Reuters Financial News

Total nonfarm payrolls published by the US Bureau of Labor Statistics today (4 October) came in significantly above market expectations, with economists polled by Reuters expecting that figure to stand at 140,000. The figures for last month exceeded the upwardly-revised 159,000 jobs created in August and higher-than-average monthly gain of 203,000 in the last 12 months, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The greatest increase took place in the food and drinking services sector, which saw jobs rise by 69,000 in September. Healthcare added 45,000 jobs last month, however be...

DeCicco & Sons CEO John DeCicco Jr. details the impact of the port worker strike on the company as he prepares for a fruit shortage. 

Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said the bigger-than-expected reduction was a sign of confidence that inflation is headed back to the 2% target and should not be seen as any indication of the pace of cuts going forward. Here is a look at the latest comments from Fed policymakers, sorting them under the labels «dove» and «hawk» as a rough shorthand for their monetary policy leanings, as best as can be figured. A dove is more focused on risks to the labor market and may want to cut rates more quickly, while a hawk is more focused on the threat of inflation and may be more cautious about rate cuts.

investors such as Thrive Capital and Tiger Global invest $6.6 billion in OpenAI, the ChatGPT-maker sought a commitment beyond just capital — they also wanted investors to refrain from funding five companies they perceive as close competitors, sources told Reuters. The list of companies includes rivals developing large language models such as Anthropic and Elon Musk's xAI. OpenAI's co-founder Ilya Sutskever's new company, Safe Superintelligence (SSI), is also on the list. These companies are racing against OpenAI to build large language models, which requires billions in funding. Two AI applications firms, including AI search startup Perplexity and enterprise search firm Glean, were also named in OpenAI's conversation with investors, suggesting OpenAI plans to sell more of its tools to enterprises and end users as it makes ambitious revenue growth projection to $11.6 billion in 2025 from $3.7 billion this year. OpenAI, Perplexity and SSI declined to comment. Anthropic and Glean did not immediately respond. XAI could not be reached for a comment.

Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei warned Hezbollah leader Syyed Hassan Nasrallah to flee Lebanon days before he was killed in an Israeli strike and is now deeply worried about Israeli infiltration of senior government ranks in Tehran, three Iranian sources said. In the immediate aftermath of the attack on Hezbollah's booby-trapped pagers on Sept. 17, Khamenei sent a message with an envoy to beseech the Hezbollah secretary general to leave for Iran, citing intelligence reports that suggested Israel had operatives within Hezbollah and was planning to kill him, one of the sources, a senior Iranian official, told Reuters. The messenger, the official said, was a senior Iranian Revolutionary Guards commander, Brigadier General Abbas Nilforoushan, who was with Nasrallah in his bunker when it was hit by Israeli bombs and was also killed.

«At least seven have been wounded at two different locations,» Eli Bin, the head of the Magen David Adom emergency medical service, reported, according to AFP. In a separate statement, Israel emergency service added that paramedics are administering medical treatment to several victims, some of whom are in critical condition and unconscious.

According to flash estimates from the European Union's statistics office Eurostat today (1 October), inflation in the euro area fell to 1.8% in September, down from 2.2% in August, matching forecasts by a Reuters poll of economists. Core inflation, which strips out energy, food, and tobacco, eased slightly from 2.8% in August to 2.7% in September. ECB cuts interest rates to 3.5% amid softer inflation figures and faltering growth Services inflation fell to 4% last month from 4.1% in August, while food, alcohol and tobacco prices ticked up slightly to 2.4% from 2.3%. Non-energy indus...

critical minerals this week, two Indian government sources said, as the two countries try to bolster trade ties despite diplomatic hiccups. They are expected to sign an agreement to partner and cooperate in the area of critical minerals during Indian trade minister Piyush Goyal's visit to Washington, the sources said. Goyal is scheduled to be in the U.S. this week to discuss ways to deepen overall bilateral trade ties, according to one of the sources, weeks before the White House's preparation for a leadership change following the presidential election later this year.

Tata Electronics plant in southern India that makes Apple iPhone components after a fire at the weekend, officials said on Monday as they acted to prevent further damage from the blaze. «We have stationed fire engines at the plant as there are chances of a follow-up fire incident or smoke coming off when the sheds that had fallen during the accident are removed,» M. Velu, a district fire officer, told Reuters by telephone. «We have not yet ascertained the cause of the fire.»

Read more Israel-Hezbollah War Live Updates: The body of slain Hezbollah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah was recovered today.According to a Reuters report quoting sources, the body was found intact with no direct wounds. The cause of death appeared to be blunt trauma from the force of the blast.Israel-Hezbollah War Live Updates: White House national security spokesman John Kirby said on Sunday that Israel's airstrikes had “wiped out" Hezbollah's command structure, but he warned the group will work quickly to rebuild it.“I think people are safer without him walking around," Kirby said of Nasrallah.

Cloudflare has denied any role in hosting two websites run by a hacker offering for sale stolen personal data and medical records of customers of top Indian insurer Star Health. The statement comes after the company was made party to an Indian lawsuit filed by Star Health last week, in which the insurer alleged that Cloudflare hosted the websites in question. «Cloudflare is not the host for the domains in question,» the firm told Reuters, adding that it works as a pass-through service situated between a website host and an end-user, which is why one may see a Cloudflare IP address.

Armed men fired shots in the air and shut down shops in parts of Beirut and Hezbollah supporters said they were in a state of shock and disbelief on Saturday after the death of the Lebanese armed group's leader, Hassan Nasrallah. Hezbollah confirmed on Saturday Nasrallah had been killed, issuing a statement hours after the Israeli military said it had eliminated him in an airstrike on the group's headquarters in Beirut's southern suburbs on Friday. Nasrallah's death marked a devastating blow to Hezbollah as it reels from an intense campaign of Israeli attacks, and even as the news emerged some of the group's supporters were desperately hoping that somehow he was still alive.

Makwanpur district are missing, believed to have been caught in a landslide triggered by heavy rains, the ANFA said on Saturday. The rains, which have caused several fatalities in the area, led to the incident. The incident occurred in Indrasarowar, not far from the capital Kathmandu, while the players were moving to a safer location, ANFA said in a statement. «Search efforts are currently underway… the other players who were at the same location have been safely moved to a secure area,» ANFA added.

landslides that killed at least 10 people with seven missing during the last 24 hours, while disrupting transport, officials said on Saturday. Most rivers in the Himalayan nation have swollen, spilling over roads and bridges, authorities said, after nearly a week's delay in the retreat of South Asia's annual monsoon rains brought torrential downpours across the region. Police were working to clear debris and re-open roads to traffic after landslides blocked highways at 28 locations, police spokesman Dan Bahadur Karki said.

Produce importer Peter Kopke, Sr. discusses the impact of a looming port strike on The Bottom Line.

cancer therapy developer Bicara Therapeutics became a publicly listed company after getting listed on Nasdaq on Wednesday. The Boston-based company is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company for bifunctional therapies for patients with solid tumors. Claire Mazumdar, chief executive of Bicara, said the company now has the capital and resources for its clinical studies following the initial public offering (IPO).

Microsoft-backed OpenAI is working on a plan to restructure its core business into a for-profit benefit corporation that its non-profit board will no longer control, Reuters reported, a move which has rubbed Elon Musk the wrong way. Musk, who was among the founders of the artificial intelligence (AI) startup in 2015, took to X, to say, “You can’t just convert a non-profit into a for-profit. That is illegal,” after a user questioned OpenAI’s move.

food catering firm Sodexo is exploring a potential acquisition of its U.S. rival Aramark, Bloomberg News reported on Wednesday. Sodexo has been periodically discussing the deal with food and facilities management provider Aramark in recent months, the report said, citing people familiar with the matter. However, there is no guarantee that the talks will lead to a deal and, in any case, a potential deal could face antitrust scrutiny. Sodexo would also need to secure the funds for such a sizeable acquisition, the report added.

National Association of Wholesaler-Distributors CEO Eric Hoplin discusses potential port strikes on Mornings with Maria.

A strike at the South Korean group's plant near the city of Chennai has entered its third week, with more than 1,000 workers disrupting operations and demanding higher wages and union recognition at the plant. The minister has urged the state government to intervene for an «early and amicable» resolution, the source told Reuters.

Trump made a statement during a rally at Pennsylvania that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is in support of the Democratic Party and wants to see Vice President Kamala Harris as the upcoming US President. According Reuters, Donald Trump also added that Volodymyr Zelensky is the best salesman, the world has ever seen because whenever Volodymyr Zelensky visits the US, he walks away with approximately $60 billion. President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky is in US right now to attend the 79th session of UN General Assembly where some important decisions might be taken regarding the ongoing Russia-Ukraine War. Former US president Donald Trump’s camp claimed that Volodymyr Zelensky is having a wrong idea because only Donald Trump as a US President has the capacity of having a peaceful conversation with Russia which will eventually help Ukraine, reported Reuters. Also Read: If Trump loses U.S. elections, his son Donald Trump Jr. may be dumped by his girlfriend Kimberley Guilfoyle for adultery