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But the positive outlook continues, with forecasts of US Federal Reserve rate cuts and persistent geopolitical tensions underpinning demand for the metal. At 08:59 a.m. ET (1259 GMT), spot prices of gold today were at $3,034.02 an ounce, down 0.3%. US gold futures were also down a bit by 0.1% to $3,040.90 an ounce, as mentioned in a report by Reuters. In spite of the slight pullback, gold is set for a third straight weekly gain, up 1.7% this week.

Perplexity AI is in talks to raise funds at an $18 billion valuation, a person familiar with the matter told Reuters on Thursday, as the Nvidia-backed startup looks to grow and capture soaring demand for its search tools. The jump in valuation doubles the previous $9 billion figure, reported by Reuters in November. Perplexity is an AI startup that provides information by searching the internet, just like ChatGPT and Google's Gemini, and is backed by Amazon.com founder Jeff Bezos and Japan's SoftBank Group.

Mounjaro in India on Thursday, beating rival Novo Nordisk for a much-awaited entry into the world's most populous country grappling with increasing rates of obesity and diabetes. U.S.-based Lilly and Danish Novo Nordisk have seen skyrocketing global demand for their innovative weight-loss drugs, with investor interest also boosting the drugmakers' valuations.

Earlier this month, U.S. representatives prevented the World Bank-linked Climate Investment Funds (CIF) from approving a $500 million disbursement to South Africa, the report added. The funding was expected to unlock an additional $2.1 billion from multilateral development banks and other financial sources and a fresh attempt to approve the disbursement may be made at CIF meetings in June, the report said. CIF is one of the world's largest multilateral funds aimed at scaling climate solutions in developing countries. If confirmed, the move would be among several actions by former President Donald Trump's administration to scale back participation in multilateral climate initiatives.

Akasa Air, with top executives privately criticising Boeing for delayed plane deliveries and scrambling to assuage hundreds of anxious pilots who remain idle without work. Troubles at Akasa, backed by an Indian billionaire's family, are among the starkest examples of how Boeing's woes are crippling airlines globally and having a ripple effect on their planned expansions. The Mumbai-based low-cost airline, which started operations about three years ago, has a fleet of 27 planes, but has 226 jets — all Boeing 737 MAXs — on order. Deliveries have been delayed as Boeing's 737 programme faced regulatory scrutiny after a mid-air cabin panel blowout last year and suffered from the effects of a seven-week workers' strike.

Donald Trump's reciprocal tariffs against other countries come into effect may not be as menacing as it seems because there is little clarity on how the tariffs will be imposed and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has put a twist in Trump's policy. It seems the policy is a work in progress, and nobody is yet sure how it will take effect. Reciprocal tariffs roughly mean hiking rates on imports to match the level that other countries apply to US products.

Shapoorji Pallonji Group is likely to raise around $3.3 billion through sale of bonds in the first quarter of the next financial year, two merchant bankers said on Wednesday. The group could raise anywhere between 270 billion rupees to 290 billion rupees ($3.1 billion to $3.35 billion) through a group entity, and the bonds are expected to be subscribed by private credit funds, the bankers said.

Russian sabotage, disinformation and cyberattacks, easing pressure on Moscow as the Trump Administration pushes Russia to end its war in Ukraine. Former President Joe Biden last year ordered his national security team to establish working groups to monitor the issue amid warnings from U.S. intelligence that Russia was escalating a shadow war against Western nations. The plan was led by the president's National Security Council (NSC) and involved at least seven national security agencies working with European allies to disrupt plots targeting Europe and the United States, seven former officials who participated in the working groups told Reuters. Before President Donald Trump was inaugurated, his incoming administration was briefed by Biden officials about the efforts and urged to continue monitoring Russia's hybrid warfare campaign, the former U.S. officials said. However, since Trump took office on Jan. 20 much of the work has come to a standstill, according to eleven current and former officials, all of whom requested anonymity to discuss classified matters. Reuters is the first to report on the full extent of the Biden administration effort and how multiple different U.S. agencies have since paused their work on the issue.

JSW Steel and SAIL among others are likely to gain attention on Wednesday, March 19, after the Directorate General of Trade Remedies (DGTR) recommended a 12% safeguard duty on the import of certain steel products. Due to this update, the shares of other steel companies like Tata Steel, Jindal Steel and Power, NMDC Steel, and Jindal Stainless may also attract investor attention.

state and local governments, deepening his drive to overhaul the Federal Emergency Management Agency. The order, first previewed by the White House on March 10, calls for a review of all infrastructure, continuity, and preparedness and response policies to update and simplify federal approaches. It said «common sense» investments by state and local governments to address risks ranging from wildfires to hurricanes and cyber attacks would enhance national security, but did not detail what they were or how they would be funded. «Preparedness is most effectively owned and managed at the state, local, and even individual levels, supported by a competent, accessible, and efficient federal government,» the order said. «When states are empowered to make smart infrastructure choices, taxpayers benefit.» The order calls for revising critical infrastructure policy to better reflect assessed risks instead of an «all-hazards approach,» the White House said in a fact sheet on the order.

Samsung Electronics said on Wednesday it is looking to drive growth as it faced tough questions from shareholders after its failure to ride an artificial intelligence boom made it one of the worst-performing tech stocks last year. The South Korean firm has been suffering from weak earnings and sagging share prices in recent quarters after falling behind rivals in advanced memory chips and contract chip manufacturing, which have enjoyed strong demand from AI projects. «I have never been to a Samsung AGM since I became its shareholder in 2000, but I wanted to see what executives have to say (this time) and what they will do,» a 65-year old shareholder who only gave his family name, Lee, told Reuters ahead of the meeting. «They should go all-in on the memory chip business, where they can excel, or do something about the foundry,» he said. In internal meetings, Samsung has acknowledged it has lost ground. This is particularly true in semiconductors, where it lags SK Hynix in high bandwidth memory (HBM) chips that Nvidia and others rely on for AI graphic processing units.

Alphabet will be acquiring cybersecurity startup Wiz for $32 billion. This is Alphabet’s largest-ever deal as it seeks to enhance cloud computing security. The price of the acquisition, announced on Tuesday, is significantly higher than the $23 billion Google had initially offered for Wiz in 2023. The all-cash acquisition is expected to strengthen Google Cloud’s security capabilities against rivals Amazon Web Services and Microsoft Azure. The 2023 deal had fallen through over antitrust concerns. This led the cybersecurity startup to shift its focus towards an initial public offering (IPO) and boosting recurring revenue. However, with shifting regulatory policies and Wall Street’s optimism about a more business-friendly environment under Donald Trump, Google successfully revived and completed the deal.

Air India CEO Campbell Wilson on Tuesday said the global aircraft shortage hampering airline growth will persist for four to five years as supply snags hobble production at jetmakers Boeing and Airbus. Speaking at an event organised by travel news website Skift, Wilson said he sees pinch points in the supply of narrowbody jet engines, business and first class seats, and some elements of aircraft fuselages. Air India is in the midst of an ambitious turnaround strategy two years after Tata Group took control of the airline, but its restructuring efforts have been complicated by jet delivery delays.

Alphabet's latest offer is higher by roughly a third of the $23 billion deal it offered last year, which Wiz called off in July 2024 over concerns it would not clear antitrust hurdles.

artificial intelligence model DeepSeek is banned on their government devices, according to a message seen by Reuters and two people familiar with the matter. «To help keep Department of Commerce information systems safe, access to the new Chinese based AI DeepSeek is broadly prohibited on all GFE,» said one mass email to staffers about their government-furnished equipment. «Do not download, view, access any applications, desktop apps or websites related to DeepSeek.»

New York State plummeted this month by the most in nearly two years, a survey showed on Monday, with new orders falling sharply and input prices climbing at the fastest rate in more than two years in the latest sign the economy may be weakening, as per a report. The Federal Reserve Bank of New York said its Empire State manufacturing index plunged by nearly 26 points — the largest drop since May 2023 — to a reading of negative 20.0 from positive 5.7 in February, Reuters reported. The reading was lower than all 26 forecasts in a Reuters poll of economists, which had a median expectation of minus 1.50. «New orders and shipments declined,» the report said. «Input prices increased at the fastest pace in more than two years, and selling price increases also continued to pick up. Optimism about the outlook waned considerably for a second consecutive month.» It was the latest survey to paint a picture of a weakening factory sector struggling to adjust to President Donald Trump's roll-out of tariffs on a rapidly widening range of imported goods. Trump on Monday repeated his threat that more tariffs are coming in early April, and he reiterated that he had no intention of granting exemptions for the hefty levies on steel and aluminum imports that went into effect last week.

Economists had expected the February trade deficit to ease to $21.65 billion, according to a Reuters poll. India’s exports last month were affected, with concerns growing about the looming effects of Trump's proposed tariffs, according to government sources cited by Reuters. In addition to this, geopolitical risks, especially concerns over tariffs, will continue to influence trade dynamics, as per a UBI report. The reduction in the merchandise trade deficit was mainly driven by a moderation in the Non-Oil-Non-Gold (NONG) segment, supported by seasonal factors during the quarter, the report added.

Donald Trump's tariffs on Mexico are not imposed, the threats and uncertainty caused by on and off-again levies have already cost the tequila sector money and could drive a temporary slowdown in sales, producers, investors and analysts told Reuters. The 25% tariffs, initially due to be applied from February and briefly in place on March 4 before being suspended on both occasions, threatened billions of dollars of imports from huge producers like Diageo and Becle alone. They prompted businesses and consumers to stockpile tequila, which can only be made in Mexico, freeze expansion plans and divert resources elsewhere. Some producers, restaurants and drinkers accumulated hefty tequila stock, sometimes of up to six months — a bet which will pay off if tariffs are imposed. But producers say this also has a cost, hurting the sector even if the tariffs are rolled back. «No matter what happens… a price has been paid,» said Mike Novy, chief executive officer of Calabasas Beverage Company, which operates the tequila brand founded by Kendall Jenner, 818 Tequila.

State Bank of India, the country's largest lender by assets, is shelving plans to raise funds this fiscal year, discouraged by elevated bond yields despite a policy rate cut and liquidity boost from the central bank, three sources aware of the matter said on Monday. The bank had planned to raise as much as 150 billion rupees (about $1.7 billion) through sale of bonds before the end of March, but will now tap the market in the next financial year that starts in April, the sources said. «The bank has been waiting for an opportune time to enter the market, but yields have stayed high for the last several weeks, and hence the bank is avoiding tapping the market in the near term,» one of the sources said.

China's economy showed a modest pickup for the first two months of the year, according to data published Monday by the National Bureau of Statistics, as Beijing reiterated its plan to bolster domestic consumption.

US stock market and Wall Street investors look for hints about further Federal Reserve interest rate cuts that could restore some calm to S&P 500, Dow Jones, and Nasdaq Composite, as per a report. A weeks-long slide in stocks accelerated in recent days with the benchmark S&P 500 on Thursday confirming it was in a correction, ending down over 10 per cent from its February 19 record high. While stocks ended the week on a positive note, with the S&P 500 rebounding sharply on Friday, the decline had wiped off more than $4 trillion in market value, with some of Wall Street's highest fliers such as Nvidia and Tesla getting pummeled, Reuters reported. Some prominent strategists have become more downbeat on the outlook for the economy and for U.S. stocks. Goldman Sachs dropped its 2025 year-end target for the S&P 500 to 6,200 from 6,500, while Yardeni Research lowered its «best-case» target for the index to 6,400 from 7,000. The S&P 500 ended on Friday at 5,638.94, as per the report on Reuters. Volatility has been rising with the Cboe Volatility index this week hitting its highest level since August before receding somewhat. Tariff news is still likely to be at the forefront for markets in the coming week, with analysts saying the levies could bite into corporate profits and drive up consumer prices.