Town Hall News

By Jamie McGeever (Reuters) – A look at the day ahead in Asian markets from Jamie McGeever. A smattering of inflation data, PMIs and an interest rate decision will grab investors’ attention in the Asian session on Wednesday, against an increasingly gloomy backdrop following the latest warning that the U.S. economy is losing steam. Annual consumer price inflation in the Philippines and Thailand is expected to slow; purchasing managers index […]

By Ankur Banerjee SINGAPORE (Reuters) – The U.S. dollar was stuck near two-month lows on Wednesday as weak economic data bolstered views that the Federal Reserve is near the end of its monetary tightening cycle. Data overnight showed U.S. job openings dropped to their lowest level in nearly two years in February, suggesting that labour market conditions were finally easing. Job openings, a measure of labour demand, were down 632,000 […]

JERUSALEM (Reuters) – Israeli police attacked dozens of worshipers in Jerusalem’s Al-Aqsa Mosque compound before dawn on Wednesday, witnesses said, in what Israeli police said was a response to rioting. The incident sparked protests across the occupied West Bank and the Israeli military said nine rockets were fired from Gaza toward Israel after sirens blared in southern towns. Violence in the occupied West Bank and Jerusalem has surged over the […]

By Stephen Nellis (Reuters) -Alphabet Inc’s Google released on Tuesday new details about the supercomputers it uses to train its artificial intelligence models, saying the systems are both faster and more power-efficient than comparable systems from Nvidia Corp. Google has designed its own custom chip called the Tensor Processing Unit, or TPU. It uses those chips for more than 90% of the company’s work on artificial intelligence training, the process […]

By Ankur Banerjee SINGAPORE (Reuters) – The U.S. dollar was stuck near two-month lows on Wednesday as weak economic data bolstered views that the Federal Reserve is near the end of its monetary tightening cycle. Data overnight showed U.S. job openings dropped to their lowest level in nearly two years in February, suggesting that labour market conditions were finally easing. Job openings, a measure of labour demand, were down 632,000 […]

MANILA (Reuters) – Philippine annual inflation eased for a second straight month in March but still remained above target, the statistics agency said on Wednesday, reflecting slower increases in food and transport costs. The consumer price index rose 7.6% in March, below the 8.0% forecast in a Reuters poll, and marked the slowest pace of price increase in six months. But core inflation, which strips out volatile food and fuel […]

By Nathan Layne and Rich McKay PALM BEACH, Florida (Reuters) – Former President Donald Trump said on Tuesday night, hours after being charged in court, that he was the victim of election interference and he lashed out at New York prosecutor Alvin Bragg for bringing criminal charges against him. “I never thought anything like this could happen in America,” Trump told supporters gathered at his Mar-a-Lago retreat in Palm Beach, […]

By Laila Kearney (Reuters) – Oil prices rose in early Asian trade on Wednesday on anticipated U.S. crude inventory declines and OPEC+’s latest output cut targets. Brent crude futures gained 38 cents to $85.32 a barrel at 0021 GMT. West Texas Intermediate U.S. crude was up 33 cents to $81.04 a barrel. Helping boost oil prices was an industry report showing that U.S. crude stocks fell by about 4.3 million […]

By Karen Freifeld, Jody Godoy and Luc Cohen NEW YORK (Reuters) -Former President Donald Trump was charged on Tuesday with 34 felony counts of falsifying business records in a historic case over allegations he orchestrated hush-money payments to two women before the 2016 U.S. election to suppress publication of their sexual encounters with him.     Prosecutors in Manhattan accused Trump, the first sitting or former U.S. president to face criminal […]