Air New Zealand on Thursday upgraded its full-year forecast for earnings before other significant items and taxation for the second time on the back of strong demand and lower jet fuel prices.

The airline now expects earnings before other significant items and taxation for fiscal 2023 to be no less than NZ$580 million ($350 million), compared with its prior forecast range of NZ$510 million to NZ$560 million.

Air New Zealand raises full-year forecast on stronger demand, lower fuel prices

Coinbase Chief Executive Brian Armstrong on Wednesday hit back at U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Chair Gary Gensler over the agency's lawsuit against the crypto exchange, calling him an "outlier," while also reassuring customers that their funds were safe.

The SEC on Tuesday alleged Coinbase traded at least 13 crypto assets that are securities that should have been registered, including tokens such as Solana, Cardano and Polygon

Coinbase CEO hits back at SEC chair after lawsuit, says user funds are safe

The Bank of Canada’s decision to resume raising interest rates shook global bond markets and underscored the difficult task faced by central banks as they try to slow economic activity and tamp down inflation.

Policymakers led by Governor Tiff Macklem increased the benchmark overnight rate to 4.75%, ending a pause they declared in January after Canada’s economy proved surprisingly strong despite much higher borrowing costs.

Canada’s surprise hike exposes global struggle to find endpoint for rates

A look at the day ahead in Asian markets from Jamie McGeever. An interest rate decision from India and revised Japanese GDP will be the big local drivers for Asian markets on Thursday, with wider sentiment soured by a profit-taking slump in U.S. tech stocks and a surprising rate hike in Canada.

Indian rates, Japan GDP in the spotlight

Wall Street is headed for a fresh regulatory battle over how clients pay for investment research when a hard-fought reprieve from Europe’s tough MiFID II rules expires next month.

American securities firms shouldn’t count on the Securities and Exchange Commission extending temporary relief it previously granted to blunt the impact from European Union regulations, agency Chair Gary Gensler said Wednesday.

Wall Street faces fresh fight with SEC’s Gensler over European securities rules

Oil rose amid dollar weakness while traders pointed to the highest refinery runs in the US since 2019 as a harbinger of strong summer demand to come. 

West Texas Intermediate settled above $72 a barrel on Wednesday after a government report showed refineries increasing their crude processing to the highest since August 2019.

Oil gains as US refiners ramp up for summer, dollar weakens

The once-hot Wall Street trades of 2023 are all falling apart, in a fresh blow to market pros blindsided again and again ever since the pandemic broke out.

Nearly half way into the year, a slew of consensus bets are losing big time as the US economy defies the recession bears, the artificial-intelligence craze heats up and more.

Wall Street’s once-hot trades of 2023 are unraveling in markets

(June 8): A drop in tech shares drove US stocks lower, while Treasuries retreated after a surprise Bank of Canada rate increase fueled bets the Federal Reserve is not done with its own tightening.

The Nasdaq 100 fell 1.8%, with Alphabet Inc. and Microsoft Corp. off at least 3%...

Tech stocks sputter as traders consider July hike

The Bank of Canada on Wednesday hiked its overnight rate to a 22-year high of 4.75%, and markets and analysts immediately forecast yet another increase next month to ratchet down an overheating economy and stubbornly high inflation.

The central bank had been on hold since January to assess the impact of previous hikes after raising borrowing costs eight times since March 2022 to a 15-year high of 4.50% - the fastest tightening cycle in the bank's history.

Bank of Canada hikes rates to 22-year high, more increases expected

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday accused Ukraine of destroying the Kakhovka dam at the suggestion of the West, in what he called a "barbaric" war crime that escalated the conflict with Moscow.

Putin accuses Ukraine of destroying the Kakhovka Dam at behest of West

S&P 500 and Nasdaq gave up early gains to drop on Wednesday as technology stocks reversed course, while investors awaited inflation data and the Federal Reserve's policy meeting next week.

Major technology and growth stocks fell between 0.1% and 3.1%, barring Netflix and Tesla, which rose 1.1% and 1.8%, respectively.

S&P 500, Nasdaq fall as tech shares give up gains

Central banks will be more hamstrung about how much they can do to boost growth if inflation remains sticky, according to JPMorgan Asset Management.

Karen Ward, the firm’s chief markets strategist for EMEA, said investors were too optimistic to think central banks would cut interest rates to support growth. She’s betting they’ll have to keep rolling back those bets.

JPMorgan Asset’s Ward says markets got carried away on rate cut bets

The global temperatures in May were the second-warmest in the past three decades as polar ice continues to melt, according to a monthly report by Europe’s Earth observation agency Copernicus.

The area covered by sea ice in Antarctica last month touched a new low — third time to happen this year —  and was 17% below average for the period between 1979 and 2023. It also coincided with unprecedented temperatures over all oceans that aren’t covered by ice, the report said.

World sees second-hottest May in 30 years as Antarctic ice reaches new low

US mortgage applications for home purchases fell for a fourth week as 30-year fixed rates held close to an almost seven-month high.

The Mortgage Bankers Association index of applications for home purchases dropped 1.7% in the week ended June 2 to 151.7, the second-lowest level since 1995. The contract rate on a 30-year fixed mortgage decreased 10 basis points to 6.81%, according to the data out Wednesday.

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