Town Hall News

By Foo Yun Chee BRUSSELS (Reuters) – Alphabet’s Google Cloud has accused Microsoft of anti-competitive cloud computing practices and criticised imminent deals with European cloud vendors, saying these do not solve broader concerns about its licensing terms. Google Cloud Vice President Amit Zavery urged EU antitrust regulators to take a closer look at the issue. Google Cloud’s first public comments on Microsoft and its EU deals underscores the rivalry between […]

BERLIN (Reuters) – German public sector employers and unions representing around 2.5 million workers entered a truce phase on Thursday after talks failed to resolve a wage dispute, days after the country’s biggest strikes in decades. A third round of negotiations lasting three days ended late on Wednesday without result, the Verdi and dbb unions said. “Despite clear movement, the employers were not prepared to make sufficient concessions to the […]

By Tom Westbrook SINGAPORE (Reuters) – Asia’s stock markets held recent gains on Thursday, as fears of a banking crisis receded and investors weighed whether a break-up of Chinese conglomerate Alibaba signals Beijing’s regulatory storm aimed at tech companies might finally be clearing. MSCI’s index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan rose 0.2%. Like the S&P 500 it’s recovered from March lows hit as fallout from the collapse of Silicon Valley […]

BRUSSELS (Reuters) – The U.S. Treasury Department is expected to give guidance on Friday on tax breaks for consumers buying electric vehicles and Europe’s auto sector and policymakers will be closely watching to assess the consequences for European industry. MADE IN AMERICA CONDITIONS The Treasury is not expected to specify vehicle models but merely lay out the subsidy criteria. Under the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), U.S. consumers buying electric vehicles […]

By Jeslyn Lerh SINGAPORE (Reuters) – Oil was nearly steady on Thursday as a surprise drop in U.S. crude stockpiles offset a smaller-than-expected cut to Russian supplies, while investors closely watched developments on Iraqi Kurdistan oil exports. Brent crude futures fell 5 cents, or 0.1%, to $78.23 a barrel at 0630 GMT, while West Texas Intermediate crude rose 12 cents, or 0.2%, to $73.09 a barrel. Producers have shut in […]

ROME (Reuters) – Pope Francis spent a peaceful night in hospital and medical staff is optimistic about his recovery, Italian news agency ANSA reported on Thursday, after he was hospitalized a day earlier. The 86-year-old pontiff was taken to Rome’s Gemelli hospital on Wednesday and diagnosed with a respiratory infection that required “a few days” of treatment, the Vatican has said. Nursing staff “are very optimistic” that, barring surprises, Francis […]

Frederick Gaudreau netted two short-handed goals, Sam Steel and Marcus Johansson also scored and the Minnesota Wild beat the Colorado Avalanche 4-2 on Wednesday in Denver. Filip Gustavsson made 42 saves to help the first-place Wild (44-22-9, 97 points) increase their lead in the Central Division to three points over both the Avalanche (44-24-6, 94 points) and the idle Dallas Stars (40-20-14, 94 points). Minnesota has five wins in the […]

A look at the day ahead in European and global markets from Ankur Banerjee With sentiment still fragile in the aftermath of the banking crisis, a risk-on rally proved short-lived, leaving the MSCI ex-Japan index swinging between gains and losses on Thursday. The dollar firmed up, continuing its rebound, while gold eased. But as we are at the ‘no news = good news’ stage of the recovery from the banking […]

By Tom Westbrook SINGAPORE (Reuters) – Asia’s stock markets held recent gains on Thursday, as fears of a banking crisis receded and investors weighed whether a break-up of Chinese conglomerate Alibaba signals Beijing’s regulatory storm aimed at tech companies might finally be clearing. MSCI’s index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan rose 0.2%. Like the S&P 500 it’s recovered from March lows hit as fallout from the collapse of Silicon Valley […]