WASHINGTON (AP) — Fewer Americans applied for unemployment benefits last week as layoffs continue to fall amid a strong job market rebound. Jobless claims fell by 15,000 to 214,000 for the week ending March 12, down from the previous week’s 229,000, the Labor Department reported Thursday. First-time applications for jobless aid generally track the pace…
By Julia Payne LONDON (Reuters) – A $40 a barrel rise and fall in oil prices in March pushed many investors to exit the volatile trade and created the conditions for more wild price swings in the weeks ahead, traders, bankers and analysts said. The Russian invasion of Ukraine has driven many commodity prices to…
BEIJING (AP) — Companies in Shenzhen, a major Chinese business center, will be allowed to reopen while efforts to contain coronavirus outbreaks progress, the government said Thursday, following a citywide shutdown that rattled financial markets. Testing of everyone in the city of 17.5 million people is “progressing smoothly,” said a deputy mayor, Huang Qiang, at…
By Simon Jessop LONDON (Reuters) – Swiss Re, the world’s second biggest reinsurer, said it would increase the number of oil and gas producers for which it refuses cover, following mounting pressure on big business to help the drive to curb a global temperature rise. In its annual sustainability report on Thursday, Swiss Re said…
LONDON (AP) — A ferry operator owned by the government of Dubai sparked a furious response from workers and criticism from British authorities Thursday after firing 800 U.K.-based crew members without notice amid plans to replace them with cheaper staff. P&O Ferries, one of the largest ferry operators in the United Kingdom, said the workers…
LONDON (AP) — The Bank of England raised its key interest rate Thursday for the third time since December as it pushes ahead faster than other central banks in combating a global wave of inflation that is set to accelerate following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The bank boosted its key rate to 0.75% after the…
Russia’s war in Ukraine will disrupt commerce and clog up supply chains, slashing economic growth and pushing prices sharply higher around the globe, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development warned Thursday. In a grim new assessment, the 38-country OECD said that over the next year, the conflict would reduce gross domestic product — the…
PARIS (Reuters) – U.S. tech giant Microsoft is facing an antitrust complaint filed by three European rivals in the booming cloud computing business, one the plaintiffs said on Thursday. The complaint, filed with the European Union’s competition watchdog months ago, alleges that Microsoft’s contractual and business practices make it costly and difficult for users of…
(Reuters) – IT consulting firm Accenture Plc on Thursday forecast third-quarter revenue above Wall Street’s estimates, thanks to growing demand for its cloud and security-related services as more businesses shift to a hybrid work model. The company expects current-quarter revenue between $15.70 billion and $16.15 billion, compared with analysts’ average estimate of $15.11 billion, according…
PARIS (Reuters) – The Ukraine crisis could knock more than a percentage point off global growth this year and add two and a half percentage points to inflation, the OECD estimated on Thursday, calling for targeted government spending hikes in response. Well-targeted increases in government spending by OECD countries of the order of 0.5% of…
