By Zeba Siddiqui and Christopher Bing SAN FRANCISCO/WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A Miami-based digital marketing firm was behind a series of covert political influence operations in Latin America over the last year, Facebook-owner Meta said this week, a rare exposé of an apparent U.S.-based misinformation-for-hire outfit. Predictvia, which is registered as a business in Florida, says…
By Sinead Cruise, John O’Donnell and Tom Sims LONDON/DUBLIN (Reuters) – European savers are pulling more of their money from banks, looking for a better deal as lenders resist paying up to hold on to deposits some feel they can currently live without. The trend emerged as some of the region’s biggest lenders outlined a…
By Victoria Waldersee BERLIN (Reuters) -BMW will not cut electric vehicle (EV) prices in China and may raise some car prices at a global level, to help weather the higher input costs of EV production, it said on Thursday following first quarter results. The carmaker reported a higher earnings margin for its cars segment, at…
By Howard Schneider WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell, asked on Wednesday about what the Fed would do in the event of a U.S. debt default, repeated the mantra of Fed leaders on that issue: A default is unthinkable, the U.S. government needs to pay its bills, and there was little the central…
By Donny Kwok and Georgina Lee HONG KONG (Reuters) – The Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) raised its main policy rate on Thursday, following a hike by the U.S. Federal Reserve, even as weakness in its pegged currency forced the de facto central bank to drain cash in the banking system to 15-year lows. Hong…
By Tom Polansek CHICAGO (Reuters) – U.S. cattle producer Brad Kooima declined multiple, escalating bids from meatpackers seeking to buy his livestock to hold out for higher prices. His bargaining power is a dramatic reversal from three years ago, when cattle were plentiful and Kooima said he went seven weeks without getting a bid as…
(Reuters) – The Kremlin said on Thursday that it knew Pope Francis was thinking about ways to end the conflict in Ukraine, but that it was not aware of any detailed peace plans from the Vatican. Since Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, Francis has offered to act as a broker between Moscow and Kyiv…
A look at the day ahead in U.S. and global markets from Mike Dolan If the Federal Reserve needs more information on what to do for its next move on interest rates, relentless stress in regional bank shares again this week may yet figure highly. As the Fed delivered what markets assume will be the…
By Ron Bousso, Shadia Nasralla and Nerijus Adomaitis LONDON/OSLO (Reuters) – Energy giants Shell and Equinor reported higher-than-expected first-quarter profits on Thursday, using the heft of their trading desks to offset lower oil and gas prices. The stronger-than-expected profits from the two companies follow forecast beating results from rivals Exxon Mobil, Chevron and BP over…
HONG KONG (Reuters) -Hong Kong’s March retail sales rose 40.9% from a year earlier, the second biggest percentage rise on record, as consumer and visitor spending continued to improve, though the low base of comparison also contributed, government data showed on Thursday. Sales increased to HK$33.6 billion ($4.28 billion) in a fourth consecutive month of…
