Usa Financial News

Nicholas Stephanopoulos is Kirkland & Ellis Professor of Law at Harvard Law School. Speaking to Srijana Mitra Das, he explains past — and present — legal aspects of the American electoral system: Q. What is the core of your research? A. I teach American constitutional law and election law primarily — within the latter, which is my area of specialisation, I look at topics including voting rights, redistricting, money in politics, minority representation and the like. The US electoral system is quite an enigma. Voters exercise their ballot but an electoral college decides — why? The US does have an odd and complicated system for electing its President — it’s a lot more complex than just having a single nation-wide poll. We basically have 50 separate state-wide elections and each state determines how its Presidential election will be conducted — typically, each state election decides all the President-elect’s electors from it. To win the Presidency, a candidate must win a majority of the total number of these electors. So, the candidates don’t really compete on a nation-wide basis — they compete to win individual states. Most of the candidates’ attention is thus focused on a handful of highly competitive states like Michigan, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Georgia and Arizona. The winner of the voters of those states will have a majority of the total number of electors — and be elected President.

Among the myriad problems Justin Trudeau is confronting, two have an immediacy that must be especially troubling. One is political, the other economic.

Alphabet slid and as signs of moderating inflation kept bets alive that the U.S. Federal Reserve would begin its policy easing cycle next month, albeit with a smaller rate cut. The Google-parent dropped 3.6% after a media report said the U.S. Department of Justice is considering options that include breaking up the online search engine.

The United Auto Workers union has filed unfair labor practice charges against Donald Trump and Tesla CEO Elon Musk

U.S. stocks rose to one of their best days of the year as Wall Street relaxed after the first of several highly anticipated reports on the economy this week came in better than expected

Wholesale price increases in the United States eased in July, suggesting that inflation pressures are further cooling as the Federal Reserve moves closer to cutting interest rates, likely beginning next month

A reporter at a small Wyoming newspaper has resigned after a competitor discovered he was using artificial intelligence to write stories and fabricate quotes, including some by the governor

Year-over-year inflation reached its lowest level in more than three years in July, the latest sign that the worst price spike in four decades is fading and setting up the Federal Reserve for an interest rate cut in September

Hedge fund Elliott Management is escalating its fight against the management of Southwest Airlines

US Government is currently on the brink of going on an all-out war against Google, due to the antitrust case that involved a landmark ruling by a federal court, which claimed that the major tech corporation tried to monopolize the online search market by handing payouts to device manufacturers like Samsung and Apple, in a bid to make Google Search the default search engine on the respective manufactured devices.

US consumer inflation eased slightly in July, according to government data published Wednesday, its smallest 12-month increase since March 2021 and a positive sign for the Federal Reserve as it weighs cutting interest rates. The consumer price index (CPI) rose 2.9 percent last month from a year ago, the Labor Department said in a statement, while a measure that strips out volatile food and energy costs cooled to an annual rate of 3.2 percent. This was slightly lower than the median forecast of economists surveyed by Dow Jones Newswires and The Wall Street Journal.

FS Investments chief market strategist Troy Gayeski provides his outlook for the markets, the banking sector and a possible rate cut.  

As of 1:12 pm IST, Bitcoin (BTC) rose 2.85% over the past 24 hours, trading at $60,948. Ethereum (ETH), the second-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization, gained 2.65%, trading at $2,724.

Nazara Technologies reported a 13% increase in net profit to Rs 23.6 crore for the first quarter of fiscal year 2025, even as its quarterly revenue dipped slightly. The firm’s operating revenue fell 1.7% to Rs 250 crore on a year-on-year basis for the quarter ended June 30, 2024. About 44% of the firm’s revenue for the quarter came from the North American market and 33% from India, while the rest of the world contributed 23%.

The big divide in America is not so much between Republicans and Democrats as between people who invest and people who don’t. For a man of his means who is running for America’s second-highest office, Tim Walz is on the wrong side. In 2022, 58% of Americans owned stock, either directly or indirectly through mutual funds.

Nifty ended near the flatline, while Sensex ended 150 points higher. Broad-based profit booking offset gains in information technology (IT) stocks after soft US producer price data signalled cooling inflation. The 30-share BSE benchmark Sensex surged 0.19% to settle at 79,105, while the broader NSE Nifty gained 4.75 points or 0.02% to end at 24,143.

Millennials are now wealthier than previous generations were at their age. They can’t believe it either.

Supreme Court on Wednesday stayed the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal’s (NCLAT) order, which approved the settlement between edtech firm Byju’s and the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) over unpaid dues of Rs 158 crore. Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing for the BCCI, opposed the appeal against the NCLAT order. Mehta said that because of the stay, the BCCI’s settlement with Byju’s will go. The Supreme Court bench led by Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud asked BCCI to keep the settlement amount in a separate account till August 23 – the next date of hearing.

The UK’s image as a multicultural country is the obvious loser from the far-right violence of the past fortnight, but in time these tragic events may have wider implications for the policing of social media everywhere. The role of X in disseminating often-false information and lionizing rabble-rousers, as well as X owner Elon Musk’s provocative tweets and irresponsible retweets, are all under the microscope.

Mint Quick Edit | Google's search monopoly ruling: Error 404? By locking more users into its ecosystem of services such as Gmail, Google Maps and YouTube, the company gains access to more user data, which in turn lets it develop newer services and better artificial intelligence technology. The court noted that Google accounts for 90% of global web searches, which denies other companies the opportunity to grow and compete with it. Google has inflated ad prices above free-market levels, it said, giving it the power to pay billions for default status and maintain its monopoly.