By John Revill ZURICH (Reuters) -Holcim AG shrugged off concerns about rising interest rates dampening building industry demand as the world’s biggest cement maker raised its full-year guidance after beating first-quarter forecasts. U.S. construction spending declined in February, data showed this month, as the housing market bore the brunt of aggressive interest rate hikes by…
By Casey Hall SHANGHAI (Reuters) – Automakers keen to make a splash at the Shanghai auto show showed off vehicles boasting features from crystal balls to in-car karaoke systems and 3D dashboards, as competition to attract drivers heats up in the world’s largest auto market. At the first such showcase in China since the country’s…
ROME (Reuters) – Italy is ready to consider ratifying the reform of the euro zone’s bailout fund (ESM) for countries and banks cut off from markets “if it is transformed into a growth instrument”, Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni was quoted as saying on Friday. Under the reform agreed at the EU level in 2021 but…
A look at the day ahead in European and global markets from Tom Westbrook A month-long risky-asset rally, in the absence of any further banks collapsing, seems to be running out of steam as economic data offers few excuses for confidence. Softening second-tier data in the U.S. on Thursday put a bid under bonds for…
TOKYO (Reuters) – The Group of Seven (G7) countries are considering a near-total ban on exports to Russia, Kyodo news agency reported on Friday, citing Japanese government sources. Bloomberg news on Thursday also reported that the United States and Ukraine’s allies were considering “an outright ban on most exports to Russia”. That report said officials…
By Suban Abdulla LONDON (Reuters) – British consumers were their most upbeat in more than a year this month, despite the surging cost of living, as they took a more positive view of their finances and the health of the wider economy, market research firm GfK said on Friday. GfK’s Consumer Confidence Index rose for…
By Stephen Nellis (Reuters) – Two companies that make tools for manufacturing chips said that they expect sales to China to boom later this year despite U.S. export restrictions on equipment used to make cutting-edge semiconductors. The comments by California-based Lam Research and the Netherlands’ ASML Holdings NV are a sign that China may be…
By Jonathan Stempel NEW YORK (Reuters) – An exiled Chinese businessman charged by U.S. prosecutors with leading a more than $1 billion fraud will remain in jail after a federal judge in Manhattan on Thursday rejected a proposed $25 million bail package. U.S. District Judge Analisa Torres said prosecutors had shown it more likely than…
DUBLIN (Reuters) – Generative AI, such as OpenAI’s ChatGPT, needs to be regulated, but governing bodies must figure out how to do so properly before rushing into prohibitions that “really aren’t going to stand up”, Ireland’s data protection chief said on Thursday. “It needs to be regulated and it’s about figuring out how to regulate…
By Chuck Mikolajczak NEW YORK (Reuters) – A gauge of global stocks was poised for its biggest daily percentage drop in two weeks on Thursday as a sharp decline in Tesla shares weighed while softening U.S. economic data and growing worries about the debt ceiling pushed Treasury yields lower. On Wall Street, U.S. stocks closed…
