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[ad_1] CNN  —  On the face of it, the June jobs report presents a robust picture of the US economy, with a historically low unemployment rate, a healthy number of jobs added and wage growth that outpaces inflation. But a closer look at the data reveals blemishes that could mar that rosy outlook — with President Donald Trump’s economic policies as the most significant common denominator. The monthly headline number of 147,000 soundly beat out expectations of 117,500 net job gains, with a healthy upswing in traditionally steady industries like local and state government, education, leisure and hospitality and health…

[ad_1] New York CNN  —  Stocks, bond yields and the dollar gained on Thursday after a strong jobs report soothed nerves about how the economy is faring during the early stages of President Donald Trump’s tariff campaign. After a shortened trading day in advance of Friday’s July Fourth holiday, the Dow closed higher by 344 points, or 0.77%. The broader S&P 500 rose 0.83% and the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite gained 1.02%. The S&P 500 and Nasdaq closed at fresh record highs. The Dow closed just 186 points away from hitting an all-time high. Stocks had jumped higher in the morning…

[ad_1] Microsoft’s latest round of layoffs come as the company revises its strategy for selling artificial intelligence tools amid increasing competition from OpenAI and Google, according to sources familiar with the plans and internal documents.The company’s recent job cuts included thousands of salespeople, the people said, and largely targeted traditional salespeople that the company intends to replace with more technical salespeople to better sell AI tools.Microsoft on July 2 said it plans to lay off less than 4% of its workforce, which would be around 9,000 people. The company typically makes changes to its workforce around this time of year…

[ad_1] Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.BlackRock, Schroders and Fidelity International bought gilts during Wednesday’s sell-off, betting that the uncertainty over chancellor Rachel Reeves’ future would not trigger a deeper rout in UK government debt.Gilts and the pound sold off sharply after Sir Keir Starmer declined to give his full backing to his chancellor, as investors fretted that her departure could lead to a loosening of fiscal rules and increased borrowing. Ten-year yields climbed as high as 4.68 per cent on Wednesday, before recovering to 4.53 per…

[ad_1] New York CNN  —  Costco has rolled out earlier shopping hours. But members will have to pay a bit more to access it. Cardholders of Costco’s priciest “Executive Member” plan, which costs $130 per year, can now exclusively enter warehouses beginning at 9 am through 10 am Sunday through Friday. On Saturdays, the time slot is from 9 am to 9:30 am. All other members can enter at 10 am Sunday through Friday and at 9:30 am on Saturdays. Costco announced the changes last month and they went into effect on Monday, June 30. The changes come about a…

[ad_1] Investors may find “boring” stocks a safer bet heading into the second half of the year, according to Jeff Kilburg, founder and CEO of KKM Financial. Markets were plagued by heightened volatility at the end of the first quarter and the start of the second, as fear and uncertainty stemming from President Donald Trump’s trade war spread. Stocks reached their lows of the year in early April, shortly after Trump announced his universal tariff policies. While stocks have recovered their losses since then — with the S & P 500 closing Wednesday 25% above its April closing low —…

[ad_1] “Chat with GPT-3.5″ doesn’t really roll off the tongue, but it’s almost what OpenAI named ChatGPT.On the latest episode of the OpenAI podcast, two leaders involved with the chatbot’s development, research chief Mark Chen and head of ChatGPT Nick Turley, spoke about the days leading up to the launch that made the tool go viral.”It was going to be Chat with GPT-3.5, and we had a late-night decision to simplify” the name, Turley said on the podcast published July 1. The team made the name change the day before the version’s late 2022 launch, he said.”We realized that that…

[ad_1] Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.UK government bonds rallied on Thursday after Sir Keir Starmer said Rachel Reeves would be chancellor for a “very long time to come” and insisted the government would stick to her fiscal rules.The prime minister made the pledges after he failed to back a tearful Reeves in the House of Commons on Wednesday, triggering a sharp sell-off in gilts and the pound.Investors said the prospect of Reeves’ departure had raised the spectre that the government’s fiscal rules could be ditched in…

[ad_1] As the second half of the year kicks off, BTIG’s list of recommended stock picks could win big. The first half of 2025 was marred by raging volatility resulting from President Donald Trump’s universal tariff policies and armed conflict in the Middle East. But stocks have more than made up for heightened uncertainty, with the S & P 500 bouncing back more than 20% from the April low to reach three all-time highs in the past four sessions. Goldman Sachs noted that this marked the index’s fastest recovery ever from a decline of more than 15%. Now Goldman is…

[ad_1] A new report attempts to put hard numbers on a question hanging over every Wall Street corner office: just how much of banking work will AI actually change?Artificial intelligence is on track to redefine 44% of the work done at banks by 2030, according to ThoughtLinks, an independent consulting firm.ThoughtLinks — which is led by founder and CEO Sumeet Chabria, a former tech and operations COO at Bank of America and a Wall Street veteran — mapped nearly 5,000 individual banking “processes” to see which roles or units at banks will experience the most upheaval in their roles. Sumeet Chabria, founder…