News

We will now wrap up the blog. Bye, folks!

The S&P 500 climbed for a fourth session, adding to this week’s rally after the U.S. and China agreed to temporarily slash tariff rates. Treasury yields also fell, providing a tailwind to stocks.

The broad market index rose 0.41% to end at 5,916.93, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average added 271.69 points, or 0.65%, and closed at 42,322.75. The Nasdaq Composite underperformed, slipping 0.18% and settling at 19,112.32.

Confidence in the immediate outlook for stocks has strengthened in the wake of last weekend’s talks between Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Chinese officials that appeared to stave off a short-term decline in economic activity and a ratcheting up in inflation.

Tech giants are putting up a strong showing week to date: Nvidia and Tesla are both up more than 14%, while Meta Platforms has added 10% in the period. Amazon and Alphabet are up more than 6% and 7%, respectively. The Nasdaq Composite is higher by 6.5% this week, trailed by the S&P 500, ahead 3.9%, and the Dow, up 1.7%.

Meta Platforms Inc. shares declined on a report that the social networking company is delaying a flagship artificial intelligence model, sparking concerns about its AI push.

Meta engineers are having trouble improving the capabilities of the software — a large language model known as “Behemoth” — the Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday. Behemoth’s release, already delayed until June, has now been postponed until fall or later, the newspaper said.

The shares fell as much as 3.2% to $638.58 in New York on Thursday, marking the biggest intraday drop this month. They had been up 13% this year through Wednesday’s close.

President Donald Trump’s administration is putting the home of Voice of America up for possible sale — the latest in a series of high-profile buildings placed on a list for “accelerated disposal” as it moves to reduce the government’s real estate footprint.

The VOA headquarters, formally known at the Wilbur Cohen Federal Building, sits just south of the National Mall and is two blocks from the US Capitol. Originally built for the Social Security Administration, the historic million-square-foot building also houses offices for its parent agency, the Agency for Global Media, and the Department of Health and Human Services.

The possible sale comes as Trump is trying to shut down VOA and its sister networks — including Radio Free Europe, Radio Free Asia, the Office of Cuba Broadcasting and the Open Technology Fund — as part of an effort by billionaire Trump adviser Elon Musk to scale back the size of the federal government.

Gold advanced after US economic data supported the case for the Federal Reserve to continue cutting interest rates this year.

The latest data showed producer prices in the US unexpectedly declined by the most in five years. Separate data showed retail sales barely rose. Treasury yields fell, and swaps trader increased their bets on further Fed cuts, a boon for non-interest bearing gold.

Gold is still more than $250 behind its all-time peak set last month, after losing haven support as ebbing trade tensions between the US and China stoked risk-on sentiment.

Coinbase Global Inc. is cooperating with the US Securities and Exchange Commission on an agency probe into its previously reported user metrics, the company said Thursday.

“This is a hold-over investigation from the prior administration about a metric we stopped reporting two and a half years ago, which was fully disclosed to the public,” Paul Grewal, Coinbase’s chief legal officer, said in a statement. “While we strongly believe this investigation should not continue, we remain committed to working with the SEC to bring this matter to a close.”

Grewal noted that Coinbase’s “verified users metric” might have overstated the number of unique customers and that the company continues to disclose “the more relevant metric of ‘monthly transacting users’” on the platform.

The US and United Arab Emirates are partnering on a massive artificial intelligence campus touted as the largest such facility outside the U.S., the White House said Thursday.

The Abu Dhabi data center will be built by the Emirate firm G42, which will partner with several U.S. companies on the facility, according to the release from the Department of Commerce. It will have a 5-gigawatt capacity and cover 10 square miles.

The names of the U.S. companies were not disclosed.

Delta Air Lines Inc. will stop selling tickets under the “basic economy” label that many large carriers have adopted in recent years to compete with no-frills offerings of discount competitors.

The airline on Thursday announced a reorganisation of its fare categories aimed at giving passengers more options within each cabin section, with varying features such as assigned seats, the ability to change flights or loyalty benefits. Delta said it will still offer low-cost fares as a sub-category of its Delta Main tickets.

The change, which applies to flights departing on or after Oct. 1, is part of a strategy Delta detailed last year to respond to changing consumer demands and a growing preference for premium products. Some carriers have been focusing recently on more-lucrative upscale fare categories, deemphasising the base-level fares that had been popularized by the likes of Spirit Airlines and spread to legacy carriers.

Klaus Schwab’s abrupt departure from the World Economic Forum, the influential organization he founded and led for more than half a century, has complicated carefully laid plans to persuade Christine Lagarde to assume the helm in a seamless transition, according to people familiar with the discussions.

Schwab, 87, had initially intended to stay on until early 2027, the same year Lagarde’s term as European Central Bank president comes to an end, but he left last month amid accusations of financial misconduct and a clash with the Forum’s directors. He denies any wrongdoing.

As the board deals with the fallout, it still sees Lagarde as the top candidate and has held internal discussions on the matter since Schwab’s resignation last month, according to a person familiar with those conversations, who asked not to be identified. The conundrum is that Lagarde has more than two years left at the ECB and has previously said she will serve her term in full.

It’s usually a bad sign for Kansas wheat farmers when their crops end up feeding cattle instead of humans.

Feedlots are typically the destination of last resort for farmers like Gary Millershaski, who grows wheat in Lakin, Kansas. He prefers when his supplies are purchased by millers in places like Mexico, the top importer of US shipments, so they can turn the grain into flour for bread and other food. But this year, the outlook is for a bumper harvest at a time when oversees buyers are turning away from the US amid President Donald Trump’s trade tensions.

“I hate to see good wheat go to cows,” Millershaski said. He’s already gotten calls from two feedlots inquiring about his harvest — they’re bargain hunting as futures for the grain variety grown in Kansas dropped to the lowest since 2020 this week.

And if this year’s Wheat Quality Council crop tour is any indicator, the bargain hunters are probably just getting started.

Federal Reserve Governor Michael Barr said the economy is on solid ground, but warned tariff-related supply-chain disruptions could lead to lower growth and higher inflation.

Barr emphasized the importance of small businesses and their role in both supply chains and the overall economy. Trade policies, he said, have clouded the outlook and increased uncertainty.

He said potential supply chain disruptions are “particularly acute” for small businesses, in part because they have less access to credit. Small businesses often provide specialized inputs not easily sourced elsewhere, he added, and business failures could further disrupt supply chains.

Deutsche Bank announced another share buyback as part of its plan to hike shareholder distributions.

“We have applied to the European Central Bank for a further share buyback for the second half of the year,” Chief Executive Christian Sewing said in a pre-released version of a speech he’s due to give at the lender’s shareholder meeting on May 22.

The Frankfurt-based bank started a buyback program of as much as €750 million ($838 million) in April. The lender said earlier that including a planned dividend payment, Deutsche Bank would return about €2.1 billion in capital to its shareholders this year.

The US Supreme Court signalled it’s wary of letting President Donald Trump start to restrict birthright citizenship, as the justices debated how much power federal judges should have to block controversial White House policies nationwide.

Hearing oral arguments for the first time on part of Trump’s government overhaul, the court suggested interest in limiting the use of so-called nationwide injunctions. But key justices voiced concern about doing so in a way that would let Trump’s planned birthright citizenship restrictions take effect before the high court can rule on their legality.

The US said it will seek to block loans from multilateral lenders to Chinese state companies operating in Colombia.

The Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs said in a statement that it will “strongly oppose” recent projects and upcoming disbursements by the Inter-American Development Bank, among other lenders.

The San Francisco 49ers reached a deal to sell stakes in the NFL team at a valuation of about $8.5 billion, setting the record for a sports franchise set in December.

The club is offloading equity totaling about 6% to three private investors, according to two people familiar with the transaction. Billionaire Vinod Khosla is buying the largest stake with the families of Byron Deeter, a partner at Bessemer Venture Partners, and Will Griffith, founding partner at Iconiq Growth, also acquiring pieces.

The deal will require approval at one of the NFL’s owners meetings. Bloomberg reported in March that the 49ers were looking to sell a stake. A spokesperson for Khosla didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. The 49ers declined to comment.

Mortgage rates in the US increased for the first time in four weeks.

The average for 30-year, fixed loans was 6.81%, up from 6.76% last week, Freddie Mac said in a statement Thursday.

High mortgage rates are weighing on would-be homebuyers who may also be wrestling with concerns about the direction of the economy. Borrowing costs have largely tracked traders’ response to President Donald Trump’s on-again, off-again trade wars and tariffs that are widely seen as inflationary.

A key measure of consumer prices rose less than expected in April, a sign that business haven’t yet passed along tariff-linked costs to shoppers. But given the uncertainty over how Trump’s policies will play out, the Federal Reserve has indicated it expects to hold interest rates steady for the foreseeable future.

Sony Group Corp. rolled out an upgraded version of its wireless over-ear headphones, bringing improved noise cancellation and a new design to an increasingly popular category.

The headphones, called the WH-1000XM6, are $450, $50 more than the prior WH-1000XM5 model that went on sale in 2022. To improve noise cancellation, the new model — which comes in black, silver and midnight blue — includes 12 microphones (up from eight on the prior version) and expands the use of artificial intelligence to continuously adapt to external factors such as changes in air pressure.

The new model also includes improved beam forming, which helps eliminate background noise for the person on the other line during a phone call. The technology was improved by the use of AI and with a total of six microphones focused on beam forming, up from four on the last version, according to the company.

The S&P 500 ticked higher on Thursday, putting its three-day winning streak at risk. The benchmark has been on a tear this week after the Trump administration and China hammered out a temporary suspension of their tit-for-tat tariff dispute.

The broad market index inched up 0.2%, while the Nasdaq Composite lost 0.3%. The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 137 points, or 0.3%.

Shares of Walmart dipped 1.2% after the company said it could raise prices in response to still-high tariffs from the Trump administration. Walmart reported better-than-expected earnings and revenue that matched Wall Street estimates.

CoreWeave Inc. has secured a deal worth as much as $4 billion to provide additional cloud computing capacity to artificial intelligence leader OpenAI, expanding a tie-up between the two firms.

The data center builder said in a filing Thursday that OpenAI will pay the sum through 2029. CoreWeave had disclosed a $4 billion deal on its earnings call late Wednesday but did not name the party, beyond describing it as an enterprise AI company.

Ahead of its public market debut in March, CoreWeave announced it had entered into a five-year contract with OpenAI worth nearly $12 billion. The deal also gives OpenAI a sizeable stake in CoreWeave, Bloomberg News reported at the time.

Confidence among US homebuilders slumped in May to the lowest level since late 2023, as tariffs made it harder to price homes and anxious consumers dragged their feet on purchases.

An index of overall market conditions from the National Association of Home Builders and Wells Fargo slipped 6 points to 34 this month. That trailed all estimates in a Bloomberg survey of economists.

All three components that make up the index fell, with a measure of expected sales in the next six months sliding to an 18-month low. A gauge of present sales dropped to the lowest since late 2022, while traffic of prospective buyers was the weakest in 1 1/2 years.

Birkenstock Holding Plc’s shares jumped after the German company raised its earnings forecast for the year amid strong sales of its high-end sandals.

The company now expects adjusted earnings of €660 million ($740 million) to €670 million before interest, taxes, appreciation and amortisation, ahead of analyst estimates. That’s based on an adjusted Ebitda margin of between 31.3% and 31.8%, 50 basis points higher than its previous target, it said Thursday.

Birkenstock shares rose as much as 9.2% in early trading in New York, the biggest jump in just over a month on an intraday basis.

Recession remains a possibility as tariff fallout continues to buffet global economies, according to JPMorgan Chase & Co. Chief Executive Officer Jamie Dimon.

“Hopefully we’ll avoid it, but I wouldn’t take it off the table at this point,” Dimon said in a Bloomberg Television interview Thursday at JPMorgan’s annual Global Markets Conference in Paris. “If there is a recession, I don’t know how big it would be or how long it would last.”

The Trump administration’s tariff policies have been jolting markets for more than a month, and Dimon said some clients are holding back on investments because of all the volatility. Earlier this week, the US and China agreed to temporarily lower levies on each other’s products while the world’s two largest economies work toward a longer-term deal.

Alibaba Group Holding Ltd.’s quarterly revenue grew a disappointing 7%, reflecting a persistent Chinese consumer malaise that may dog the online commerce leader’s big pivot toward AI.

The company reported sales of 236.5 billion yuan ($32.8 billion) for the March quarter, versus an average estimate of 237.9 billion yuan. Net income almost quadrupled, though that was partly because of gains from equity investments. Its shares fell more than 4% in pre-market trading.

Alibaba, a barometer of the Chinese consumer economy because of its sprawl, posted better-than-expected growth in domestic retail after Beijing issued a plethora of incentives to counter US tariffs.

But the overall miss stood out after rivals Tencent Holdings Ltd. and JD.com Inc. both reported their fastest top-line expansions in years, stoking hopes of a Chinese tech sector revival after years of stagnation.

Growth in US retail sales decelerated notably in April, reflecting that consumers pulled back spending on cars, sporting goods and other categories of imported goods amid concerns about rising prices from tariffs.

The value of retail purchases, not adjusted for inflation, increased 0.1%, Commerce Department data showed Thursday. That followed a a revised 1.7% gain in March, which was the largest in two years.

Seven of the report’s 13 categories posted decreases, also restrained by apparel — another good which is largely imported — as well as gasoline. Car sales declined slightly after a buying spree in the previous month. Spending at restaurants and bars, the only service-sector category in the retail report, rose firmly for a second month.

Oil fell for a second day after President Donald Trump said the US and Iran are getting closer to a deal regarding Tehran’s nuclear program.

Brent was trading around $64 a barrel after losing as much as 4% in London. US crude futures also slid, and oil companies led declines in European stock markets.

“I think we’re getting close to maybe doing a deal,” Trump told reporters in Doha.

Wall Street traders parsing a deluge of economic reports sent bond yields lower on speculation that tame inflation will keep the Federal Reserve on track to cut interest rates this year.

Treasuries climbed across the curve, with traders slightly increasing bets on two rate reductions by the end of 2025. That was after a reading on producer prices unexpectedly declined by the most in five years.

Separate data showed retail sales barely rose. Stocks remained lower in early trading after a rapid surge from April’s lows started showing signs of exhaustion.

Prices paid to US producers unexpectedly declined in April by the most in five years, largely reflecting a slump in margins, suggesting companies are absorbing some of the hit from higher tariffs.

The 0.5% decrease in the producer price index followed no change in March, Bureau of Labor Statistics data showed Thursday. The median forecast in a Bloomberg survey of economists called for a 0.2% gain. Excluding food and energy, the PPI declined 0.4% — the most since 2015.

Stripping out food, energy and trade, a less-volatile measure favoured by many economists, prices fell 0.1%, the first decline in five years. Compared with a year ago, the gauge rose 2.9%.

The figures suggest American manufacturers and service providers are so far refraining from passing along higher US duties on imports. The impact on consumers has also been modest, even as producers are feeling the pinch from aggressive levies on imported materials and other inputs.

Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said Thursday that longer-term interest rates are likely to be higher as the economy changes and policy is in flux.

In remarks that focused on the central bank’s policy framework review, last done in the summer of 2020, Powell noted that conditions have changed significantly over the past five years.

During the period, the Fed witnessed a period of surging inflation, pushing it to historically aggressive interest rate hikes. Powell said that even with longer-term inflation expectations largely in line with the Fed’s 2% target, the era of near-zero rates is not likely to return anytime soon.

“Higher real rates may also reflect the possibility that inflation could be more volatile going forward than in the inter-crisis period of the 2010s,” Powell said in prepared remarks for the Thomas Laubach Research Conference in Washington, D.C. “We may be entering a period of more frequent, and potentially more persistent, supply shocks — a difficult challenge for the economy and for central banks.”

UnitedHealth Group Inc. tumbled in early trading on a report it was under criminal investigation for possible Medicare fraud, adding to an already tumultuous week for the insurer.

The Justice Department has had a probe into the company’s Medicare Advantage business since at least last summer, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing unidentified people familiar with the matter.

UnitedHealth said in a statement late Wednesday that the Department of Justice hadn’t notified the company about the reported investigation. “We stand by the integrity of our Medicare Advantage program,” it added.

Top European diplomats accused Russian President Vladimir Putin of undermining talks with Ukraine aimed at securing a halt to his war as the prospects for a potential meeting between the two sides in Turkey remained uncertain.

The Kremlin’s appointment of a low-level delegation to take part in the negotiations in Istanbul on Thursday showed that Putin is trying “to play for time,” Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski told reporters as NATO top diplomats gathered in Turkey’s Antalya. “We hope that the President of the United States sees this mockery for what it is and draws the right conclusions.”NewsLive TVMarketPopular CategoriesCalculatorsTrending NowLet's Connect with CNBCTV 18Network 18 Group :©TV18 Broadcast Limited. All rights reserved.