The Business Desk covers markets, the economy and the companies shaping it. Its articles are researched and drafted with AI assistance, and every one is reviewed by a named editor before publication.
Edited by Lasse Pedersen
California startup Antares Nuclear has closed a $470 million funding round to deploy compact nuclear reactors at US military installations by 2028, racing to meet a deadline set by presidential executive order.
Spur Intelligence, a Florida cybersecurity startup, has secured $200 million from Insight Partners to scale its platform that identifies bot traffic, VPNs, and residential proxies in real time.
A wave of selling has wiped more than a trillion dollars from global semiconductor stocks in days, triggered by China's domestic chip advance and growing doubts about whether the world's biggest tech companies can earn back their vast AI investments.
Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps launched ballistic missiles at American forces on Wednesday, shattering a brief pause in hostilities and driving crude oil prices sharply higher.
BNY Mellon, Goldman Sachs, and Citizens Financial priced preferred-share offerings this week at spreads not seen since before Lehman Brothers collapsed, raising questions about how much risk investors are actually being paid to take.
American builder sentiment has now sat below the key threshold of 50 for more than two years, with the July index falling to 34 as high mortgage rates, rising costs, and a paralysed buyer pool continue to grip the market.
American home loan costs have stabilised in the mid-6% range this week, but geopolitical turbulence and a hawkish Federal Reserve are keeping any meaningful relief firmly out of reach.
The International Monetary Fund projects world economic growth at 3.0 percent in 2025 and 3.1 percent in 2026, a modest recovery from April's gloomier forecast but still well below pre-pandemic norms. Tariffs, fragmentation, and threats to central bank independence remain the Fund's chief concerns.
The US Energy Information Administration has cut its 2026 Brent crude forecast by 14% following a US-Iran agreement that reopened the Strait of Hormuz in June. Global markets are now bracing for an oil glut as supply rushes back — but significant geopolitical risks remain.
The Dutch semiconductor equipment maker has doubled in value within a year, fuelled by surging AI-driven demand for its irreplaceable chip-printing machines. Analysts say a $1 trillion valuation is now a realistic, if not certain, prospect.
Apple overtook Nvidia on Friday as the world's most valuable publicly listed company, closing at a market capitalisation of $4.88 trillion. The shift reflects growing investor doubt about the pace of AI infrastructure spending and renewed confidence in Apple's leaner approach to the technology.
Legendary investor Howard Marks has labelled the imminent public listings of SpaceX, Anthropic, and OpenAI a "money-losing bubble", as the three firms prepare to flood global markets with roughly $3 trillion in combined valuation.
The head of one of the world's largest independent financial advisory firms says a sweeping reallocation of capital away from mega-cap technology stocks is now underway — and could be the most significant market shift since the post-pandemic recovery.
Seven OPEC+ nations have agreed to raise oil production by 188,000 barrels per day for August, their fourth straight monthly increase, even as the US-Iran conflict continues to block most of that oil from reaching global markets.
A new study by Germany's leading economic research institute finds transatlantic goods trade reached an all-time high last year, even as tariffs battered European manufacturers and distorted the picture with a pre-tariff export rush.
Germany's Manager Magazin reports CEO Oliver Blume is preparing the most radical restructuring in Volkswagen's 89-year history, targeting up to 15% of the global workforce. The plans, which Volkswagen has neither confirmed nor denied, would double a previous round of cuts agreed only months ago.
Global tech shares fell on Friday as investors sold back into semiconductor stocks, reversing a Thursday surge driven by Micron's blowout quarterly results. The reversal reflects deepening uncertainty about whether AI infrastructure spending will translate into profits to justify soaring valuations.
SpaceX stock has fallen sharply just days after its record-breaking Nasdaq debut, as early investors take profits and questions mount over the company's $2.5 trillion valuation. The pullback dragged rival space stocks down with it.