World

TOKYO: Japan's household spending grew for a second straight month in July despite a resurgence in COVID-19 cases, but inflationary pressures from the yen's slump to a 24-year-low have cast doubt over a revival in consumption. From falling real wages to shrinking service sector activity, data this week has shown private consumption stalling, undermining some of the gains made in April to June. "Rising prices without wage growth can be an obstacle to the private consumption recovery in the next six months," said Takumi Tsunoda, senior economist at Shinkin Central Bank Research Institute. Household spending rose 3.4 per cent in July from a year earlier, government data showed on Tuesday (Sep 6). The reading was lower than economists' median estimate for a 4.2 per cent gain and followed 3...

Snap shares rose as much as 15% after it confirmed reports it will cut 20% of its more than 6,000-person workforce and said it will scrap several projects, including its Pixy photo-taking drone and its lineup of Snap Originals premium shows. CEO Evan Spiegel announced the moves in a memo Tuesday, and told employees the company needs to restructure its business to deal with its financial challenges. He said the company's current year-over-year revenue growth rate for the quarter of 8% "is well below what we were expecting earlier this year." "While we have built substantial capital reserves, and have made extensive efforts to avoid reductions in the size of our team by reducing spend in other areas, we must now face the consequences of our lower revenue growth and adapt to the market envi...

From above, the 2,000-acre new housing development just outside Austin, Texas, looks much like any other. Each home has solar panels, but that's no longer uncommon. But the Whisper Valley community is entirely unique thanks to what lies below. Far below. The master-planned community, which will eventually include multifamily units and garden apartments in addition to single-family homes, is built atop an enormous geothermal grid. It's the largest ever created for a residential community – essentially a blueprint for greener living. It is also saving its residents thousands of dollars in energy bills. The geothermal grid will heat and cool every home in the community, which, when completed over the next decade, will have more than 7,500 homes. Home construction is still in the beginning ...

:The blank-check acquisition firm that agreed to merge with Donald Trump's social media company failed to secure enough shareholder support for a one-year extension to complete the deal, people familiar with the matter said on Monday. At stake is a $1.3 billion cash infusion that Trump Media & Technology Group (TMTG), which operates the former U.S. president's Truth Social app, stands to receive from Digital World Acquisition Corp, the special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) that inked a deal last October to take TMTG public. The transaction has been on ice amid civil and criminal probes into the circumstances around the deal. Digital World had been hoping that the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), which is reviewing its disclosures on the deal, would have given its bless...

Bill Murray is the latest celebrity to be targeted by crypto thieves. Criminals made off with 119.2 ETH (about $185,000) that the actor had raised during his NFT charity auction. The unknown hackers also attempted to steal non-fungible tokens from Murray's personal collection, which includes two CryptoPunk NFTs, according to Coindesk. CryptoPunks are among the most sought after NFTs and can range in price from $77,600 to $1.2 million in ether, according to GoBankingRates. The "Groundhog Day" star's virtual wallet security team, NFT consultancy firm Project Venkman, was able to protect his NFTs. However, they were unable to protect the funds raised for charity. It could be difficult to retrieve them since cryptocurrency transactions are typically irreversible. Murray's team says they've fil...

Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen speaking at a news conference on July 14. Made Nagi | Reuters Yellen outlines 4 priorities for the $80 billion in funding The memo also describes how the nearly $80 billion in funding provides a "monumental opportunity" to transform the IRS, outlining four priorities. 1. Clear the backlog With millions of unprocessed tax returns, Yellen aims to "fully resolve" the agency's backlog, the memo outlined. Rettig in March pledged to clear the pileup by the end of 2022, and as of Aug. 5, there were 9.7 million unprocessed individual 2021 tax returns, according to the IRS. 2. Improve customer service Yellen also pushed for making "significant improvements" to taxpayer service. While the agency only answered 11% of phone calls during fiscal 2021, the Taxpayer Advoc...

WHAT’S HURTING TECH FIRMS? Stock markets have in general been pummelled since the start of 2022 by concerns over surging inflation and rising interest rates, while Russia’s invasion of Ukraine added geopolitical unrest into the stew of volatility. But the tech sector, especially disruptors such as e-commerce or ride-hailing firms, seems to have taken on a larger hit as investors desert so-called growth stocks for safer pockets in the market like energy and utilities. For instance, the tech-heavy Nasdaq has lost almost 18 per cent year to date, versus the 11 per cent decline in the S&P 500 and 9 per cent in the New York Stock Exchange Composite. “Shares of all kinds of companies have taken a beating this year but tech companies have lost significantly more than other sectors,” said Asso...

:U.S. stocks fell and the dollar rose on Friday, even as Treasury yields gained, with traders anxious about inflation and what the Federal Reserve will do to combat it. With higher rates looming, large technology stocks such as Amazon.com Inc and Alphabet Inc fell more than 2 per cent. Major banks such as JPMorgan Chase & Co, Bank of America Corp , and Deutsche Bank AG declined more than 2 per cent, a reversal of the sector's late-summer rebound. And an earnings miss by heavy equipment maker Deere & Co. added to the risk-off mood. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.86 per cent, to 33,706.15, the S&P 500 lost 1.29 per cent, to 4,228.37, and the Nasdaq Composite dropped about 2 per cent, to 12,705.22. European shares fell on Friday and posted a weekly loss as the highest-ever jump in...

New York : Global equities and the U.S. dollar advanced on Monday despite weaker-than-expected economic data in China that prompted its central bank to cut its lending rate, stoking concerns of a global recession. The People's Bank of China unexpectedly cut key interest rates after the world's second-largest economy reported July data on industrial output and retail sales that missed most analyst estimates. China's strict COVID-19 restrictions have hobbled activity at its main manufacturing hubs and popular tourist spots, including Shanghai, even as a deepening downturn continues in the property market. Markets reversed earlier session losses and were slightly higher. The MSCI world equity index, which tracks shares in 50 countries, was up 0.23 per cent. Overnight in Asia, MSCI's broade...

SHANGHAI: Investors are snapping up China's coal stocks, betting the country's urgency to revive economic growth will override concerns about pollution to drive demand for fossil fuels and reliable energy. China's coal index surged roughly 10 per cent in August, bringing this year's gains to nearly 50 per cent, against a drop of almost 20 per cent for the blue-chip CSI300. Flows are likewise impressive with the biggest listed fund tracking the sector, Guotai CSI Coal & Consumable Fuels Index ETF, reporting that its assets under management grew fivefold from a year earlier to reach 5 billion yuan (US$720 million) at end-June. Beijing must weigh short-term economic stability against longer-term goals of carbon emissions reduction, with markets betting that a focus on the former will preva...