By Karen Brettell NEW YORK, Dec 26 (Reuters) – The Japanese yen softened against the greenback on Friday as investors remained on watch for potential intervention to shore up the currency, while the dollar gained slightly against the euro in thin trading volumes. The yen has remained on the back foot despite a Bank of…
By Isla Binnie and Ankur Banerjee Dec 26 (Reuters) – Major U.S. stock indexes traded near record peaks on Friday in muted post-Christmas trading, while expectations of Federal Reserve interest rate cuts helped propel precious metals prices to all-time highs. Public holidays kept markets closed in Australia, Hong Kong and most of Europe, but the…
WASHINGTON, Dec 26 (Reuters) – White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said on Friday that she is expecting a second child, a girl due in May. Leavitt, 28, announced her pregnancy in an Instagram post, showing off the baby bump in a picture beside a Christmas tree. The aide to U.S. President Donald Trump is…
By Max A. Cherney and Jeffrey Dastin SAN FRANCISCO, Dec 24 (Reuters) – It was a Thursday before dawn in Silicon Valley when Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan found himself under attack by the president of the United States. “The CEO of INTEL is highly CONFLICTED and must resign, immediately,” U.S. President Donald Trump wrote on…
By Arathy Somasekhar HOUSTON, Dec 24 (Reuters) – Oil settled marginally lower on Wednesday, and prices were on course for their steepest annual decline since 2020 as investors weighed U.S. economic growth and assessed the risk of supply disruptions from Venezuela and Russia. Brent crude futures closed down 14 cents, or 0.2%, at $62.24 a barrel,…
By Laila Kearney CHICAGO, Dec. 23 – In Chicago’s working-class Pilsen neighborhood, a 60s-era oil-fired power plant rises up from an industrial lot behind Dvorak Park, which in warmer weather is packed with children climbing on its colorful playground and zooming down slides. The rarely-used eight-unit Fisk power plant owned by Houston-based NRG Energy was…
By Jesus Calero MADRID, Dec 23 (Reuters) – Spain’s central bank raised its outlook on Tuesday for economic growth next year, reinforcing the country’s position as one of the euro zone’s fastest-expanding economies even as higher living costs squeeze household finances. The Bank of Spain expects the economy to grow by 2.9% in 2025, up…
By Shoon Naing Dec 24 (Reuters) – Myanmar’s military-led administration will hold a multi-phased general election starting on Sunday, even as a civil war rages across large parts of the Southeast Asian country. WHY IS MYANMAR HOLDING AN ELECTION? The military ousted the elected government of Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi in a February…
By Jiaxing Li and Laura Matthews HONG KONG/NEW YORK, Dec 23 (Reuters) – Global investors are increasing their wagers on Chinese artificial intelligence companies, betting on the next DeepSeek and seeking to diversify, with concerns growing about a speculative bubble in the sector on Wall Street. Demand for China’s AI companies is also being stimulated…
By Gleb Bryanski MOSCOW, Dec 24 (Reuters) – A majority of Russians expect the war in Ukraine to end in 2026, state pollster VTsIOM said on Wednesday, in a sign that the Kremlin could be testing public reaction to a possible peace settlement as diplomatic efforts to end the conflict intensify. During the pollster’s year-end…
