WASHINGTON (AP) — As federal officials finalize a long-awaited plan to ban menthol cigarettes, dozens of interest groups have met with White House staffers to try to influence the process, which has the potential to save hundreds of thousands of lives while wiping out billions in tobacco sales. Biden administration officials have heard from tobacco…
WASHINGTON (AP) — Chair Jerome Powell isn’t as pleased with the robust U.S. job market as you might think he’d be, and he and the Federal Reserve plan to do something about it: Take it down a notch. On Thursday, Powell described the job market as “extremely, historically” tight and “unsustainably hot.” Available jobs are…
By Toby Sterling AMSTERDAM (Reuters) – Amsterdam Trade Bank (ATB), a subsidiary of Russia’s Alfa Bank, has been declared bankrupt, the Dutch central bank (DNB) said on Friday, citing an Amsterdam District Court Ruling. A statement on the DNB website said ATB depositors would be covered up to 100,000 euros ($108,000) each under the Netherlands’…
By Arathy Somasekhar HOUSTON (Reuters) -Oil slipped on Friday and headed for a weekly decline, burdened by the prospect of weaker global growth, higher interest rates and COVID lockdowns in China hurting demand even as the European Union considers a ban on Russian oil that would further tighten supply. Brent crude was down $2, or…
(Reuters) – The Federal Reserve is poised to follow a half-of-a-percentage point interest rate hike in May with two even bigger rate hikes at subsequent meetings, traders bet on Friday, one day after Fed Chair Jerome Powell signaled he would be open to “front-end loading” the U.S. central bank’s retreat from super-easy monetary policy. Futures…
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen on Friday said it was worth considering taking steps to lower U.S. tariffs on Chinese goods given the “desirable effects” such a move could have on lowering U.S. inflation. “We want to do everything that we can to lower inflation,” Yellen told Bloomberg TV, citing steps by…
By Bansari Mayur Kamdar and Anisha Sircar (Reuters) – U.S. stocks tumbled on Friday after some weak earnings reports, with growth stocks coming under pressure in a torrid week that saw bond yields surge on expectations of interest rate hikes. All the 11 major S&P 500 sectors fell, with healthcare stocks dropping the most after…
By Rithika Krishna and Liz Hampton (Reuters) – Top oilfield services firm Schlumberger reported a higher first-quarter profit on Friday and increased its dividend by 40%, as rising oil prices boosted demand for services and equipment. Oil prices climbed to their highest in more than a decade during the quarter as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine…
LONDON (AP) — Taking aim at hate speech, disinformation and other harmful content online, the European Union is nearing agreement on a sweeping law that would force big tech companies to police themselves harder, make it easier for users to flag problems, and empower regulators to punish noncompliance with billions in fines. EU officials negotiated…
BERLIN (Reuters) -The German government will cut its growth forecast for Europe’s biggest economy for 2022 to 2.2% from 3.6% amid the war in Ukraine, a government source told Reuters on Friday. It expects growth to pick up slightly to 2.5% in 2023, the source said. After two years of the coronavirus pandemic, the Germany…
