the deepest recessions felt by countries that rely on that source for much of their energy generation, the bloc said Monday.European nations have been scrambling to sever their energy relationship with Russia since the start of the war in Ukraine. While some have made significant progress, Monday’s warning underlines the extent of the work that remains to be done to end…

After nearly 13.8 billion years of nonstop expansion, the Universe could soon grind to a standstill, then slowly start to contract, new research published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences suggests.  In the new paper, three scientists attempt to model the nature of dark energy – a mysterious force that seems to be causing the Universe to expand ever faster – based on past observations of cosmic expansion.In the team's model, dark energy is not a constant force of nature, but an entity called…