SEOUL (Reuters) – North Korea on Wednesday confirmed it is holding U.S. Army Private Travis King after he crossed the border from South Korea last month while on a tour, but did not elaborate on what his future might hold. State news agency KCNA said during an initial investigation that King confessed to illegally and…
By Bhanvi Satija and Patrick Wingrove (Reuters) -Blue Shield of California plans to stop using most of CVS Health’s pharmacy benefit management services and work with others, including Amazon.com and Mark Cuban’s drug firm, in a bid to reduce drug costs for its insurance plan members. The non-profit insurer, which serves roughly 4.8 million members,…
By Alexander Marrow (Reuters) – The Russian rouble strengthened past 95 to the dollar on Wednesday, one day after the central bank hiked interest rates to 12% at an emergency meeting and amid speculation over what other steps Russia may take to prop up its struggling currency. Tuesday’s extraordinary rate meeting and 350-basis-point key rate…
By Savyata Mishra (Reuters) -Dollar General Corp cut its sales and profit forecasts for the year on Thursday as Americans, pinched by higher prices, shopped more for essentials and pared back purchases in categories including home goods and clothes, leading its shares down as much as 20%. The discount store chain saw traffic to its…
By Ludwig Burger and Patricia Weiss FRANKFURT (Reuters) -The CEO of German technology group Merck KGaA said that unravelling trade ties with China would come at great economic cost and she was banking on dialogue to ease tensions between Beijing and Western powers. Belen Garijo, the Spanish CEO of the German drugmaker and manufacturer of…
(Reuters) – Twitter users will be able to appeal account suspensions and be evaluated under the social media platform’s new criteria for reinstatement, starting Feb. 1, the company said on Friday. Under the new criteria, which follow billionaire Elon Musk’s purchase of the company in October, Twitter accounts will only be suspended for severe or…
By Michael S. Derby NEW YORK (Reuters) – Americans said last month they expected weaker inflation over the next few years, and they also marked up their own views of their personal financial situations, according to a survey released on Monday by the New York Federal Reserve. In its latest survey of consumer expectations, the…
SINGAPORE (Reuters) – Singapore’s key price gauge climbed in December by its fastest pace in nearly eight years, exceeding economist forecasts, driven by a steep increase in air fares, official data showed on Monday. The core inflation rate — the central bank’s favoured price measure – rose to 2.1% in December on a year-on-year basis,…
By Huw Jones and Tom Wilson LONDON (Reuters) -European Union lawmakers backed new safeguards for tracing transfers of bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies on Thursday, in the latest sign that regulators are tightening up on the freewheeling sector. Two committees in the European Parliament jointly voted by 93 in favour and 14 against on cross-party compromises…
By Manya Saini (Reuters) – Shares of Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey’s Block Inc fell 3% in afternoon trading on Friday, a day after the payments firm’s Cash App business became the latest target of U.S. short seller Hindenburg Research. In a report, Hindenburg alleged that Block overstated its user numbers and understated its customer acquisition…
