Town Hall News

A look at the day ahead in European and global markets from Vidya Ranganathan. The spotlight moves swiftly from the Fed’s “possible pause or pivot” message overnight to the European Central Bank, where the direction of rates is not in question. It will be a seventh rate rise for the ECB, the central bank for a 20-country zone whose headline inflation is 7%, and it has so far dismissed the […]

(Reuters) -Vodafone and CK Hutchison are close to agreeing to a 15 billion pounds (about $19 billion) combination of their UK telecoms businesses that would create the country’s biggest mobile operator, the Financial Times reported on Thursday. The deal will value the equity of the combined group at about 9 billion pounds, with roughly 6 billion pounds of debt, the FT said, citing three people familiar with the matter. The […]

HONG KONG (Reuters) – HSBC will raise its Hong Kong dollar best lending rate from 5.625% to 5.75% with effect from Friday, the bank said in a statement on Thursday, following the territory’s central bank hiking its base rate by 25 basis points. (Reporting by Selena Li; Editing by Muralikumar Anantharaman) Brought to you by www.srnnews.com

SYDNEY (Reuters) – Australia’s Labor government on Thursday said it would set aside A$11.3 billion ($7.5 billion) in next week’s federal budget to fund a 15% pay rise for retirement home staff as the sector grapples with a shortage of skilled workers. The increase in wages, over the next four years from July 1, will bump up the salaries of 250,000 workers, with registered nurses expected to get an additional […]

By Fransiska Nangoy, Stefanno Sulaiman JAKARTA (Reuters) -Indonesia has cut tax incentives to limit investment in lower quality nickel products as it aims to extract as much value as possible from its rich nickel reserves and push for further downstream investment, a cabinet minister said on Wednesday. The government is aiming for around $95 billion investment this year and will continue to focus on natural resources processing industries but wants […]

SYDNEY (Reuters) – Australia’s exports to China surged to record highs in March as the Asian giant sucked in more iron for its steel industry and lowered barriers to thermal coal shipments amid thawing diplomatic relations. Data out on Thursday showed exports of Australian goods to China hit A$19 billion ($12.71 billion) in March, a rise of 31% from a year earlier and pipping the previous peak from mid-2021. The […]

By Ross Kerber (Reuters) – Median pay for top U.S. CEOs rose 7.7% last year to a record $22.3 million, a new study found, as big stock awards helped the group stay ahead of inflation while U.S. workers’ pay fell behind. Among those receiving big pay increases were the CEOs of Jefferies Financial Group and Prologis Inc according to the study being released on Wednesday by research firm Equilar. The […]

BANGKOK (Reuters) – One of Thailand’s leading prime ministerial candidates Paetongtarn Shinawatra on Wednesday said she would next week resume campaigning after giving birth a few days ago, and remains confident of a landslide election win. Paetongtarn, 36, the frontrunner in many opinion polls for the May 14 election, made her first public appearance in a month to unveil her second child Prutthasin, nickname Thasin, who was born on Monday. […]

By Will Dunham WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Inside a Siberian cave that has been an archeological treasure trove, an elk’s canine tooth – pierced to become a pendant – was unearthed by scientists with care to avoid contaminating this intriguing artifact made roughly 20,000 years ago. The pristine collection of the pendant from Denisova Cave paid dividends. Scientists on Wednesday said a new method for extracting ancient DNA identified the object’s […]