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Asia
The Hindu BusinessLine

IMD Update: Active monsoon to bring heavy rain in coastal districts of Bengal

An active southwest monsoon is likely to bring heavy rainfall in the coastal districts of West Bengal till June 24, the India Meteorological Department said on Wednesday. The northern districts of Darjeeling, Jalpaiguri and Alipurduar could receive heavy downpour from July 26-29, the IMD said in a bulletin. It said heavy rainfall will occur in the coastal districts of North and South 24 Parganas and Purba Medinipur till July 24. The sub-Himalayan districts, which received heavy rainfall over the last several days, are likely to experience light to moderate rain over the next few days, the bulletin stated. Haldia in Purba Medinipur district received the highest rainfall in the state at 79 mm in the past 24 hours till 8.30 am on Wednesday. Other places that were lashed by heavy rain during the period include Kanthi (55 mm), Asansol (53 mm), Bankura (46 mm) and Alipurduar (34 mm), the bulletin said. Thunderstorms accompanied by gusty winds with speeds reaching 30-40 kmph are likely to occur over Kolkata during the next three days, the IMD added. 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.

IMD Update: Active monsoon to bring heavy rain in coastal districts of Bengal
Europe
The Guardian

US state attorneys general file lawsuit in effort to block Paramount merger

The Paramount logo on the water tower at Paramount Studios in Los Angeles, California. Photograph: Mario Tama/Getty ImagesView image in fullscreenThe Paramount logo on the water tower at Paramount Studios in Los Angeles, California. Photograph: Mario Tama/Getty ImagesMedia businessUS state attorneys general file lawsuit in effort to block Paramount mergerBipartisan group argue in lawsuit that $110bn merger would hurt competition and lead to thousands of job losses A dozen US state attorneys general are seeking to block the $110bn merger of Paramount Skydance and Warner Bros Discovery, arguing in a lawsuit filed on Monday that it would hurt competition and lead to higher prices for consumers. The coalition behind the lawsuit is led by the California attorney general, Rob Bonta, who has been a staunch critic of the merger since it was agreed to in February after a bidding war between David Ellison’s Paramount Skydance and Netflix. The lawsuit was joined by the states of Arizona, Colorado, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon and Washington. “Today, I am leading a coalition of states in challenging the proposed merger of Warner Bros and Paramount and asking the court to block the deal,” Bonta said in a statement. “The unlawful merger of these two entertainment behemoths would lead to higher prices, lower quality, and less content for film and television, harming movie theaters, basic cable distributors, and ultimately, audiences on every sofa and movie theater seat in the US.” Bonta and his fellow state attorneys general are now asking a judge to stop the merger until the judicial process plays out. “In this country, no one is above the law,” he said. “With this lawsuit, California and our sister states are fighting for free and fair markets, not rigged markets. America has no kings in government or our economy.” The lawsuit was filed in US district court for the northern district of California. The widely anticipated lawsuit comes a month after the US Department of Justice signed off on the deal, clearing a major obstacle for the merger. While dozens of countries have also agreed to the deal, it still awaits approval from regulators in the UK and Europe. On 30 June, Lisa Nandy, the UK culture secretary, said she was “minded” to intervene and asked both the communications regulator, Ofcom, and the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) to further investigate the deal, which would delay its timeline. Paramount Skydance and Ellison have maintained that the merger will increase competition and preserve the Hollywood theatrical status quo. “The lawsuit filed by the state attorneys general, in the most generous light, reflects a fundamentally flawed application of the antitrust laws and is wrong on both the facts and the law,” Paramount said in a statement on Monday. “We will vigorously defend the transaction and demonstrate that this challenge is inconsistent with sound competition policy and the competitive realities of the media marketplace. Delaying this transaction will only harm entertainment workers who have already suffered over recent years as technology has disrupted their livelihood and cost California tens of thousands of entertainment jobs.” The close ties between David Ellison; his father, the Oracle billionaire Larry Ellison; and members of the Trump administration have raised questions about whether the regulatory playing field was tilted toward the deal’s approval, despite the concerns of actors, journalists and many prominent politicians. “Antitrust enforcement is democracy’s check on oligarchy,” Bonta told reporters in a press conference. “Antitrust enforcement is a check on billionaires currying favor with the president so he’ll do their bidding.”

US state attorneys general file lawsuit in effort to block Paramount merger
Europe
BBC Business

The SpaceX IPO made history. One month on has it lost momentum?

ByKali HaysTechnology reporterPublished13 July 2026, 06:01 BSTUpdated 8 minutes agoSpaceX investors have swung from celebration to apparent concern in its first month as a publicly traded company. When shares in the firm, co-founded and led by Elon Musk, first became available for individuals to buy on the public stock market on 12 June, there was an investor frenzy. Although the company had decided to price its shares at $135 each, the price immediately shot up to $150 that first day, climbing to $176, before closing at $160.95. The following week, its shares went up even further, hitting an intraday high of $225, meaning it had surpassed Amazon and Microsoft in total market value. "With Elon Musk, any company he touches gets people excited," Keith Snyder, analyst at investment research firm CFRA, said. "But this was also the first time people felt like they were able to invest in something that was being marketed as an AI play." Willy Lee, an investor at Neosteller, which facilitates individual investors putting money into private companies, agreed that the excitement around the IPO was very much around artificial intelligence (AI). SpaceX earlier this year acquired Musk's AI start-up xAI, recently renamed SpaceXAI, external and best known for the controversial chatbot Grok, and also started leasing data centre capacity to other tech companies. But its main business is the manufacture and launch of rockets and telecommunications satellites called Starlink. When Starlink said it was cutting prices in the Memphis, Tennessee area amid local concerns over a massive data centre project, SpaceX shares fell on the day by 8%. As the reality of how SpaceX currently makes money has seemed to come into clearer focus, the company's shares have started to sink. Even amid a tumultuous couple of weeks for tech stocks, SpaceX has taken a particular hit. When it was added to the Nasdaq100 index on 7 July, for instance, although the index closed down 1.7%, SpaceX fell 4.4%. An earlier addition to the FTSE Russell index had given the shares a slight boost. At the end of its first trading month, shares of SpaceX were selling at around $145 each, roughly 18% less than the high on its first day of trading, and 35% less than its peak so far.

The SpaceX IPO made history. One month on has it lost momentum?
Europe
The Guardian

Oil, gas and UK government borrowing costs prices jump as Middle East tensions ratchet higher – as it happened

Crude oil prices have hit their highest levels in four weeks, as Washington and Tehran traded attacks and the US reimposed a naval blockade of Iran. Brent crude has jumped $3.79 a barrel to $87.08 a barrel, a 4.55% increase, the highest since 12 June, before the ceasefire. The US and Iran signed a memorandum of understanding to end the conflict on 17 June and engaged in negotiations for a permanent peace deal. Iran said on Monday it was continuing talks with mediators from Qatar, Pakistan and Oman to try to prevent any further escalation. Donald Trump declared the ceasefire over last week but left the door to talks open. US West Texas Intermediate crude rose to a high of $81.25 a barrel, and is now trading at $80.92 a barrel, up 2.8%. What we think is that the peak of the escalation is behind us, but there are upside risks to oil prices if these disruptions continue and that will keep prices in the $85-$90 range.

Oil, gas and UK government borrowing costs prices jump as Middle East tensions ratchet higher – as it happened
Asia-Pacific
The Straits Times

Wall St ends lower for the day and week as chip sell-off broadens

Traders working on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange during morning trading on July 17, in New York City. NEW YORK - Wall Street extended its decline on July 17 as a pullback on stocks associated with the AI boom, which has driven many of the gains so far this year, morphed into a larger risk-off sentiment. Semiconductor shares, which have led the broader market’s move in recent sessions, initially led the sell-off, which broadened as the session progressed. All three major US stock indexes closed lower on the day and posted weekly losses. The Philadelphia SE Semiconductor Index logged its steepest weekly loss in over a year, and has tumbled over 18 per cent so far in July. Even so, the index remains up nearly 65 per cent year-to-date, compared with the S&P 500’s nearly 9 per cent gain over the same time frame. The SOX closed 20.2 per cent below its June 22 record closing high, confirming the index entered a bear market on that date. Some investors in the artificial intelligence space have begun positioning for a slowdown in the nearly trillion-dollar spending boom, with some active managers already scaling back their exposure, according to a Reuters analysis. “It’s like the market has chip fatigue,” said Ryan Detrick, chief market strategist at Carson Group in Omaha, Nebraska. “Chip stocks are down three of the last four weeks, and it’s the same worries, the same concerns; those stocks got way ahead of themselves, and now they’re coming back to Earth.” Among the Magnificent Seven group of AI-related megacaps, all but Apple dipped, with Meta and Alphabet suffering the worst of it, down 2.7 per cent and 3.2 per cent, respectively. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 406.55 points, or 0.77 per cent, to 52,146.42, the S&P 500 lost 76.08 points, or 1.01 per cent, to 7,457.69 and the Nasdaq Composite lost 361.70 points, or 1.4 per cent, to 25,520.24. Among the major sectors of the S&P 500, communication services and consumer discretionary fell the most, while energy stocks were the sole gainers, benefiting from spiking crude prices amid signs of escalating hostilities in the Iran war. Second-quarter earnings season is still in its early days, with 49 of the companies in the S&P 500 having reported. Of those, 90 per cent have delivered better-than-expected results, according to LSEG. Analysts now see year-on-year S&P 500 earnings growth of 26 per cent, in aggregate, up from the 19.2 per cent expectations as of April 1, per LSEG.

Wall St ends lower for the day and week as chip sell-off broadens
Asia
The Hindu BusinessLine

Andhra Pradesh faces 48% rainfall deficit, CM Naidu calls for water conservation

Andhra Pradesh has 48 percent rainfall deficit and people need to adopt sustainable water and environmental practices, Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu said. Speaking at the Swachh Andhra programme in Gudivada on Sunday, Naidu said “Net Zero” should become a way of life by minimising household waste and embracing carbon neutrality. The citizens should harvest rainwater and recharge groundwater to tackle recurring water shortages, Naidu said. The Chief Minister recalled that declining inflows into the Krishna Delta over a decade ago severely affected agriculture in the region, once known as the country’s “rice bowl.” The Pattiseema Lift Irrigation Project, completed within 12 months, had enabled the transfer of Godavari waters to the delta despite reduced inflows into the Prakasam Barrage this year, he added. According to him, nearly 450 TMC of water has been diverted so far, creating substantial agricultural wealth. The State government was commitment to completing the Polavaram Project and linking rivers from Vamsadhara to Penna to ensure drought-proof irrigation. Addressing aqua farmers, he assured continued support amid falling shrimp prices and rising feed costs, stating that discussions have already been held with the Central Government, according to a release. 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.

Andhra Pradesh faces 48% rainfall deficit, CM Naidu calls for water conservation
Europe
BBC Business

Will Trump Accounts deliver for American children?

Image source, Getty ImagesByMichael RaceBusiness reporter, Reporting fromNew YorkPublished4 hours agoThe launch of Trump Accounts, the new savings scheme aimed at encouraging investing among American children, was marked with an historic ringing of the Wall Street opening bell in the Oval Office this week. But not everyone is convinced the project will prove a success in giving new generations a stake in the so-called American dream, with sceptics suggesting that it will not live up to the hype. The savings accounts are now available to all US children under the age of 18, with babies born between 2025 and 2028 qualifying for a $1,000 contribution to kickstart savings. The move comes as the cost of living remains a major issue ahead of November's mid-term elections, but tax experts told the BBC families on lower incomes could lose out and that the scheme is too complicated. The accounts named after the president are available nationwide and can be created for anyone under the age of 18 with a valid social security number. Parents can simply download the app. Families, friends and employers can contribute up to $5,000 per year per child, who can access the funds when they turn 18. By law, the money must be invested in a low-cost index fund designed for long-term growth. But while the money grows tax free, withdrawals are subject to taxes and a possible 10% penalty if made before the age of 59 and a half. To avoid such a penalty, the money must be assigned to pay for certain things, such as higher education, buying or building a first home, or for personal emergency expenses. Trump Accounts add to other existing tax-efficient savings schemes that Americans can use for retirement, such as IRAs, or for educational purposes, such as 529 plans, which parents use to save for their children's college fees. According to a Congress report,, external Trump Accounts are a new form of traditional individual retirement account (IRA), but differ because of certain rules. While the White House has been keen to push the scheme, reaction to it has been split. The White House's argument is that Trump Accounts offer millions of children a way into stock ownership in the US, which it says has historically been "unevenly distributed, with many households - especially younger and lower‑income families - having little or no exposure".

Will Trump Accounts deliver for American children?
North America
CNBC Finance

PepsiCo earnings miss estimates as U.S. consumers tighten their budgets

PepsiCo on Thursday reported mixed quarterly results as the struggles of its North American food and beverage divisions offset strong international demand. "Results were tempered in the quarter as U.S. food and beverage category performance moderated with consumer budgets tightening due to rising inflationary pressures," CEO Ramon Laguarta said in prepared remarks shared on the company's website on Thursday. During Pepsi's second quarter, global oil prices swung dramatically due to the U.S. war with Iran. In the U.S., the national average gas price hit a four-year high of $4.56 per gallon in late May, leading many shoppers to watch their spending. Pepsi reported second-quarter net income attributable to the company of $2.98 billion, or $2.18 per share, up from $1.26 billion, or 92 cents per share, a year earlier. Excluding restructuring and impairment charges and other items, the company earned $2.20 per share. Net sales rose 6.4% to $24.18 billion. Organic revenue, which excludes acquisitions, divestitures and foreign currency, increased 2.4% in the quarter. Globally, volume for Pepsi's food increased 3%, while volume for its beverages rose 2%. The metric excludes pricing and foreign exchange fluctuations to reflect demand more accurately. But Pepsi's volume growth came from its international markets. Demand was much weaker domestically. Its North American food business reported flat volume for the quarter, and its North American beverage division saw volume drop 4%. "I think the consumer is worse than what we had anticipated, and it's driven mainly by gas prices," Laguarta said on the company's earnings conference call. "We need to see some improvement in the in the convenience and gas channel, and hopefully we'll get some tailwinds from gas prices to do that," CFO Steve Schmitt said. Over the last two years, both North American segments have seen weaker demand as a result of higher prices. In February, Pepsi cut prices on Lay's, Tostitos, Doritos and Cheetos by as much as 15% to try to win back shoppers. The company has also been "restaging" some of its iconic brands, like Gatorade and Lay's, with fresh branding to boost their sales. Pepsi expects that its North American volumes will recover, but that will take time, particularly after this quarter's setback.

PepsiCo earnings miss estimates as U.S. consumers tighten their budgets
Asia-Pacific
The Straits Times

SpaceX to launch giant starship rocket in first flight since IPO

The launch marks the second flight of the latest iteration of the rocket, dubbed Version 3, or V3. SpaceX will attempt a major test flight of its massive Starship rocket on July 16, a milestone for a vehicle that is a critical part of Elon Musk’s plans for the space, satellite and artificial intelligence conglomerate. The launch, targeted for 5.45pm local time (6.45am on July 17 Singapore time) from SpaceX’s Starbase facility in South Texas, marks the second flight of the latest iteration of the rocket, dubbed Version 3, or V3. The rocket will be carrying to space upgraded Starlink satellites that are intended to burn up later in the atmosphere as part of the test mission. The rocket is central to Musk’s ambitions to put data centres in space, expand the Starlink communications network and send humans to the moon and Mars. But it has faced a rocky development path marred by explosive setbacks, malfunctions and delays. The Starship test is the rocket’s 13th flight and first since SpaceX’s blockbuster initial public offering in June that raised around US$86 billion (S$111 billion). Shares of SpaceX soared shortly after their debut but more recently slumped, closing on July 15 near its IPO price of US$135. Despite the decline, Wall Street analysts still remain largely bullish on the stock. Musk’s company has designed Starship to be fully reusable, something no other rocket maker has achieved, with both the Super Heavy booster and the Starship spacecraft intended to return to Earth intact after each launch so they can fly to space again. Musk has predicted that SpaceX could achieve full reusability with the upgraded V3 rocket before the end of the year. SpaceX has spent more than US$15 billion developing Starship. During the most recent test flight in May, Starship successfully deployed mock satellites, although the rocket’s booster spun out of control and one of its engines shut down early. SpaceX has since made hardware and software modifications to correct these issues, according to a post on the company’s website. “We believe that if SpaceX can keep all major engines healthy, execute the planned relight and landing sequence, and bring back stronger heat-shield and control-surface data, Flight 13 would represent a meaningful step beyond Flight 12,” said Raymond James analyst Brian Gesuale in a note on July 13.

SpaceX to launch giant starship rocket in first flight since IPO