Author: News Room

(This April 6 story has been corrected to reflect an IRS clarification that full-time-equivalent hiring figures for FY 2024 are cumulative with FY 2023 figures, not in addition to FY 2023 figures) By David Lawder WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. Internal Revenue Service plans to hire nearly 20,000 new employees and deploy new technology over the next two years as it ramps up an $80 billion investment plan to improve tax enforcement and customer service, it said on Thursday . The tax agency, in its long-awaited Strategic Operating Plan, said it will obligate about $8.64 billion of the new funding…

By Stephen Nellis (Reuters) – (This April 5 story has been corrected to clarify that Neuchips did not beat Qualcomm (NASDAQ:) and Nvidia (NASDAQ:) in one category of testing as it didn’t compete in the categories previously described, and Qualcomm’s results and rankings have been rectified in paragraphs 6-8) Artificial intelligence chips from Qualcomm Inc beat Nvidia Corp in two out of three measures of power efficiency in a new set of test data published on Wednesday. Nvidia dominates the market for training AI models with huge amounts of data. But after those AI models are trained, they are put…

By Dan Burns (Reuters) – Deposits at U.S. commercial banks rose near the end of March for the first time in about a month, showing signs of stabilizing after the two largest bank failures since the financial crisis rocked the banking system and rattled depositors. Federal Reserve data released on Friday showed deposits at all commercial banks rose to $17.35 trillion in the week ended March 29, on a nonseasonally adjusted basis, from a downwardly revised $17.31 trillion a week earlier. It was the first increase since the start of March and marked an end, for the moment, to a…

By Lewis Krauskopf NEW YORK (Reuters) – A closely watched U.S. inflation report next week could help settle one of Wall Street’s most pressing questions: whether the market has correctly pegged the near-term trajectory for interest rates. Following last month’s banking crisis, investors have become more convinced the Federal Reserve will cut rates in the second half to ward off an economic downturn. Such bets have pushed bond yields lower, supporting the giant tech and growth stocks that hold sway over broad equity indexes. The has gained 6.9% so far in 2023. But the central bank’s more restrictive rate outlook…

By Gertrude Chavez-Dreyfuss NEW YORK (Reuters) – The dollar slipped against some major currencies in thin trading Thursday, as investors consolidated positions and pondered how pivotal U.S. jobs data coming out on a stock trading holiday might impact Federal Reserve policy and unleash a potentially volatile market reaction. The U.S. stock market is closed on Good Friday and some European countries are shut on Monday as well. The closely watched U.S. non-farm payrolls report on Friday, when many markets around the world are closed, will follow disappointing manufacturing and services sector data from the Institute for Supply Management (ISM) and…

BEIJING (Reuters) – China’s foreign exchange reserves rose in March, official data showed on Friday, as the dollar fell against other major currencies. The country’s foreign exchange reserves – the world’s largest – rose $51 billion to $3.184 trillion last month, compared with $3.149 trillion tipped by a Reuters poll of analysts and up from $3.133 trillion in February. The yuan rose 0.86% against the dollar in March, while the dollar fell 2.3% against a basket of other major currencies. China held 66.50 million fine troy ounces of gold at the end of March, up from 65.92 million at end-February.…

By Gertrude Chavez-Dreyfuss NEW YORK (Reuters) – The dollar strengthened on Friday after data showed an increase in jobs in the world’s largest economy last month, suggesting that the Federal Reserve may have to raise interest rates next month. Prior to the jobs report, the rate futures market had been betting that the Fed would pause at the May policy meeting. The market has now priced in a 70% chance the Fed will raise interest rates by 25 basis points (bps), though multiple rate cuts have also been factored in by the end of the year.     Friday’s data showed…

By Peter Nurse    Investing.com — Oil prices edged lower Thursday, but are still heading for a third consecutive positive week with sentiment buoyed by the surprise decision of OPEC+ to cut its production levels and a hefty drop in U.S. crude stocks.  By 09:20 ET (13:20 GMT), futures traded 0.1% lower at $80.50 a barrel, while the contract fell 0.1% to $84.92 a barrel. Both benchmarks are on course to register gains of over 7% this week after the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and allies including Russia, a group known as OPEC+, announced at the start of the…

By Barani Krishnan Investing.com — Natural gas storage in the United States fell just a shade below forecast levels last week as cooler-than-normal weather from a historical perspective led to steadier heating demand, government data showed. Utilities pulled 23 billion cubic feet, or bcf, from natural gas for the week ended March 31, leaving a balance of 1.83 trillion cubic feet, or tcf, the U.S. Energy Information Administration, or EIA, said in its latest inventory reading on gas. Industry analysts tracked by Investing.com had forecast a draw of 21 bcf instead for the week. Temperature analysis from Reuters-associated data provider…

By Arathy Somasekhar HOUSTON (Reuters) -Oil prices were little changed on Thursday but posted a third weekly gain as markets weighed further production cuts targeted by OPEC+ and falling U.S. oil inventories against fears about the global economic outlook. settled up 13 cents, or 0.2%, at $85.12 a barrel. West Texas Intermediate closed 9 cents, or 0.1%, higher at $80.70. There will be no trading on the Good Friday holiday. Both benchmarks jumped more than 6% this week after OPEC+, the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and allies including Russia, surprised the market on Sunday with a pledge…