Reuters Financial News

By Katherine Masters

British wages rose at the joint fastest pace on record but official data also showed signs that the inflationary heat in the labour market is cooling, offering the prospect of relief for the Bank of England.Sterling edged up but yields on two-year British government bonds, which are sensitive to speculation about interest rates, fell sharply, suggesting investors were dialling back their bets on how much higher the BoE would go with its run of rate hikes. «There were some tentative signs that the labour market may be turning… But this has to be balanced against still persistently strong wage growth,» Ellie Henderson, an economist with bank Investec, said. «The Bank will likely want to see an easing in the wage growth numbers before it can think about declaring an end to the fight against inflation.» The 7.3% surge in basic earnings in the three months to May compared with the same period a year ago was the joint highest alongside April's growth — which was revised up on Tuesday from an initial 7.2% — and the second quarter of 2021, according to data which goes back to 2001.

Nirmala Sitharaman on Tuesday said that the GST Council has decided to impose 28% tax on the turnover of online gaming, horse racing and casinos on full face value. The panel, headed by the Union finance minister and comprising of representatives of all states and UTs, decided on tax rate based on recommendation of a group of ministers that looked at taxing casinos, horse racing and online gaming. The issue before the GoM (group of ministers) was whether to impose a 28 per cent GST on the face value of bets, or gross gaming revenue, or just on platform fees.

By Abhirup Roy

Fox News senior strategic analyst Gen. Jack Keane (ret.) discusses Biden's comment on the U.S. military's ammunition and China's rising aggression. 

By Krystal Hu

India is demanding higher standards from small and medium-sized drugmakers, the health minister said on Tuesday, in a bid to improve product quality after Indian-made cough syrups were linked to deaths of children overseas. India's image as the «pharmacy of the world», offering cheaper alternatives to Western products, took a hit following the deaths of at least 89 children in Gambia and Uzbekistan last year after consuming cough syrups made in India.

Sapphire Venture plans to invest over $1 billion in AI enterprise startups, doubling down on the technology's adoption by companies across the world, its president Jai Das said at the Reuters Momentum conference in Austin on Tuesday. The $1 billion capital will come from Sapphire's exiting funds, which have $10 billion capital under management and about $3 billion capital waiting to the deployed.

GlobalFoundries has shelved its plan to appoint former Amazon executive Tim Stone as chief financial officer, it said on Tuesday, two months after choosing him. The company, which did not disclose the reason in its statement, declined a Reuters request for further comment.

rupee rose for a second straight session against the U.S. dollar on Tuesday, mirroring similar moves in Asian peers, as risk appetite in the region rose on fresh bets of the Federal Reserve nearing the end of its rate tightening cycle. The rupee ended at 82.3650 against the dollar compared with 82.5650 in the previous session.

Nifty ended higher on Tuesday amid broadly positive global cues ahead of the US inflation data which will influence the next move of the Federal Reserve on rate hikes. The Federal Reserve might have to increase interest rates to bring down inflation, but many Fed officials think that the current phase of monetary policy tightening is nearing its end.  "The Federal Reserve will likely need to raise interest rates further to bring down inflation that is still too high, but the end to its current monetary policy tightening cycle is getting close, several US central bank officials said on Monday," reported Reuters. Investors are awaiting US inflation data on Wednesday.

By Safiyah Riddle

Foxconn had concerns over the financial situation of Vedanta, which led to the Taiwanese firm parting ways with Vedanta on a chipmaking joint venture, sources familiar with the information told Reuters. Indian conglomerate Vedanta Ltd's London-based parent, Vedanta Resources, has been plagued by a rising debt pile.

By Jihoon Lee

LONDON (Reuters) -British wages excluding bonuses hit their joint highest growth rate on record, rising by 7.3% in the three months to May from the same period a year earlier, according to official data that are likely to reinforce the Bank of England's inflation worries.

All the move-stars flaunted their Barbie-inspired outfits on the movie premiere of this year's most anticipated movies, on Sunday. From Greta Gerwig to Ryan Gosling, all the Barbie-movie star cast emanated their Barbie-vibe at the function.  The movie is set to hit on movie screens on July 21. The lead cast of the movie is on her nationwide campaign for the past few months.

Vedanta declined almost three per cent in morning trade on BSE on Tuesday, a day after Taiwan-based firm Foxconn said it had decided to pull out of a $19.5 billion semiconductor joint venture (JV) with Vedanta. The stock opened at ₹275 against the previous close of ₹282.25 and fell 2.6 per cent to ₹274.90 soon.

Meta Platforms' social media apps Instagram and Facebook, messaging app WhatsApp and Twitter-rival Threads were all back up after a brief outage affecting thousands of users on Monday, according to Downdetector.com. At the peak of the outage, lasting over an hour, over 14,000 users reported issues with accessing Instagram, while around 7,000 and 2,700 users faced issues with Facebook and WhatsApp, respectively.

Thailand is at the core of a looming deadlock that could tip Southeast Asia's second-largest economy into crisis, with reformers once again vying to dislodge the grip on power of the royalist military establishment. Despite a stunning victory with its allies in a May 14 election over pro-military parties, the progressive Move Forward party led by Pita Limjaroenrat faces an uncertain path to government.

inflation data due on Wednesday.  On Monday, rupee snapped four-day losing streak to end at 82.57 a dollar. Comments from US Federal Reserve officials that additional interest rate hikes were needed, also indicated the end to the US central bank's current monetary policy tightening cycle is getting close, Reuters reported.

Economic Times has reported.  The Indian Space Policy 2023 was approved by a Cabinet Committee helmed by PM Modi. The policy delineates responsibility to ISRO, New Space India Limited (NSIL, a space sector PSU), and IN-SPACe.