Author: IA PressRoom

Russian industrial production fell 5% in April from the prior month, according to the economy ministry. That comes amid a historic labor shortage, and the unemployment rate hit a record low of 3.3%. Russia’s war on Ukraine has set off a mass exodus of workers and the mobilization of 300,000 troops. Loading Something is loading. Thanks for signing up! Access your favorite topics in a personalized feed while you’re on the go. download the app Official Russian statistics released on Wednesday highlight constrained economic performance, as industrial production fell sharply.Some analysts have previously warned against putting much faith in the…

Inside a “clean room” within ASML’s sprawling campus in the Dutch town of Veldhoven, dozens of men and women in hazmat suits are breathing air that is 10,000-times more purified than in an operating theatre. They are working on the first prototype of the chip toolmaker’s newest product: the latest generation of extreme ultraviolet photolithography machines that will be used to “print” transistors almost as small as the diameter of a human chromosome on to sheets of silicon to make a semiconductor. This EUV machine is due to ship to Intel this year at a cost of more than €350mn.…

© Reuters. FILE PHOTO: People walk past the main entrance of the Sri Lanka’s Central Bank in Colombo, Sri Lanka March 24, 2017. REUTERS/Dinuka Liyanawatte By Uditha Jayasinghe and Swati Bhat COLOMBO (Reuters) – Sri Lanka’s central bank caught markets off-guard by cutting its key rates by 250 basis points on Thursday, as it cited inflation easing faster than expected and the price outlook turning more benign. The Central Bank of Sri Lanka (CBSL) cut its standing deposit facility rate and standing lending facility rate to 13% and 14%, respectively, from 15.5% and 16.5% previously. “Policy interest rates reduced in…

© Reuters. FILE PHOTO: A Bank of America logo is pictured in the Manhattan borough of New York City, New York, U.S., January 30, 2019. REUTERS/Carlo Allegri/File Photo By Lananh Nguyen, Saeed Azhar and Nupur Anand NEW YORK (Reuters) -Bank of America Corp expects good performance for its retail business in the second quarter, buoyed by resilient consumer demand, a senior executive said on Wednesday. “The consumer is still very healthy,” Holly O’Neill, Bank of America (NYSE:)’s president of retail banking, said at a Reuters Newsmaker event. “Savings and account balances are still well above where they were pre-pandemic, so…

Democratic presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. lashed out at former President Donald Trump Tuesday, blasting him over what appears to be his deep ties to Big Pharma.”Donald Trump owns stock in Pfizer and J&J, who bought fancy tickets to his inauguration and placed pharma shills high in his administration,” Kennedy tweeted, linking to a separate tweet from a journalist detailing what he framed as a number of conflicts of interest between Trump and the pharmaceutical industry during his time in the White House.”That’s how Washington works. It is not the exception, but the rule. It is a form of…

Artificial intelligence has become 2023’s hottest investment trend. Investors are scanning the landscape for innovative companies, many of which are small and unprofitable.  But the fact is, large, dominant technology companies are poised to get most of the AI pie.Companies including Amazon.com AMZN, -0.89%, Alphabet GOOGL, -0.65%, and Microsoft MSFT, -0.85% have been using AI-based tools for years. They’re now ramping up their AI products and services to grab market share among enterprise customers. Together they will spend tens of billions of dollars on building out their offerings, which will, in turn, propel semiconductor company revenues. Exhibit No. 1 is…

Business man using calculator with computer laptopgetty There’s a faint but growing sucking sound permeating Wall Street. That is the sound of money being gradually sucked out of traditional investments like stocks and bonds and into money market funds. A money market fund is a type of mutual fund that invests in highly liquid instruments including cash, cash equivalent securities, and high-credit-quality debt with a short-term maturity (such as U.S. Treasuries). The amount of money stashed in money market funds recently rose to an all-time high of $5.4 trillion. After a string of positive weekly fund flows, it’s clear that…

2/2 © Reuters. Tesla Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk walks next to Tesla’s Senior Vice President Tom Zhu and Vice President Grace Tao as he leaves a hotel in Beijing, China May 31, 2023. REUTERS/Tingshu Wang 2/2 SHANGHAI (Reuters) -Elon Musk’s private jet is scheduled to leave Shanghai on Thursday morning and head to Austin, Texas, data from flight tracking provider Variflight showed, wrapping up a whirlwind trip to China – his first in three years. After two days in Beijing, the Tesla (NASDAQ:) Inc CEO arrived in Shanghai on Wednesday night and visited the U.S. electric vehicle maker’s plant…

© Reuters. Investing.com– Gold prices rose on Thursday, extending a recovery from two-month lows amid resurgent bets that the Federal Reserve will hold interest rates steady in June, while a bill to raise the U.S. debt ceiling drew closer towards passing after being approved by the House of Representatives. Philadelphia Fed President Patrick Harker said on Wednesday that skipping a rate hike during the June 14 meeting could allow the bank more time to consider future rate decisions.  While Harker specified that the Fed could still raise rates after June, his comments triggered a sharp jump in – a reversal…

Source: Murrstock/AdobeJapanese firms can now issue stablecoins, after a long-awaited piece of legislation came into effect today.The revised Payment Services Act was promulgated at midnight on June 1, 2023.Under the terms of the act, all token-issuing firms must be able to prove they have the underlying assets that back their coins.And only regulated banks, fund transfer service providers, trust companies, and other financial industry firms can issue these coins.New anti-money laundering rules will also require distributors to keep records of transaction information.But banks are thought to be keen to move into the space.The newspaper Nikkei featured quotes from Kondo Hidekazu,…