Business

01

Mar

By Dorothy Brand

Business

Why US Stocks, Bitcoin Are Struggling In Trump’s First Few Weeks In Office

Since US President Donald Trump took office on January 20, 2025, the country's stock markets and Bitcoin's price have plunged. Despite the initial optimism surrounding Trump's business and crypto-friendly agenda, the first couple of months of 2025 have not delivered the expected results. Since Trump's inauguration, all major US stock indexes have been in the red, with the Nasdaq down over 1 per cent so far in 2025, reported CNN. A key factor driving the market's struggles is worry over inflation. The Conference Board's consumer confidence index, a major economic indicator, showed its largest monthly decline in February since August…

Read More

04

Feb

By Dorothy Brand

BusinessEU antitrust law, porn

New porn app for iPhone emerges due to EU antitrust law; Apple reacts

HT News Desk - Apple called a new pornography app on its App Store in the European Union (EU) a ‘danger to children’, claiming that digital rules there allowed it to reach the store. This comes after Apple was accused of breaking a new EU law known as the Digital Markets Act (DMA) and was forced to allow EU users to download apps from other stores. Before this, Apple had been protecting its own store as the sole gateway for apps to get onto its devices. Though the App Store does not allow porn, the Hot Tub app is offered…

Read More

01

Jan

By Dorothy Brand

Business

Ukraine halts transit of Russian gas to Europe after a prewar deal expired

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Ukraine on Wednesday halted Russian gas supplies to European customers that pass through the country, almost three years into Moscow’s all-out invasion of its neighbor after a prewar transit deal expired. Ukraine’s energy minister, Herman Halushchenko, confirmed on Wednesday morning that Kyiv had stopped the gas flows “in the interest of national security.” “This is a historic event. Russia is losing markets and will incur financial losses. Europe has already decided to phase out Russian gas, and (this) aligns with what Ukraine has done today,” Halushchenko said in an update on the Telegram messaging app. Russia’s…

Read More

12

Dec

By Dorothy Brand

Business

European Central Bank likely to cut rates while weighing US trade concerns and France’s chaos

FRANKFURT – With U.S. President-elect Donald Trump threatening new tariffs and political chaos engulfing France, the European Union's second-largest economy, the question ahead of the European Central Bank meeting Thursday is not whether it will cut interest rates, but by how much. Analysts see a quarter-point rate cut from the current ECB benchmark rate of 3.25% as the most likely option when the bank's rate-setting council meets at its skyscraper headquarters in Frankfurt. But the prospect of a half-point cut isn’t out of the question for the bank and its President Christine Lagarde as new risks that emerged since the…

Read More

12

Nov

By Dorothy Brand

Investing

Japan’s SoftBank returns to profit after gains at Vision Fund and other investments

TOKYO – Japanese technology group SoftBank swung back to profitability in the July-September quarter, boosted by positive results in its Vision Fund investments. Tokyo-based SoftBank Group Corp. reported Tuesday a fiscal second-quarter profit of nearly 1.18 trillion yen ($7.7 billion), compared with a 931 billion yen loss in the year-earlier period. Quarterly sales edged up about 6% to nearly 1.77 trillion yen ($11.5 billion). SoftBank credited income from royalties and licensing related to its holdings in Arm, a computer chip-designing company, whose business spans smartphones, data centers, networking equipment, automotive, consumer electronic devices, and AI applications. The results were also…

Read More

27

Sep

By Dorothy Brand

Business

Richmond Fed president urges caution on interest rate cuts because inflation isn’t defeated

WASHINGTON (AP) — The president of the Federal Reserve’s Richmond branch says he supports reducing the central bank’s key interest rate “somewhat” from its current level but isn’t yet ready for the Fed to fully take its foot off the economy’s brakes. In an interview Thursday with The Associated Press, Tom Barkin also said the economy is showing “impressive strength,” highlighting recent solid reports on retail sales, unemployment claims, and growth in the April-June quarter, which reached a healthy 3%. “With inflation and unemployment being so close to normal levels, it’s okay to dial back the level of restraint, somewhat,”…

Read More

19

Sep

By Dorothy Brand

Investing

Stock market today: Most of Wall Street edges lower after Fed delivers a big cut to rates

NEW YORK — U.S. stock indexes edged lower Wednesday after the Federal Reserve kicked off its efforts to prevent a recession with a bigger-than-usual cut to interest rates. The S&P 500 slipped 0.3% to pull 0.9% below its all-time high set in July. The Dow Jones Industrial Average dipped 103 points, or 0.2%, though it remains close to its record set on Monday. The Nasdaq composite lost 0.3%. The momentous move by the Fed helps financial markets in two big ways. It eases the brakes off the economy, which has been slowing under the weight of higher rates, and it…

Read More

10

Sep

By Dorothy Brand

Business

Google loses final EU court appeal against 2.4 billion euro fine in antitrust shopping case

LONDON (AP) — Google lost its final legal challenge on Tuesday against a European Union penalty for giving its own shopping recommendations an illegal advantage over rivals in search results, ending a long-running antitrust case that came with a whopping fine. The European Union’s Court of Justice upheld a lower court’s decision, rejecting the company’s appeal against the 2.4 billion euro ($2.7 billion) penalty from the European Commission, the 27-nation bloc’s top antitrust enforcer. “By today’s judgment, the Court of Justice dismisses the appeal and thus upholds the judgment of the General Court,” the court said in a press release…

Read More

10

Sep

By Dorothy Brand

Business

EU’s top court dismisses Apple’s final appeal against order to pay Ireland 13B euros in back taxes

LONDON (AP) — The European Union’s top court on Tuesday rejected Apple’s final legal challenge against an order from the bloc’s executive commission to repay 13 billion euros in back taxes to Ireland, bringing an end to the long-running dispute. The European Court of Justice overruled a lower court’s earlier decision in the case, saying it “confirms the European Commission’s 2016 decision: Ireland granted Apple unlawful aid which Ireland is required to recover.” The case drew outrage from Apple when it was opened in 2016, with CEO Tim Cook calling it “total political crap.” Then-U.S. President Donald Trump slammed European…

Read More

09

Sep

By Dorothy Brand

Investing

Va Tech Wabag stock soars as Axis Sec initiates coverage with ‘Buy’ rating

Va Tech Wabag (VTW) stock price surged up to 2.3 percent intraday high of Rs 1344.15 per share on the BSE on Monday. This came amid a positive development for the firm as the domestic brokerage firm Axis Securities, initiated coverage on the water supply and management company with a ‘Buy’ rating at a target price of Rs 1,700 per share. This is valued at 23 times its FY26 earnings per share, reflecting an upside of 29.4 percent from Friday’s closing price. The brokerage firm said that Va Tech Wabag is presently riding the wave of sustainable growth with its…

Read More