By Summer Zhen and Samuel Shen HONG KONG (Reuters) -Six spot bitcoin and ether exchange traded funds (ETFs) gained in their Hong Kong debut on Tuesday, with the three bitcoin ETFs climbing more than 2% by midday, reflecting Asian investor enthusiasm for cryptocurrency assets. The debuts mark the first launch of spot cryptocurrency ETFs in…
By Jarrett Renshaw NEW YORK (Reuters) -U.S. President Joe Biden said on Friday that he would participate in a debate with Donald Trump, his Republican opponent in November’s election. “I am, somewhere. I don’t know when,” the Democratic president said in an interview with broadcaster Howard Stern. “I’m happy to debate him.” The remarks were…
By Stephen Nellis (Reuters) – U.S. export controls on sending advanced computing chips to China are not meant to hold back China’s economy or technological development, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said during an interview with National Public Radio on Friday. Since 2022, U.S. officials have imposed sweeping controls on which computing chips can be…
(Reuters) -The U.S. Air Force said on Friday that it has awarded a $13 billion contract to Sierra Nevada Corp to develop a successor to the E-4B, known as the Doomsday plane due to its ability to survive a nuclear war. The Survivable Airborne Operations Center (SAOC) project is intended to replace the aging 1970s-era…
By Laurie Chen and Nidal al-Mughrabi BEIJING/CAIRO (Reuters) – China will host Palestinian unity talks between Islamist militant group Hamas and its rivals Fatah, the two groups and a Beijing-based diplomat said on Friday, a notable Chinese foray into Palestinian diplomacy amid the war in the Gaza Strip. Hamas, which controls Gaza, is the group…
(Reuters) – Donald Trump’s allies are reported to be drafting proposals to erode the Federal Reserve’s independence if the presumptive Republican presidential nominee regains the White House, with installing loyalists at the central bank as a key element. The Fed both manages monetary policy – most notably through setting benchmark interest rates that influence the…
By Sabrina Valle HOUSTON (Reuters) -U.S. and European oil companies reported weaker first quarter results on Friday due to a sharp drop in natural gas prices compared with a year ago. Results at oil and gas firms are still retreating from record levels in 2022 that were boosted by a surge in demand after the…
By Jonathan Stempel (Reuters) – A real estate brokerage owned by Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway said on Friday it reached a $250 million settlement of nationwide antitrust litigation that is expected to change how real estate agents are paid. HomeServices of America, the largest U.S. real estate brokerage, was the last remaining defendant in a…
(Reuters) – Starbucks held contract negotiations with the Workers United union over a two-day session in Atlanta, both the parties said on Friday, with plans to meet again in late May. The coffee chain and Workers United, that represents Starbucks workers in the United States, began negotiations this week on what they called a “foundational…
By Yuvraj Malik, Anna Tong and Stephen Nellis (Reuters) -Microsoft beat Wall Street estimates for third-quarter revenue and profit on Thursday, driven by gains from adoption of artificial intelligence across its cloud services, and the company’s shares jumped more than 4% in extended trade. Executives forecast ranges for current quarter cloud revenue that were mostly…
