 |
|
|
|||||
Global shares were mixed Tuesday at the outset of a second day of trade talks between Chinese and U.S. officials.France’s CAC 40 jumped 1.1% in early trading to 7,887.57, while the German DAX rose 1.0% to 24,191.38. Britain’s FTSE 100 added 0.3% to 24,191.38. The future for the S&P 500 was up 0.2%. The future for the Dow Jones Industrial Average edged 0.1% higher.Japan’s benchmark Nikkei 225 fell 0.8% to 40,674.55 on broad selling of major companies including automakers and big banks. Toyota Motor Corp. dipped 2.3% and Honda Motor Co. fell 2.1%. Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group finished 1.8% lower, while Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group stock dipped 1.6%.Hong Kong’s Hang Seng dropped 0.2% to 25,524.45, while the Shanghai Composite gained 0.3% to 3,609.71.Analysts said investors were watching for the latest from U.S. President Donald Trump and U.S. trade talks with China in Stockholm. U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng were meeting in the Swedish capital.“Aside from addressing economic imbalances, tariffs are also now well entrenched in the geo-political arena,” Tan Boon Heng of the Asia & Oceania Treasury Department at Mizuho Bank said in a commentary.Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 edged 0.1% higher to 8,704.60.South Korea’s Kospi gained 0.7% to 3,230.57. Samsung Electronics edged 0.3% higher after jumping nearly 7% on Monday on news that it signed a deal with Tesla to provide computer chips for its electric vehicles.This week will bring a flurry of potentially market-moving data releases, corporate earnings and an interest rate decision by the Federal Reserve.The widespread expectation on Wall Street is that Fed officials will wait until September to resume cutting interest rates, though a couple of Trump’s appointees could dissent in the vote. The Fed has been on hold with interest rates this year since cutting them several times at the end of 2024.On Monday, the S&P 500 was nearly flat, edging up by less than 0.1% to 6,389.77 and setting an all-time high for a sixth straight day. The Dow dipped 0.1% to 44,837.56, while the Nasdaq composite added 0.3% to its own record, closing at 21,178.58.Hundreds of U.S. companies are lined up to report how much profit they made during the spring, with nearly a third of the businesses in the S&P 500 index scheduled to deliver updates.Companies are broadly under pressure to deliver solid growth in profits following big jumps in their stock prices the last few months. Much of the gain was due to hopes that Trump would walk back some of his stiff proposed tariffs, and critics say the U.S. stock market looks expensive unless companies will produce bigger profits.In energy trading, benchmark U.S. crude jumped 50 cents to $67.21 a barrel. Brent crude, the international standard, gained 47 cents to $69.79 a barrel.In currency trading, the U.S. dollar fell to 148.53 Japanese yen from 148.56 yen. The euro cost $1.1567, down from $1.1589. Yuri Kageyama, AP business writer
Category:
E-Commerce
Whats better than one peptide? A whole stack of them, apparently. Peptide stacking is the latest health hack going viral online, promising to optimize workouts and overall well-being. Peptides are short chains of amino acids that help build proteins. As the name suggests, peptide stacking involves taking multiple types of supplementsoften in the form of tablets, powders, or injectionsat once to enhance their effects and target specific fitness goals, such as building muscle, burning fat, boosting testosterone, or aiding recovery. Bodybuilders and biohackers have incorporated peptides into their wellness routines for decades. But now, interest is exploding, with social media feeds and forums flooded by users sharing (and selling) their favorite stacks. Pov: my fridge watching me inject my 20th peptide today, one TikTok user posted (their bio includes a 10% off link). Tried Semax + Dihexa and felt like I unlocked god mode for a few hours, someone wrote on Reddit. Then realized I forgot to eat all day and nearly blacked out. 10/10 focus, 0/10 life management. The fact that many of the touted benefits come from people earning commissions via discount codes or bio links is enough to raise eyebrows. Some of the concerns of what we see trending on social media are the recommended sources that you may find online that arent coming from legitimate compound pharmacies, Brandon Dawson, cofounder of 10X Health System, tells Fast Company. Also, most of these online trends are not tracked by healthcare providers or a team of specialists like you would have at 10X Health. More than 80 peptide therapies have been approved worldwide. Prescription drugs like Ozempic and Mounjaro are peptides, as is the popular fitness supplement creatine. Peptide stacking can be a powerful tool in a systems-based functional medicine plan, but its not a shortcut, Dawson adds. Without addressing foundational health pillarssleep, toxins, gut, nutritionpeptides wont reach their full potential and could cause harm if used improperly. Another concern is how peptides are being marketed to teenagers on social media. A 2023 report by the nonprofit Center for Countering Digital Hate linked peptide promotion to the broader looksmaxxing world of workout supplements and steroid-like drugs that prey on young mens insecurities. Youre falling behind bro, read the closed captions of a TikTok video posted earlier this month. Welcome to the world of peptides.
Category:
E-Commerce
Its a tough time to be an adult online in the U.K. right now. Last week’s passage of the Online Safety Act, a law aimed at shielding children from inappropriate (read: adult) content, has brought about a version of the internet that feels more like being back in school. You now essentially need a hall pass, in the form of official ID or a live selfie, to go almost anywhere. The U.K. government clearly aimed the Online Safety Act at restricting access to porn websites. But the laws broad requirementsespecially around age verification and content moderationare sweeping up other parts of the web, too. Because of this, its a great time to be a VPN provider. Usage of these services, which route traffic through other countries to disguise a users location and prevent tracking, has jumped more than 1,000% in the days following the acts passage. Its no wonder VPN downloads soared in the U.K. over the weekend, says Kate Ruane, director of the Free Expression Project at the Center for Democracy & Technology. Privacy and free expression are human rights, and governments should protect them by passing laws to enhance peoples privacy and free expression rights, not endanger them. Theres growing concern that the new rules are causing more harm than they prevent. In trying to keep children away from harmful content, the government may have inadvertently pushed tensor even hundredsof thousands of people toward tools that make lawful tracking and oversight far more difficult. Critics argue the implementation has been more performative than effective, with little meaningful enforcement behind the measures. Even those who represent VPN providers are surprised by the sudden surge in interest. The surge in VPN usage weve observed across the U.K. is a direct response to the Online Safety Acts extensive controls and age verification requirements, says Alexey Kozliuk, chair of the VPN Guild, an industry group. VPNs remain legal in the U.K., but their sudden rise in popularity appears to have taken the government by surprise. Officials are reportedly considering restrictions on advertising the services. While VPNs can offer a layer of privacy, not all are trustworthyespecially free options, which may come with risks like data tracking, harvesting, or malware. Users should look for transparent privacy policies, a strict no-logs policy, robust encryption, and a proven track record, Kozliuk says. Cybersecurity experts share that concern. The purported benefit of protecting private data by avoiding submission to a third-party age verifier is compromised if instead they entrust another third party with their browsing data, says George Loukas, professor of cybersecurity at the University of Greenwich. Of course, there is a variety of more and less reputable VPNs with and without no-logs policies, but I insist that VPNs should be used as cybersecurity tools, not for circumvention of restrictions, he adds. Graeme Stewart, head of public sector at Check Point Software, notes that the U.K.s rush to VPNsand the governments potential pushbackputs the country in dubious company alongside China, Russia, and Iran. That should tell you everything, he says. People are turning to VPNs because they dont trust the system, and who can blame them?
Category:
E-Commerce
All news |
||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||