US President Donald Trump announced Friday that the US had secured majority control over more than 65 billion barrels of Venezuela’s oil reserves, expanding Washington’s influence over the country’s energy industry. Under the agreement, a joint company comprising the US government and a Venezuelan private operator will receive a 100-year ...
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Fed chair Warsh’s Jackson Hole speech eases investor fearsFed chair Warsh’s Jackson Hole speech eases investor fears
US Federal Reserve Chair Kevin Warsh’s hawkish Jackson Hole speech on Friday eased fears that the central banker wouldn’t raise interest rates to tackle inflation, as the odds of a September hike jumped. Though Warsh “was keen not to provide forward guidance… his words smacked of forward guidance,” ING analysts ...
Saudi firms pull IPO plansSaudi firms pull IPO plans
The Scoop Three Saudi companies have scrapped plans for initial public offerings that were scheduled over the next month because of expectations of weak investor demand as the Iran war weighs on sentiment, according to people familiar with the matter. The decision suggests the companies believe that foreign investors remain ...
The Fed ‘has been a little too quiet’ on Treasury, former Fed official saysThe Fed ‘has been a little too quiet’ on Treasury, former Fed official says
The News JACKSON HOLE, Wyo. — The Federal Reserve has so far “been a little too quiet” about the Treasury Department’s campaign to bring down yields by buying back more long-term debt, former Kansas City Fed President Tom Hoenig told Semafor. “What they’re trying to do is not identify with ...
Republicans’ economic optimism is ‘starting to fade,’ economist saysRepublicans’ economic optimism is ‘starting to fade,’ economist says
The News Consumer sentiment among Republicans and independents is “starting to fade” ahead of the midterm elections, The Conference Board Chief Economist Dana Peterson told Semafor. The Conference Board said last week that its overall consumer confidence index had dropped to its lowest level since January. Economists had predicted it ...
Piker defiant as Democrats turn on himPiker defiant as Democrats turn on him
The News “It doesn’t feel great to constantly be berated like this,” said Hasan Piker. By Friday morning, when he caught up with Semafor, the socialist influencer had spent the past week watching Democrats condemn him or distance themselves from his commentary. Michigan Democratic Senate nominee Abdul El-Sayed, who he’d ...
China intensifies hacking campaignChina intensifies hacking campaign
The US government said this week it seized digital infrastructure behind a Chinese hacking operation that targeted NASA, the Federal Reserve, and the Senate beginning in 2018, evidence, experts say, that illustrates the growing scale and persistence of Beijing’s cyber operations. The court documents show China is “doubling down” on ...
Warsh’s hawkish turn meets its skepticsWarsh’s hawkish turn meets its skeptics
The News JACKSON HOLE, Wyo. — Federal Reserve Chair Kevin Warsh made his debut Friday on one of the global economy’s biggest stages, where he appeared to play the hawk. But looks can be deceiving. Warsh used his first speech at the Kansas City Fed’s storied economic policy symposium in ...
Google and Microsoft were in talks for Nscale compute deal that went to AnthropicGoogle and Microsoft were in talks for Nscale compute deal that went to Anthropic
The Scoop Google and Microsoft were both in talks with Nscale to rent AI computing capacity from the company’s massive data center project in West Virginia — a lease that ultimately went to Anthropic, a person familiar with the matter told Semafor. The AI startup will pay $45 billion to ...
Software and data firms rush to meet customers inside the chatbotSoftware and data firms rush to meet customers inside the chatbot
The Scene If you can’t beat ’em, hook up your data to a chatbot. Salesforce this week announced “Claudeforce,” a partnership with Anthropic that lets salespeople look up customer records and check on deals by typing requests to Claude, instead of clicking through a Salesforce dashboard. The massive software solutions ...