Town Hall News

By Rowena Edwards LONDON (Reuters) – Oil prices were on track for a weekly loss, despite a rise on Friday on strong economic data in the euro zone and Britain, as economic and interest rate uncertainty weighed. Brent futures for June delivery rose 70 cents, or 0.86%, to $81.80 a barrel by 1343 GMT. West Texas Intermediate crude (WTI) for June delivery was up 74 cents, or 0.96%, at $78.11. […]

By Amanda Cooper and Gertrude Chavez-Dreyfuss LONDON/NEW YORK (Reuters) – The U.S. dollar slipped against most major currencies on Friday, as investors digested mounting evidence that growth in the world’s largest economy is slowing and priced in a likely pause in tightening by the Federal Reserve at the June meeting after a widely-expected interest rate hike next month. In the case of the euro, a surprising recovery in the euro […]

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said Friday that the agency would create a task force to figure out how to use artificial intelligence to do everything from protecting critical infrastructure to screening cargo to ferret out products made with slave labor. While artificial intelligence isn’t new, the sudden popularity of OpenAI’s ChatGPT in recent months has sent officials around the world scrambling to see how they […]

LONDON (Reuters) – The British government named Oliver Dowden deputy prime minister on Friday, replacing Dominic Raab who resigned earlier in the day following a report into claims he bullied colleagues. As deputy prime minister, Raab had no formal powers but stepped in for the prime minister if he was away from parliament or incapacitated. Dowden currently serves as cabinet office minister in Sunak’s government. He was previously chairman of […]

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said Friday that the agency would create a task force to figure out how to use artificial intelligence to do everything from protecting critical infrastructure to screening cargo to ferret out products made with slave labor. While artificial intelligence isn’t new, the sudden popularity of OpenAI’s ChatGPT in recent months has sent officials around the world scrambling to see how they […]

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said Friday that the agency would create a task force to figure out how to use artificial intelligence to do everything from protecting critical infrastructure to screening cargo to ferret out products made with slave labor. While artificial intelligence isn’t new, the sudden popularity of OpenAI’s ChatGPT in recent months has sent officials around the world scrambling to see how they […]

By Sruthi Shankar and Ankika Biswas (Reuters) -Wall Street was set for a subdued open on Friday as investors digested a mixed bag of earnings reports, while awaiting more data for clues on the outlook for U.S. interest rates and the economy. U.S. stocks closed lower on Thursday after disappointing quarterly reports from Tesla Inc and AT&T Inc worsened an already downbeat mood in markets following weak economic data that […]

By Andrew MacAskill, Alistair Smout and Sachin Ravikumar LONDON (Reuters) -British Deputy Prime Minister Dominic Raab resigned from the government on Friday following an independent investigation into complaints that he bullied colleagues, the latest scandal to force out one of Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s top ministers. The loss of the third senior minister over their personal conduct in the last six months will damage Sunak’s efforts to revive the governing […]

(Reuters) -SLB beat Wall Street estimates for first-quarter profit on Friday, as elevated crude prices and tight supplies increased demand for its oilfield services. Global oil prices averaged $81.24 a barrel in the January-March quarter, down nearly 20% from a year earlier but still well above a level where oil and gas producers can drill profitably. Brent futures were trading around $81.50 a barrel on Friday, up half a percent. […]