SYDNEY (Reuters) – Australian consumer sentiment slipped in August as a decision by the country’s central bank not to hike interest rates for a second month did little to soothe worries about the economic outlook. The Westpac-Melbourne Institute index of consumer sentiment dipped 0.4% in August from July, when it bounced 2.7%. The index reading…
By Will Dunham (Reuters) – The blue whale and other baleen whales, the gentle giants of the sea, sift huge quantities of tiny prey from ocean water using a filter-feeding system in their mouths. But they were not the first marine creatures to feed like that. Fossils unearthed in China’s Hubei Province indicate that a…
By Abhijith Ganapavaram, Priyamvada C and Juby Babu (Reuters) -Some 30,000 workers at Yellow Corp were looking for jobs on Monday after the major trucking company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, potentially saddling U.S. taxpayers with losses from a government rescue of the long-troubled carrier. The nearly 100-year-old company, which halted operations on July…
By Upasana Singh and Rishav Chatterjee (Reuters) – Australia’s biggest banks are likely to report narrower profit margins in the June quarter as an unprecedented pace of interest rate hikes to curb inflation starts to weigh on the economy, while investors will be watching for signs of rising bad debt. Commonwealth Bank of Australia, National…
By Lucy Craymer WELLINGTON (Reuters) – Public debt in most Pacific countries is expected to fall in the next 12 months as countries move towards the gradual unwinding of COVID-19 stimulus and the fiscal situation improves, according to a World Bank report released on Tuesday. “In line with fiscal consolidation efforts, public debt is projected…
(Reuters) – Demand for power in Texas hit a record high on Monday for the eighth time this summer as homes and businesses kept air conditioners cranked up to escape a lingering heat wave. The Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT), which operates the grid for more than 26 million customers representing about 90% of…
By Ana Mano SAO PAULO (Reuters) – Brazil believes European Union rules banning products coming from areas of deforestation are “an affront” of World Trade Organization (WTO) rules, Agriculture Minister Carlos Favaro said on Monday. The EU rules took force in June and will ban products beginning December 2024, giving Brazil and other exporters time…
By Akash Sriram and Abhirup Roy (Reuters) -Luxury electric vehicle maker Lucid stuck to its annual production target on Monday and said it had enough cash to start producing its much-awaited sport utility vehicles next year and into 2025, sending its shares about 4% higher in extended trading. The company reported second-quarter earnings and revenue…
ABOARD AIR FORCE ONE (Reuters) – U.S. President Joe Biden on Tuesday plans to name a new federal monument covering nearly 1 million acres (405,000 hectares) near the iconic Grand Canyon in Arizona, a move that will likely restrict new mining activity in the uranium-rich area. Biden’s climate adviser, Ali Zaidi, made the announcement during…
By Samuel Shen and Tom Westbrook SHANGHAI/SYDNEY (Reuters) -Since China opened to foreign investment in 1978 under Deng Xiaoping, global firms have ploughed in hundreds of billions of dollars to buy and build factories for market access and cheap labour, bolstering the Chinese currency. A gentle downtrend in foreign direct investment gave way to a…
