Business

By Marianna Parraga, Gary McWilliams and David French HOUSTON (Reuters) – An oil refiner backed by activist investor Carl Icahn and a group of creditors holding claims against Venezuela are competing in the last mile of a U.S. court auction for Citgo Petroleum, according to three people familiar with the matter. A total of 18 creditors holding rulings for debt defaults and expropriations in Venezuela totaling $21.3 billion are pursuing proceeds from the auction of … Read more…

By Max A. Cherney and Aditya Soni (Reuters) -Apple on Thursday reported a return to sales growth in its fiscal third quarter as iPhone revenue topped Wall Street targets, helping cushion a bigger-than-expected sales decline in major market China. Shares of the company rose 1% in extended trading. Apple said revenue rose 4.9% to $85.78 billion in the three months ended June 29, beating the average analyst estimate of $84.53 billion, according to LSEG data. … Read more…

(Reuters) – U.S. chip stocks plummeted on Thursday, on track for their worst day since 2020, after a conservative forecast from Arm Holdings dampened investor optimism about artificial intelligence and data signaled a cooling economy. Shares of Arm sank 16% after the British chip designer’s forecast sparked worries that returns from a spending frenzy on AI computing by Microsoft, Alphabet, Amazon, Meta Platforms and other megacaps would be slower to materialize than previously expected. “For … Read more…

By Deborah Mary Sophia and Greg Bensinger (Reuters) -Amazon.com forecast current quarter sales below estimates, and shares fell sharply after hours even though second-quarter profit beat Wall Street estimates. Amazon’s focus on successes in its AWS cloud computing did not cheer investors who sent shares of the Seattle-based company down more than 6% in extended trading. “We’re continuing to make progress on a number of dimensions, but perhaps none more so than the continued re-acceleration … Read more…

By Nicole Jao NEW YORK (Reuters) – Oil prices rose nearly 3% on Wednesday, rebounding from seven-week lows after the killing of a Hamas leader in Iran ratcheted up tensions in the Middle East and a sharp drawdown in U.S. crude stockpiles. Global benchmark Brent crude futures for September delivery rose $2.08, or 2.8%, to $80.71 a barrel by 1:31 p.m. EDT (1731 GMT) ahead of expiry on Wednesday, while the more active October contract … Read more…

(Reuters) -OpenAI is starting to roll out an advanced voice mode to a small group of ChatGPT Plus users, the Microsoft-backed artificial intelligence startup said on Tuesday in a post on X. The company had delayed the roll-out of the realistic voice conversation experience to July from late-June, saying it needed time to reach its launch standard. The new audio capabilities will allow users to speak to ChatGPT and receive real-time responses without delay, as … Read more…

By Mike Scarcella and Jody Godoy (Reuters) -Meta Platforms has agreed to pay $1.4 billion to Texas to resolve the state’s lawsuit accusing the Facebook parent of illegally using facial-recognition technology to collect biometric data of millions of Texans without their consent. The terms of the settlement, disclosed on Tuesday, mark the largest accord ever by any single state, according to the lawyers for Texas, whose legal team included the plaintiffs firm Keller Postman. The … Read more…

(Reuters) – Tesla shares jumped nearly 6% on Monday after Morgan Stanley named the most valuable automaker its “top pick” in the U.S. automotive industry, replacing Ford. The brokerage said Tesla’s energy business could potentially grow to be worth more than the company’s auto business in the future, as investors were likely to focus on firms that address climate change-related issues. It also expects Tesla to take a more dominant position in the market for … Read more…

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Charter Communications will pay a $15 million civil penalty to resolve an investigation into compliance with network and 911 outage notification rules, the Federal Communications Commission said on Monday. The FCC said Charter admitted to violating the agency’s rules on notifications to public safety officials and the commission in connection with three unplanned network outages and hundreds of scheduled maintenance-related network outages that occurred in 2023. The FCC said a February 2023 network … Read more…

By Suzanne McGee (Reuters) – The State of Michigan Retirement System, which oversees some $143.9 million in pension fund assets for state employees, has invested $6.6 million in the ARK 21Shares Bitcoin ETF, it disclosed in a regulatory filing on Friday. This marks the second confirmed investment by a pension fund in the spot bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) launched in January, a sign the assets are slowly beginning to attract traditional institutional investors in a … Read more…