Latest Developments

Europe
BBC Business

Councils to get more powers to stop vape and betting shops, PM announces

Image source, Bloomberg via Getty ImagesByEd Thomas, UK editor, Rebecca Wearn and Patrick ClahanePublished6 hours agoNew vape shops will require planning permission and councils will get more powers to stop betting shops, under government plans aimed at improving high streets. Prime Minister Andy Burnham said town centres had been "hollowed out" by decades of decline and "for many people, the high streets they grew up with have become unrecognisable". BBC News has exposed organised crime on high streets across the country, revealing shops selling illegal cigarettes and vapes, selling cannabis and cocaine, enabling illegal working and suspected money-laundering. The Conservatives and Reform said the proposals would lead to "more empty" shops, without tax relief for other small businesses. Burnham said the measures will give councils more power to control what businesses open in town centres. The proposals come as the prime minister embarks on a tour of the UK, with Downing Street saying he will be in "listening mode" during his visits as he works on a "10-year plan to bring back hope". The National Crime Agency (NCA) estimates that at least £1bn of criminal cash is laundered through high street stores in the UK each year through businesses connected to the sale of fake goods, tax evasion, illegal working and illegal drug supply. Burnham said "the rise of vape shops, betting shops and rogue operators have replaced the shops, services, and community spaces that people are crying out for". He added: "That's not on. I said we would improve Britain's high streets, and that's exactly what we are starting to do. "We're putting communities back in control and giving local people a real say over what opens on their high street." In response to the announcement, Conservative shadow communities secretary Sir James Cleverly said "once-treasured shops" have been replaced by a "smattering of rogue operators". But Sir James said increases to business rates by Labour had left "empty units for whoever is left standing to fill".

Councils to get more powers to stop vape and betting shops, PM announces
North America
CNBC Economy

The July jobs numbers are due out Friday. Here's what to expect

Job growth isn't expected to show much improvement in July, with payrolls and the unemployment rate likely holding relatively steady and economists looking through the headline numbers for further clues about labor market health. Nonfarm payrolls are expected to post a gain of just 83,000, with the unemployment rate staying and unchanged at 4.2%. That would come off a slow June, which saw a gain of just 57,000 jobs. Outside the headline numbers will come important indicators about the general strength in the job market — specifically, participation in the labor force, wage growth and the sectors that are driving the labor market now. All that will paint an important picture for Federal Reserve officials, who lately have been expressing both a great deal of confidence in the labor market and worry enough about inflation to float the possibility of interest rate hikes sometime soon. "The Federal Reserve's focus is squarely on inflation," wrote Heather Long, chief economist at Navy Federal Credit Union. "That's the right call, but it's important to keep an eye on whether this economy is creating enough opportunities for young Americans trying to establish a career path." One eye-catching statistic from the June report was a dramatic swoon in workers who either had jobs or were actively looking. The labor force participation rate tumbled to 61.5%, its lowest since the March 2021 period when the economy was still recovering from the Covid shock. Outside of the pandemic era, it was the lowest participation rate since June 1976. Of particular concern was a similar plunge in the so-called prime age participation rate — a cohort that includes workers between 25 and 54 years of age — to its lowest since December 2023 and the biggest monthly drop ever outside of April 2020, just after the pandemic declaration. Economists will be looking to see if that trend was a statistical anomaly produced by seasonal and other distortions, or a more serious sign of deeper trouble in a labor economy marked by companies generally slow to hire as well as slow to fire. "Although the hiring rate is low, the unemployment rate remains steady because layoffs are also low," Fed Governor Lisa Cook said Wednesday. "The low-hire, low-fire equilibrium hits some groups, including new entrants, especially hard and may restrain worker sentiment for good reason." Cook added that while she is confident in the labor market, if inflation doesn't improve she will support a rate hike ahead, joining a growing chorus of central bankers looking at tightening monetary policy. Average hourly earnings are projected to rise 0.3% in July, and 3.5% from a year ago, a level that actually is considered consistent with the Fed's 2% inflation target. Fed officials generally focus more on the unemployment rate than the gyrations in monthly payroll numbers. However, the jobless rate has remained low in large part because of the decline in labor force participation; the employment level in 2026 has actually fallen by 833,000. For that reason, economists at Citigroup and elsewhere think the Fed's equation could change later this year. Citi has a well out-of-consensus call for three rate cuts between now and January 2027.

The July jobs numbers are due out Friday. Here's what to expect
North America
CNBC Finance

Savers Value Village thrift store launches new AI tool to price items

Savers Value Village is launching a new platform leveraging artificial intelligence to help optimize product pricing, the company told CNBC exclusively, as the tricky-to-price thrift segment gains traction around the world. The new platform, called ThriftIQ, uses AI to reduce the work needed to price items across the men's and women's apparel assortment and bring more consistency. "We're getting clear sell-throughs, larger baskets, it's helping our new stores ramp more favorably, and obviously there is the profitability improvements," CEO Mark Walsh told CNBC. The tool has already been deployed in 58 pilot stores, according to the company, pricing more than 25 million items. That number is expected to double by the end of the year, Walsh added. Savers, which had 375 stores at the end of the second quarter, said it processes more than 1 billion pounds of reusable goods every year. ThriftIQ was developed in partnership with data science and technology consulting firm Kaizen Analytix using Savers' proprietary data sets, which the company has been developing for nearly two years. "It's not dynamic pricing, and once those garments are priced and tagged, that tag doesn't change," Walsh said. The company's goal with the new AI tool is to bring more predictable pricing for customers while also keeping average prices the same or lower, remaining between roughly 40% and 70% below traditional retail prices. Savers said ThriftIQ marks the latest step in the company's broader strategy to modernize and enhance its business operations. It will deploy the platform across more of its U.S. and Canadian locations through early 2028. Walsh said the tool is not meant to get rid of manual labor in stores, but rather make workers more productive. "Savers is transforming thrift through innovation, and I couldn't be more excited about the trajectory of the business," he said. The tool comes at a time when secondhand retail and thrift are seeing a surge, especially with the macroeconomic backdrop of higher inflation, lower consumer confidence and more price-conscious buyers. "We are benefiting from some very powerful secular momentum in this space. Thrift has gone, and is continuing to go, mainstream in retail, and so we see that in the younger customers, in the more affluent customers, for example, that are adopting thrift," Chief Financial Officer Michael Maher told CNBC. "But I think in addition to that, we are bringing investment, technology, innovation and execution to that."

Savers Value Village thrift store launches new AI tool to price items
Asia
The Hindu BusinessLine

Gold nears $4,400 as traders weigh Fed interest-rate path

Gold edged toward $4,400 an ounce as traders weighed the Federal Reserve’s interest-rate path after the economy’s main engine showed signs of cooling. The latest US data showed declines in both consumer sentiment and retail sales, helping ease fears of an imminent rate hike, which is typically a headwind for non-yielding bullion. Still, the risk of monetary tightening remains as oil prices climbed after the US threatened to impose economic measures on Iran. Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago President Austan Goolsbee said he’s encouraged by a recent cooling in inflation, but wants to see more of the same in coming months to be sure it’s falling back to the central bank’s 2% target. Earlier, data showed the University of Michigan’s preliminary August sentiment index slid to 51 in August. The median forecast from a Bloomberg survey of economists had projected 55. Meantime, retail sales dropped in July by the most in more than a year. Gold’s recovery above the key $4,000-an-ounce threshold in recent weeks has been driven by renewed investor appetite and an increase in central bank purchases, notably from China. Gains earlier this week took the metal above its 100-day moving average for the first time since April, although it has since returned below the threshold. “The macro set-up has turned more constructive, although positioning is less supportive and technical momentum is starting to look stretched after the recent rebound,” Christopher Wong, a strategist at Oversea-Chinese Banking Corp., said in a note. “Consolidation risks remain around current levels.” Spot gold traded 0.6% higher at $4,374.24 an ounce at 4:33 p.m. in New York. Silver rose 0.3% to $64.66 an ounce. Platinum and palladium both gained. The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index, a gauge of the US currency, slipped 0.2%. Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments. We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of TheHindu Businessline and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.

Gold nears $4,400 as traders weigh Fed interest-rate path
Asia
The Hindu BusinessLine

Indian bonds may slip after RBI shortens swap window for diaspora deposits

Banks will no longer be allowed to tap the zero-cost hedging facility ​after August 31, instead ‌of the earlier deadline of September 30. Indian government bonds are set to weaken on Monday after the ​Reserve Bank of India’s surprise move to close its concessional ‌diaspora-deposit forex swap window a month early dented ​sentiment, while firmer oil prices added pressure. The yield ⁠on the benchmark 6.94 per cent 2036 bond may hover in the 6.75 per cent to 6.78 per cent range, a private-bank trader said. It settled ‌at 6.7578 per cent on Friday. Bond yields move inversely to prices. The RBI said on Friday ‌it will close a discounted forex swap facility for ‌banks ⁠to hedge against diaspora foreign-currency deposits a ⁠month earlier than planned, following robust inflows of more than $52 billion. Banks will no longer be allowed to tap the zero-cost hedging facility ​after August 31, instead ‌of the earlier deadline of September 30. Markets will react to the early closure of the FCNR(B) scheme, while Brent crude is also higher, said Kruti ‌Chheta, Mumbai-based fund manager and fixed-income analyst at ​Mirae Asset Mutual Fund. Brent crude rose 0.7 per cent to $89.20 a barrel in Asian trade as prospects ⁠for US-Iran peace talks remained uncertain and tanker traffic through the Strait of Hormuz stayed disrupted. Indian bonds have ‌traded in a tight range so far in August. The bond market had drawn support from strong FCNR(B) inflows, which boosted banking-system liquidity, and from the RBI’s dovish policy tone. The benchmark 10-year yield has held within a 6.75 per cent-6.79 per cent band this month, with traders ‌unable to push yields decisively below the lower end of the ​range without fresh positive triggers. Traders await minutes of the RBI’s August monetary policy decision due ⁠on Wednesday for fresh cues. India’s overnight index swap ⁠rates are poised to trade lower as early closure of the FCNR(B) swap facility hurts ‌sentiment. Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments. We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of TheHindu Businessline and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.

Indian bonds may slip after RBI shortens swap window for diaspora deposits
Europe
BBC Business

Tech leaders say AI means less work - their staff say they work up to 90 hours a week

Image source, Getty ImagesByKali HaysTechnology reporterPublished6 hours agoFor years now, executives at companies that are pouring hundreds of billions of dollars a year into developing various artificial intelligence tools have insisted that the technology will ultimately mean people will spend less of their time working. An engineering director at Google said four years ago that AI would deliver a four-day work week by 2025, external. Earlier this year, and just one year after that engineering director's prediction, OpenAI took up the challenge, in a manner of speaking. It formally urged companies to start testing out a four-day work week (with no change in pay), claiming that AI will soon be able to speed up so much human labour that the corporate world should prepare itself. However, a former OpenAI technical employee who left the company last year told the BBC the firm never actually trialled the four-day work week it suggested others should try while they were there. Instead, the person described what was often a gruelling work culture marked by frequent "crisis meetings", working on weekends, and "super cut-throat" performance reviews that would see colleagues suddenly let go. "You go in on Saturday or Sunday just to catch up or make sure things aren't broken," the person said. Other companies have also pushed the idea that AI will effectively reduce the number of hours people need to work, for better or worse. Anthropic has boasted that its popular coding tool and chatbot Claude is capable of working on its own for seven hours without a break, external, essentially a full corporate workday. Meta's Mark Zuckerberg has said his company is in the middle of the year when "AI starts to dramatically change the way that we work" and that such tools let far fewer employees do more than they ever could have before. While Meta has since laid off 1 in 10 of its employees, Anthropic's chief executive Dario Amodei has warned that as AI tools inevitably become more productive, it could mean, external even broader job losses. Despite these claims, workers inside these same tech companies, who are not only developing but using the very AI tools that will purportedly perform at least some of people's work, say they are clocking in far more than the typical five-day, 40-hour work week. US tech workers are typically well-compensated, external, and while other industries such as investment banking, law and medicine also often see people work long hours, a 14-hour workday was not always the norm in tech. For years, it was a more typical 9-5 office job. But the former OpenAI employee said they would put in at least 70 hours a week, much more than they did in previous tech jobs. The person now works at a start-up also focused on AI, and said their work-life balance has improved, working closer to 50-60 hours a week, "outside of sprints".

Tech leaders say AI means less work - their staff say they work up to 90 hours a week
North America
CNBC Finance

Ford's new 'Fathom' electric pickup truck will start at $28,000

Ford Motor announced Thursday that its new midsize electric truck will have a starting price of $28,350 and be called the "Fathom," as the automaker looks to offer an affordable option in the pricey EV truck market. Destination and delivery charges of $1,595 will bring the price to $29,945, coming in at the $30,000 mark the automaker had long promised in touting its upcoming electric vehicles. Ford said preorders for the five-passenger truck will begin in early 2027. Customer deliveries are expected to begin later in 2027. The company has yet to reveal what the new truck will look like. The Fathom is the first vehicle to be built on Ford's new "Universal Electric Vehicle," or UEV, platform, which the company has said is key to bring its Model e business unit from billions of dollars in annual losses to breakeven by 2029. "We are confident that we have the best cost platform and are focused on the right market," a Ford spokesperson said in an email. "We believe the UEV platform will be a strategic advantage -- and we have the best chance to make it work." Ford has said the goal for the UEV platform is for each vehicle built on the system to be profitable within a year of launching and cost-competitive with global EV leaders from China and Tesla. Ford has had a secret unit working on the platform to make the vehicles comparable in price to gas-powered models through new technologies and efficiencies. Ford's push with the UEV platform comes despite a massive slowdown in EV adoption and the elimination of U.S. consumer incentives to buy EVs. The company last year reported $19.5 billion in restructuring charges related to its electric vehicles. The Ford Fathom will be built using the company's new assembly tree manufacturing process at its Louisville Assembly Plant in Kentucky. Get this delivered to your inbox, and more info about our products and services. Data is a real-time snapshot *Data is delayed at least 15 minutes. Global Business and Financial News, Stock Quotes, and Market Data and Analysis.

Ford's new 'Fathom' electric pickup truck will start at $28,000
North America
CNBC Finance

Disney tops earnings estimates as parks and streaming offer a boost

Disney posted mixed quarterly results on Wednesday, far surpassing Wall Street expectations for earnings while slightly missing estimates for revenue. The company's quarterly results were once again lifted by its parks and streaming divisions. Revenue for Disney's experiences segment, which includes global theme parks and cruises, was up 10% year over year to $9.97 billion. That growth came even as macroeconomic uncertainty continues to mount for consumers and appears to weigh on Disney's parks peers. "Domestically we're doing extremely well right now," CFO Hugh Johnston told CNBC, noting that park attendance in the U.S. was up 3% and per capita spending increased 4%. Johnston also called out the "very strong attendance" at Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida. "Those numbers are somewhat different than what you would have seen from our competitor down there, as well as some of the reported traffic coming through Orlando [International] Airport," he added. Last month, Comcast's NBCUniversal reported that its Orlando theme parks saw lower attendance during its fiscal quarter, with executives pointing to "weakness in consumer sentiment and higher travel costs affecting demand." The effects of the U.S.-Israel conflict with Iran and related jump in oil prices have weighed on consumers. Meanwhile Disney's entertainment streaming business – primarily made up of Disney+ and Hulu – once again posted gains. Revenue for the segment increased 11% to $5.53 billion during the quarter. The growth was particularly propelled by an increase in streaming customers and price hikes as well as an increase in advertising revenue. The overall entertainment segment, which also includes traditional TV and theatrical releases in addition to streaming, saw revenue rise 6% to $11.35 billion. The success of "Toy Story 5" in theaters provided a boost, with Disney noting the animated film has surpassed $1 billion at the global box office. Disney has recently stopped reporting some metrics for the segment, such as a breakdown of revenue and operating income for its linear TV networks. It also no longer reports quarterly streaming subscriber numbers. Overall, Disney's revenue rose 7% year over year to $25.25 billion during the quarter.

Disney tops earnings estimates as parks and streaming offer a boost
North America
CNBC Economy

Manufacturing survey shows inflation worries 'worse than pandemic era,' adding to Fed pressure

A burst in factory activity shows the U.S. economy may be escaping the burden of tariffs and gaining manufacturing jobs, while at the same time laboring under the geopolitical uncertainty that some industry leaders say is worse than the Covid pandemic. In its July survey of the manufacturing landscape, the Institute for Supply Manufacturing reported the fastest pace of growth in more than four years — a 55.6 reading that was the best since May 2022 and above Wall Street expectations for 54.0. The index measures the percentage of companies reporting growth, so anything above 50 represents expansion. Leading the way were strong gains in new export orders, backlogs and a 6.3-point spike in production. At the same time, the employment gauge hit its highest since August 2022 and marked an expansion for the first time in 33 months, ISM officials said. The prices index edged lower, but only to 71.1, indicating that nearly three-quarters of all respondents reported that prices were heading still higher, the 22nd straight month that has happened. Moreover, the commentary pointed to a highly volatile environment in which purchasing managers were struggling to stay ahead of events like the Iran war and tariffs. "No normalcy in sight in the world of metals," an executive in the primary metals sector said. "It makes me yearn for the coronavirus pandemic chaos, which was more manageable than whatever this is that we are in." A manager in the electrical equipment, appliances and components industry voiced similar concerns. "The pricing volatility and lead-time extensions in this market are arguably worse than the pandemic era," the respondent said. "During Covid-19, we saw a surge of price hikes and inventory buy-ups, which caused constraints that eventually leveled out." This time around, "We are seeing nothing but consistent upward trends for both pricing and lead times that show no signs of slowing down," the manager said. From a policy standpoint, the manufacturing industry dynamic presents a challenge to the Federal Reserve that several analysts found likely to bolster the case for an interest rate increase soon. A solid economic picture with ongoing price pressures could push Fed Chairman Kevin Warsh and his colleagues into a hike as soon as September, particularly considering the seeming stability of the labor market. Around this time last year, officials were expressing substantial worry over a flat hiring picture, leading to three consecutive rate cuts starting in September. Inflation data for June was fairly positive, as a short pause in Middle East tensions drove down energy prices and shelter costs continued to moderate. However, virtually all pricing gauges show inflation still well above the Fed's 2% target.

Manufacturing survey shows inflation worries 'worse than pandemic era,' adding to Fed pressure