Finance and markets: business, quotes, gold, energy and releases.
Found 970 articles
The era of unchecked AI capital expenditure is hitting a wall as Alphabet and Tesla signal a reversal into cash-burn territory. Compounding the market malaise, a deepening energy crisis in the Middle East has pushed Brent crude above $100 a barrel, fueling fears of a fresh inflationary shock to the global economy.
After months of resistance to an unwanted Italian acquisition, Commerzbank has signaled a shift in strategy. Chairman Jens Weidmann announced the firm will enter negotiations with UniCredit, acknowledging that the Italian bank’s significant stake in the German lender leaves little room for continued defiance.
Non-euro area central banks will gain access to a new liquidity facility starting in the fourth quarter, as the European Central Bank initiates the onboarding process for international institutions. This mechanism aims to provide a flexible buffer for monetary authorities operating outside the common currency zone.
Forty percent of large euro zone companies report shrinking profit margins as they struggle to pass rising energy costs onto households. With consumers increasingly price-sensitive and low-cost Chinese competition intensifying, businesses are failing to translate higher fuel and intermediate goods expenses into retail price increases.
Euro zone consumers significantly lowered their inflation expectations in June, with the median forecast for the coming year dropping to 3.0% from 3.5% in May. This shift, captured in the latest European Central Bank survey, reflects a temporary easing of energy costs following a brief period of regional stability in the Middle East.
Oil prices have surged back to $100 a barrel following renewed hostilities in the Gulf, shattering hopes that the global economy might escape a cycle of stagnant growth and runaway inflation. The rebound, coupled with escalating trade tariffs, is forcing investors to recalibrate their expectations for central bank policy worldwide.
A 10% plunge in London-listed shares greeted Wise on Friday after regulators rejected the fintech firm’s bid to establish a national trust bank in the United States. The decision, driven by evolving Federal Reserve policies, effectively bars the company from settling U.S. dollar payments directly through the central bank's system.
A €322 million capital gain from the sale of its British unit TSB bolstered Sabadell’s quarterly performance, masking the underlying pressure on lending margins. Spain’s fourth-largest bank reported a net profit of €624 million for the second quarter, falling slightly short of the €653 million consensus forecast from analysts.
After a failed attempt to acquire Income Insurance earlier this year, Allianz has secured a major foothold in Singapore by purchasing HSBC’s life and health insurance business for S$2.7 billion. The transaction marks a strategic pivot for the British lender as it seeks to streamline operations across its core Asian markets.
French property group Argan and Belgium’s WDP have announced plans to consolidate their operations, forming a logistics real estate powerhouse valued at €13 billion. The deal arrives as a strategic move to scale market presence, with the companies confirming the merger structure late Thursday.
Tensions are mounting within the European Central Bank as policymakers prepare for a critical autumn debate on how to mitigate deepening financial losses. With stimulus-era policies weighing on balance sheets, officials are weighing options ranging from higher reserve requirements to direct fees on commercial banks to stabilize their fiscal standing.
Capital One executive Brian Johnson, nominated by Donald Trump to lead the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, refused to commit to existing administration proposals for mass staff reductions. During his Senate Banking Committee confirmation hearing on Thursday, Johnson sidestepped questions regarding the future of the agency's current workforce.
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz is preparing a potential cabinet reshuffle as early as Friday, prompted by the sudden resignation of party heavyweight Jens Spahn. The exit, sparked by personal controversy over a surrogacy birth, has triggered a broader reconfiguration of key leadership roles within the CDU/CSU coalition.
European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde confirmed that policymakers will revisit the threshold for banks' minimum reserves, a move that could shift billions in interest costs away from the Eurosystem. While the Governing Council sidestepped the issue during their latest meeting, the proposal remains a priority for the coming months.
A man remains in critical condition following a knife attack inside a bank branch in Regensburg, where an armed suspect is currently holding several people captive. Police have cordoned off the downtown area as specialized negotiation teams and heavily armed units attempt to resolve the standoff.
Two major Israeli banks, Discount and Hapoalim, will terminate their correspondent relationships with Palestinian financial institutions this autumn. The move threatens to sever the primary lifelines for Palestinian trade, potentially triggering a regional economic crisis as banks cite mounting concerns over money laundering and terrorism financing risks.
For the first time since the end of World War II, American households hold more net financial wealth in stocks than in property. This shift, identified by Goldman Sachs, signals a fundamental change in how families build capital and fuels the consumer spending that underpins the broader domestic economy.
A surging stock market has buoyed Ameriprise Financial, with the wealth manager reporting a second-quarter profit of $1.11 billion. The Minneapolis-based firm saw its bottom line expand as a broad rally pushed the value of its fee-generating assets to new heights, outpacing year-ago results despite broader market headwinds.
Chief Executive Jean-Laurent Bonnafe outlined a long-term strategy for BNP Paribas this week, aiming to drive the bank’s cost-income ratio down to approximately 50%. The French lender plans to leverage artificial intelligence and organizational simplification to hit these efficiency targets as it moves past the 2027 fiscal year.
Energy prices surging due to the escalating Middle East conflict have forced the European Central Bank to balance its monetary policy, keeping the benchmark deposit rate at 2.25 percent on Thursday while signaling that further tightening may be required to contain long-term inflationary pressure.
A 91% collapse in second-quarter profit at Lazard highlights the volatility currently gripping the investment banking sector. The firm reported net income of just $5 million for the period ending June 30, a sharp decline from the $55 million earned during the same quarter last year.
Blackstone reported a 26% jump in second-quarter distributable earnings to $1.52 per share, signaling a recovery in deal-making momentum. As the world’s largest alternative asset manager, the firm pushed its total assets under management to $1.35 trillion, driven by a deliberate pivot toward artificial intelligence and data infrastructure.
Alphabet shares tumbled 3% as investors balked at the tech giant’s aggressive capital expenditure, with AI-linked investments now projected to exceed $200 billion this year. While the company’s cloud division reported 80% growth, the market’s focus shifted sharply toward the rising cash burn and lingering delays in the Gemini model.
As President Trump pushes to reshape the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, nominee Brian Johnson will appear before the Senate Banking Committee on Thursday. A former agency official now working for Capital One, Johnson faces a contentious confirmation process defined by his industry ties and the administration’s ongoing hostility toward the watchdog.
Former Barclays CEO Jes Staley is set to appear before the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform this Thursday. Lawmakers are conducting a closed-door hearing to scrutinize Staley’s long-standing professional relationship with the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and the extent of their personal interaction.
After weeks of intense negotiations, European Union ambassadors reached a political agreement on a new sanctions package targeting Russia. The deal, confirmed by four diplomats in Brussels, balances broader punitive measures with specific energy exemptions designed to maintain stability in global markets and address internal member state concerns.
Bankinter outperformed market expectations in the second quarter, posting a net profit of €315 million. Spain’s fifth-largest lender by market value saw a 16% year-on-year increase, driven largely by a surge in commissions and resilient lending income that shielded the bank from broader macroeconomic volatility.
With net profits hitting €2.9 billion for the second quarter, Italy’s UniCredit has abandoned its planned €4.75 billion share buyback. The bank is pivoting its capital strategy toward its aggressive expansion into Germany, betting that its 48% stake in Commerzbank will yield significantly higher returns than repurchasing its own stock.
A 33% leap in second-quarter net profit has propelled BNP Paribas past analyst forecasts, as the French banking giant capitalized on a global boom in equity trading. The results, fueled by a resurgence in retail banking, arrive as the lender hits its key 13% capital ratio target ahead of schedule.
Greg Ward, an executive who spent four decades balancing high-stakes finance with competitive Porsche racing, has been named the seventh CEO of Macquarie Group in its 60-year history. Investors and industry peers characterize the appointment as a tactical move toward stability amid global economic volatility.