News

The International Criminal Court contained a “sophisticated and targeted” cybersecurity incident that it first identified last week, the organisation said in a statement Monday.

The Hague, Netherlands-based tribunal said if the incident was swiftly discovered and contained through its alert mechanisms, and it is now working to assess the impact and mitigate any potential effects. The ICC didn’t provide further details about the incident in its statement.

The court investigates and tries individuals suspected of crimes against humanity, such as genocide and war crimes. The cybersecurity incident was the second of its kind in recent years, with a previous one detected in September 2023, the court said.

Meta Platforms Inc. Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg announced a major restructuring of the company’s artificial intelligence group, including a commitment to developing AI “superintelligence,” or systems that can complete tasks as well as or even better than humans.

Zuckerberg wrote Monday to employees that Meta’s AI efforts will fall under a new group called Meta Superintelligence Labs, which will be led by Alexandr Wang, the former CEO of data-labeling startup Scale AI, according to an internal memo reviewed by Bloomberg. Wang, whom Zuckerberg called the “most impressive founder of his generation,” will serve as chief AI officer.

Nat Friedman, the former CEO of Github, will “partner with Alex to lead” the group, Zuckerberg continued, and head Meta’s work on AI products and applied research. Bloomberg previously reported on Zuckerberg’s effort to recruit a new superintelligence group.

A US judge on Monday ordered Argentina to turn over its controlling stake in the state-run oil company YPF SA as partial payment of a $16 billion court judgment against the Latin American country.

Burford Capital last year asked US District Judge Loretta Preska to award it the 51% stake in YPF currently held by Argentina’s federal and provincial governments. Preska is the judge who in 2023 issued the judgment that Burford is now trying to collect.

BBVA SA decided to keep its takeover offer for Banco Sabadell SA alive even though the Spanish government’s decision to ban a merger for several years has cast doubt over how it will pan out.

“BBVA has decided not to withdraw the offer and, therefore, it remains in effect in accordance with the applicable regulations,” the bank said in a statement on Monday.

The bank said it was moving forward “because the transaction creates value for the shareholders of both entities, even though the condition will delay some of the estimated synergies.”

Last week, Madrid said the proposed acquisition could only go ahead if the two banks remain separate entities for at least three years. That has raised questions over BBVA’s ability to extract cost savings and make the deal work economically.

Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund saw income from investment activities rise for a second consecutive year, driven by dividends and asset sales.

The Public Investment Fund earned $34.5 billion from investment activities in 2024, up 38% from the previous year, according to financial statements released Monday. Dividend income from investment securities more than doubled.

Still, net profit fell by more than half to about $7 billion, pressured by high interest rates, inflation and impairments on select projects.

The results underscore a growing tension: while the PIF is extracting more from its investments, it is likely to face mounting pressure as it drives Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s ambitious economic diversification plan.

Stocks are wrapping up a stellar quarter at all-time highs amid signs of progress in US trade talks, while hopes the Federal Reserve will resume its rate cuts drove Treasuries toward their biggest first-half stretch in five years. The dollar eyed its longest monthly slide since 2017.

The S&P 500’s 24% surge from the brink of a bear market put the benchmark on pace for its best quarter since December 2023. While gains were mild on Monday, optimism that the US is close to reaching deals with top trading partners sent the gauge near 6,200.

Big banks climbed after passing the Fed’s annual stress test, setting the stage for payouts. Oracle Corp. jumped on a cloud-services deal worth $30 billion a year.

The UK is currently planning to keep its digital services tax, a person familiar with the matter said, after Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney scrapped their own levy to restart trade talks with President Donald Trump’s administration.

The US wanted Britain to drop the tax as part of trade talks between the two countries and Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s government had been considering making changes, but the prospect isn’t on the table and hasn’t been for some time, according to the person, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

The levy, which is charged at 2% on the revenues derived from UK users of search engines, social media companies and online marketplaces, is unpopular with American firms such as Google parent Alphabet Inc., Facebook and Instagram owner Meta Platforms Inc., and Amazon.com Inc.

Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta President Raphael Bostic said tariff price increases may be incremental instead of a one-time bump, which could result in more persistent upward pressure on inflation.

“There is a risk that seeps into the psyche of the consumer and the business leader,” Bostic said Monday during an event in London hosted by MNI. A divide has developed among Fed officials, likely over how tariffs are expected to affect inflation.

Projections released at the Fed’s policy meeting earlier this month showed 10 officials would look through the price impact from tariffs and expect to lower rates at least two times this year. But seven officials penciled in no rate cuts for this year, suggesting they are more concerned that tariffs could lead to more persistent price pressures.

Vodafone Group Plc pulled in multi-billion investor bids across a multi-currency debt sale, the proceeds of which will be used to finance a sweeping €2 billion ($2.35 billion) debt buyback announced on Monday.

The company and its subsidiary Vodafone International Financing DAC raised €1.9 billion from three bonds in the single currency and £500 million sterling-denominated note, according to a person familiar with the matter who asked not to be identified. The debt sale comes as Vodafone looks to repurchase existing debt securities denominated in US dollars and British pounds through concurrent tender offers.

The euro-denominated tranches pulled in more than €5.4 billion of investor demand across a four-year note — that saw the most interest — an eight-year note, and a 13-year note. As a result, spreads were tightened by as much as 40 basis points from the wide end of initial price thoughts for the euro tranches. The British pound-denominated 25-year note drew £1.7 billion of demand with the spread tightened to 120 basis points over UK gilts from around 140 basis points over at initial price thoughts.

Harvard University’s talks with the White House have stalled, according to a person familiar with the matter, threatening a quick resolution to a standoff that’s threatening the school’s finances and upending foreign student plans.

A potential deal was knocked off course last week, although hopes remain for an accord, said the person, who asked not to be named because the discussions are private. Harvard didn’t immediately reply to a request for comment.

The Trump administration ramped up pressure on Harvard earlier Monday, saying that a US investigation found that the school violated civil rights law in its treatment of Jewish and Israeli students. “Failure to institute adequate changes immediately will result in the loss of all federal financial resources,” the government said in a letter to Harvard President Alan Garber.

The Dutch government needs more time to assess the options for TenneT Holding BV’s German high-voltage business and a decision is likely to come in September.

TenneT has been preparing the German business for an initial public offering or private stake sales and has held discussions with potential investors, according to a letter sent by Dutch Finance Minister Eelco Heinen to the parliament on Monday. The government initially aims to decide on which path to pursue at the beginning of the summer break.

“Many investors are interested in investing in TenneT Germany,” Heinen said in the letter. “Both paths could offer promising and attractive opportunities to cover our capital needs. I have therefore decided to pursue both options in parallel this summer.”

Oil traders expect OPEC+ will agree a fourth bumper oil supply increase this weekend as group leader Saudi Arabia continues its bid to reclaim market share.

Eight key OPEC+ nations are preparing to discuss another hike of 411,000 barrels a day, due to take effect in August, delegates said last week. They’ll likely approve the move when they hold a video conference on Sunday, according to a survey of 32 traders and analysts.

The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and its allies have been reviving halted output at triple the initially-scheduled rate during the past three months, despite faltering fuel demand and signs of global oversupply.

Russia summoned Azerbaijan’s ambassador after police in Baku raided the office of a Russian state-funded media outlet amid deteriorating relations between the former Soviet neighbours.

The Foreign Ministry in Moscow accused Azerbaijan of “unfriendly actions” after staff at Sputnik Azerbaijan were detained, the Tass news service reported Monday.

That came after Azerbaijan on Sunday cancelled cultural events linked with Moscow in the oil-rich Caucasus state over the deaths of two Azerbaijani men during a police raid in the Russian Urals city of Yekaterinburg. Several others were injured and six people were arrested.

Top dairymaker Lactalis says it will assess ingredients in newly-acquired yogurt brands like Yoplait and Go-Gurt as Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s “Make America Healthy Movement” campaigns for changes in the US food supply, including reducing sugar and removing artificial ingredients.

The company, which completed its acquisition of General Mills’s US yogurt business on Monday, will start discussions on ingredients within the next 30 days, said Lactalis US Yogurt Chief Executive Officer Bill Cassidy. The deal was first announced last September.

“That will be one of the first things that we will be doing after this deal closes, is sitting down with them to review their ways of doing business,” Cassidy said in an interview. The companies weren’t permitted to have many of those conversations prior to the deal closing, “but you can see what’s going on in the industry as a whole,” Cassidy said, referencing recent commitments from General Mills and Kraft Heinz to remove food dyes from their products.

Canola futures climbed as much as 3.2% — the biggest intraday gain in two weeks — after the Canadian government said it scrapped a digital tax in an effort to restart talks on a broader trade deal with the US.

The move raised hopes that Canada’s supplies will continue flowing to the US, the biggest importer along with China of the oilseed used to make cooking oil, biofuel and animal feed. Canola had been primed for a rebound after falling by more then 6% last week, in part on pressure from rainfall in the Prairies that helped alleviate dry soil conditions.

“The trade news is modestly positive,” said Lawrence Klusa, president of Winnipeg-based advisory firm Seges Markets. Still, he was looking for “some bounce back after the brutal week.”

Robinhood Markets Inc. is joining the growing push to trade US equities on the blockchain, making tokenised U.S. securities available to 150,000 customers in 30 countries, 24 hours a day, five days a week.

The company will own the shares backing the tokens, a spokesperson said, and while token holders will have most of the benefits of the underlying security, including dividends, voting rights won’t be initially supported. Bloomberg previously reported that the product was in development.

Tokenised securities — blockchain-traded assets whose value mirrors the underlying equity — are gaining popularity with international investors eager to participate in the growth of the US stock market.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent indicated it wouldn’t make sense for the government to ramp up sales of longer-term securities given where yields are today, though he held out hope that interest rates across maturities will be falling as inflation slows.

“Why would we do that?” Bessent said in a Bloomberg Television interview Monday when asked about increasing the share of longer-term securities in Treasury debt issuance. “The time to have done that would have been in 2021, 2022.”

Stablecoin issuer Circle Internet Group Inc. has surged more than five-fold since its initial public offering earlier this month, but analysts at lead underwriter JPMorgan Chase & Co. say that the rally has gotten out of hand.

“We see competition as a potential threat to Circle,” JPMorgan’s Kenneth Worthington wrote in a note initiating coverage on the company at underweight. He also assigned the lowest price target on Wall Street, $80, implying a nearly 60% drop in the stock.

JPMorgan’s bearish call is surprising as firms that help guide a company’s move to the public market tend to be more friendly but Circle’s debut has been the hottest crypto-linked listing in years. In the days following the US Senate’s passage of stablecoin legislation on June 17 a buying frenzy in Circle ensued, driving the stock of the second-largest stablecoin issuer as high as $298.99, well above its $31 IPO price.

Senate Republicans are moving forward with a plan to mask the $3.8 trillion cost of extending expiring tax cuts in President Donald Trump’s signature economic legislation by using an unprecedented accounting manoeuvre.

GOP senators voted Monday in favour of the plan to count the extension of Trump’s 2017 tax cuts as costing nothing, over objections from Democrats and despite concerns raised by economists about the US debt trajectory.

Republicans argue that using this accounting method, known as “current policy,” would allow them to include more tax cuts in Trump’s “One Big, Beautiful Bill.”

The cost of extending Trump’s first-term tax cuts, according to the Joint Committee on Taxation, totals $3.8 trillion. The other tax provisions in the bill cost nearly $693 billion, and only that smaller figure is considered in the official price tag for the bill.

The US Supreme Court refused to hear American Airlines Group Inc.’s appeal of a lower court ruling that its partnership with JetBlue Airways Corp. violated federal antitrust laws by eliminating competition between the carriers and limiting travelers’ choices for flights.

American turned to the Supreme Court after the 1st US Circuit Court of Appeals in November upheld a district judge’s ruling that the partnership violated federal antitrust laws. The airlines maintained that their Northeast Alliance, focused on Boston and New York, benefited consumers and allowed them to compete more effectively against United Airlines Holdings Inc. and Delta Air Lines Inc.

The US Supreme Court refused to question an Internal Revenue Service summons that forced Coinbase Global Inc. to turn over transaction information for more than 14,000 cryptocurrency customers.

The justices without explanation rejected an appeal from an account holder who said the IRS violated his rights under the Constitution’s Fourth Amendment.

Privacy advocates had hoped the case would put new limits on government searches in the digital age. Coinbase account holder James Harper asked the Supreme Court to revisit a 1976 ruling that said customers don’t have privacy rights in records held by their banks.

Moderna Inc. said its experimental flu shot met its goal in a late-stage trial, clearing the path for its broader strategy of selling combination vaccines.

The shot’s efficacy was 27% higher than a licensed influenza vaccine in adults 50 years and older, the company said in a statement Monday. The trial enrolled more than 40,000 adults across 11 countries.

The results set the stage for Moderna to offer a single shot that protects against Covid and flu. US regulators recently told the company that it needed to produce flu vaccine efficacy data — and not just data on the immune response — delaying a potential approval for a combination shot until next year.

Shares rose as much as 5.8% at the start of normal trading on Monday in New York.

Republican party leaders are rushing to overcome lingering internal fights over President Donald Trump’s massive tax and spending package as Democrats launch attacks to exploit the divisions.

Senate Republicans were still at odds Monday over how much to cut Medicaid and other social safety-net programs and how rapidly to end Biden-era clean energy tax breaks as Democrats gained the chance Monday to force votes on amendments to the package.

Democrats, locked out of power in Washington, are aiming to offer amendments during a marathon voting session to exploit the infighting and make the GOP goal of getting holdouts to back the bill as soon as tonight more difficult.

Stocks rose early Monday as increasing trade hopes among investors positioned Wall Street to close out a stunning month with even more record highs.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average climbed 209 points, or 0.5%. The S&P 500 gained 0.5%, building on the record highs set in the previous session. The Nasdaq Composite advanced 0.55%, also reaching fresh all-time highs.

Monday’s advance follows Canada rescinding its digital service tax in an effort to facilitate trade negotiations with the U.S. That’s after President Donald Trump on Friday said the U.S. was “terminating ALL discussions on Trade with Canada.”

Initial payments on the tax were set to begin Monday and would have applied to companies such as Google, Meta and Amazon.

Cirsa Enterprises, the casino operator backed by Blackstone Inc., is targeting a valuation of €2.5 billion ($3 billion) in its initial public offering, setting the stage for Spain’s second biggest IPO so far this year.

The offering is set to consist of about 30.2 million shares for sale at €15 apiece, which would raise about €453 million, according to a statement on Monday. The deal would be Spain’s second-largest IPO so far this year, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

The fixed-price share sale comes as European IPOs have had a mixed path to the public market ahead of the summer holiday. German medical technology company Brainlab is set to price its first-time share sale at the bottom end of the range, according to terms on Monday. Gaming technology firm Hacksaw had a tepid debut in Stockholm last week.

The French tally of negative power prices through June has already overtaken last year’s record, as sunny, windy days boost renewable output.

As of Monday morning, Europe’s second-biggest power market had clocked 363 hours of negative prices, surpassing 2024’s record of 356 hours, according to a Bloomberg analysis of EPEX Spot SE data. Neighboring markets like Germany and Spain have also seen record numbers for the season.

Negative prices are becoming a more frequent phenomenon across Europe as solar and wind power flood the network. What is welcome news for many consumers, means lower returns for investors.

Canada has decided not to move forward with a digital services tax as it seeks to revive trade talks with the US, following President Donald Trump’s remarks that negotiations with Canada had been called off.

US Treasury yields declined as investors watched for the Senate’s decision on President Donald Trump’s contentious spending bill. The 10-year yield fell by over 3 basis points to 4.248%, while the 30-year yield dropped more than 4 basis points to 4.805%. Meanwhile, the 2-year yield slipped by over 1 basis point to 3.725%.

The US Federal Reserve probably won’t have a clear enough picture of inflation by July to support an interest rate cut, Atlanta Fed President Raphael Bostic said in an interview with CNBC’s “Squawk Box Europe” on Monday.

Moderna Inc. said its experimental flu shot met its goal in a late-stage trial, clearing the path for its broader strategy of selling combination vaccines.

The shot’s efficacy was 27% higher than a licensed influenza vaccine in adults 50 years and older, the company said in a statement Monday. The trial enrolled more than 40,000 adults across 11 countries.

The results set the stage for Moderna to offer a single shot that protects against Covid and flu. US regulators recently told the company that it needed to produce flu vaccine efficacy data — and not just data on the immune response — delaying a potential approval for a combination shot until next year.

Shares rose as much as 7.4% in premarket trading in New York on Monday.NewsLive TVMarketPopular CategoriesCalculatorsTrending NowLet's Connect with CNBCTV 18Network 18 Group :©TV18 Broadcast Limited. All rights reserved.