By Patricia Zengerle WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The U.S. Senate passed legislation on Thursday authorizing a record $858 billion in annual defense spending, $45 billion more than proposed by President Joe Biden, and rescinding the military’s COVID vaccine mandate. Senators supported the National Defense Authorization Act, or NDAA, an annual must-pass bill setting policy for the Pentagon,…
By Alexandra Alper WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The Biden administration on Thursday added Chinese memory chipmaker YMTC and 21 “major” Chinese players in the artificial intelligence chip sector to a trade blacklist, broadening its crackdown on China’s chip industry. YMTC, long in the crosshairs of the U.S. government, was added to the list over fears it could…
TOKYO (Reuters) – Japan will extend tax breaks on low-emission cars and seek to shift its massive household savings into investment in the government’s annual tax code revision to be approved on Friday. The government will also raise corporate, income and tobacco taxes to pay for a scheduled doubling of Japan’s defence spending to 2%…
SHANGHAI (Reuters) – Foreign investors continued to offload holdings in China’s onshore bonds for a 10th straight month in November, although some market watchers expect the outflow pressure to ease soon. Foreign holdings of yuan-denominated bonds traded on China’s interbank market stood at 3.33 trillion yuan ($477.3 billion) at end-November, down from 3.38 trillion yuan…
By Laura Sanicola (Reuters) – Oil prices rose in early Asian trade on Friday after falling 2% in the previous session on central bank interest rates hikes, and is poised to end the week higher after a series of positive oil demand forecasts. Brent crude futures rose 36 cents or 0.4% to $81.57 per barrel…
By Maria Ponnezhath and Hyunjoo Jin (Reuters) -Tesla boss Elon Musk disclosed another $3.6 billion in stock sales on Wednesday, taking his total near $40 billion this year and frustrating investors as the company’s shares wallow at two-year lows. A U.S securities filing showed he unloaded 22 million shares in the world’s most valuable carmaker…
By Svea Herbst-Bayliss NEW YORK (Reuters) – The activist investment firm pushing Freshpet Inc to consider selling itself has told the pet-food company that it plans to launch a proxy fight and run for board seats, according to a regulatory filing made on Thursday. Jana Partners LLC, which owns an 8.9% stake in Freshpet, recently…
(Reuters) – Aurizon Holdings, Australia’s largest rail freight operator, said on Friday it will sell its East Coast Rail (ECR) business to Magnetic Rail Group for A$425 million ($284.71 million) in cash. Aurizon said in a statement the sale was in accordance with its agreement with the country’s competition regulator, following its $1.75 billion acquisition…
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Southwest Airlines customer service employees overwhelmingly ratified a new five-year collective bargaining agreement that includes an immediate 13.1% wage increase, the IAM union said on Thursday. The agreement covers 8,300 customer representatives and service agents and includes a 25.1% general wage increase over four years which IAM said will put its members at the top of the…
By Chris Prentice, Xie Yu and Susan Heavey NEW YORK/HONG KONG/WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. accounting watchdog on Thursday said it has gotten full access to inspect and investigate firms in China for the first time ever, removing the risk that around 200 Chinese companies could be kicked off U.S. stock exchanges. The statement from…
