Business

(Reuters) – JP Morgan sees gold prices crossing the $4,000 per ounce milestone next year, following increased recession probabilities amid boosted U.S. tariffs and an ongoing U.S.-China trade war, the bank said in a note on Tuesday. The bank now expects gold prices to reach an average of $3,675/oz by 4Q25, on the way towards above $4,000/oz by 2Q26, with risks skewed towards an earlier overshoot of these forecasts if demand surpasses its expectations. “Underpinning … Read more…

(Reuters) – Accounting firms Baker Tilly and Moss Adams have agreed to merge in a $7 billion deal, making it one of the largest firms in an industry that is partly owned by private equity investors the Wall Street Journal reported on Monday. The combined firm will retain the Baker Tilly name and become the sixth-biggest accounting firm in the United States, the report said. Baker Tilly did not immediately respond to a Reuters request … Read more…

(Reuters) -Toyota Motor unit Hino Motors and Mitsubishi Fuso Truck and Bus, a subsidiary of Germany’s Daimler Truck, are moving to finalize a merger agreement, Nikkei Asia reported on Tuesday. The two auto groups aim to establish a holding company for the truck units and list it on the Tokyo Stock Exchange’s Prime market in April 2026, the report stated, without disclosing its source. The companies agreed in May 2023 to merge the truck operations … Read more…

(Reuters) – Citi Research raised its gold price target for the next three months to $3,500 per ounce from $3,200, led by fresh buying from Chinese insurers and safe-haven flows amid tariff risks and market weakness, it said in a note on Thursday. China’s recent move to let 10 insurers allocate up to 1% of their total assets to gold could generate annual demand of around 255 tonnes, equal to roughly a quarter of total … Read more…

By Chris Prentice and Saeed Azhar NEW YORK (Reuters) -U.S. banking regulators said on Friday they approved Capital One’s $35.3 billion purchase of Discover Financial Services , paving the way for the combined firms to become the nation’s eighth-largest bank. The deal has been closely watched by financial executives, who see it as a litmus test for how quickly the administration of President Donald Trump will approve mergers in a sector they see as ripe … Read more…

By Svea Herbst-Bayliss NEW YORK (Reuters) -Blackstone Group’s multi-asset investing BXMA unit, the world’s largest investor in hedge funds, posted a 2.3% return after fees in the first quarter, handily outpacing the HFRX Global Hedge Fund Index 0.53% return. The numbers, released on Thursday when Blackstone reported first-quarter earnings, are noteworthy because they came during a period of great market volatility as investors fretted about the prospect of U.S. tariffs, rising unemployment, and the chance … Read more…

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) -A U.S. judge’s ruling that Google has illegal monopolies in ad technology sets up the possibility of U.S. prosecutors seeking a breakup. Here’s what the case involves and what Google owner Alphabet faces from here. WHAT IS THIS ABOUT? The most important thing is what this is not about: this is not about search, Google’s bread and butter, although there is a separate antitrust case about search. The Justice Department’s ad technology … Read more…

(Reuters) -Kraken, one of the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchanges, has laid off hundreds of employees in the past several months across all areas of its business to streamline its operations ahead of its planned IPO, Coindesk reported on Thursday. Hundreds of more people have been laid off since Kraken appointed Arjun Sethi as co-CEO last year and reported a cut of 15% in its workforce, the report added, citing two people familiar with the matter. … Read more…

(Reuters) – Video-conferencing platform Zoom Communications services were down for thousands of users on Wednesday, according to outage tracking website Downdetector.com. Users reported interruptions accessing the Zoom web portal, as well as the application. Some users also reported login issues. “We continue to investigate the domain name resolution issues on the zoom.us domain that is affecting multiple services,” the company said. Downdetector, which tracks outages by collating status reports from a series of sources, including … Read more…

By Kalea Hall, Nora Eckert and Utkarsh Shetti (Reuters) – Ford Motor may raise prices on its new vehicles if U.S. President Donald Trump’s auto tariffs continue, according to a memo sent to dealers on Wednesday that was reviewed by Reuters. The Dearborn, Michigan, automaker offered deep discounts across its lineup starting earlier this month through June 2. The program will continue, but pricing on new models produced in May and beyond may change, the … Read more…