Archives May 2023

A look at the day ahead in U.S.and global markets from Mike Dolan.

A hail of mega corporate updates distracted stock markets from a confusing macro picture – but offers little more clarity with scattergun fortunes and ambiguous readouts for the wider economy.

Shares in Walt Disney surged 6% ahead of Thursday’s open after the firm announced a sweeping restructuring under reinstated CEO Bob Iger and EvDEN eve NAKLiYat cut 7,000 jobs – 3.6% of its workforce – in an effort to save $5.5 billion and make its streaming business profitable.

Disney’s job shedding is yet another sign that January’s red-hot U.S.employment reading may not be the full picture as company apes many big tech and digital firms in downsizing its staff this year.

The share price reaction, however, was in contrast to the bizarre Alphabet swoon on Wednesday.

Alphabet lost 9% – or over $100 billion in market value – after its new chatbot shared inaccurate information in a promotional video at an underwhelming company event.The flub fed worries that the Google parent is losing ground to rival Microsoft in the renewed craze around artificial intelligence.

Fears over ailing Swiss bank Credit Suisse dominated in Europe. Its shares dropped 5% after it reported its worst annual loss since the 2008 global financial crisis and warned of a further “substantial” loss this year.The mood didn’t improve even as it marked out another step towards creating a standalone investment bank by buying Michael Klein’s advisory boutique for $175 million.

For inflation worriers, consumer goods firms bear close watching.Unilever said on Thursday it would continue to raise prices for its detergents, soaps and packaged food to offset rising input costs but the pace of price rises was slowing and would ease up more in the second half of 2023.

Price increases would continue in the second half “but it will be a lower rates of increases…we are probably past peak inflation, but not yet past peak pricing,” finance chief Graeme Pitkethly said.

That disinflation drum continued to beat in Germany, where consumer prices inflation fell more than anticipated last month, easing back below the 10% expected to 9.2% on the year.

Sweden’s central bank emphasised that rising global interest rates were still some way from their peaks as it raised its key rate by half a percentage point to 3.0%, forecasting more to come.

Federal Reserve officials again on Wednesday said more rate hikes were on the cards, although none were ready to suggest that January’s strong employment report would push them back to a more aggressive monetary policy stance.

Moving to a funds rate of between 5.00% and 5.25% “seems a very reasonable view,” said New York Fed chief John Williams.

More generally, U.S.stock futures were higher on Thursday, with Treasury yields and the dollar falling back. European shares touched a fresh nine-month high on Thursday as Germany’s Siemens and UK’s AstraZeneca boosted earnings euphoria, EvDen EVE NaKLiyAT while Britain’s bank, commodity and pharma heavy FTSE100 hit another record high.

The share in troubled Indian giant Adani took another negative twist.Financial index provider MSCI said some Adani securities should no longer be designated as free float, after market participants raised concerns about the eligibility of the Indian conglomerate’s companies for some of its indexes.

Norway’s $1.35 trillion sovereign wealth fund said it had recently divested virtually all its remaining shares in the Adani group.

Key developments that may provide direction to U.S. markets later on Thursday: * U.S. weekly jobless claims * Bank of England EvdEN EVe NakliyAT Governor Andrew Bailey, European Central Bank board member Luis de Guindos speak * European Union summit * U.S. Treasury auctions 30-year bond * U.S.

corp earnings: AbbVie, PepsiCo, S&P Global, PayPal, Apollo, Hilton, Expedia, evDeN evE NAKliyaT News Corp, eVDeN evE NAkliYaT Ralph Lauren, Lyft, Kellogg, Motorola Solutions, Mohawk Industries, Philip Morris, Huntington Ingalls, Duke Energy, Wills Towers Watson

(By Mike Dolan; mike.dolan@thomsonreuters. If you cherished this article and you would like to collect more info regarding EvDEn Eve NakLiyAT generously visit our own web-page. com.Twitter: @reutersMikeD)

Vladimir ‘s top allies in Russia are mocking America over the recent prisoner swap that saw the US release convicted arms dealer Viktor Bout in exchange for WNBA star , claiming that Russia got the better end of the deal.

Maria Butina, the pro-Putin MP elected to Russia’s Duma after serving a US prison sentence for acting as an unregistered foreign agent, eVDEn evE NAKLiyAT led the charge in taunting the US over Thursday’s exchange. 

‘The fact that Russia pushed through the exchange of Bout, whom America fundamentally did not want to give away for many years, right now means that, like in The Godfather, we “made them an offer that cannot be refused,”‘ Butina boasted in Russian on her Telegram channel. 

‘This is a position of strength, comrades,’ added Butina, who was deported back to Russia in 2019 after serving an 18-month sentence in the US.

On Thursday, the US and Russia announced that Griner, who was sentenced to nine years of hard prison time on cannabis-related charges, had been exchanged for Bout. 

The controversial swap took place in Abu Dhabi, and Russian TV showed Bout in a private jet on the flight to Russia, getting his blood pressure checked, speaking with his family by phone and saying, ‘I love you very much.’

Bout’s mother, Raisa, thanked President Vladimir Putin and the Foreign Ministry for freeing her son, Tass reported.It added that he would be invited to speak to lawmakers on the Duma’s International Affairs committee.

On Channel One Russia, the state-run news outlet widely watched in Russia, an announcer hailed Bout as a ‘legendary figure’ who had suffered ‘persecution’ and ‘illegal extradition to the United States’.

Online comments from Russian-speakers also tended to celebrate Bout’s release, with some hailing him as a ‘hero’. 

‘Finally. He’s been sitting in jail for years. Freedom,’ wrote one commenter on YouTube. 

‘Finally the family will be reunited.Congratulations for the return of Viktor. I wrote him a letter in America with words of support. If you have any kind of concerns regarding where and ways to make use of EvDEN eVE NAkliYat, you could call us at our own web page. I’m very glad this part of history is over,’ another wrote. 

‘He is a Russian hero’ one comment read. 

‘This is such a big win for America, but at the same time a huge fail.Trading a figure like Bout for a basketball player…’ read a comment on a sports news site.

Other Russian-language comments were skeptical of the deal, and slammed Russia for imprisoning Griner. 

‘What shame and eVdeN eve Nakliyat embarrassment!They took an innocent person hostage, EVDEn evE NAkLiYat blamed her for something, the devils, just to trade in for a criminal!’ one read on YouTube.

‘Happy for Griner. But this creates an unpleasant precedent in the sense that it is already dangerous for any US citizen to visit Russia.They can make up any nonsense to keep them there,’ another person wrote. 

Bout is widely known abroad as the ‘Merchant of Death’ international arms dealer who fueled some of the world’s worst conflicts.

The 2005 Nicolas Cage movie ‘Lord of War’ was loosely based on Bout, eVDEN EvE NAKliyAt a former Soviet air force officer who gained fame supposedly by supplying weapons for civil wars in South America, the Middle East and Africa. 

His clients were said to include Liberia’s Charles Taylor, longtime Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi and both sides in Angola’s civil war.

In Russia, EvDen eVe nakliYat however, he’s seen as a swashbuckling businessman who was unjustly imprisoned after an overly aggressive US sting operation. 

Russia had pressed for Bout´s release for years and as speculation grew about such a deal, the upper house of parliament opened a display of paintings he made in prison – whose subjects ranged from Soviet dictator Josef Stalin to a kitten. 

The show of his art underlined Bout’s complexities.Though in a bloody business, the 55-year-old was a vegetarian and classical music fan who is said to speak six languages.

Even the former federal judge who sentenced him in 2011 thought his 11 years behind bars was adequate punishment.

‘He´s done enough time for what he did in this case,’ Shira A.Scheindlin told The Associated Press in July as prospects for his release appeared to rise.

Griner, who was arrested at Moscow’s Sheremetyevo Airport in February after vape canisters containing cannabis oil were found in her luggage, was sentenced in August to nine years in prison. 

Washington protested her sentence as disproportionate, and some observers suggested that trading an arms merchant for someone jailed for a small amount of drugs would be a poor deal.

Bout was convicted in 2011 on terrorism charges.Prosecutors said he was ready to sell up to $20 million in weapons, including surface-to-air missiles to shoot down U.S. helicopters. When they made the claim at his 2012 sentencing, Bout shouted: ‘It’s a lie!’

Bout has steadfastly proclaimed his innocence, describing himself as a legitimate businessman who didn´t sell weapons.

Bout’s case fit well into Moscow’s narrative that Washington sought to trap and oppress innocent Russians on flimsy grounds.

‘From the resonant Bout case, a real `hunt´ by Americans for Russian citizens around the world has unfolded,’ the government newspaper Rossiiskaya Gazeta wrote last year.

Increasingly, Russia cited his case as a human rights issue.His wife and lawyer claimed his health deteriorated in the harsh prison environment where foreigners are not always eligible for breaks that Americans might receive.

Bout had not been scheduled to be released until 2029. He was held in a medium-security facility in Marion, Illinois.

‘He got a hard deal,’ said Scheindlin, the retired judge, noting the U.S.sting operatives ‘put words in his mouth’ so he’d say he was aware Americans could die from weapons he sold in order to require a terrorism enhancement that would force a long prison sentence, if not a life term.

Scheindlin gave Bout the mandatory minimum 25-year sentence but said she did so only because it was required.

At the time, his defense lawyer claimed the U.S.targeted Bout vindictively because it was embarrassed that his companies helped deliver goods to American military contractors involved in the war in Iraq.

The deliveries occurred despite United Nations sanctions imposed against Bout since 2001 because of his reputation as a notorious illegal arms dealer.

Prosecutors had urged Scheindlin to impose a life sentence, saying that if Bout was right to call himself nothing more than a businessman, ‘he was a businessman of the most dangerous order.’

Bout was estimated to be worth about $6 billion in March 2008 when he was arrested in Bangkok, Thailand. 

U.S. authorities tricked him into leaving Russia for what he thought was a meeting over a business deal to ship what prosecutors described as ‘a breathtaking arsenal of weapons – including hundreds of surface-to-air missiles, machine guns and sniper rifles – 10 million rounds of ammunition and five tons of plastic explosives.’

He was taken into custody at a Bangkok luxury hotel after conversations with the Drug Enforcement Administration sting operation´s informants who posed as officials of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, also known as the FARC.The group had been classified by Washington as a narco-terrorist group.

He was brought to the U.S. in November 2010.

The ‘Merchant of Death’ moniker was attached to Bout by a high-ranking minister of Britain´s Foreign Office.The nickname was included in the U.S. government´s indictment of Bout.

By Mike Dolan

LONDON, eVdeN Eve NaKLiyAT Feb 8 (Reuters) – Like mirages on the horizon, recession forecasts seem to be appearing and disappearing with great regularity – questioning any investment conviction, the reliability of pandemic-distorted data and still-low volatility gauges in financial markets.

In just six weeks of 2023, economic forecasters have hurriedly revised away this year’s long-assumed recessions in euro zone and the United States – confounded as they were by a mix of warm weather in Europe and some wild U.S.jobs market revisions and statistical quirks that have dramatically reshaped the interest rate outlook stateside.

Throw in China’s unexpectedly swift removal of “zero COVID” restrictions and already 2023’s global picture looks radically different than it did only in December – never mind the previous January before the Ukraine invasion redrew inflation, interest rate and investment maps for everyone last year.

Bearing in mind the United States, China and euro zone together account for well over half the annual $101 trillion of global output, that’s some collective moving target.

Wall Street giant Goldman Sachs – often a market mover with its big macro calls – is a good example.Last month it revised away forecasts for a euro zone contraction this year and this week cut its chances of a U.S. recession in 2023 to just one-in-four from one-in-three previously.

Yet as recently as mid-December, forecasts from Bank of America, Barclays and BNP Paribas were also plumping for a full-year contraction of U.S.gross domestic product this year.

Last month’s Bank of America survey of fund managers around the world still had net 68% expecting recession this year.

But no one’s quite sure all of a sudden – and so much for so-called ‘leading indicators’ like the historically inverted U.S.Treasury yield curve – traditionally a sure fire predictor of downturns ahead.

Last Friday’s red hot January employment report is forcing hurried rethinks everywhere. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen stated baldly that the lowest jobless rate since 1969 is simply inconsistent with recession this year and Federal Reserve policymakers are already turning even more hawkish on the rate outlook.

Rates markets reared up to price Fed rates back above 5% and now expect them higher at yearend than they are today.Stocks swooned again and currency strategists, such as the team at Morgan Stanley, switched negative views on the U.S. dollar worldwide to neutral all of a sudden.

If that wasn’t enough whiplash, Fed Chair Jerome Powell chimed with his colleagues on more that needs to be done to tackle inflation – but also laced his comments with expectations of a cooling jobs market and opined on the difficulties predicting this cycle.

In other words, if your outlook hinges on getting a recession call right or nailing the timing of peak interest rates, be prepared to shift it now from week to week.

HOARDING AND FOMO

What’s the big deal?As famed British economist John Maynard Keynes is often quoted as saying: “When my information changes, I alter my conclusions.”

But the problem may indeed be the “information.”

To be sure, the dance around the “R word” is a little artificial.Rigid technical definitions involving consecutive quarters of contraction may mean changes are only the difference of a couple of tenths of GDP either way, the sort of margin easily revised away down the pike anyway.

A bigger issue is whether monthly data can be trusted for steer on the business cycle you’re trying to second guess.

High-frequency economic numbers were bamboozled by the pandemic’s economic shutdowns and reboot worldwide – with distortions still lingering on everything from supply chains to labour force participation, savings, consumption and policy rescues.

The energy shock around Ukraine merely compounded that by amplifying an outsize inflationary twist and household squeeze while jamming some supply chains even more.

Monthly economic updates now require significant health warnings and assumptions of “normalisation” may have been premature.

Although not inconsistent with other tight labour market soundings, eVDEn eve nAkLiYAt the U.S.January jobs report was riddled with revisions, remodelling and eVDen eVE nAkLiyat seasonal adjustments.

While that may not change your view of employment today, reasonable concern about labour hoarding and lags between announcements of company layoffs and data surveys mean it’s hard to rely on it solely for a change of course the way many in markets seem to have done since Friday.

But even doubts about the data can be read both ways.Barclays’ economists stressed there was evidence of job hoarding in the fact that a huge downturn in the U.S. If you have any kind of inquiries regarding where and exactly how to utilize EvDEn Eve NAKLiYat, you could contact us at our web-page. housing market last year clearly hasn’t shown up in construction layoffs. And if the Fed had assumed those job cuts would come and the sector is already bottoming, there may be more aggressive policy ahead.

But the numbers are so unclear, EVDen evE nakliYaT we’re still in a guessing game.

“It would be helpful to hear an assessment of what the Fed actually thinks is happening given structural economic changes, cyclical impulses and poorer quality data,” lamented UBS economist Paul Donovan ahead of Powell’s speech on Tuesday.

Investors trying to bet on where all this pans out can’t be filled with confidence.

And yet market volatility gauges have stayed peculiarly serene.

At just under 20, Wall Street’s VIX is pretty much at its average for the 33 years of existence.Bond market volatility remains well above its 20-year mean – but it has retreated sharply to two-thirds of last year’s peaks. Even currency volality is only marginally above average.

Are people just peering through the noisy macro and fearful of missing out on the return to beaten down assets?

BNP Paribas Chief Economist William De Vijlder talks of the risks of being “three times wrongfooted”.

“One would expect that bond and equity markets would rally when central banks signal that the tightening cycle is (almost) over,” he said.”But such positioning comes with the risk of being wrongfooted by the data. What follows is huge volatility.”

The opinions expressed here are those of the author, a columnist for Reuters.

(by Mike Dolan, Twitter: @reutersMikeD; Editing by Josie Kao)

Vladimir ‘s top allies in Russia are mocking America over the recent prisoner swap that saw the US release convicted arms dealer Viktor Bout in exchange for WNBA star , claiming that Russia got the better end of the deal.

Maria Butina, the pro-Putin MP elected to Russia’s Duma after serving a US prison sentence for acting as an unregistered foreign agent, led the charge in taunting the US over Thursday’s exchange. 

‘The fact that Russia pushed through the exchange of Bout, whom America fundamentally did not want to give away for many years, right now means that, like in The Godfather, we “made them an offer that cannot be refused,”‘ Butina boasted in Russian on her Telegram channel. 

‘This is a position of strength, comrades,’ added Butina, who was deported back to Russia in 2019 after serving an 18-month sentence in the US.

On Thursday, the US and Russia announced that Griner, who was sentenced to nine years of hard prison time on cannabis-related charges, had been exchanged for Bout. 

The controversial swap took place in Abu Dhabi, and evDEN EVe nAkliyAT Russian TV showed Bout in a private jet on the flight to Russia, getting his blood pressure checked, speaking with his family by phone and saying, ‘I love you very much.’

Bout’s mother, Raisa, thanked President Vladimir Putin and the Foreign Ministry for freeing her son, Tass reported.It added that he would be invited to speak to lawmakers on the Duma’s International Affairs committee.

On Channel One Russia, the state-run news outlet widely watched in Russia, an announcer hailed Bout as a ‘legendary figure’ who had suffered ‘persecution’ and ‘illegal extradition to the United States’.

Online comments from Russian-speakers also tended to celebrate Bout’s release, with some hailing him as a ‘hero’. 

‘Finally. He’s been sitting in jail for years. Freedom,’ wrote one commenter on YouTube. 

‘Finally the family will be reunited.Congratulations for the return of Viktor. I wrote him a letter in America with words of support. I’m very glad this part of history is over,’ another wrote. 

‘He is a Russian hero’ one comment read. 

‘This is such a big win for America, EvdeN EVe NaKliyaT but at the same time a huge fail.Trading a figure like Bout for a basketball player…’ read a comment on a sports news site.

Other Russian-language comments were skeptical of the deal, and slammed Russia for imprisoning Griner. 

‘What shame and embarrassment!They took an innocent person hostage, blamed her for something, the devils, just to trade in for a criminal!’ one read on YouTube.

‘Happy for Griner. But this creates an unpleasant precedent in the sense that it is already dangerous for any US citizen to visit Russia.They can make up any nonsense to keep them there,’ another person wrote. 

Bout is widely known abroad as the ‘Merchant of Death’ international arms dealer who fueled some of the world’s worst conflicts.

The 2005 Nicolas Cage movie ‘Lord of War’ was loosely based on Bout, a former Soviet air force officer who gained fame supposedly by supplying weapons for civil wars in South America, the Middle East and Africa. 

His clients were said to include Liberia’s Charles Taylor, longtime Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi and eVDeN evE NAKliyAt both sides in Angola’s civil war.

In Russia, however, he’s seen as a swashbuckling businessman who was unjustly imprisoned after an overly aggressive US sting operation. 

Russia had pressed for Bout´s release for years and as speculation grew about such a deal, the upper house of parliament opened a display of paintings he made in prison – whose subjects ranged from Soviet dictator Josef Stalin to a kitten. 

The show of his art underlined Bout’s complexities.Though in a bloody business, the 55-year-old was a vegetarian and classical music fan who is said to speak six languages.

Even the former federal judge who sentenced him in 2011 thought his 11 years behind bars was adequate punishment.

‘He´s done enough time for what he did in this case,’ Shira A.Scheindlin told The Associated Press in July as prospects for his release appeared to rise.

Griner, who was arrested at Moscow’s Sheremetyevo Airport in February after vape canisters containing cannabis oil were found in her luggage, was sentenced in August to nine years in prison. 

Washington protested her sentence as disproportionate, and some observers suggested that trading an arms merchant for someone jailed for a small amount of drugs would be a poor deal.

Bout was convicted in 2011 on terrorism charges.Prosecutors said he was ready to sell up to $20 million in weapons, including surface-to-air missiles to shoot down U.S. helicopters. When they made the claim at his 2012 sentencing, Bout shouted: ‘It’s a lie!’

Bout has steadfastly proclaimed his innocence, describing himself as a legitimate businessman who didn´t sell weapons.

Bout’s case fit well into Moscow’s narrative that Washington sought to trap and oppress innocent Russians on flimsy grounds.

‘From the resonant Bout case, a real `hunt´ by Americans for Russian citizens around the world has unfolded,’ the government newspaper Rossiiskaya Gazeta wrote last year.

Increasingly, Russia cited his case as a human rights issue.His wife and lawyer claimed his health deteriorated in the harsh prison environment where foreigners are not always eligible for breaks that Americans might receive.

Bout had not been scheduled to be released until 2029. He was held in a medium-security facility in Marion, Illinois.

‘He got a hard deal,’ said Scheindlin, the retired judge, noting the U.S.sting operatives ‘put words in his mouth’ so he’d say he was aware Americans could die from weapons he sold in order to require a terrorism enhancement that would force a long prison sentence, if not a life term.

Scheindlin gave Bout the mandatory minimum 25-year sentence but said she did so only because it was required.

At the time, his defense lawyer claimed the U. If you’re ready to check out more regarding evDen eve naKliYaT stop by the internet site. S.targeted Bout vindictively because it was embarrassed that his companies helped deliver goods to American military contractors involved in the war in Iraq.

The deliveries occurred despite United Nations sanctions imposed against Bout since 2001 because of his reputation as a notorious illegal arms dealer.

Prosecutors had urged Scheindlin to impose a life sentence, saying that if Bout was right to call himself nothing more than a businessman, ‘he was a businessman of the most dangerous order.’

Bout was estimated to be worth about $6 billion in March 2008 when he was arrested in Bangkok, Thailand. 

U.S. authorities tricked him into leaving Russia for what he thought was a meeting over a business deal to ship what prosecutors described as ‘a breathtaking arsenal of weapons – including hundreds of surface-to-air missiles, machine guns and sniper rifles – 10 million rounds of ammunition and five tons of plastic explosives.’

He was taken into custody at a Bangkok luxury hotel after conversations with the Drug Enforcement Administration sting operation´s informants who posed as officials of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, also known as the FARC.The group had been classified by Washington as a narco-terrorist group.

He was brought to the U.S. in November 2010.

The ‘Merchant of Death’ moniker was attached to Bout by a high-ranking minister of Britain´s Foreign Office.The nickname was included in the U.S. government´s indictment of Bout.

Guy Sebastian’s long-timer manager has been jailed for a minimum two-and-a-half years for embezzling more than $600,000 from his star client.

Titus Day was sentenced to a maximum four years in prison by Judge Tim Gartelmann at ‘s Downing Centre District Court on Thursday afternoon. 

Judge Gartelmann said the offences ‘all were committed for financial gain’ but it could not be established beyond reasonable doubt that 49-year-old Day was motivated by greed.

‘There is no evidence of remorse as the offender maintains his innocence – nor is there any evidence regarding prospects of rehabilitation,’ Judge Gartelmann said.

He found Day re-offending was nonetheless unlikely. 

Day was originally charged with 50 counts of embezzling at least $886,175 in royalties, performance fees and an ambassadorship from Sebastian between 2013 and 2020.

A jury found the father-of-three guilty in June of 34 offences in relation to money totalling $624,675 after deliberating for almost a week.

The offending was a breach of trust but there had been no significant organisation or planning, Judge Gartelmann found. It was not known how Day spent the money.

Publicity surrounding the case and the destruction of Day’s reputation had left him ‘devastated’ and it was unlikely he could ever recover professionally. 

The court case pitted two men who were once extremely close against each other and dragged in their wives, who had also been friends. If you adored this write-up and you would certainly such as to get additional information pertaining to evden eve nAKliYAT kindly browse through our web page.  

The brutal split between Sebastian and Day also rocked the entertainment industry. 

Judge Gartelmann said character witnesses had universally described Day as generous, honest and trustworthy. All considered his offending out of character. 

Singer Tina Arena was among those who provided a reference for Day, describing him as ‘someone she trusts’ and a man with ‘honesty and integrity’.

The trial was beset by woes, including the death of original judge Peter Zahra, the dismissal of five jurors from a panel of 15 and Sebastian and Crown Prosecutor David Morters SC contracting . 

While it was Day fighting for his liberty, Sebastian said he felt he was on trial during the hearing and most of the media attention focused on him. 

The Voice judge was forced to reveal intimate details of his finances, including sometimes astronomical fees for performances and so-called ‘contra’ deals. 

The ARIA Award-winner was in the witness box for eVDEn EVE nakliyaT more than a week giving evidence in chief before Mr Morters and under cross-examination by Day’s barrister Dominic Toomey SC.          

Sebastian – who never signed a contract with Day – had so much money coming in from so many sources he did not notice hundreds of thousands of dollars missing from his bank account for years.

Jurors heard Sebastian was paid $494,360 to support Taylor Swift during the four-city Australian leg of her ‘The Red Tour’ in December 2013. 

He charged $54,341 to sing at a wedding in Jakarta in July 2017 and McDonald’s paid the entertainer $66,000 to appear at a conference in September that year.

The hit-maker also received $49,114.62 for singing at Allianz Stadium in Sydney during the British and Irish Lions rugby tour in 2013. 

The sums that were embezzled range from $593.53 in royalties from Sony Music to $187,524.42 for the Taylor Swift gigs. They also included $57,086.93 for a performance in Singapore and $77,042.96 from a Dreamworld ambassadorship. 

Day contended some of the money was withheld to pay expenses and buy shares on Sebastian’s behalf but Judge Gartelmann did not find evidence to support those suggestions. 

Sebastian gave evidence he had been given a boat, international air fares and the use of two Toyota LandCruisers for himself and his wife instead of cash payment from major companies. 

Day, a qualified lawyer, had first managed Sebastian in 2007 while working for 22 Management. Sebastian had about nine months left on a three-year contract when Day approached him in July 2009 to join his own new company 6 Degrees.

The performer had an agreement with Day under which the agent was to receive a 20 per cent commission on his earning and was paying his manager $500,000 a year.

Sebastian terminated the arrangement in November 2017 in what became an acrimonious split. 

He subsequently found ‘anomalies’ in financial records suggesting he was still owed payments by Day and in July 2018 launched a civil claim against him.

Day made a counter claim against Sebastian alleging he was owed money, which led to an examination of the agent’s banking records revealing further anomalies.Sebastian then went to police.

Day told police the chart-topper owed him $1.2million in outstanding commissions.

Mr Toomey took Sebastian through invoices, payment statements and banking records, many of which the singer said he did not recall ever seeing.

At one point a frustrated Sebastian told Mr Toomey.’I am not forensically skilled… when it comes to money and numbers it is pretty clearly not my forte.’ 

Sebastian told the court some of what Day did for him required a ‘heavy work load’ but for other tasks he needed ‘very little’ assistance. 

Day’s contribution to marketing Sebastian’s song writing and television appearances was negligible.Day would ‘hardly ever rock up’ when he was a judge on The X Factor, for EVDEN EvE nakliyat instance, ‘but will take a $200,000 fee’. 

Sebastian denied he felt ‘great animosity’ towards Day, saying he instead felt ‘great disappointment’ in his former agent.

‘I have a lot of confusion as to now it’s got to this point,’ he said.

In another exchange, Mr Toomey suggested to Sebastian he was ‘earning a large sum of money’ during his time under Day’s management.

‘Not as large as it should have been, Mr Toomey,’ he said.    

Mr Toomey quizzed Sebastian about ‘contra’ payments, which involved receiving goods for his services rather than money.   

Sebastian agreed he been involved in ambassadorships with Bose, AirAsia, Canon and Yamaha and accepted a Bluefin boat as payment for performing at a festival in Queensland.  

Mr Toomey asked Sebastian if he considered ‘contra’ – to be income.’I’m not sure,’ he responded.

‘It’s not something I’ve ever thought about. I hire accountants who’ve been instructed to do everything by the book. You don’t buy a dog and bark yourself.’     

Sebastian also had to contend with an email he sent to Day describing the fans of Westlife singer Shane Filan as being ‘fat older women’.

Sebastian had been reluctant to support the Irish boy band star on a 2017 tour because his appearance would not be ‘the right fit’.

‘I said something which wasn’t great, something about feral old women or something,’ he told the court.  

In another sideshow to the trial, Jules Sebastian repeatedly denied her husband was a violent man when she was quizzed about an incident in the couple’s home in 2012.

Mrs Sebastian had rung her husband about an intruder she said was attempting to enter the couple’s house at Maroubra in Sydney’s south-east.

Her husband confronted the young man and there was a physical altercation but he denied headbutting the young man, although he told friends he had.

Day sought an apprehended violence order against Sebastian eight years later, citing his ‘violent history’.

It was two days after the AVO was served that Sebastian went to police with his complaint that Day had withheld money from him. 

Day had told police he received a phone call in May 2020 in which someone said:  ‘Guy Sebastian wants you f***ed’.

‘Two weeks ago he sent emails to my wife trying to intimidate her,’ Day claimed.Three weeks ago someone came on my property and let down my car tyres.’

Sebastian told the court he had never done anything to threaten Day or his wife and had no knowledge of anyone else having done so. Day eventually withdrew the AVO. 

Judge Gartelmann ordered Day, who has already indicated he would appeal his conviction, repay $624,675.He will be eligible for parole on May 16, 2025. 

Airline Flybe has , leaving 75,000 passengers facing uncertainty about how how to get refunds or replacement flights.

Flybe was a small-scale airline with eight planes flying 21 routes to 17 destinations across the UK and Europe.  

But the firm said it had gone into administration in a shock announcement over the weekend. 

The firm employed 321 workers, 277 of whom have lost their jobs while the rest will stay on to help with winding the airline down.

A Flybe statement on January 28 said: ‘Flybe has now ceased trading.If you have any type of concerns regarding where and how you can use EvDeN EVe NAKLiyAT, you can call us at the webpage. All Flybe flights from & to the UK are cancelled & will not be rescheduled.’

However, there are several ways Flybe customers can get refunds or alternative flights.

Can I get a refund if I bought directly from Flybe?

Yes, but this is not guaranteed and depends on how you paid for a ticket.

If you booked a ticket directly with Flybe using a credit card, evDeN EVE NAkliyAt you may be protected under Section 75 of the Consumer Credit Act 1974, according to the Civil Aviation Authority.

If you pay for something worth more than £100 using a credit card, your credit card provider may have a legal obligation to refund you if that product or service isn’t delivered or isn’t as described.

If you paid for tickets worth less than £100 using a credit card, evDEN eVE nAkliYaT or paid with a debit or charge card, you may be able to make a claim under chargeback rules.

The voluntary chargeback system sees banks issue refunds for cash spent on goods and services that never materialise.

Customers may also be able to get a refund if they bought travel insurance for their Flybe trip.

However, they will need to check their policy terms as many travel insurance deals do not cover airline failure, according to financial data firm Defaqto.

Anna-Marie Duthie, travel insurance expert at Defaqto, said: ‘With flights and holidays cancelled as a result of the Flybe collapse, a lot of people’s holidays will be ruined over the coming months. 

‘Whilst airline failure has become more available under travel insurance in recent years, nearly half of annual travel insurance policies still offer no cover.’

What about if I bought through a third party?

If you bought Flybe tickets through a third party firm such as a travel or booking agent, the CAA advice is to contact them directly for any refund.