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Hedge funds betting against US technology stocks have been battered by $18bn of losses after Big Tech’s robust earnings fuelled a sharp rebound in the sector. Crispin Odey and James Hanbury are among the hedge fund managers burned by a 16 per cent rally in the Nasdaq Composite this year, as a number of stocks

US investors’ enthusiasm for green investments has begun to wane in the face of repeated attacks on “woke capitalism” by Republicans, in a growing contrast to the billions still pouring into sustainable strategies in Europe. Funds marketed with a sustainable label were hit with $12.4bn in net outflows in the US in the past 12

It costs 20 roubles per page to write to my best friend, 65 for the envelope, 75 more so he has the option to reply. Last month, we were chatting on a beach. Now it’s letters to Lefortovo prison, and a quiet prayer that he will receive them soon. Evan Gershkovich, an American journalist for

Richard Sharp was adamant he had done little wrong, insisting that an investigation into the circumstances of his appointment as BBC chair proved any breach of relevant rules was “inadvertent and not material”. But Adam Heppinstall KC, who was asked by the commissioner for public appointments to conduct an inquiry, was clear in his report

At a press conference alongside South Korean president Yoon Suk Yeol in the White House Rose Garden this week, Joe Biden appeared to relish the possibility of a rematch against his one-time opponent Donald Trump. Asked whether he was the only Democrat capable of defeating Trump in 2024, the president, wearing his trademark aviator sunglasses,

Having listened to many officials and government ministers speaking about the global economy in recent months, I have sensed their visceral fear of sounding complacent. The world is uncertain and fragmenting, they say. There are risks of a hard landing. Great power rivalries undermine prospects. We face a world of frequent adverse supply shocks. And

Shares in First Republic plunged nearly 40 per cent on Friday as the embattled California bank prepared to end another week of turmoil without a long-term plan for its survival. First Republic and its advisers have been working on a private-sector solution that would keep the bank from being taken over by the Federal Deposit

Since Silicon Valley Bank failed in March, regulators have been studying why, exactly, they didn’t better identify the risks of having the country’s 16th-largest bank keep more than 90 per cent of its deposits uninsured. Now the Fed is out with an initial report on what went wrong: The four key takeaways of the report

Silicon Valley Bank’s failure last month stemmed from weakened regulations during the Trump administration and mis-steps by internal supervisors who were too slow to correct management blunders, the US Federal Reserve said in a scathing review of the lender’s implosion. The long-awaited report, released on Friday, had harsh words for the California bank’s management but

Two months ago, any list of most admired US bankers would have included Jim Herbert. A shrewd and driven businessman, Herbert grew First Republic, his California-based lender, from just nine employees to America’s 14th largest bank by offering affluent urban professionals cheap mortgages and personalised service. Now everything Herbert, aged 78, has worked for is

By the standards of Big Tech’s recent pandemic boom, the start to 2023 has hardly been a period for the history books. The first-quarter growth rates of 3 to 9 per cent reported this week by Alphabet, Amazon, Meta and Microsoft are a far cry from two years ago, when surging demand for digital services

When Barry Humphries died last week, a third ventricle burst in the hearts of many of his fellow Aussies. It was hard enough with Robert Hughes and Clive James gone. We pray Germaine Greer keeps pumping forever, so to speak. Some may wonder what the fuss is about. But a sense of loss for a

The UK’s move to block Microsoft’s takeover of video games maker Activision Blizzard risks damaging the country’s tech sector, according to industry executives, investors and start-up entrepreneurs who have attacked the landmark decision. The Competition and Markets Authority ruled to block the $75bn transaction on Wednesday, dealing a potentially fatal blow to what would be

Anheuser-Busch announced this week that two executives had gone on leaves of absence after a stunt for Bud Light involving Dylan Mulvaney, a transgender actress and TikTok influencer, became the latest battle in the US culture war. Their fate will send a shiver down the spines of many other marketers. “We never intended to be

Richard Sharp has been forced to resign as BBC chair after an investigation found that he breached the rules after failing to declare a role in the loan guarantee made to Boris Johnson before his appointment. Sharp has been under increasing pressure after an investigation was launched by Adam Heppinstall KC into whether he had

Let others argue over whether Deutsche Bank’s agreed bid for Numis is a demonstration of confidence or a distress signal. Not for us are debates about whether the £410mn offer is an endorsement of the London market’s durability or a wildly expensive way to cross-sell to just 166 corporate broking clients. Not for now are

European stocks and US futures fell at the open on Friday as investors took profits following a rally in technology stocks, while inflation data stirred concerns that eurozone interest rates would have to increase further to stave off price rises. The pan-European Stoxx 600 was down 0.3 per cent while Germany’s Dax dropped 0.4 per

The shifting patterns of fighting in Sudan have allowed foreign nationals to escape and given the warring sides an opportunity to assess their rival’s capabilities and fine-tune their battle plans. The power struggle that erupted two weeks ago, which analysts fear could precede a bloody and protracted conflict, has pitted Sudan’s army, led by the

Deutsche Bank has agreed to buy UK broker Numis for £410mn as Germany’s biggest bank bets on a rebound in a London market that has struggled in recent years. In a surprise deal announced on Friday, Deutsche said it would pay 350p a share for Numis, which advises almost a fifth of companies in the

The head of the world’s largest sovereign wealth fund has called on governments to speed up the regulation of artificial intelligence as it revealed it would set guidelines for how the 9,000 companies it invests in should use AI “ethically”. Nicolai Tangen, chief executive of Norway’s $1.4tn oil fund — which owns on average 1.5

Something troubling is happening to staffing in Britain’s national health service. Despite steady upward trends in the numbers of new doctors and nurses, vacancies continue to rise. In short, the NHS has developed a leak. And it’s not an easy one to mop up, since it frequently drips into other countries. According to the latest