Business

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The U.S. Space Force said on Wednesday it has cleared Boeing and Lockheed Martin’s Vulcan rocket to launch national security satellites for the United States. SpaceX was the first company to handle such missions. “Vulcan certification adds launch capacity, resiliency, and flexibility needed by our nation’s most critical space-based systems,” said Brigadier General Kristin Panzenhagen, the program executive officer for assured access to space. Vulcan was developed to replace the Boeing LMT joint … Read more…

ROME (Reuters) – Italian sports car maker Maserati, one of the worst performing brands within the Stellantis group, said on Wednesday it was boosting lucrative customisation services while working on wider turnaround plans. The brand sold just 11,300 vehicles last year, down from 26,600 in 2023, with an adjusted operating loss of 260 million euros ($284 million). Its business plan, including new model launches, is under review after being put on hold last year. “We … Read more…

(Reuters) – Bank of America (BofA) has raised its gold period average forecasts for this year and next, while highlighting that uncertainty arising from U.S. trade policies will continue to lend support to prices in the near-term. BofA now expects gold to trade at $3,063 per ounce (oz) in 2025 and $3,350/oz in 2026, it said in a note on Wednesday. This is an increase from its previous forecasts of $2,750/oz for 2025 and $2,625/oz … Read more…

By Elizabeth Howcroft (Reuters) -U.S. asset manager Fidelity Investments is exploring whether to launch its own stablecoin, in the latest sign of mainstream investors looking to cash in on a revival of interest in cryptocurrencies. Stablecoins are a type of cryptocurrency designed to maintain a constant value, usually a 1:1 dollar peg, making it easier for traders to move funds between cryptocurrencies. Their use has grown rapidly in recent years. A spokesperson for Fidelity said … Read more…

By Alessandro Parodi and Greta Rosen Fondahn (Reuters) -Tesla’s market share in Europe continued to shrink in February as sales of the all-electric car maker dropped for a second month even as EV registrations overall on the continent grew. As competition grows and a slowdown in European economies hampers total car sales, Elon Musk’s battery-electric (BEV) brand has sold 42.6% fewer cars in Europe so far this year, data from the European Automobile Manufacturers Association … Read more…

BEIJING (Reuters) – Chinese artificial intelligence startup DeepSeek released a major upgrade to its V3 large language model, intensifying competition with U.S. tech leaders like OpenAI and Anthropic. The new model, DeepSeek-V3-0324, was made available through AI development platform Hugging Face, marking the company’s latest push to establish itself in the rapidly evolving AI market. The latest model demonstrates significant improvements in areas such as reasoning and coding capabilities compared to its predecessor, with benchmark … Read more…

BEIJING (Reuters) – China’s commerce minister told Apple CEO Tim Cook on Monday that the company is welcome to expand investment in the country, a ministry statement showed. Wang Wentao, the minister, and Cook exchanged views on topics such as Apple’s business development in China and China-U.S. economic and trade relations, according to the statement. Foreign CEOs were attending the China Development Forum in Beijing on Sunday and Monday, with some expected to meet President … Read more…

By Deborah Mary Sophia and Akash Sriram (Reuters) -Tesla shares surged 10% on Monday after this year’s steep decline following reports the Trump administration is likely to exclude a set of sector-specific tariffs while applying reciprocal levies on April 2. Traders also took advantage of the near 40% decline in the stock so far this year to buy into the EV maker. The tariff optimism set off a rally on Wall Street, with technology stocks … Read more…

TOULOUSE, France (Reuters) -Airbus is in discussions with European nations on new defence and space orders as the continent increases spending and is seeing an improvement in supply chains for its core jetliner business, senior executives said at a company event on Monday. WHY IT’S IMPORTANT European nations are interested in space assets in part to replace Elon Musk’s Starlink, as well as aerospace assets including strategic airlift, he added. KEY QUOTES “I think you’re … Read more…