INK WIRE

Oil prices saw their biggest weekly losses since late June due to a tariff-hit economic outlook, but they remained stable on Friday as markets anticipated a meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin and his American counterpart, Donald Trump, in the coming days. U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude futures remained steady at $63.88, but Brent crude futures ended the day 16 cents, or 0.2%, higher at $66.59 a barrel. WTI closed 5.1% below last Friday's close, and Brent dropped 4.4% over the week. After Bloomberg News reported that Washington and Moscow were seeking to reach an agreement to end the conflict in Ukraine that would lock in Russia's occupation of territory seized during its military invasion, U.S. crude fell more than 1% earlier in the day. According to the report, which cited people familiar with the situation, U.S. and Russian officials are trying to reach a territorial agreement for a summit meeting between Trump and Putin that is scheduled to begin as early ...

The Trump family-backed business, World Liberty Financial, is seeking to join the growing number of digital asset treasury firms by establishing a public company to hold its WLFI tokens. According to people familiar with the situation, who asked not to be named because the discussions are private, the deal's structure is still being finalized. They added that they anticipate raising about $1.5 billion. According to the people, the venture has been approached by high-profile investors in the technology and cryptocurrency sectors. It is reported that discussions are progressing quickly. Currently offering USD1, a stablecoin backed by the US dollar, World Liberty, whose website lists President Donald Trump as "co-founder emeritus," announced plans for a crypto-lending app last year. Sales of its WLFI token, which was first intended to be a non-transferable governance token but will soon be tradable on the open market, have helped it raise funds. Thanks to a supportive regu...

In what was thought to be a typical market swing, Firefly Aerospace's (FLY.O) new tab shares dropped 11% in morning trading on Friday. However, the space tech company's strong debut demonstrated that investors are once again interested in high-growth listings. A rebound in high-risk industries like fintech, crypto, and space, driven by successful new listings like Firefly and Circle (CRCL.N), is anticipated to encourage startups that waited out market volatility to make their first public offerings after almost three years of a dry spell. In contrast to the initial public offering price of $45, Firefly's shares opened for trading on the Nasdaq at $70 each. It was about 34% higher at the end of the first session. "High levels of short-term money trading, whether by hedge funds or retail investors, are evident in large pops and drops around initial public offerings. The market has exhibited this characteristic in recent months," Mergermarket's head of equity ca...

A fter the image-sharing site warned of lower ad spending in the United States, its largest market, as a result of the elimination of the "de minimis" trade loophole, Pinterest's stock fell roughly 15% on Friday. Some Asian e-commerce companies have been forced to reduce their U.S. marketing budgets due t o uncertainty caused by tariffs and the suspension of the exemption that allowed packages va lued at or under $800 to be shipped to the U.S. without incurring import duties. T he company, known for curating links to lifestyle products such as home decor, fashion accessories, and beauty items, saw a 25% decline in advertising prices in the second quarter. With U.S. tariffs in place, the trend is expected to continue. "Management's comments on tariff concerns extending into the third quarter likely spooked the Street," Roth Capital Partners analysts said. According to Danni Hewson, head of financial analysis at AJ Bell, the stalled user growth is a "sig...

On charges of money laundering and evading sanctions against the founder of Tornado Cash, a company that makes cryptocurrency transactions more difficult to trace, a U.S. jury reached a deadlock on Wednesday. Roman Storm was accused of conspiring to launder the proceeds of hacks, including those carried out by a group supported by the North Korean government, but the jury in a Manhattan federal court was unable to reach a decision. However, he was convicted by the jury of conspiring to run an unlicensed money transmission business, which is a less serious charge. Later, U.S. District Judge Katherine Faille will sentence him to a maximum of five years in prison. Each of the conspiracy charges related to money laundering and sanctions evasion carried a potential 20-year sentence. Storm was detained in 2023 on suspicion of assisting in the concealment of over $1 billion, including hundreds of millions of dollars for the hacking group Lazarus Group, which is backed by Pyongyang and has be...

The U.S. Justice Department announced Tuesday that two Chinese nationals were arrested in California and charged with illegally delivering Nvidia H100s and other AI chips worth tens of millions of dollars to China. According to a criminal complaint, Chuan Geng, 28, of Pasadena, and Shiwei Yang, 28, of El Monte, exported cutting-edge Nvidia chips and other technology to China between October 2022 and July 2025 without securing the necessary licenses from the U.S. Commerce Department. The complaint claims that Geng and Yang's El Monte-based business, ALX Solutions Inc., was established in 2022, just after the United States started requiring licenses for the chips and enacted broad export restrictions on technology to China. An Nvidia representative declined to comment. Shipping and freight forwarding firms in Singapore and Malaysia, which are frequently used as transshipment hubs for illicit goods to China, received more than 20 shipments from ALX Solutions. In January 2024, ALX rec...

On Monday, Donald Trump declared that he would significantly increase tariffs on Indian goods due to its purchases of Russian oil. New Delhi responded that it would take action to protect its interests and referred to the U.S. president's targeting of India as "unjustified." Following his announcement last Friday that the United States would impose a 25% tariff on goods imported from India, Trump said last week that Washington was still engaged in trade negotiations with the country. Following Russia's invasion of Ukraine in early 2022, the West, including the United States, has put pressure on India to sever ties with Moscow. Citing its historical ties to Russia and its economic needs, New Delhi has rejected that pressure, according to a new tab. In addition to purchasing enormous quantities of Russian oil, India is also making significant profits by selling a large portion of the oil on the open market. In a post on Truth Social, Trump stated, "They don't ...

In   an effort to retain the billionaire entrepreneur at the helm during a pivotal shift from its faltering core auto business to robotaxis and humanoid robots, Tesla (TSLA.O) has awarded CEO Elon Musk shares worth approximately $29 billion. The "interim award" of the 96 million new shares was characterized by the company as a first-step, "good faith" payment to honor Musk's 2018 compensation package, which was over $50 billion and overturned by a Delaware court last year. If Musk stays in a high-level executive position for two more years and the court does not reinstate the 2018 package that is currently being appealed, he is eligible to receive the new award. He can purchase the shares for $23.34 each, which is the same as the 2018 award's exercise price, and he must hold them for five years. At its annual investor meeting on November 6, Tesla will also vote on a longer-term CEO compensation plan. The goal of the move is to keep Musk, who is the public fa...

Exchange of cryptocurrency The company launched its roadshow to take advantage of the momentum created by digital assets in the face of regulatory clarity, and Bullish stated in a filing on Monday that it is aiming for a valuation of up to $4.23 billion in its US listing. Businesses that use cryptocurrency and associated technologies have embraced the Donald Trump administration's pro-crypto policies, like the GENIUS Act, which was recently passed and offers a preliminary stablecoin regulatory framework. With the help of one or more issuers of such tokens, Bullish, which is supported by billionaire Peter Thiel, intends to convert a sizeable amount of the IPO proceeds to stablecoins denominated in US dollars, the filing stated. Circle Internet, a significant stablecoin issuer, made a spectacular NYSE debut in June and is now trading at over 400% of its initial public offering price. Bullish is making its second attempt to go public in four years, offering 20.3 million shares at pric...

In a filing on Thursday, Meta Platforms (META.O) revealed plans to sell $2 billion worth of data center assets as part of its ongoing efforts to find outside partners to help finance the enormous infrastructure required to power artificial intelligence.  As they struggle with the skyrocketing cost of constructing and powering data centers to support generative AI, tech giants, who have historically been known for self-funding growth, are adopting a different approach. In order to help fund its significant capital expenditure for the upcoming year, the social media behemoth announced earlier this week that it was looking into ways to collaborate with financial partners to co-develop data centers. On a conference call following Wednesday's earnings, Meta Chief Finance Officer Susan Li stated, "We're looking into ways to collaborate with financial partners to co-develop data centers." According to Li, the company still anticipates funding a large portion of its capital ...