Category: Semafor

Major US retailers suggested shoppers are reining in spending as the Iran war raises prices on essential goods. Walmart on Thursday reported a worse-than-expected outlook, noting that its sales were driven by lower-price goods. The average number of gallons a customer buys at Walmart gas stations has fallen to 2022 ...

Economists debated whether there’s light at the end of the tunnel for China’s multiyear property slump. Home prices in the country’s largest cities have ticked up this year, and sellers’ “panic listings” have fallen. Some analysts “see a turning point” in the crisis and predict home prices will start recovering ...

The Iran war is undermining Saudi Arabia’s efforts to diversify away from oil, while boosting the kingdom’s oil revenues. Riyadh ordered government entities to freeze payments to strategy advisers, management consultants, and law firms, which were central to the kingdom’s efforts to reinvent its economy and become a global business ...

Qatar Airways reported a decline of more than 7% in annual net profit, in a sign of how Gulf airlines are struggling to cope with the biggest disruption to their operations since the pandemic. The state-owned carrier posted a $1.9 billion profit for the year to the end of March, ...

Qatar Investment Authority and Spain’s state-backed investor COFIDES will establish a €300 million ($349 million) joint fund to back Spanish companies involved in the green transition and digital transformation. The new vehicle will be managed by Madrid-based private equity firm Portobello Capital, which oversees about €4.5 billion in assets and ...

Generic versions of Ozempic went on sale this week in Canada — somehow the world’s second-largest GLP-1 market — raising questions about whether Novo Nordisk’s failure to renew its Canadian patent and prevent the entry of generic companies into the country was a bit of cunning corporate strategy or an ...

Steel tycoon Andrew Carnegie, in called it a disgrace to die rich. The robber barons were ruthless, but they also endowed universities, charities, and civic institutions that endure today. How will tech billionaires of the AI age be remembered? Jeff Bezos used his CNBC interview yesterday to pan philanthropy, arguing ...

The IPO prospectus SpaceX dropped last night revealed how much the world’s largest public offering is underpinned by a founder firmly in control. Elon Musk, who previously complained he didn’t have a big enough say in Tesla, will control 85% of the vote at SpaceX through special shares (and will ...

Oil prices jumped to around $100 a barrel after Iran’s president said his country would not be cowed into surrendering. Despite two Chinese tankers making it through the Strait of Hormuz, crude prices jumped by around 3% after Masoud Pezeshkian said it was a “delusion” that Iran would be forced ...

The News Abu Dhabi is rolling out new artificial intelligence tools across roughly 100 operating rooms as the emirate’s healthcare regulator — taking a more-is-more approach to patient data — looks to improve surgical outcomes and use predictive technologies to shape policy. The Department of Health Abu Dhabi is connecting ...