BusinessReutersNintendo trims annual profit outlook on firmer yen
Japanese videogame maker Nintendo Co Ltd lowered by 4%on Tuesday its forecast for full-year operating profit, because of a firmer yen. It now expects total operating profit of 480 billion yen ($3.6 billion) for the year to March 31, down from a previous forecast of 500 billion. The latest outlook is lower than an average estimate of a profit of 582 billion yen from 21 analysts, according to Refinitiv data.
BusinessAFP NewsSoftBank Group reports surprise third-quarter $5.9 bln loss
Japan's SoftBank Group reported a surprise 783 billion yen ($5.9 billion) net loss in the third quarter, as a slump in the tech sector hits the investment behemoth's bottom line.But its first quarter earnings were also hit by tech stock slumps, a trend analysts said was likely to continue.
PoliticsAFP NewsFrench, German ministers to tackle green subsidies with US
The French and German economy ministers, Bruno Le Maire and Robert Habeck, kick off high-stakes talks with US officials Tuesday to underscore European concerns over President Joe Biden's ambitious climate action plan.For now, negotiations are proceeding under the European Commission's leadership, and Habeck believes that he and Le Maire can contribute to finding new solutions.
PoliticsAFP NewsOptimistic Biden to try to lift Americans with State of the Union speech
An optimistic President Joe Biden will seek to lift an often unenthusiastic nation Tuesday with a State of the Union address showcasing his efforts to rebuild the US economy -- and setting the stage for the 80-year-old's bid for re-election in 2024.This inspired Biden to boast: "I'm happy to report that the state of the union and the state of our economy is strong."
NewsAFP NewsFormer Pakistan military ruler Musharraf's funeral to be held
Pakistan's exiled former military ruler Pervez Musharraf, who became a key US ally during the "war on terror", was due to be buried on Tuesday, according to officials.The plane carrying his body landed late Monday in Karachi, aviation sources told AFP. While there has been no official announcement about his funeral, military officials who asked not to be named said Musharraf was expected to be buried on Tuesday in the mega port city where his family settled after leaving Old Delhi following the
BusinessAFP NewsJapan's Mitsubishi Heavy scraps troubled passenger jet project
Mitsubishi Heavy Industries said Tuesday it had abandoned its struggling project to develop a passenger plane, a decade after the jet was due for commercial rollout.The development of the twin-engine plane for short flights had marked a new chapter for Japan's aviation sector, which last launched a commercial airliner in 1962.
BusinessReutersChatGPT mania pumps up Chinese AI technology stocks
Chinese artificial intelligence stocks are the latest rage in mainland markets as the global frenzy around the Microsoft-backed ChatGPT chatbot spurs speculative bets on the revolutionary computing technology. While ChatGPT is not accessible in China, mainland investors are still pumping up the shares of AI technology companies such as Hanwang Technology Co, TRS Information Technology Co and Cloudwalk Technology Co. "The industry as a whole tends to first speculate on expectations before only later trading on actual results," said Zhang Kexing, general manager of Beijing Gelei Asset Management.
BusinessReutersCryptoverse: Is bitcoin out of the woods? Consider the options
Have bitcoin and ether finally turned a corner? It's looking that way, if crypto options traders are anything to go by. The volume of bitcoin options traded on Deribit, one of the leading exchanges for crypto-focused derivatives products, jumped 82% in January versus December, according to crypto market maker OrBit Markets.
BusinessReutersAlibaba-backed Pakistani e-commerce platform Daraz cuts workforce by 11%
KARACHI, PAKISTAN (Reuters) -Alibaba-owned e-commerce platform Daraz Group is reducing its workforce by 11% to prepare for the 'current market reality', Chief Executive Officer Bjarke Mikkelsen said. In a letter to its employees on Monday and shared on the company's website, Mikkelsen cited a difficult market environment, with a war in Europe, huge supply chain disruptions, soaring inflation, increasing taxes, and removal of essential government subsidies in its markets. The group operates in Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Nepal.
- BusinessAFP News
India's Adani Enterprises shares rocket 20%
Shares in the flagship firm of troubled Indian conglomerate Adani rocketed as much as 20 percent Tuesday, making up some of the huge slump suffered since last month.Adani Enterprises, the group's flagship firm, soared on Tuesday, with trading suspended three times as they went up 20 percent.
NewsAFP NewsWikipedia back online in Pakistan after 'blasphemy' ban
Wikipedia was back online in Pakistan on Tuesday, after the country's prime minister ordered authorities to lift a block imposed on the online encyclopedia over "blasphemous content."- 'Share knowledge' - According to the order published Monday, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif had instructed a committee made up of three government ministers to examine the PTA's decision to block Wikipedia.
NewsAFP NewsNorth Korea pledges 'expanded, intensified' military drills
North Korea's top army officials have said they will expand and intensify military drills to ensure their readiness for war, state media reported Tuesday, ahead of a massive parade.The agenda was topped by "the issue of constantly expanding and intensifying the operation and combat drills of the (Korean People's Army) ... strictly perfecting the preparedness for war", the official Korean Central News Agency said.
BusinessAFP NewsChina's Baidu says developing AI chatbot
Chinese search engine giant Baidu on Tuesday said it was developing an AI-powered chatbot, as tech giants rush to match the success of ChatGPT, a hugely popular language app that has sparked a gold rush in artificial intelligence technology.The Chinese tech giant has diversified in recent years into artificial intelligence, cloud computing and autonomous driving technologies as advertising revenue has remained sluggish in the face of tighter regulatory scrutiny.
PoliticsHuffPostLauren Boebert Appears To Pray For Joe Biden's Death In Texas Sermon
"Let his days be few and another take his office," the Colorado lawmaker said.
NewsAFP NewsUK court sentences ex-London policeman for serial rapes
A UK judge on Tuesday will sentence an ex-London policeman convicted of serial rapes and sexual assaults over decades, as the force vows to end a culture of misogyny and lax vetting.A judge at Southwark Crown Court in central London was set to sentence Carrick after the prosecutor said his offences merited a life sentence with a fixed minimum term.
BusinessReutersIndian rupee seen struggling to rise much in coming months: Reuters poll
The Indian rupee, one of the worst-performing Asian currencies last year, is forecast to strengthen very little in coming months and still trade above the 80 per dollar mark a year from now, a Reuters poll of foreign exchange strategists found. Although India is the fastest-growing major economy, with growth slowing but still expected at 6.0% in fiscal 2023/24, that relative strength is not reflected in the currency. The Reserve Bank of India is also near the end of a modest campaign to increase interest rates, and is due to deliver a final 25 basis point rise, to 6.50%, on Wednesday.
NewsAFP NewsRussia's Lavrov visits Mali in sign of deepening ties
Russia's foreign minister Sergei Lavrov arrived in Mali early Tuesday for talks with its junta leaders seeking Moscow's help in battling an Islamist insurgency that remains entrenched despite years of fighting.Lavrov will hold talks Tuesday with Goita, as well as with foreign affairs minister Diop, and a press conference is scheduled afterwards.
PoliticsHuffPostFormer Manhattan Prosecutor: Trump’s Business Empire ‘Built On Lies’
“Given all the evidence that we had ― nobody said, 'Hey, the guy’s not guilty,'" Mark Pomerantz said on "60 Minutes."
BusinessReutersIndian shares struggle for direction ahead of RBI's rate decision
Indian shares struggled for direction on Tuesday, see-sawing between optimism that the Reserve Bank of India will pause rate hikes after Wednesday, and worries that the Fed was likely to keep upping rates for longer. The Nifty 50 index was down 0.10% to 17,746.40, while the S&P BSE Sensex fell 0.17% to 60,410, as of 11:02 a.m. IST. FMCG stocks fell 1%, dragged by heavyweight ITC, which has taken a breather after rallying to fresh record highs over the last three sessions.
BusinessAFP NewsAsian markets rebound from Fed sell-off but traders still uneasy
Asian markets squeezed out gains Tuesday, giving investors some relief from a recent sell-off fuelled by worries that US interest rates will go higher than feared following last week's blockbuster jobs report.He told Bloomberg News: "I would expect that that would translate into us raising interest rates more than I have projected right now."
NewsAFP NewsJapanese 'Luffy' criminal ringleaders deported from Philippines
Two of the four suspects believed to be behind a spate of robberies and telephone fraud cases across Japan were deported from the Philippines on Tuesday.As Japan and the Philippines do not have an extradition treaty, local cases already filed against the suspects had to be cleared before they could leave.
BusinessReutersBaidu to finish testing ChatGPT-style project 'Ernie Bot' in March
China's Baidu Inc said on Tuesday it would complete internal testing of a ChatGPT-style project called "Ernie Bot" in March, joining a global race as interest in generative artificial intelligence (AI) gathers steam. Ernie，meaning "Enhanced Representation through Knowledge Integration," is a large AI-powered language model introduced in 2019, Baidu said. It has gradually grown to be able to perform tasks including language understanding, language generation, and text-to-image generation, it added.
NewsAFP NewsAt least 20 escape Syria prison holding IS inmates after quake
Prisoners mutinied in a northwestern Syria prison Monday following a deadly earthquake, with at least 20 escaping the jail holding mostly Islamic State group members, a source at the facility told AFP. The military police prison in the town of Rajo near the Turkish border holds about 2,000 inmates, with about 1,300 of them suspected to be IS fighters, said the source. The prison also holds fighters from Kurdish-led forces.
NewsAFP NewsUK property investors include Kremlin allies: study
Almost 52,000 UK properties are owned by anonymous investors, including some "close to the Kremlin", a report said Tuesday despite laws seeking to stop dirty Russian cash after Moscow's invasion of Ukraine.More than a fifth, or £1.5 billion, was ploughed into property with "suspect funds from Russia, including those subject to sanctions and close to the Kremlin", it added.
BusinessReutersIndia's Adani still eligible to be part of influential JPMorgan bond indexes
SINGAPORE (Reuters) -India's Adani group of companies, which in recent weeks has seen a brutal selloff in its bonds and shares after being targetted by a U.S. short-seller, is still eligible for inclusion in JPMorgan's influential bond indexes, the bank said in a note. Adani, whose business interest includes ports, power generation and transmission, and renewable energy, has a total notional value of $7.7 billion in the JPMorgan's CEMBI and JACI indexes, the bank said on Monday. JPMorgan Corporate Emerging Market Bond Index series (CEMBI) tracks dollar debt issued by emerging market corporations, while its Asia Credit Index (JACI) tracks the total return performance of the Asia fixed-rate dollar bond market.
