Finance news

Chemicals: EU Commission: BASF is allowed to sell its coatings division to Carlyle

The chemical giant BASF is selling its coatings division to US financial investor Carlyle. The European competition authorities are clearing the way - under conditions.

Retail forex investors flock to Aussie over US dollar trades against yen

+++ USA +++: Trump calls for voluntary security tests for new AI models

Trump names interim successor for US intelligence coordinator +++ Soldiers from USA and Great Britain killed during exercise in Iraq +++ The news blog.

Future presence of US troops in Lithuania is ‘under review,’ says minister

U.S. troops presently stationed in the country are now leaving as expected, but the next scheduled group is not arriving, the defense minister said.

New Shareholder Elliott Pushes for Sale of Australia’s Top Gold Miner

Hedge fund Elliott Investment Management, which has built up a stake in Australia’s biggest gold miner, Northern Star Resources Ltd, is calling for a strategic review of the future value creation, including a sale of the company. Elliott, which discloses that it now holds an investment of well over AUS$1 billion (US$718 million) in Northern Star, has published a presentation titled “Northern Star Rising”, outlining the opportunity for the company to realize the full potential of its world-class

White House Correspondents’ Dinner gets new date in wake of shooting incident

The White House Correspondents’ Association will hold another dinner on July 24, three months after its annual gala was postponed due to a shooting incident at the venue. The black-tie gathering of journalists and government officials was halted on April 25 when a gunman stormed a security checkpoint just outside the ballroom where guests including US President Donald Trump and members of his cabinet were sitting. “We will not allow an act of violence to have the last word, especially during a..

Markets: Dax gets a boost from AI fantasy in the USA

The Dax recovered from the losses at the start of the week on Tuesday. The main tailwind came from the ongoing AI euphoria on the US stock exchanges.

Trump taps housing regulator Bill Pulte as acting intelligence chief

US President Donald Trump has named federal housing regulator Bill Pulte as acting director of national intelligence, entrusting oversight of America’s intelligence agencies to a close political ally whose career has been rooted in housing finance rather than national security. Trump announced the appointment on Tuesday, saying Pulte would replace Tulsi Gabbard, who stepped down last month after citing her husband’s cancer diagnosis. The move places the 38-year-old director of the Federal...

Handelsblatt Live: US stock market expert Koch: AI values ​​continue to dominate Wall Street

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang predicts Marvell will become the next trillion-dollar company - causing the company's shares to skyrocket by 25 percent. According to Markus Koch, this is emblematic of the current AI euphoria in the markets.

How long will it take to replenish the US military’s munitions stockpiles?

This week on The Break Out, we look at how long it might take to restock thousands of US munitions used against Iran.

US, NATO allies to launch scaled-back Baltic Sea drills

Officials say the smaller footprint reflects operational realities rather than waning commitment.

US Navy selects companies for at-sea MUSV prototype testing

The U.S. Navy announced on Friday that it had selected seven companies to compete to secure the service’s Medium Unmanned Surface Vessel contract.

Hong Kong to keep ‘open mind’ on options for struggling postal service

Hong Kong authorities have vowed to develop a long-term road map for the city’s struggling self-financing postal operator and keep an “open-mind” on all options, including privatisation or turning it into a traditional department. Acting Secretary for Commerce and Economic Development Bernard Chan Pak-li revealed the move at the Legislative Council’s economic development panel meeting on Tuesday, saying the proposed HK$4.6 billion (US$587 million) cash injection to Hongkong Post was intended to.

Wall Street: US indices start unchanged, but close to records - Victoria's Secret securities are up almost 50 percent

US President Trump apparently doesn't care whether the Iran negotiations are over - and so do investors on Wall Street. The major US indices are building on their recent gains.

US proposes 25% tariff to punish Brazil over trade practices

The Trump administration has proposed a new punitive tariff of 25 per cent on many imports from Brazil, after deciding its practices were unfair on a range of issues from digital trade to illegal deforestation, top trade official Jamieson Greer said late on Monday. The measures, under the Section 301 trade statute, cover areas such as electronic payment services, preferential tariffs, intellectual property protection and ethanol market access as well, the Office of the United States Trade...

+++ USA +++: Trump names interim successor for intelligence coordinator

Soldiers from USA and Great Britain killed during exercise in Iraq +++ US court allows transgender people to be excluded from joining the military +++ The news blog.

China-Cuba ‘US security threat’, Brazil’s rare earths: Latin America relations reads

We have selected seven of the most interesting and important news stories covering Latin American relations from the past few weeks. If you would like to see more of our reporting, please consider subscribing. 1. US casts Cuba as China-linked security threat while still pushing for talks One day after the United States brought criminal charges against former Cuban leader Raul Castro over the 1996 shooting down of two civilian aircraft, President Donald Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio...

Guest commentary: Germany must secure access to cutting-edge AI

New AI models like Mythos show how vulnerable Europe is to US technology. The only way to combat this is to promote infrastructure on our own soil, say Monika Schnitzer and Daniel Privitera.

China’s Tiger Brokers reports strong results, with no mention of trading crackdown

Tiger Brokers reported a 17.5 per cent year-on-year jump in first-quarter operating profit in an announcement on Tuesday, without any mention of the looming punishment from China’s securities regulator over alleged unlicensed cross-border trading services. Tiger Brokers said its operating profit rose to US$47.6 million in the three months ended March 31, while revenue climbed 26.3 per cent from a year earlier to US$154.9 million. The growth was driven by a 536 per cent surge in Hong Kong trading

Euro debt issuance hits record high as EU strives to supplant US dollar

Turning the euro into a 'truly global currency' is 'both necessary and urgent', says Valdis Dombrovskis

South Korea and Japan eye military logistics pact. Should China be wary?

If South Korea and Japan sign a military logistics support agreement, their ties with the US would deepen as they act in concert to deter China and North Korea, analysts said. However, they noted that several “hurdles” must be cleared before the deal could be sealed, including domestic opposition in South Korea to expanding security ties with Japan due to concerns it could sour relations with China, as well as unease stemming from Tokyo’s wartime history. During the Shangri-La Dialogue in...

Iran conflict: “The US government cannot find a way out”

A quick end to the war in the Middle East is anything but certain, fears security politician and former presidential advisor Jon Finer. The strategic challenges for the USA are growing.

The next tech war? Why biotech may become a new US-China battleground

The wide-ranging geopolitical rivalry between Beijing and Washington could soon expand into biotechnology, raising the prospect of fresh tensions even as American pharmaceutical firms have turned to China’s fast-growing industry for new drug candidates. Biotech in the world’s second-largest economy has long been viewed as a predominantly low-cost manufacturing base with opportunities arising from its vast domestic market. But years of sustained investment, cost advantages and faster development.

Hong Kong pair convicted of murder and HK$3.6 million ransom blackmail plot

Two Hongkongers have been found guilty of murdering a man after a financial dispute and then blackmailing his wife for a HK$3.6 million (US$459,331) ransom for his “release” even though he was already dead. A High Court jury on Tuesday also found that the defendants – Chan Wah-hing, 67, and Chan Yiu-lung, 33 – disposed of the victim’s body in grass near Ping Yeung Village before sealing the site with cement in September 2022. The village is in Ta Kwu Ling in the city’s North district, where both

Protests over US Ebola centre in Kenya kill 2, court keeps block on site

A Kenyan court blocked on Tuesday for another three weeks a proposed US Ebola quarantine facility that has triggered protests killing two people and ordered the government to disclose its agreement with Washington. The proposed 50-bed unit on an air force base in central Kenya for Americans exposed to the virus in Democratic Republic of Congo or Uganda ‌has angered many Kenyans. They accuse the US of offloading the health risk of caring for patients. A Kenyan court last week temporarily...

Live blog from TECH: US investor KKR: “There are so many opportunities in Europe”

Göpel advocates more prevention in security policy +++ Hypo-CTO: “Europe needs a stablecoin tied to the euro” +++ The third day of TECH in the live blog.

Israel-Hezbollah war: Situation in Lebanon: no end to the war in sight

In Lebanon, statements by US President Donald Trump have once again fueled hope for peace. But de-escalation is not in sight. What's next?

Investment: How safe are gold, bonds and currencies in crises?

Current US policy is unsettling investors worldwide. But which values ​​have been the most stable around stock market crashes over the past 100 years?

Semiconductors: Merz relies on digital sovereignty with its own data centers

Chancellor Friedrich Merz is confident that Germany can reduce its dependence on US and Chinese data centers. The plan is to double the computing capacity.

‘Terrified!’: Chinese man spends US$28 to look like Jensen Huang, garners large following

A young man in rural China has gained tens of thousands of online followers in two weeks by impersonating Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang. Yang Yang, 28, who lives in a village in Dandong in northeastern Liaoning province, has gone viral on social media for his videos showing him imitating the artificial intelligence (AI) titan. He released the clips using an account called @huangyinxun, which is how Huang’s Chinese name is pronounced in the northeastern China dialect. Yang has shared over 20 clips...