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For decades, the Kuwait Investment Authority kept a low profile as it garnered a reputation as one of the oil-rich Gulf’s most powerful and respected sovereign wealth funds. But last week, the KIA abruptly sacked Saleh al-Ateeqi, the head of its London investment arm, the Kuwait Investment Office, dragging the secretive fund into the spotlight.

Investors were desperate for the slightest sliver of good news from Jay Powell, and it shows. Fund managers were pretty sure that the US Federal Reserve would raise interest rates this week at an increment that just a few months ago would have brought us all out in hives. It duly delivered a 0.75 percentage

Apple’s revenues grew slightly on the back of iPhone sales and its services division despite headwinds from supply chain shortages and factory shutdowns in China. The iPhone maker said revenues had risen 2 per cent from a year ago to $83bn, slightly ahead of analysts’ forecasts for $82.8bn, according to Refinitiv. Apple in April had

Amazon’s shares rose more than 10 per cent on Thursday after it beat revenue expectations and offered an upbeat forecast for the remainder of the year, as its reins in ecommerce costs and benefits from strong demand for its cloud computing business. Amazon said it expected to return to double-digit quarterly revenue growth now that

Intel shocked Wall Street as it reported a slump in revenue in its latest quarter and slashed its financial outlook for the rest of the year, sending its battered stock price down 10 per cent in after-market trading on Thursday. The biggest US chipmaker by revenue blamed the disappointing results on weakening economic conditions, supply

S&P Global has downgraded Pakistan’s outlook to negative from stable, as a depreciating currency, tighter global financial conditions and higher commodity prices weaken the government’s external position. S&P Global reaffirmed its sovereign credit rating of “B-/B” and said it expected external resources to remain “under pressure”, even after an expected IMF disbursement of $1.3bn. “The

Foreign secretary Liz Truss has rejected suggestions of a windfall tax on the profits of energy companies, despite British Gas owner Centrica’s announcement of huge earnings amid calls for increased support with fuel bills for struggling UK households. Truss, who in recent weeks has led the polling in the race to become leader of the

President Joe Biden is on the cusp of two back-to-back legislative victories after Congress passed a $280bn package to boost the semiconductor industry while a conservative Democrat unexpectedly swung behind a sweeping tax-and-spend bill. The House of Representatives on Thursday voted to pass the Chips and Science Act, which includes subsidies for the US semiconductor

The energy, climate and social spending bill that won critical support in the US Senate this week would raise $14bn by taking aim at a tax break long cherished by America’s wealthiest private equity and hedge fund managers. “Carried interest” allows profits accrued by investment managers to be taxed at a lower rate than ordinary

At the height of his success, the Pakistani tycoon Arif Naqvi invited cricket superstar Imran Khan and hundreds of bankers, lawyers and investors to his walled country estate in the Oxfordshire village of Wootton for weekends of sport and drinking. The host was the founder of the Dubai-based Abraaj Group, then one of the largest

This year, anybody receiving an annual statement from America’s mighty social security system might notice a tiny ticking time bomb — if they possess sharp eyes. Tucked into a footnote is a website link that explains that the two funds in this system — called “Disability Insurance” and “Old Age and Survivors Insurance” — have

Short-dated US government debt rallied on Thursday after data showing the American economy unexpectedly shrank in the second quarter prompted traders to trim expectations for Federal Reserve rate increases. Yields on two-year Treasury notes, which are sensitive to monetary policy expectations, dipped 0.1 percentage points to 2.86 per cent as the debt jumped in price.

“There is no such thing as public money,” Margaret Thatcher once said, “only taxpayers’ money”. Her dictum is one that Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak should heed in their race to become Britain’s next prime minister. Both candidates for the Conservative leadership, despite repeatedly lionising the Iron Lady, are competing on spending pledges. The former

Few companies ever manage to pull off even a single significant transition in their business. But two in quick succession? Facebook co-founder Mark Zuckerberg talks about overhauling his company’s business as readily as most chief executives discuss their next new product feature. It is one of the legacies of being in social media, where new

The US economy shrank for a second consecutive quarter, meeting one of the common criteria for a technical recession and complicating the Federal Reserve’s push to stamp out soaring inflation with a string of aggressive rate rises. Data published by the commerce department on Thursday showed gross domestic product fell by 0.9 per cent on

One day in 1956, the Irish civil servant TK Whitaker had a jolt when he saw the cover of Dublin Opinion magazine. An illustration showed an empty Ireland, beside the text “Shortly Available: Undeveloped Country, Unrivalled Opportunities, Magnificent Views, Political and Otherwise, Owners Going Abroad”. Ireland’s model of economic and emotional autarky had failed. Nearly

On the day the UK experienced its hottest day on record, people glued to their TV screens saw a row of burning houses. Rather than fretting like many of us did about the surreal sight of wildfires so close to central London, Mike Fox’s attention was on a power cable in the background of the

The tap water in Ben Archard’s apartment in the Herne Hill neighbourhood of south London flows through toxic lead pipes, increasing the risk of brain damage to his children and prompting him to pay for bottled drinking water. Tests carried out by the local authority this year revealed that more than half of the 96

Centrica, the owner of British Gas, has reinstated its dividend for the first time since 2020 after operating profits increased more than fivefold during the energy crisis, buoyed by higher revenues from its oil, gas and nuclear assets. The company, which is the biggest energy retailer in the UK, said on Thursday that it would

Shell has announced record profits for a second consecutive quarter and a $6bn share buyback scheme as the fallout from the war in Ukraine generates bumper earnings for the world’s oil and gas majors. Europe’s largest oil company posted adjusted earnings — the profit measure most closely tracked by analysts — of $11.5bn in the

EDF has reported a record €5.3bn first-half loss and warned that the financial hit from outages at its nuclear plants would worsen in the months ahead, just as the French government prepares to take full control of the utility. The company on Thursday forecast that its output problems, exacerbated by unexpected shutdowns at some reactors