Andreessen, Chetty among leaders of Fed's new task forces evaluating operations
WASHINGTON (AP) — Venture capitalist Marc Andreessen, economist Raj Chetty and former Bank of England governor Mervyn King are among a slate of names released by the Federal Reserve Thursday that will help develop recommended changes to the central bank’s operations. Warsh called for “regime change” at the Fed last year while he was under consideration by the Trump administration to replace former chair Jerome Powell. He has sought to communicate less about the Fed’s thinking on interest rates and has said he wants to reduce the central bank’s roughly $6.7 trillion in holdings of government bonds. Yet it’s not yet clear how transformative the task forces will be.
AI notetakers promise easy meeting recaps, but some professionals question their use
NEW YORK (AP) — AI notetakers can quickly summarize meetings and create to-do lists, but they raise privacy concerns. Everything said in a meeting becomes data, which could include confidential information. Attorney Justin Daniels warns that this could compromise attorney-client privilege. Many professionals worry about data being shared with third parties or used to train AI models. Privacy advocates are also concerned about biometric profiles being created without consent. Experts suggest checking for AI notetakers in meetings and understanding where data is stored. Some recommend not allowing AI notetakers in sensitive meetings to protect privacy.
News outlets urge a judge to sanction OpenAI in a high-stakes AI copyright fight
NEW YORK (AP) — The New York Times, the Daily News and other media outlets are asking a federal judge to impose sanctions on OpenAI, escalating a legal fight over artificial intelligence and copyright that could shape the future of a struggling news industry. The newspapers allege the ChatGPT maker is hiding evidence important to what could be a landmark copyright infringement trial over how OpenAI and its business partner Microsoft built their AI technologies using millions of news articles. At issue is whether AI chatbots are unfairly competing as an information source, siphoning off web traffic without doing the journalistic work it took to gather the news.
Africa secures $900 million in new clean cooking commitments
NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — African countries have secured $900 million in new financial commitments to expand access to clean cooking. The International Energy Agency announced the funding Thursday, building on $2.2 billion mobilized at the Africa Clean Cooking Summit in Paris. This brings total commitments to over $3.1 billion. Nearly 1 billion Africans still rely on polluting fuels like charcoal and firewood, which contribute to 850,000 premature deaths annually. The IEA's latest tracking shows $740 million has already been deployed across 22 African countries. The agency is working with the African Union to strengthen clean cooking policies and launched a new program to improve global supply chains for cooking fuels.
Stocks recover losses, and oil prices ease as calm returns to financial markets worldwide
NEW YORK (AP) — Stocks rose, and oil prices eased as financial markets calmed a day after President Donald Trump raised doubts about the temporary truce in the war with Iran. The S&P 500 climbed 0.8% Thursday and more than recovered its loss from the day before. The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 0.3%, and the Nasdaq composite rose 1.3%. Oil prices gave back much of their jumps from the day before on worries about increased fighting in the Middle East. That helped Treasury yields ease in the bond market, which relaxed the pressure on other markets. Stock indexes rose in much of Europe and Asia.
PepsiCo says economic concerns weighed on customers in North American during recent quarter
NEW YORK (AP) — PepsiCo reported stronger than expected revenue in the second quarter despite weaker demand in North America, where it said consumers tightened their budgets due to economic concerns. The food and beverage giant said Thursday that its net revenue rose 6.4% to $24.2 billion for the April-June period. That was better than the $23.9 billion Wall Street expected, according to analysts polled by FactSet. In February, PepsiCo slashed U.S. prices on Lay’s, Doritos, Cheetos and Tostitos chips by up to 15%, responding to consumers’ increasing exasperation after years of price hikes. But it still saw weak demand in its home market. The company saw stronger sales overseas.
US home prices hit an all-time high as sales slow and mortgage rates rise
Sales of previously occupied U.S. homes slowed in June, but a key measure of home prices climbed to an all-time high, adding to prospective homebuyers’ affordability challenges. The National Association of Realtors said Thursday that existing home sales fell 2.4% last month from May to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.09 million units. Sales rose 2.8% compared with June last year. The latest sales tally fell short of the roughly 4.21 million pace economists were expecting, according to FactSet. The national median sales price increased 1.8% in June from a year earlier to $440,600.
Average 30-year US mortgage rate rises to 6.49%, pushing up homebuyers' borrowing costs
The average long-term U.S. mortgage rate drew closer this week to 6.5%, pushing up borrowing costs for prospective homebuyers. Mortgage buyer Freddie Mac said Thursday that the benchmark 30-year fixed rate mortgage rate rose to 6.49% from 6.43% last week. One year ago, the average rate was 6.72%. Borrowing costs on 15-year fixed-rate mortgages, often sought by borrowers refinancing a home loan, also rose this week. Mortgage rates are influenced by several factors, from the Federal Reserve’s interest rate policy decisions to bond market investors’ expectations for the economy and inflation.
China’s passenger car exports are up 80% in June as EV demand grows, while sales drop at home
HONG KONG (AP) — China has reported its exports of passenger cars surged 80% in June from a year earlier, while domestic sales sank 26%, according to an industry group. The China Association of Automobile Manufacturers said around 905,000 vehicles were exported from China last month, helped by a surge in electric vehicle shipments. China’s domestic car market has been under pressure due to weak demand and a fierce price war. Cutbacks in government subsidies for EV purchases have also hurt. Auto makers like BYD have stepped up overseas expansions, including investing in factories in key markets.
US jobless claims dip modestly to 215,000 last week as layoffs remain at historically healthy levels
WASHINGTON (AP) — The number of Americans filing for unemployment benefits dipped slightly last week as layoffs in the U.S. remain historically low. U.S. applications for jobless aid in the week ending July 4 ticked down by 2,000 to 215,000, the Labor Department reported Thursday. Analysts surveyed by the data firm FactSet forecast 220,000 new applications. Weekly filings for unemployment benefits are considered a proxy for layoffs and are close to a real-time indicator of the health of the U.S. job market. The total number of Americans filing for unemployment benefits for the previous week ending June 27 rose by 8,000 by to 1.81 million, also historically low.
