By Lucia Mutikani WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. single-family homebuilding increased for a second straight month in March, while permits for future construction surged, offering some glimmers of hope for the depressed housing market ahead of the busy spring selling season. The improvement in the single-family housing market segment, which was reported by the Commerce Department…
By Foo Yun Chee BRUSSELS (Reuters) -The European Union on Tuesday agreed a 43 billion euro ($47 billion) plan for its semiconductor industry in an attempt to catch up with the United States and Asia and start a green industrial revolution. The EU Chips Act, proposed by the European Commission last year and confirmed by…
By Blake Brittain (Reuters) – Alphabet’s Google LLC on Tuesday convinced a U.S. appeals court to cancel three anti-malware patents at the heart of a Texas jury’s $20 million infringement verdict against the company. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit said that Alfonso Cioffi and Allen Rozman’s patents were invalid because they…
FRANKFURT (Reuters) -The European Central Bank’s (ECB) chief economist on Tuesday backed a further interest rate increase at the ECB’s next meeting but said its size would depend on incoming data, especially a survey of euro zone banks. The ECB is expected to raise rates for a seventh straight meeting on May 4 in a…
By Huw Jones (Reuters) -The European Union on Tuesday proposed making it harder for states to pour billions of euros of aid into an ailing bank, as Italy did with Monte dei Paschi di Siena six years ago. Proposals from the EU’s executive seek to ensure that banks hold enough resources, in particular debt that…
(Reuters) – Despite the second- and third-largest bank failures in U.S. history last month, the U.S. Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation remains on track to refill its deposit insurance fund ahead of a 2028 legal deadline, the head of the agency said Tuesday. At a public meeting of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, Chairman Martin Gruenberg…
By Natalie Grover and Aby Jose Koilparambil (Reuters) -GSK plans to buy Canada-based drug developer Bellus Health Inc in an all-cash deal for $2 billion as the British drugmaker expands its bet on respiratory therapies. The move to replenish its pipeline comes as GSK investors fret about whether there is enough in the medicine cabinet…
(Reuters) -Britain’s competition regulator said on Tuesday it has launched a “Phase 1” probe into Amazon.com Inc’s planned $1.7 billion acquisition of iRobot Corp, which makes the Roomba vacuum cleaner. The probe launch by the UK watchdog comes at a time antitrust regulators, including those in the U.S. and the European Union, have become increasingly…
By Foo Yun Chee and Supantha Mukherjee BRUSSELS/STOCKHOLM (Reuters) – The European Union agreed a 43-billion-euro ($47 billion) chip subsidies plan on Tuesday but the relatively modest budget, lack of a domestic market for cutting-edge chips and red tape could hamper efforts to catch up with the United States and Asia. The size of subsidies…
(Reuters) – Microsoft Corp is developing its own artificial intelligence chip code-named “Athena” that will power the technology behind AI chatbots like ChatGPT, the Information reported on Tuesday, citing two people familiar with the matter. The company, which was an early backer of ChatGPT-owner OpenAI, has been working on the chip since 2019 and it…
