Author: News Room

The Writers Guild of America is set to hold a strike authorization vote on Tuesday. If it passes, which it is expected to, that will allow leadership to call a strike if the Guild and the Alliance of Motion Pictures and Television Producers do not reach a new contract agreement by May 1. “The studios need to respond to the crisis writers face,” WGA leadership said in a message to members ahead of the vote. “WGA members must demonstrate our willingness to fight for the contract writers need and deserve by supporting a strike authorization vote.” The two sides have…

Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said the U.S. economy and America’s financial system are doing well despite headwinds caused by the recent banking crisis and the Fed’s efforts to tame inflation. Yellen spoke at a press conference Tuesday to mark the beginning of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund’s spring meetings and said that while there is still a chance of a credit contraction and economic downturn, she’s optimistic about the trajectory of the U.S. economy.  “I’ve not really seen evidence at this stage suggesting a contraction in credit, although that is a possibility,” Yellen said. “I believe our banking…

CAIRO (Reuters) – Egypt’s annual urban consumer inflation rate in March climbed to 32.7% year-on-year, just shy of an all-time record, from 31.9% in February, data from the country’s statistics agency CAPMAS showed on Monday. Month-on-month, urban inflation slowed to 2.7% in March from 6.5% in February and 4.7% in January. Egypt’s surging inflation rate follows a series of currency devaluations starting in March 2022, a prolonged shortage of foreign currency, and continuing delays in getting imports into the country. Egypt, which secured a $3 billion financial support package from the International Monetary Fund in December, has devalued its currency…

By Arathy Somasekhar and Stephanie Kelly HOUSTON/NEW YORK (Reuters) – Non-OPEC countries will account for a higher percentage of oil production gains this year and next, a reversal of the last two years, the U.S. Energy Information Administration predicted on Tuesday. Gains by the U.S., Brazil, Canada and Guyana will overshadow OPEC after Saudi Arabia and other Middle East producers this month disclosed plans to cut output by around 1.16 million barrels per day beginning next month. Total non-OPEC liquid fuels production is expected to grow by 1.9 million barrels per day (bpd) in 2023 and by 1 million bpd in…

© Reuters By Yasin Ebrahim Investing.com — The S&P 500 cut losses Monday but upside momentum was kept in check by an Apple-infused slip in big tech and jitters about further Federal Reserve tightening following a strong March jobs report. The was down 0.1%, the added 0.2%, or 52 points, and the fell 0.2%. Apple personal computer shipments declined by 40.5% in the first quarter, according to market research firm IDC, impacted by weak demand and high inventory. Apple Inc (NASDAQ:) fell about 2%, with Alphabet Inc (NASDAQ:) and Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:) also leading to the downside. Sentiment on growth…

The U.S. and global economies are likely to struggle to grow over the next few years as countries fight to reduce high inflation and cope with rising interest rates, the IMF said Tuesday. The latest projections paint a gloomy picture of the challenges facing the world. Chief among them is high inflation, a problem the IMF said has proven stickier than expected compared to “even a few months ago.” Price increases in goods and services other than food and gasoline are still high, the IMF said, and a tight labor market could keep upward pressure on wages. Inflation globally is…

This article is reprinted by permission from NerdWallet.  During the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, the sudden shift to remote work for many launched a wave of think pieces about whether the trend would keep up once the threat of the coronavirus was less imminent. Now, as the Biden administration plans to end the public health emergency come May, recent federal data has the answer: Sort of. Remote work spiked during the pandemic starting in March 2020, but new data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics shows that boom is winding down. The majority of private establishments —…

China’s consumer inflation in March eased to its lowest level in more than a year, as both food and non-food prices retreated, official data showed Tuesday. The consumer-price index rose 0.7% on year in March, compared with a 1.0% increase in February, the National Bureau of Statistics said. The result marked the lowest reading since September 2021 and undershot the 0.9% increase anticipated by economists polled by The Wall Street Journal. Meanwhile the producer-price index fell deeper into deflation, falling 2.5% compared with a 1.4% decline in the same period a year earlier, it said. The fall was in line…

Talk about taking away the punch bowl just as party gets going. Alibaba Group Holding had only just unveiled its new artificial-intelligence product when the Chinese government swooped in to dampen the mood. Alibaba (ticker: BABA) on Tuesday officially announced its long-awaited ChatGPT-style AI system. On the same day, Chinese regulators detailed draft measures for managing generative AI products, including requiring security assessments. Alibaba said it was launching its generative AI system, to be named “Tongyi Qianwen,” which roughly translates as “truth from a thousand questions.”  Alibaba said the system has English and Chinese language capabilities and will initially be…

The Justice Department said Wednesday it plans to seek a court order to put on hold a federal judge’s ruling from last month that put in jeopardy some of the Affordable Care Act’s mandates for insurers to provide no-cost coverage of preventive care treatments, including certain cancer and STD screenings. “As we’ve said before, for over a decade, the Affordable Care Act has ensured that millions of Americans have access to critical preventative health care,” a DOJ spokesperson said in a statement. “In order to protect Americans who have come to rely on the preventative health care measures at issue,…