Quirino Mealha
Economy
US debt tops $40 trillion as Treasury doubles bond buybacks
The US Treasury moved on Wednesday to calm a bond market rattled by surging borrowing costs, doubling the size of its debt buybacks hours before separate figures confirmed that the national debt had climbed past $40 trillion (€34.4tn) for the first time.
Markets
SEC unveils new crypto rules hailed as win for digital asset industry
The US Securities and Exchange Commission has proposed a sweeping new framework for crypto assets, offering firms two clear paths to raise money without full securities registration. Industry groups have broadly welcomed the plan, calling its terms considerably more generous than anticipated.
Tech News
OpenAI slows down its model development amid cybersecurity concerns
OpenAI announced it has paused key stages of its most advanced AI training for two weeks and is overhauling security across its research operations, a month after one of its own models broke out of a test environment and infiltrated the systems of AI platform Hugging Face.
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Economy
Midnight showdown looms as US and Canada meet to avoid Trump tariffs
The US and Canada are locked in last-minute talks to prevent a fresh wave of tariffs from striking at 00:01 ET on Wednesday. US President Donald Trump has vowed to slap 50% duties on $20 billion (€17.2bn) worth of Canadian products if a deal is not reached in time.
Markets
Nasdaq confirms 23-hour trading from December with overnight session
Nasdaq will begin trading US stocks for nearly 23 hours a day from 6 December, adding a new overnight session from 9pm to 4am ET, as the exchange races to compete with round-the-clock crypto and tokenised markets and with investors abroad clamouring for access.
Markets
What Nvidia's $500 billion Wall Street deal signals about the AI boom
Nvidia and six of the world's largest investment firms announced plans last week to channel more than $500 billion (€433bn) into AI infrastructure, an arrangement designed to let tech companies build data centres without loading the cost onto their own balance sheets.
Economy
Trump imposes drone tariffs of up to 100% with a lower rate for the EU
US President Donald Trump has imposed tariffs of up to 100% on imported drones and their components, with EU manufacturers facing a preferential rate of 15% and British firms 10%, in a measure meant to rebuild American production of a technology central to modern warfare.
Business
BP returns to Venezuela as post-Maduro energy opening accelerates
Venezuela has awarded BP a licence to develop the offshore Loran gas field alongside state-backed partners from the UAE and Qatar, marking the British company's return to a country whose energy sector has been reopening to foreign investors since US forces captured Nicolás Maduro.
Business
What is Truth API? The $100,000 feed that has landed Trump a lawsuit
Two press organisations have asked a Manhattan federal court to shut down Truth API, the service launched this month that sells Wall Street firms faster access to US President Donald Trump's Truth Social posts for up to $100,000 a month.
Markets
IEA and OPEC split on oil demand estimates as Hormuz closure drags
The world's two most watched oil forecasters published sharply conflicting views of 2026 on Wednesday, with the IEA deepening its call for the first annual demand decline since the pandemic while OPEC still sees consumption growing, as the closure of the Strait of Hormuz drags on.
Economy
US inflation eases to 3.4% in July as Fed's next call stays uncertain
US inflation eased for a second month in July, with consumer prices rising 3.4% from a year earlier, down from 3.5% in June, exactly as economists had forecast, a reading that hands neither side of a divided Federal Reserve fresh ammunition before next month's rate decision.
Economy
Extreme heat threatens Italy's Parmigiano-backed loans
Extreme heat is squeezing Italy's "cheese banks", the climate-controlled vaults in Emilia-Romagna where hundreds of thousands of Parmigiano Reggiano wheels sit as collateral for farm loans, pushing up energy bills and thinning the milk supply that fills them.
Markets
Oil prices rise as Trump and Iran trade reparations demands
Oil prices and US government bond yields both climbed on Tuesday after US President Donald Trump answered Iran's demand for war reparations with a sweeping counterclaim of his own, pushing a deal to reopen the Strait of Hormuz further out of reach.
Economy
ECB holds rates at 2.25% as reignited Iran war boosts inflation fears
The European Central Bank left interest rates unchanged on Thursday, pausing after June's first hike in three years as easing inflation bought policymakers time, while renewed fighting in the Middle East caused a new rise in energy prices, keeping another hike firmly on the table for autumn.
Economy
Oil producers race to build alternatives to Hormuz as oil hits $100
Gulf oil producers are spending billions of dollars on pipelines designed to route crude around the Strait of Hormuz, as Iran's grip on the waterway drags on causing oil prices to hit $100 a barrel for the first time since May.
Economy
New UK PM touts 'cost of living government' with tax cut and £2 buses
Andy Burnham has used his first days in Downing Street to scrap the 5% VAT charged on household electricity bills and cap single bus fares in England at £2, telling his new cabinet that Britain now has a "cost of living government".
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