Czechs Hold Rates With Policymakers Concerned About Home Prices
The Czech National Bank kept the benchmark at 3.5% on Thursday, in line with the expectations of all analysts in a Bloomberg survey. The decision broke the stop-and-go pattern of easing which saw rate cuts in February and May.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
25 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Japan's wholesale inflation slows for 4th month in July
TOKYO (Reuters) -Japan's annual wholesale inflation slowed for the fourth straight month in July, data showed on Wednesday, underscoring the central bank's view that upward price pressure from raw material costs will dissipate. The corporate goods price index (CGPI), which measures the price companies charge each other for their goods and services, rose 2.6% in July from a year earlier, data showed, slowing from the previous month's 2.9% increase. It compared with a median market forecast for a 2.5% rise. The yen-based import price index fell 10.4% in July from a year earlier, following a revised 12.2% drop in June, the Bank of Japan (BOJ) data showed. Error while retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error while retrieving data Error while retrieving data Error while retrieving data Error while retrieving data
Engadget
27 minutes ago
- Engadget
Apple says the App Store is 'fair and free of bias' in response to Musk's legal threats
Apple has denied Elon Musk's accusation that it's favoring OpenAI in its App Store rankings and making it impossible for other AI companies to reach the top. In a statement sent to Bloomberg , Apple said the App Store is "designed to be fair and free of bias." The company's spokesperson explained that the App Store features "thousands of apps through charts, algorithmic recommendations and curated lists selected by experts using objective criteria." They added: "Our goal is to offer safe discovery for users and valuable opportunities for developers, collaborating with many to increase app visibility in rapidly evolving categories." xAI founder Elon Musk accused Apple of "unequivocal antitrust violation" by favoring OpenAI in a post on X, warning that his company "will take immediate legal action." In a separate post from his threat, he asked Apple why it "[refuses] to put either X or Grok in [its] 'Must Have' section." X, he said, is "the #1 news app in the world," while Grok is ranked number five among all apps. "Are you playing politics? What gives?" he continued. Musk didn't provide evidence to back his accusations. It's also worth noting that Chinese AI app DeepSeek reached the top of Apple's free app rankings back in January, overtaking even ChatGPT. As X's own Community Notes also mentioned in Musk's post, added hours after it went up, Perplexity reached the top of overall rankings in India's App Store back in July. Both apps were able to reach the top of their respective lists way after Apple and OpenAI announced their partnership last year. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman responded to Musk's accusation, as well. He said it's a "remarkable claim," given that he has heard allegations that Musk manipulates "X to benefit himself and his own companies and harm his competitors and people he doesn't like." In response, Musk posted: "Scam Altman lies as easily as he breathes."
Yahoo
29 minutes ago
- Yahoo
AI can make us UK's biggest firm, Rolls-Royce says
Rolls-Royce's plan to power artificial intelligence (AI) with its nuclear reactors could make it the UK's most valuable company, its boss has said. The engineering firm has signed deals to provide small modular reactors (SMRs) to the UK and Czech governments to power AI-driven data centres. AI has boomed in popularity since 2022, but the technology use lots of energy, something which has raised practical and environmental concerns. Rolls-Royce chief executive Tufan Erginbilgic told the BBC it has the "potential" to become the UK's highest-valued company by overtaking the largest firms on the London Stock Exchange thanks to its SMR deals. "There is no private company in the world with the nuclear capability we have. If we are not market leader globally, we did something wrong," he said. Tufan Erginbilgic has overseen a ten-fold increase in Rolls-Royce's share price since taking over in January 2023. However, he has ruled out the idea of Rolls-Royce seeking to list its shares in New York as British chip designer Arm has done and the likes of Shell and AstraZeneca have considered in the search for higher valuations. This is despite the fact that 50% of its shareholders and customers are US-based. "It's not in our plan," said Mr Erginbilgic, a Turkish energy industry veteran. "I don't agree with the idea you can only perform in the US. That's not true and hopefully we have demonstrated that." AI investment Rolls-Royce already supplies the reactors that power dozens of nuclear submarines. Mr Erginbilgic said the company has a massive advantage in the future market of bringing that technology on land in the form of SMRs. SMRs are not only smaller but quicker to build than traditional nuclear plants, with costs likely to come down as units are rolled out. He estimates that the world will need 400 SMRs by 2050. At a cost of up to $3bn (£2.2bn) each, that's another trillion dollar-plus market he wants and expects Rolls-Royce to dominate. The company has signed a deal to develop six SMRs for the Czech Republic and is developing three for the UK. But it remains an unproven technology. Mr Erginbilgic conceded he could not currently point to a working SMR example but said he was confident in its future potential. There are also concerns about the demands on water supplies from the data centre and SMR cooling systems. In response, companies including Google, Microsoft and Meta have signed deals to take energy from SMRs in the US when they are available. Next generation aircraft Rolls-Royce sees SMRs as key to its future, but its biggest business is aircraft engines. Already dominant in supplying engines to wide-bodied aircraft like Boeing 787 and Airbus A350, it plans to break into the next generation of narrow-bodied aircraft like the Boeing 737 and Airbus A320. This market is worth $1.6tn - nine times that of the wide-bodied . Rolls-Royce is a bit player in a market that has powerful and successful leaders, and that rival Pratt and Witney lost $8bn trying and failing to break into. The market is dominated by CFM International – a joint venture between US-based GE Aerospace and French company Safran Aerospace Engines. Industry veterans told the BBC that market leaders can and will drop prices to airline customers long enough to see off a new assault on their market dominance. But Mr Erginbilgic said this is not just the biggest business opportunity for Rolls-Royce. Rather, it is "for industrial strategy... the single biggest opportunity for the UK for economic growth". "No other UK opportunity, I challenge, will match that," he said. Share price up ten-fold Although Rolls-Royce sold its car making business to BMW nearly 30 years ago, the name of the company is still synonymous with British engineering excellence. But in the early part of this decade that shine had worn off. The company was heavily indebted, its profit margins were non-existent, and thousands of staff were being laid off. When Mr Erginbilgic took over in January 2023, he likened the company to "a burning platform". "Our cost of capital was 12%, our return was 4% so every time we invested we destroyed value," he said. Two and a half years later, the company expects to make a profit of over £3bn, its debt levels have fallen and shares have risen over 1,000% - a ten-fold rise. So how did that happen? And is Mr Erginbilgic right to think that Rolls-Royce's roll is only just starting? 'Grudging respect' The timing of his appointment was fortunate according to some industry veterans. Rolls-Royce's biggest business – supplying engines to commercial airlines – has rebounded strongly from the Covid pandemic. The company's most successful product – the Trent series of aircraft engines – are at the sweet spot of profitability as the returns on investment in their development over a decade ago begin to pour into company coffers. Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022 arguably made it almost inevitable that its defence business would see higher spending from European governments – which has been confirmed by recent announcements. Unions have not always been fans of Mr Erginbilgic's hard-charging approach. In October 2023, one of his first major move was cutting jobs, which drew criticism from Sharon Graham, the boss of the Unite union. "This announcement appears to be about appeasing the markets and its shareholders while ignoring its workers," she said at the time. However, overall global headcount has grown from 43,000 to 45,000 since 2023 and union sources say there is "grudging respect" for Mr Erginbilgic. Those sources give him one third of the credit for the turnaround around in the company's fortunes, with a third credited to market conditions and a third to his predecessor Warren East for "steadying the ship". So does Mr Erginbilgic really believe that Rolls-Royce can be the UK's most valuable company – overtaking the likes of AstraZeneca, HSBC, and Shell? "We are now number five in the FTSE. I believe the growth potential we created in the company right now, in our existing business and our new businesses, actually yes – we have that potential." Rolls-Royce is undoubtedly a company with the wind at its back – and Tufan Ergenbilgic certainly believes he has set the sails just right. What is AI, how does it work and why are some people concerned about it? Warning AI could use as much energy as Netherlands
