Business

By Lisa Barrington and Sophie Yu BEIJING (Reuters) -China’s three biggest airlines reported deeper first-quarter losses on Tuesday from the same period a year ago, amid intensifying competition and economic pressures on consumers, and a worsening trade war with the United States. State-owned China Southern Airlines, Air China, and China Eastern have struggled to return to a break-even position after the COVID-19 pandemic, posting five consecutive years of annual losses. Domestic market competition, low international … Read more…

By Max A. Cherney, Stephen Nellis SAN JOSE, California (Reuters) -Intel said on Tuesday that several of its contract manufacturing customers planned to build test chips for a forthcoming advanced manufacturing process, which the company still has in development. The embattled chipmaker indicated it had received interest from customers at its Direct Connect conference on Tuesday for its contract chip business, or foundry. Intel’s attempt to build a foundry unit has hit snags, but ultimately … Read more…

(Reuters) -Facebook parent Meta Platforms on Tuesday launched a separate app for its Meta AI assistant, similar to those offered by Microsoft-backed OpenAI and Alphabet’s Google. The standalone app comes as Meta looks to boost the AI assistant’s usage, apart from being available within the company’s family of platforms – WhatsApp, Instagram, Facebook and Messenger. It also signals CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s move to strengthen the company’s position in the competitive AI landscape, taking on major … Read more…

(Reuters) – KKR and Capital Group launched two funds on Tuesday, which would allow retail investors to invest in both public and private credit. The funds, Capital Group KKR Core Plus+ and Capital Group KKR Multi-Sector+, will allocate 60% of their assets to public fixed income and the rest to private credit. Private credit — loans typically made by non-bank institutions — have surged in popularity in recent years as banks retreat from riskier forms … Read more…

(Reuters) – Barclays lowered its Brent crude forecast on Monday by $4 to $70 a barrel for 2025 and set its 2026 estimate at $62/b, citing “a rocky road ahead for fundamentals” amid escalating trade tensions and OPEC+’s pivot in its production strategy. Despite oil market fundamentals evolving “significantly better than expected” in early 2025, the bank now projects a surplus of 1 million barrels per day this year and 1.5 mb/d in 2026. It … Read more…

By David Shepardson WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The Trump administration said Thursday it aims to speed up the deployment of self-driving vehicles but will maintain rules requiring reporting of safety incidents involving advanced vehicles. U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy on Thursday released a new framework to boost autonomous vehicles. “This administration understands that we’re in a race with China to out-innovate, and the stakes couldn’t be higher,” Duffy said. “Our new framework will slash red tape.” The … Read more…

(Reuters) -Meta Platforms said on Wednesday it is expanding advertising on its social network Threads to all eligible advertisers globally, as it looks to generate new revenue streams amid brand uncertainty over tariffs. Launched in July 2023, the Threads app was positioned as a challenger to Elon Musk-owned X, in a bid to win users from the de facto micro-blogging site amid its chaotic takeover by the billionaire entrepreneur. Meta, one of the world’s largest … Read more…

By Arathy Somasekhar HOUSTON (Reuters) -Some tankers Chevron had chartered to move crude from Venezuela to the United States this month are now being marketed for spot contracts elsewhere, sources said, after state company PDVSA canceled loading permits and ordered the firm to return cargoes amid payment uncertainty related to sanctions. The marketing of the vessels indicates that Chevron does not expect to load all the cargoes it typically ships from Venezuela in a month … Read more…

By Stephen Nellis and Max A. Cherney SANT CLARA, California (Reuters) -Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co on Wednesday unveiled technology for making faster chips and putting them together in dinner-plate sized packages that will boost performance needed for artificial intelligence applications. It said its A14 manufacturing technology will arrive in 2028 and will be able to produce processors that are 15% faster at the same power consumption as its N2 chips due to enter production this … Read more…

By Shadia Nasralla (Reuters) -Activist investor Elliott Management has urged BP to boost its free cash flow to $20 billion by 2027 from around $8 billion last year through significant spending cuts and cost reductions, a source familiar with the situation said on Tuesday. Elliott has increased its stake in BP to just over 5% in the form of derivative contracts, according to a regulatory notice on Tuesday, placing Elliott between top shareholders BlackRock and … Read more…