Latest Developments

North America
Yahoo Finance

Fed's Kevin Warsh may take 'little bit of time' to decide rate direction

US markets (^DJI, ^IXIC, ^GSPC) soared in Monday trading, led by the Nasdaq Composite's gain of over 3% — 795 points — after President Trump announced that the US and Iran have reached a peace deal. This comes ahead of the Federal Reserve's June FOMC meeting this week. Baird managing director and market strategist Michael Antonelli discusses the intricacies of the economic environment that may push the US central bank to move interest rates. Fed officials will be meeting from Tuesday, June 16, to Wednesday, June 17, concluding with a decision on rates and a press conference with new Chairman Kevin Warsh.

Fed's Kevin Warsh may take 'little bit of time' to decide rate direction
Europe
BBC Business

Driving test wait time target will not be met until autumn next year

The driving test backlog won't be reduced to the target of seven weeks until autumn next year, the Transport Secretary has said. Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency (DVSA) figures show the average waiting time to book a test last month was nearly 22 weeks. Last November, Heidi Alexander announced changes aimed at cutting long waits and preventing test slots getting booked up - including by bots - and resold at inflated prices. Changes which have already come into effect including only allowing learners themselves to book their test slot. The DVSA initially had a target of reducing the average waiting time to seven weeks by the end of 2025. Alexander pushed this back to summer 2026, but admitted last November even that would not be possible. She told a Committee of MPs on Wednesday that she understood people's frustrations and insisted the government has done a lot to tackle the issue. However she added that "demand is still very high" and acknowledged there was still a lot of work to do. The BBC has repeatedly heard from learner drivers frustrated by the difficulty of booking tests when, and where, they need them. Some have ended up buying slots from resellers who charge many times the official cost of taking a driving test. A BBC investigation in December found some driving instructors were being offered kickbacks of up to £250 a month to sell their login details to touts. In the past few months, a number of changes to the test booking system have been introduced as part of efforts to combat the problem.

Driving test wait time target will not be met until autumn next year
North America
CNBC Finance

How Roku fits into Fox's future — and what investors are missing about the deal 

The media industry has long been preparing for consolidation and mega deals. And yet Fox Corp.'s acquisition of Roku seems to have taken the market by surprise. On Monday, Fox said it would acquire Roku for $22 billion, bringing a streaming tech platform — in addition to a second free, ad-supported streaming service — into its portfolio of linear TV networks and Tubi. While analysts lauded the deal as a strategic pivot for the legacy media company, Fox shareholders received the news differently. Its stock traded down 16% on Monday, hitting a 52-week low. Shares fell another 4% on Tuesday. "We view this as a strategic fit. Fox marries its strong content with Roku's leading distribution platform and first party data that add scale and can enhance the value proposition with advertisers," Piper Sandler analyst Thomas Champion wrote in a note on Monday. Champion highlighted Fox's long list of sports rights and Roku's position as the leading streaming platform — offered on both dedicated devices and smart TVs — as "highly complementary." "The combined company will be the third largest player in the U.S. by share of viewing, spanning broadcast, cable, local and streaming," he said. Some industry analysts and insiders — who didn't want to comment publicly on market reaction — attributed the sharp stock reaction to the new debt that Fox would be taking on as part of the deal. Still, the company's leverage will be relatively low after the deal's expected close in the first half of next year. One industry insider noted that Fox is also likely to spend more when the NFL reopens media rights negotiations, which have already begun for CBS owner Paramount Skydance. Mike Proulx, Forrester's vice president and research director, told CNBC in an email that it was too early to take this as a negative market reaction and noted that big media deals "often get punished in the short term because they introduce uncertainty." "In this case investors are likely questioning the near-term cost-benefit. But what the market is missing is the long-term strategic importance of this deal. It's a must for Fox," Proulx said. "It's far from just a content play. The long-term value is in owning the platform, the data, and the ad stack. That's what this deal gives Fox and helps the company to future proof." In a MoffettNathanson note on Monday, the analyst firm called the deal "an unexpected strategic pivot." LightShed Partners called it a "bold move." "Legacy media has long suffered from the innovator's dilemma, with most players allergic to risk," LightShed analysts said in a note. "Fox has repeatedly talked about using its financial strength to make acquisitions and was routinely criticized for being underlevered, but Roku is a far larger acquisition than any Fox investor expected."

How Roku fits into Fox's future — and what investors are missing about the deal 
Asia
The Hindu BusinessLine

Rupee likely to strengthen on US-Iran peace deal as oil prices tumble

The Indian rupee is likely to strengthen at Monday’s open after a US-Iran peace deal knocked oil prices lower and spurred hopes that dollar inflows will return to Asia’s third-largest economy. The rupee is expected to open in the ₹94.80-94.85 per dollar range, per traders, having settled at ₹95.11 on Friday. The rupee is set to surpass the highs it reached after the Reserve Bank of India’s policy announcement on June 5, which laid out a raft of measures to support the currency. Asian equities and currencies advanced, while the dollar index and US Treasury yields fell and oil prices tumbled after US President Donald Trump and Iran’s deputy foreign minister said they had reached a deal to end the war and reopen the Strait of Hormuz. Brent crude dived 4.5 per cent to $83.40, the lowest level in more than three months. The critical question for markets is the durability of the peace deal and, by extension, the sustainability of the drop in oil prices, a currency trader at a bank said. If crude remains anchored near $80, the pressure created by equity outflows is likely to moderate, reinforcing expectations that portfolio flows could return, the trader added. The more than three-month war between the United States and Iran has cast a long shadow over the rupee, weighing on foreign appetite for Indian assets, inflating the country’s import bill and dimming the growth outlook. Amid persistent pressure on the rupee, the RBI announced a raft of measures at its recent policy meeting to bring in dollar inflows, including the revival of a 2013-type window to mobilise funds from non-resident Indians. The RBI’s measures had already begun to build momentum behind the rupee, and the drop in oil prices could provide the complementary support needed, the currency trader said. Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments. We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of TheHindu Businessline and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.

Rupee likely to strengthen on US-Iran peace deal as oil prices tumble
North America
CNBC Finance

Rivian laying off hundreds of workers amid R2 launch

Rivian said Tuesday it was laying off hundreds of workers, or less than 2% of its workforce, as the electric vehicle maker aims to narrow losses. The layoffs affect some teams in the service and customer segments, according to a spokesperson. The company had 15,232 employees across North America and Europe at the end of last year. "We recently restructured a handful of teams within Rivian as we work to profitably scale our business," the company said in a statement. The layoffs come a week after the automaker officially launched deliveries of its key new vehicle, the R2 SUV. The R2 is meant to transform Rivian from a niche EV manufacturer that sells luxury vehicles into a more mainstream brand like U.S. EV leader Tesla. The layoffs were first reported by The Wall Street Journal. Rivian has said it hopes to achieve profitability with the R2. It has never turned an annual profit. The EV maker lost $3.6 billion last year, while only delivering 42,247 vehicles, according to company filings. Its automotive segment lost about $6,000 per vehicle it delivered during the first quarter of this year. Rivian and other EV manufacturers are increasingly facing a more challenging market than they did in recent years amid changing regulations under the Trump administration, including the elimination of a $7,500 federal incentive for purchasing an EV. Rivian laid off more than 600 workers in October, or roughly 4.5% of its workforce. Those cuts largely involved restructurings of its marketing, vehicle operations, and sales/delivery and mobile operations teams. Get this delivered to your inbox, and more info about our products and services. Data is a real-time snapshot *Data is delayed at least 15 minutes. Global Business and Financial News, Stock Quotes, and Market Data and Analysis.

Rivian laying off hundreds of workers amid R2 launch
North America
CNBC Finance

General Motors announces new defense partnership with Lockheed Martin

Automaker General Motors on Tuesday announced a new partnership with defense company Lockheed Martin to scale manufacturing and expand production capabilities. The deal was facilitated by the U.S. Department of Defense, according to Bruce Brown, GM's vice president of strategy at GM Defense, and will focus on munitions and more. "What makes this moment especially important is that the country needs more than great technology. It also needs the capacity to build, scale and deliver reliably," Brown said on a call with reporters. "This is where GM can help. Across our company, we bring deep experience in advanced engineering, digital development, supply chain discipline and manufacturing at scale." Lockheed Chief Operating Officer Frank St. John said it was too early to say what projects it would invest in with GM Defense. Executives from both companies said on the call that the collaboration will allow for more growth at a time when the country is ramping up its production of defense parts. "Together, we will explore opportunities across three important areas: improving production readiness and scalable manufacturing environments; strengthening supply chains and identifying ways to increase resilience; and applying advanced manufacturing and design approaches [that] can help improve efficiency and accelerate delivery," St. John said. Lockheed Martin is investing $9 billion through 2030 to modernize 20 of its facilities and supply bases, St. John added. GM said it will spend $7 billion on research and development in the U.S., according to Brown. The executives said the partnership will be focused on "high-rate manufacturing" at scale and expanding production capacity. They added that the collaboration is still in early stages and that they need to further define what the potential for future contracts may be. They are working under a memorandum of understanding. The automaker built tanks for the country during World War II. Its GM Defense unit is one of the company's newer but fast-growing business segments, reestablished in 2017 with customers including the U.S. Army, Secret Service and NASA. "America is stronger when two companies with deep manufacturing roots come together to help expand speed, scale and resilience in the defense industrial base. That is why Lockheed Martin and GM are announcing this collaboration," Brown said on the call. The partnership comes as President Donald Trump has been pushing for more American manufacturing to bring more production and reshoring into the country. The U.S. has also seen its defense stockpiles fall because of the wars in Ukraine and Iran. The White House has held discussions with Ford and GM about better supporting the country's defense industry.

General Motors announces new defense partnership with Lockheed Martin
Europe
BBC Business

Japan raids ice cream giants over price-fixing allegations

Japan's competition watchdog has raided some of the country's biggest ice cream makers for allegedly forming a cartel to raise the price of their products. Some of the firms, including Meiji and Pocky maker Ezaki Glico, said this week that they have been subject to an "on-site inspection" by the Japan Fair Trade Commission (JFTC) over suspicions that they fixed the prices of frozen desserts. The companies are suspected of inflating ice cream prices beyond increases in the cost of raw materials, even as the country faces a hot summer with record high temperatures. The six firms that were raided on Tuesday were Meiji, Morinaga Milk Industry, Lotte, Morinaga, Ezaki Glico and Akagi Nyugyo. The firms improperly raised prices of popular desserts "several times by 5-10% over the years", according to Japanese broadcaster NHK, citing anonymous sources. The brands distribute their products wholesale to supermarkets and convenience stores across Japan. Morinaga Milk, Glico and Meiji said in separate statements that they would co-operate with the authorities' investigation. "As reported by some media outlets today, our company has been subject to an on-site inspection by the Fair Trade Commission on suspicion of violating the Antimonopoly Act in connection with the setting of sales prices for ice cream and other products," Meiji said. "We take this inspection very seriously and will cooperate fully with the Fair Trade Commission's investigation," the Hello Panda snack maker wrote. Glico said: "We will respond in good faith to the Fair Trade Commission's investigation and cooperate fully." Earlier this year, Japan unveiled a new name for days that reach 40C (104F) or above, after the country experienced its hottest summer on record in 2025. The term - kokushobi - has been translated as "cruelly hot", "brutally hot" or "severely hot" day by Japanese and international media.

Japan raids ice cream giants over price-fixing allegations
Europe
BBC Business

Musk's SpaceX overtakes Amazon to become world's fifth most valuable firm

Elon Musk's SpaceX has overtaken Amazon to become the world's fifth most valuable company after a surge in its share price. Days after joining New York's tech-focused Nasdaq stock exchange in the biggest public listing ever, its share price has risen by more than 50%. It leaves Musk's rocket company worth about $2.78tn (£2.1tn), while Jeff Bezos's sprawling online retail and media empire is currently worth about $2.66tn. The boom in SpaceX's value came as it announced it was buying AI coding start-up Cursor for $60bn. SpaceX said it would take over Anysphere, Cursor's parent company, which makes the artificial intelligence coding agent. SpaceX has garnered huge enthusiasm among investors for its vision of sending AI data centres to space and even helping humans to colonise Mars. Its listing raised $85.7bn and minted Musk as the world's first trillionaire. Since first selling shares to the public at $135 each on Friday, they have risen to $209. But analysts have questioned the sustainability of its high share price given the huge amount of uncertainty over its future earnings. While Amazon is a household name, with its brand difficult to avoid being encountered on an almost daily basis, SpaceX is less embedded in the lives of the general public. Despite SpaceX's stock market value overtaking Amazon, the revenues and profits made by the companies are vastly different. Amazon made $30.3bn of profit in the first quarter of 2026, while Musk's future-focused SpaceX lost $4.3bn. In 2025, Jeff Bezos's firm accrued some $716.9bn in sales, while SpaceX recorded $18.67bn.

Musk's SpaceX overtakes Amazon to become world's fifth most valuable firm
Europe
BBC Business

SpaceX IPO raised $10bn more than thought

SpaceX raised $10bn (£7.5bn) more than initially thought when it sold shares to the public on Friday - bringing in a total of $85.7bn. Elon Musk's rocket and Artificial Intellgience (AI) company pulled off the biggest initial public offering (IPO) in history when it joined New York's Nasdaq stock exchange last week. The listing had raised $75bn from investors, which Musk told employees will be spent funding a "significant growth phase". But the banks which backed the IPO exercised a so-called "greenshoe" clause, which let them purchase an extra $10bn of SpaceX shares. The extra $10bn raised, revealed in a statement by SpaceX announcing the completion of the listing, would by itself rank as one of the biggest IPOs in history. It came thanks to a financial mechanism known as an overallotment option, more commonly referred to as a "greenshoe" option. When a company goes public in a highly anticipated listing, investor demand can outstrip the initial supply of shares. To prevent wild price swings and ensure a smoother launch, a greenshoe agreement lets the banks handling the listing sell more shares than originally planned. In SpaceX's case, appetite was exceptionally high. The underwriters, which included Goldman Sachs, Bank of America, and JPMorgan, exercised the option in full, purchasing an additional 83.3 million shares directly from the company to meet the huge demand. The listing also saw Musk elevated to trillionaire status, according to Bloomberg calculations. And momentum behind SpaceX continued on Monday, with shares surging by more than 19% to $192. Because the vast majority of Musk's wealth is directly tied up in SpaceX equity, his new milestone status remains entirely dependent on the market. A sharp decline in the stock could strip him of the title just as quickly as continued gains could multiply it.

SpaceX IPO raised $10bn more than thought