New York stocks tumble as tech, oil jolt markets

 

U.S. stocks fell sharply on Thursday, with the Nasdaq Composite dropping 2.15% and the S&P 500 losing 1.24%, as investors reacted to weak second-quarter signals from major technology firms and surging oil prices. Alphabet shares slid after the company lifted its annual capital spending forecast to as much as $205...

Yemen attacks on tankers send Brent crude above $100

 

United States markets reeled on Thursday after Brent crude oil briefly traded above $100 a barrel, its highest level in two months, following a fresh escalation of conflict in the Middle East. The price of Brent, the international benchmark, jumped 6.1% to $99.78, while U.S. West Texas Intermediate futures rose...

Brussels fines Google €890 million under EU DMA

 

European Union regulators have imposed an €890 million (about $1 billion) fine on Google for allegedly favoring its own services in search results, marking the first major enforcement action against the company under the bloc’s Digital Markets Act. The European Commission said on Thursday that Google’s shopping, hotel and other...

Washington lawmakers propose China tariff-funded manufacturing bank

 

Washington – Congressional Democrats have introduced the Industrial Bank for American Manufacturing Act, a sweeping proposal to channel revenue from existing Section 301 tariffs on Chinese imports into a new federally backed manufacturing bank. Sponsored by Representatives Ro Khanna, Tom Suozzi and Debbie Dingell, the bill would redirect up to...

United States tech giants slide as AI capex soars

 

NEW YORK — Shares of Alphabet and Tesla fell sharply in U.S. premarket trading on Thursday after both companies signaled significantly higher capital spending on artificial intelligence, intensifying investor concerns about cash burn and negative free cash flow. Alphabet’s stock declined about 4 percent after the company lifted its 2024...

United States traders confront rare pre-Fed uncertainty

 

United States traders are heading into next week’s Federal Reserve policy meeting with unusually high uncertainty over the outcome, after Chair Kevin Warsh dismantled the central bank’s long-standing practice of forward guidance. With seven days remaining before the July 29 decision, interest-rate swap markets are pricing roughly a 30% probability...

San Francisco judge allows Meta layoffs amid AI bias dispute

 

A federal judge in San Francisco has rejected an emergency bid by 26 Meta employees to halt their terminations, after they alleged that internal AI-driven tools contributed to discriminatory layoff decisions. The workers claimed systems such as the “Metamate” AI and productivity scoring unfairly penalized employees who took legally protected...

Wisconsin regulators demand $7 billion Oracle power guarantee

 

Wisconsin’s Public Service Commission has upheld strict credit requirements that could force Oracle to post more than $7 billion in financial collateral to guarantee electricity supply for a massive new artificial intelligence data center. The ruling stems from tariff rules that apply to exceptionally large energy users and require companies...

Oakland court hears News Corp countersuit against Brave

 

OAKLAND, California – News Corp filed a countersuit on Wednesday, July 22, 2026, in federal court in Oakland, accusing Brave Software of what it calls “flagrant theft” and “tacky tech trafficking” for allegedly scraping and reselling millions of copyrighted articles to artificial intelligence developers without authorization. The complaint focuses on...

Paris-based Mistral AI in talks over €1 billion Samsung investment

 

Samsung Electronics is in advanced talks to invest up to €1 billion in French artificial intelligence startup Mistral AI as part of a Series D fundraising round that could value the Paris-based company at about €20 billion, according to a Financial Times report dated July 22, 2026. The prospective deal...