Author: Press Room
Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.Bitcoin traded at $69,200 on Tuesday, marking a new all-time high for the world’s largest cryptocurrency. The price has surged since US regulators in January approved a series of spot bitcoin exchange traded funds issued by Wall Street stalwarts including Fidelity and BlackRock, the world’s largest asset manager. The new wave of capital has resulted in a more than 60 per cent gain for bitcoin since the start of the year and has helped push the flagship crypto token into uncharted territory, passing the…
Liberty University, a Christian college located in Virginia, has agreed to pay a $14 million fine as a result of a Department of Education review into its handling of campus safety, including with respect to its published crime statistics and treatment of sexual assault survivors. The Department of Education said it was the largest fine ever imposed for violating the Clery Act, which requires colleges to maintain and disclose campus crime statistics and security information. Liberty University did not immediately respond to a request for comment from CNN. The Department of Education said that the university’s administration promptly acknowledged the…
Forklifts might not be the first image that comes to mind when talking about autonomous vehicles. They should now. Arkansas-based company ArcBest announced a new product on Tuesday that it calls Vaux Smart Autonomy. The logistics solution involves self-driving forklifts and reach trucks that can make warehouses more efficient. The technology is an add-on to ArcBest’s Vaux Freight Movement System, which was unveiled. The company says that system, which was unveiled in 2023, has reduced an hourslong process of loading and unloading trucks to minutes. In a typical scenario, a forklift driver has to unload pallets from a semi-truck trailer…
The numbers: Total U.S. consumer credit rose by $1.5 billion in December, down from a $23.4 billion gain in the previous month, the Federal Reserve said Wednesday. That translates to a 0.4% annual growth rate in December, down from a 5.7% increase in November. It is the slowest pace of credit growth since an outright drop in August. Economists had been expecting a $15 billion increase in consumer credit in December, according to a Wall Street Journal forecast. Key details: Revolving credit, such as credit cards, slowed to a 1% growth rate after a 16.6% gain in the prior month.…
By Pratima Desai LONDON (Reuters) – The potential for a build-up of tin supplies this year is likely to put pressure on prices, but accelerating demand from the energy transition sector, including solar panels and electric vehicles, should support prices in the future. Tin is used in circuit-board soldering for products like mobile phones and in electric cars and also in the manufacture of solar panels. Solder currently accounts for about half of global tin consumption. Sluggish demand particularly from the semiconductor industry pushed the market into surplus for the past two years. This was despite a ban imposed last…
BANGKOK (Reuters) – Thailand’s Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin said on Friday he will continue to urge the central bank to cut interest rates. His comments on social media platform X come just days after the Bank of Thailand left the key rate unchanged at 2.50%, the highest level in more than a decade, in a split vote. Two of seven rate-setting members voted for a quarter-point cut. The central bank will next review policy on April 10. Srettha said interest rates were a big matter and can help people with their expenses without having to rely on the state budget.…
The Medicare Advantage Open Enrollment Period began January 1 and will end March 31. Those who elected this coverage have the opportunity to change plans. Many are familiar with HMO (health maintenance organization) and PPO (preferred provider organization) plans, which account for over 95% of Medicare Advantage plans. But there are three plans that aren’t as well known. HMO-POS plan This is an HMO plan that adds a point-of-service (POS) option. A few years ago, I rarely saw an HMO-POS plan but today, there are more. For example, in a North Carolina city, they now make up almost a quarter…
Bitcoin has reached a new all-time high for the first time in more than two years, as this year’s rally — fueled by excitement over bitcoin ETFs and the upcoming halving event — accelerated.The price of the cryptocurrency topped $69,210 on Tuesday morning before retreating, according to Coin Metrics. It was last trading little changed at $67,481. The flagship crypto notched it previous record of $68,982.20 on Nov. 10, 2021 — about a year before the catastrophic failure of the once popular FTX hurled the industry into its darkest days.”Bitcoin reclaiming its all-time high yet again shows it is never…
Target on Tuesday said it will launch a paid membership program next month, riffing off the playbook of its rivals Amazon and Walmart.The subscription tier, Target Circle 360, will include unlimited free same-day delivery for orders over $35 in as little as one hour with no delivery fees and two free-day shipping, along with other perks.The paid membership tier will launch in early April and initially cost $49 per year, said Cara Sylvester, Target’s chief guest experience officer, who announced the program at an investor event on Tuesday in New York City. It will cost $99 per year after the…
Forget the Egg McMuffin. Brits are going crazy for the bacon and sausage buns offered by Greggs, an 85-year-old chain of budget bakeries that just posted its best-ever performance. The company said Tuesday that it had taken 19.6% of the food-to-go breakfast market in the United Kingdom last year — knocking McDonald’s (MCD) off the top spot — and snagged 8.2% of the overall market for takeaway food. That share is at an all-time high and up from 7.7% in 2022. Pre-tax profit also jumped more than 13% last year to a record high of nearly £168 million ($213 million).…
