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digital assets ahead of the November election. On Wednesday night, the new group Crypto4Harris convened its first virtual gathering to discuss how it can support the Vice President's electoral campaign, while also calling for Harris to end the Biden administration's crackdown on the cryptocurrency industry. In a sign of how urgently crypto has become an election issue for Democrats, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer appeared and said he wanted to pass a crypto bill this year, without elaborating.

Grab Holdings missed second-quarter revenue estimates due to slower growth in its mainstay food-delivery business and foreign exchange headwinds, sending its U.S.-listed shares down 5% on Thursday. Growth has been slowing at the Southeast Asian tech company after the pandemic-era surge in food-delivery demand, with Grab laying off 11% of its workforce last year in a major restructuring aimed at narrowing losses. Sales from the deliveries business — its largest — grew 11% to $356 million, lower than Visible Alpha estimates of $362.1 million. That compares to growth of 19% in the first quarter, and a doubling of the business in certain quarters of 2023 and 2022.

Britain's economy grew 0.6% in the second quarter of 2024, official figures showed on Thursday. Economists polled by Reuters had forecast an expansion of 0.6%, building on a rapid 0.7% recovery in the first quarter of the year from a shallow recession in the second half of 2023. At the start of the month the Bank of England raised its annual growth forecast for 2024 to 1.25% from 0.5% due to a stronger-than-expected start to the year and an expectation of 0.7% quarter-on-quarter growth in the three months to June.

Cisco Systems said on Wednesday it was witnessing rebounding demand for its networking equipment and announced a 7% cut in its global headcount to focus on high-growth areas such as AI and cybersecurity. Shares of the company were up 5% in extended trading after it forecast upbeat current-quarter revenue. «Inventory digestion is complete and we're now returning to a more normalized demand environment,» CEO Chuck Robbins said on an analyst call.

Spotify will update its app on Apple devices in the European Union on Wednesday to include prices of its various plans and services, more than three months after the iPhone maker rejected such a move. That rejection was due to Spotify not accepting Apple's Music Streaming Services Entitlement, newly introduced terms governing how music streaming apps in the European Economic Area inform users of other ways to make purchases. The Swedish audio streaming company said while it is now accepting those terms, its iOS app will not give users an external link to make purchases as it does not want to pay Apple a commission on such transactions.

The largest contribution to the headline inflation figure came from gas and electricity prices, as they fell less than they did a year ago, while the largest contribution came from restaurants and hotels, where prices fell. Economists polled by Reuters had expected a headline inflation rise to 2.3%. Core inflation fell from 3.5% in June to 3.3% in July, alongside services inflation which dropped sharply to 5.2% from 5.7% the previous month.  Jeremy Batstone-Carr, European strategist at Raymond James Investment Services, noted that the recent uptick in inflation was «mechanistic» as it...

The Conference Board chief economist Dana Peterson analyzes the job market and consumer confidence on 'Making Money.'

eSentire are exploring options including a potential sale that could value the cybersecurity company at about $1 billion, including debt, according to people familiar with the matter. ESentire — which is owned by investment firms Warburg Pincus, Caisse de depot et placement du Quebec (CDPQ) and Georgian — is working with investment bank Evercore on a sale process that could attract interest from other private equity firms, the sources said, requesting anonymity as the discussions are confidential. Waterloo, Ontario-based eSentire's owners are hoping to command a valuation for the company equivalent to more than 7 times its annual recurring revenue of about $150 million, the sources said, cautioning that no deal is guaranteed.

rupee weakened to a record closing low of 83.97 versus the US dollar on Monday, mirroring the secular decline in Asian currencies that fell on risk aversion ahead of the publication of US consumer price inflation data later this week. The rupee was also pressured by a rise in crude oil prices.

Iran is preparing to supply Russia with hundreds of ballistic missiles. State Department deputy spokesperson Vedant Patel emphasised on Monday that if this transfer occurs, it would mark a significant escalation. On Friday, Reuters reported that dozens of Russian military personnel are being trained in Iran to use the Fath-360 close-range ballistic missile system, according to two European intelligence sources. They added that they expected the imminent delivery of hundreds of the satellite-guided weapons to Russia for its war in Ukraine. According to the report, Russian defence ministry representatives are believed to have signed a contract on Dec. 13 in Tehran with Iranian officials for the Fath-360 and another ballistic missile system built by Iran's government-owned Aerospace Industries Organization (AIO) called the Ababil.

Indian rupee weakened to a record low versus the US dollar on Monday, as Asian currencies fell due to risk aversion ahead of the US consumer price inflation numbers expected this week. The rupee was also pressured by a rise in crude oil prices. The rupee closed at 83.9725 versus the US dollar on Monday, as against its last close of 83.955 versus the US dollar, LSEG data showed. The currency was trading in a tight three paisa range of 83.95 and 83.97

sports betting. Asher, who asked that the Thomson Reuters Foundation use a pseudonym to protect the privacy of his recovery group, was drawn into gambling by online poker. «It is just so easy to open these gambling accounts online,» he told the Thomson Reuters Foundation. «At one point I lost over $500,000 to this addiction and almost lost my family.»

Bank of India ensured the currency did not weaken more. The rupee closed at 83.9725 against the U.S. dollar, after closing at 83.9550 in the previous session. The currency hovered in a narrow range between 83.95 and 83.97 during the session.

Elon Musk endorsed Donald Trump for president last month, the Tesla founder and chief executive backed a candidate who vows to «drill, baby, drill,» «end the electric vehicle mandate» and reduce subsidies of the sort that helped Tesla become the U.S.'s dominant EV manufacturer. So instrumental have government loans, tax breaks and other EV policies been to Tesla's fast growth that despite Musk's gradual embrace of the former president and his Republican Party rhetoric in recent years, the company continues to lobby the U.S. and state governments for benefits championed by the Democratic Party. In February, for instance, Tesla in a filing with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, or EPA, urged the Biden administration to allow California to pursue stricter vehicle emissions rules than the rest of the country — an idea Trump opposes.

Paramount Global is set to reduce about 15 percent of its US workforce in the coming weeks, according to company executives on an earnings call Thursday, as per a report on AFP. The move comes ahead of a planned merger with Skydance Media, which had been announced in July and marked a key step forward for the movie studio after it co-produced the 2022 Tom Cruise blockbuster «Top Gun: Maverick» with Paramount. Paramount had previously identified cost savings across the company, and the layoffs are part of its efforts to realize them, said Chris McCarthy, who heads Showtime/MTV Entertainment Studios and Paramount Media Networks.

Tesla has stopped taking orders for the least expensive version of its Cybertruck, which is priced at $61,000, while making the $100,000 version available for immediate order and delivery as soon as this month, its website showed. Demand and supply for the Cybertruck are closely monitored by Tesla investors and fans, because Chief Executive Elon Musk has poured resources into the truck's development and plans to make 200,000 per year. As recently as October, Musk said Tesla had 1 million reservations for the truck. Some customers have indicated they are waiting for less expensive versions, because prices are higher and driving ranges lower than originally forecast.

U.S. inflation numbers, the latest Japanese economic data and a slew of UK data could give investors a fresh steer.

Biden administration has decided to lift a ban on U.S. sales of offensive weapons to Saudi Arabia, the State Department said on Friday, reversing a three-year-old policy to pressure the kingdom to wind down the Yemen war. The State Department was lifting its suspension on certain transfers of air-to-ground munitions to Saudi Arabia, a senior department official confirmed. «We will consider new transfers on a typical case-by-case basis consistent with the Conventional Arms Transfer Policy,» the official said. Reuters was first to report the decision earlier, citing five sources.

Iran to use the Fath-360 close-range ballistic missile system, two European intelligence sources told Reuters, adding that they expected the imminent delivery of hundreds of the satellite-guided weapons to Russia for its war in Ukraine. Russian defence ministry representatives are believed to have signed a contract on Dec. 13 in Tehran with Iranian officials for the Fath-360 and another ballistic missile system built by Iran's government-owned Aerospace Industries Organization (AIO) called the Ababil, said the two intelligence officials, who requested anonymity in order to discuss sensitive matters. Citing multiple confidential intelligence sources, the officials said that Russian personnel have visited Iran to learn how to operate the Fath-360 defence system, which launches missiles with a maximum range of 120 km (75 miles) and a warhead of 150 kg. One of the sources said that that «the only next possible» step after training would be actual delivery of the missiles to Russia.

Cisco will cut thousands of jobs in a second round of layoffs this year as the U.S. networking equipment maker shifts focus to higher-growth areas, including cybersecurity and AI, people familiar with the matter said. The number of people affected could be similar to or slightly higher than the 4,000 employees Cisco laid off in February, and will likely be announced as early as Wednesday with the company's fourth-quarter results, said the sources, who were not authorized to speak publicly. Reuters exclusively reported the job cut that San Jose, California-based Cisco announced in February, prior to the company announcing it.

Speaking to reporters at his Mar-a-Lago residence in Florida on Thursday (8 August), Trump said: «I feel the president should have at least [a] say in there», according to reports by Reuters. «I think that in my case, I made a lot of money, I was very successful, and I think I have a better instinct than in many cases, people that would be on the Federal Reserve or the chair.» Global small-cap stocks resurgence put to the test by US recession concerns Although the Fed chair and its six other members are nominated by the president and subject to confirmation by the US Senate, they a...