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[ad_1] Washington CNN  —  Americans have stepped up their spending on cars and other big-ticket items in recent months, rushing to get ahead of President Donald Trump’s stiff tariffs. Economists say the rush in spending has put the US economy in a more vulnerable position, especially if the labor market begins to deteriorate. Already racked by economic uncertainty, consumers who bought big-ticket items now have to pay a hefty bill or take a hit to their savings. On top of that, it’s gotten more difficult to find a job, credit accounts that are newly delinquent are rising, and Trump’s volatile…

[ad_1] New York CNN  —  At the start of February, Randy Carr, the CEO of World Emblem, booked a plane ticket to the Caribbean. President Donald Trump had just announced a 25% duty on Mexico and Canada – what would be the first of many tariffs on other countries. World Emblem, the world’s largest producer of clothing patches which counts the Department of Homeland Security, UPS, NHL, and Levi’s as customers, produces 65% of its patches in Aguascalientes, Mexico. “It just came really fast and a lot harder than I expected,” said Carr of the tariffs. “The 25% tariffs were…

[ad_1] CNN  —  Demis Hassabis, CEO of Google’s AI research arm DeepMind and a Nobel Prize laureate, isn’t too worried about an AI “jobpocalypse.” Instead of fretting over AI replacing jobs, he’s worried about the technology falling into the wrong hands – and a lack of guardrails to keep sophisticated, autonomous AI models under control. “Both of those risks are important, challenging ones,” he said in an interview with CNN’s Anna Stewart at the SXSW festival in London, which takes place this week. Last week, the CEO of high-profile AI lab Anthropic had a stark warning about the future of…

[ad_1] Hong Kong CNN  —  US President Donald Trump says Chinese leader Xi Jinping is “extremely hard to make a deal with” in a comment that comes as frictions rise between the two countries, weeks after they reached an agreement to de-escalate trade tensions. “I like President XI of China, always have, and always will, but he is VERY TOUGH, AND EXTREMELY HARD TO MAKE A DEAL WITH!!!” Trump wrote in a post on his platform Truth Social in the early hours of Wednesday morning Washington time. Tensions have ratcheted up between the United States and China as expected trade…

[ad_1] In 2023, co-founders Karim Jouini and Jihed Othmani sold their expense management startup Expensya to Swedish procurement software firm Medius in what is widely considered to be one of the largest acquisitions of an African startup. Some sources say the sum was just over $120 million, although deal terms were not disclosed. Success achieved, both founders swore off entrepreneurship, never intending to do another startup again and Jouini became a CTO role in the merged software company, with other acquisitions spanning three continents. But the pull of a new technological wave – generative AI – and the thought that…

[ad_1] A version of this story appeared in CNN Business’ Nightcap newsletter. To get it in your inbox, sign up for free here. New York CNN  —  Here we are, nearly halfway through 2025, months into the second Trump administration, and the sky hasn’t fallen. Where is the calamity all those tariff naysayers (hi!) promised? If it feels like nothing has changed, then congratulations, you do not work in manufacturing or shipping or run a business that relies on imports. There are a few reasons why it feels like some early tariff warnings were overblown, but the most significant is…

[ad_1] Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.Quant group AQR Capital Management is embracing artificial intelligence and machine learning techniques for trading decisions, ending years of reticence from one of the sector’s historic holdouts.The Connecticut-based hedge fund that has $136bn under management, has “surrendered more to the machines” after years of experiments, its founder Cliff Asness told the Financial Times. “When you turn yourself over to the machine you obviously let data speak more,” he said.All quantitative hedge funds — including Two Sigma, Man Group’s AHL division and…

[ad_1] Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.One morning in a labyrinthine Tehran bazaar, a salesman was pitching a hot investment to shoppers. “Your money is dead,” he said of the country’s beleaguered currency, the rial. “Buy gold.”Local prices for gold in Iran have outpaced a worldwide surge over the past year, as businesses buy the metal to skirt sanctions and ordinary Iranians invest to protect their savings amid the threat of military confrontation with the US and Israel.The price of gold coins in the country has risen…

[ad_1] In Parc Adfer, North Wales, incinerator owner Enfinium is testing a new technology to capture some of the 218,967 tonnes of carbon dioxide that it spews out of its chimneys every year.The company — which generates power from waste — is aiming to clean up its output. But it also hopes eventually to be paid by other factories and power plants for reducing the amount of CO₂ they put into the atmosphere. That could become a reality under a proposed shake-up of the UK’s CO₂ emissions trading scheme, which would see allowances for carbon removals trade alongside regular allowances for…

[ad_1] Tesla could take a hit if President Donald Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill” becomes law.Elon Musk’s AI company, however, may get a boost.Many of Musk’s companies rely largely on federal regulations, subsidies, or contracts. That means the GOP’s federal spending bill, if signed into law, could directly impact his businesses.While Musk has previously shared his disapproval of the bill, the billionaire ratcheted up his criticism this week.”I’m sorry, but I just can’t stand it anymore,” Musk posted on X on Tuesday. “This massive, outrageous, pork-filled Congressional spending bill is a disgusting abomination.””Shame on those who voted for it: you know…