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Crude prices up after Saudi cuts, but energy prices way down from last year

Wall Street is relatively flat Monday following last week's last surge propelled by U.S. jobs data that raised new questions about if or when a recession might arrive.

Futures for the S&P 500 and the Dow Jones Industrial Average are essentially unchanged heading into a week with little new data expected from major U.S. corporations or economic indicators from Washington.

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Switzerland's UBS says it could complete Credit Suisse takeover on June 12

Switzerland's UBS said Monday that it expects to complete its takeover of longtime rival Credit Suisse as early as next week.

The two Zurich-based banks are uniting in a 3 billion-franc ($3.3 billion) deal that was arranged hastily in March by the Swiss government and regulators after Credit Suisse's stock plunged and jittery depositors quickly pulled out their money.

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Saudi Arabia slashes output further to boost oil price

Saudi Arabia will reduce how much oil it sends to the global economy, taking a unilateral step to prop up the sagging price of crude after two previous cuts to supply by major producing countries in the OPEC+ alliance failed to push oil higher.

The Saudi cut of 1 million barrels per day, to start in July, comes as the other OPEC+ producers agreed in a meeting in Vienna to extend earlier production cuts through next year.

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California bill requiring Big Tech to pay for news gains momentum

A California bill that would force Big Tech companies to pay media outlets for posting and using their news content cleared another critical hurdle Thursday.

The measure is among hundreds of bills that passed in the state Senate and Assembly this week before Friday — the last day a bill can pass out of its original chamber and get a chance to become law later this year.

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IMF says Sri Lanka's economic recovery shows signs of improvement but challenges remain

Debt-stricken Sri Lanka, which declared bankruptcy last year, is showing signs of economic improvement but its recovery still faces challenges, the International Monetary Fund said Friday.

The Indian Ocean island nation declared bankruptcy in April 2022 and said it was suspending repayment of its foreign debt. It reached an agreement with the IMF in March on a nearly $3 billion bailout program over four years.

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World follows Wall Street up on hopes Fed will ease off rate hikes

Global stock markets and Wall Street futures rose Friday ahead of a U.S. jobs market update after Federal Reserve officials reignited hopes that another interest rate hike might be postponed.

London and Paris opened up more than 1%. Hong Kong surged 4% after U.S. lawmakers approved a deal to avert a government debt default. Shanghai, Tokyo and Seoul also advanced.

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British Ambassador visits UK funded projects in Sidon, inaugurates Fish Market

The British Ambassador to Lebanon, Hamish Cowell, has inaugurated the newly rebuilt Fish Market in Sidon.

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BRICS bloc discusses adding Saudi Arabia, Iran

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has met with China's deputy foreign minister and other top diplomats from the BRICS bloc of developing economies for discussions that included the group's possible expansion to include the major oil-producing nations of Saudi Arabia, Iran and the United Arab Emirates.

Ahead of the talks at a luxury oceanside hotel in South Africa, Lavrov cast BRICS — an acronym for current members Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa — as central to the establishment of a "more just" world order.

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Senate gives final approval to debt ceiling deal

Fending off a U.S. default, the Senate gave final approval late Thursday to a debt ceiling and budget cuts package, grinding into the night to wrap up work on the bipartisan deal and send it to President Joe Biden's desk to become law before the fast-approaching deadline.

The compromise package negotiated between Biden and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy leaves neither Republicans nor Democrats fully pleased with the outcome. But the result, after weeks of hard-fought budget negotiations, shelves the volatile debt ceiling issue that risked upending the U.S. and global economy until 2025 after the next presidential election.

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AI chips are hot. Here's what they are, what they're for and why investors see gold

The hottest thing in technology is an unprepossessing sliver of silicon closely related to the chips that power video game graphics. It's an artificial intelligence chip, designed specifically to make building AI systems such as ChatGPT faster and cheaper.

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