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2025-08-05 14:56:04| Fast Company

U.S. President Donald Trump is pushing China and India to stop buying oil from Russia and helping fund the Kremlin’s war against Ukraine.Trump is raising the issue as he seeks to press Russian President Vladimir Putin to agree to a ceasefire.But cheap Russian oil benefits refiners in those countries as well as meeting their needs for energy, and they’re not showing any inclination to halt the practice. Three countries are big buyers of Russian oil China, India and Turkey are the biggest recipients of oil that used to go to the European Union. The EU’s decision to boycott most Russian seaborne oil from January 2023 led to a massive shift in crude flows from Europe to Asia.Since then, China has been the No. 1 overall purchaser of Russian energy since the EU boycott, with some $219.5 billion worth of Russian oil, gas and coal, followed by India with $133.4 billion and Turkey with $90.3 billion. Before the invasion, India imported relatively little Russian oil.Hungary imports some Russian oil through a pipeline. Hungary is an EU member, but President Viktor Orban has been critical of sanctions against Russia. The lure of cheaper oil One big reason: It’s cheap. Since Russian oil trades at a lower price than international benchmark Brent, refineries can fatten their profit margins when they turn crude into usable products such as diesel fuel. Russia’s oil earnings are substantial despite sanctions The Kyiv School of Economics says Russia took in $12.6 billion from oil sales in June. Russia continues to earn substantial sums even as the Group of Seven leading industrialized nations has tried to limit Russia’s take by imposing an oil price cap. The cap is to be enforced by requiring shipping and insurance companies to refuse to handle oil shipments above the cap. Russia has, to a great extent, been able to evade the cap by shipping oil on a “shadow fleet” of old vessels using insurers and trading companies located in countries that are not enforcing sanctions.Russian oil exporters are predicted to take in $153 billion this year, according to the Kyiv institute. Fossil fuels are the single largest source of budget revenue. The imports support Russia’s ruble currency and help Russia to buy goods from other countries, including weapons and parts for them. David McHugh, AP Business Writer


Category: E-Commerce

 

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2025-08-05 14:08:58| Fast Company

Wall Street is holding steadier following its see-saw ride that bracketed the weekend. The S&P 500 was up 0.1% in early trading Tuesday. The index is coming off its best day since May, which followed its worst day since May. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was edging up 27 points, and the Nasdaq composite was flat. Worries are still high that President Donald Trump’s tariffs may be hurting the economy. But increased hopes for cuts to interest rates by the Federal Reserve, along with a stream of stronger-than-expected profit reports from U.S. companies, are helping to support the market.Wall Street headed higher in early trading Tuesday as markets’ anxiety over last week’s poor jobs data appears to have dissipated as investors turn their attention to another batch of corporate earnings.Futures for the S&P 500 gained 0.3% before the bell, while Nasdaq futures climbed 0.4%. Futures for the Dow Jones Industrial Average were effectively unchanged.Palantir Technologies is heading toward another record high after booking its first $1 billion in quarterly sales and raising its outlook for the year. Shares surged more than 6% to $170 before markets opened, which would be tops for the company that has already notched record highs four times this year. One year ago, Palantir shares were going for about $24 each.Shares of Caterpillar fell 3.5% in premarket after the farming and industrial equipment maker’s second-quarter profit fell short of Wall Street targets. The Texas company’s operating profit in the period fell 18% from last year, which company executives blamed on “unfavorable manufacturing costs” related to higher tariffs.Coming later this week are earnings reports from The Walt Disney Co., McDonald’s and DoorDash, along with updates on U.S. business activity.Investors appeared to have recovered some confidence after worries over how President Donald Trump’s tariffs may be punishing the economy sent a shudder through Wall Street last week.Reports from big U.S. companies have largely come in better than expected and could help steady a U.S. stock market that may have been due for some turbulence. A jump in stock prices from a low point in April had raised criticism that the broad market had become too expensive.At the same time, signs of weakness in hiring by U.S. businesses have raised expectations that the Federal Reserve will cut interest rates at its next meeting in September, potentially a plus for markets.Elsewhere, at midday in Europe, Germany’s DAX gained 0.8%, while the CAC 40 in Paris edged 0.2% higher. Britain’s FTSE 100 was up 0.5%.In Asian trading, Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 index gained 0.6% to 40,549.54 while the Kospi in South Korea jumped 1.6% to 3,198.00.In Hong Kong, the Hang Seng rose 0.7% to 24,902.53. The Shanghai Composite index surged 1% to 3,617.60.Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 jumped 1.2% to 8,770.40, while the SET in Thailand climbed 1.3%.India’s Sensex was the sole outlier, losing 0.5% on concerns over trade tensions with the United States as the Trump administration pushes for cutbacks in oil purchases from Russia.India has indicated that it will continue buying oil from Russia, saying its stance on securing its energy needs is guided by the availability of oil in the markets and prevailing global circumstances.“Trump’s threats of ‘substantial’ tariff hikes on account of imports of Russian crude pose a quagmire for India,” Mizuho Bank said in a commentary. “Between exacerbated U.S.-imposed geoeconomic headwinds and financial/macro setbacks from Russian oil advantages lost, pain will be hard to avert.”The Indian rupee hit another all-time low, dipping to 87.7 against the U.S. dollar.In energy trading, U.S. benchmark crude oil shed 73 cents to $65.56 per barrel, while Brent crude, the international standard, gave up 64 cents to $68.12 per barrel.The U.S. dollar rose to 147.60 Japanese yen from 147.09 yen. The euro slipped to $1.1541 from $1.1573. Associated Press


Category: E-Commerce

 

2025-08-05 14:05:00| Fast Company

Wells Fargo and Google Cloud are further cementing their longstanding strategic partnership with the introduction of artificially intelligent agents into Wells Fargos systems, the companies announced today. As part of the agreement, Wells Fargo employeeseveryone from tellers to investment bankers to C-suite executiveswill be able to utilize AI agents via Google Agentspace, Google Clouds agentic AI platform. The rollout will begin immediately with 2,000 Wells Fargo employees and will continue to be expanded over the coming months. What does it mean for customers? Quicker, better servicetheoretically. The AI agents are expected to help Wells Fargos teams become faster at automating tasks, quicker at analyzing information, and overall more efficient at their jobs, the companies say. For example, Wells Fargos banking business generates some 50,000 credit-related memos every year. A custom-built AI agent could conceivably tap into complex financial data, trends, and risk assessments to generate the first draft. Wells Fargo’s adoption of Google Agentspace marks a bold step forward in making banking simpler and smarterfor our customers and employees, says Tracy Kerrins, consumer CIO and head of enterprise generative AI at Wells Fargo. By leveraging advanced agentic AI capabilities, we can get answers and insights faster, work more efficiently, and free up time to focus on what matters most: helping people reach their financial goals. What guardrails are in place? One thing that both Wells Fargo and Google Clouds team are putting front and center is what they describe as a more responsible approach to AI deployment.  In a statement, the two companies said their collaboration is underpinned by rigorous ethical and regulatory frameworks so that these powerful tools are used in a way that promotes accuracy, fairness, transparency, accountability, and security. As companies across various industries team up with tech platforms to roll out generative AI products, some have drawn the ire of privacy and copyright advocates, among others. Financial services are seen as particularly complicated use cases for AI given the strict regulatory and compliance requirements under which banks operate, to say nothing of the need to maintain consumer trust and protect sensitive private financial data. A report from the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) earlier this year found that while AI can lead to reduced costs and improved efficiency for financial institutions, AI also poses risks, including potentially biased lending decisions, data quality issues, privacy concerns, and new cybersecurity threats. In the near term, itll be interesting to see if agentic AI proves to be a difference-maker for Wells Fargo in a competitive financial services space.  Our work with Wells Fargo is a defining moment for agentic AI in the financial services industry, says Matt Renner, president of global revenue at Google Cloud. By equipping everyone from branch bankers to corporate teams with Google AI tools, Wells Fargo will unlock new levels of efficiency.


Category: E-Commerce

 

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