HONG KONG (Reuters) -Hong Kong’s March retail sales rose 40.9% from a year earlier, the second biggest percentage rise on record, as consumer and visitor spending continued to improve, though the low base of comparison also contributed, government data showed on Thursday. Sales increased to HK$33.6 billion ($4.28 billion) in a fourth consecutive month of…
By Ariba Shahid KARACHI (Reuters) -The International Monetary Fund (IMF) is preparing to discuss Pakistan’s budget plans for the coming financial year as part of a process to unlock a crucial financing injection for the cash-strapped nation, the IMF’s country mission chief said. An IMF review of the budget presents a fresh hurdle before the…
PARIS (Reuters) -France’s antitrust watchdog on Thursday gave Facebook-owner Meta two months to change its access rules for ad verification partners, saying the company was potentially taking unfair advantage of a dominant market position in online advertising. In a statement, the competition authority said Meta must publish new access criteria for partners seeking to use…
By Rich McKay ATLANTA (Reuters) -Police have arrested a former U.S. Coast Guardsman suspected of killing one person and wounding four, all of them women, in a shooting on Wednesday at a medical building in Atlanta, then carjacking a vehicle to flee the scene, authorities said. The suspected gunman, identified as Deion Patterson, 24, was…
By Nikolaj Skydsgaard COPENHAGEN (Reuters) -Danish drug developer Novo Nordisk said it would have to halve the supply of starter doses of its popular Wegovy weight-loss drug in the United States to cope with high demand after reporting forecast-beating results on Thursday. Shares in Novo Nordisk traded down 4.7% at 0731 GMT, putting a small…
By Lewis Krauskopf and David Randall NEW YORK (Reuters) – The end of a market-punishing rate hiking cycle may be in sight, but uncertainty over stock valuations and the economic outlook is keeping investors on alert for more turbulence ahead. The Federal Reserve on Wednesday signaled it may pause interest rate increases after raising rates…
COPENHAGEN (Reuters) -Volvo Cars will lay off around 1,300 office-based employees in Sweden as it steps up cost cutting, the Sweden-based auto maker said on Thursday. While an earlier efficiency drive had begun to show results, more was needed, CEO Jim Rowan said in a statement. “Economic headwinds, increased raw material prices and increased competition…
By Victoria Waldersee BERLIN (Reuters) -Volkswagen sees higher competition later this year as supply chain bottlenecks ease and China’s electric car market heats up, the carmaker said on Thursday, adding that it put margins over volume even as it fights to maintain market share. The company was emboldened to stick to its annual outlook of…
(Reuters) -Russia fired two dozen combat drones at Ukraine early on Thursday, striking a university campus in the Black Sea city of Odesa and attacking the capital Kyiv for the third time in four days. Russia has stepped up attacks as Ukraine prepares for a counteroffensive to try to retake Russian-occupied land in the south…
By Dawit Endeshaw ADDIS ABABA (Reuters) -The U.N. World Food Programme has paused food distribution in Ethiopia’s war-ravaged Tigray region in response to reports that significant amounts of aid were being diverted, the agency said. The announcement follows a similar one by the U.S. Agency for International Development, which said on Wednesday it had discovered…
