U.S. Vice President JD Vance speaks to the media before boarding Air Force Two for expected departure to Pakistan for talks on Iran, at Joint Base Andrews, Maryland, U.S., April 10, 2026. Jacquelyn Martin | Via Reuters Vice President JD Vance said on Friday that he thinks negotiations with Iran to end the six-week war…
Consumer outlook plunged to a record low in April as fears mounted over rising energy prices and the broader impact of the Iran war, according to a University of Michigan survey Friday. The university’s headline index of consumer sentiment tumbled to 47.6, down 10.7% from March to its lowest on record. Current conditions and expectations…
A man shops for butter at a supermarket in Houston, Texas, on March 17, 2026. Ronaldo Schemidt | AFP | Getty Images Consumer prices spiked in March as the Iran war sent energy costs soaring and took the Federal Reserve further from its inflation target, according to a Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Friday. Underlying…
This report is from this week’s The Tech Download newsletter. Like what you see? You can subscribe here. The past week has seen some progress, albeit uneasy and stilted, being made towards ending the Iran war. A two-week ceasefire was agreed on Wednesday, and while it looks fragile, hopes of the conflict approaching a close are…
BlackRock is applying hedge fund strategies to its exchange-traded fund business. Jeffrey Rosenberg, the firm’s senior portfolio manager on the systemic fixed income team, has a leading role in the firm’s liquid alternatives ETFs — which use a long-short strategy in ETF wrappers. He contends the strategy provides valuable diversification amid the recent breakdown in…
The Alibaba logo is pictured during a tour at the Alibaba office in Beijing on April 1, 2026. Wang Zhao | Afp | Getty Images A mysterious AI video model that has ascended global leaderboards has been confirmed as a project from Chinese tech giant Alibaba, in a development that could boost the company’s artificial…
Chinese President Xi Jinping met with Kuomintang party chair Cheng Li-wun in Beijing on Friday, the first encounter between Xi and a sitting Taiwanese opposition leader in nearly a decade. In a readout released by Chinese state media, Xi said Beijing “welcomes any proposals conducive to the peaceful development of cross-strait relations.” That’s according to…
The Eli Lilly and Novo Nordisk logos. Mike Blake | Tom Little | Reuters The market share of India’s most popular weight‑loss drugmaker, Eli Lilly, slipped in March, while rival Novo Nordisk held steady even as Indian generic drugmakers flooded the market with lower‑priced copies. Eli Lilly’s Indian market share in the GLP‑1 category of…
The Trump administration is increasingly on a collision course with the European Union over Big Tech fines. Google, Apple and Meta are contesting fines from the EU over violations of the bloc’s antitrust and competition laws, which total over 6 billion euros, or $7 billion, since the start of 2024. They’re an increasing bone of…
A general view of Navigator Terminals, an Oil storage depot along the River Thames on March 10, 2026 in London, England. Dan Kitwood | Getty Images News | Getty Images The fluctuating price of dated Brent, the global benchmark for real-world barrels of crude, has prompted energy analysts warn to that acute stress in the…
