ECONOMY & MARKETS

More large Japanese companies are now raising wages to attract workers and cope with chronic staff shortages, a monthly Reuters poll showed on Thursday, a tentative sign Japan Inc may be slowly addressing pay that has been flat for decades.

U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen has directed the head of the Internal Revenue Service to produce a detailed plan for deploying $80 billion in newly enacted enforcement funding within six months, an internal Treasury memo showed on Wednesday.

Thousands of frustrated Argentines clogged downtown Buenos Aires on Wednesday in raucous street protests, demanding government action to boost salaries and unemployment benefits battered by surging consumer prices and a weakening peso currency.

Ghana's central bank on Wednesday delivered its biggest rate hike ever, a 300 basis point increase to 22%, at an emergency meeting to address the economy's rapid deterioration amid crippling inflation.

The busiest U.S. seaport expects August imports to begin easing from record highs as retailers cancel orders in the wake of shoppers' pulling back from freewheeling pandemic spending, the executive director of the Port of Los Angeles said on Wednesday.

Bank of America said on Wednesday overdraft fee revenue for June and July was down 90% from last year, as a result of lowering the fees charged to customers whose account balances go negative.

U.S. retail sales were unexpectedly unchanged in July as falling gasoline prices weighed on receipts at service stations, but consumer spending appeared to pick up at the start of the third quarter, further assuaging fears the economy was in a recession.

A global group of investors and pension funds have said they will push top corporate water users to address financial risks and protect resources, citing widespread droughts and severe weather.

Teachers face a harsh lesson as inflation drives up the cost of everything from paper to pencils before the school year begins, leading some to cut back on supplies - or substitute with cheaper items.

Top U.S. and European banks are facing tougher times in the riskiest parts of the loan market.

Some Black farmers say they are disappointed by a new U.S.

Federal Reserve officials are adamant they will keep raising interest rates until high inflation is under control, and the release on Wednesday of the minutes from their July 26-27 policy meeting may shed light on just how aggressive they expect to be.

U.S. inflation at a four-decade high has hit lower-income Americans the hardest.

British consumer price inflation jumped to 10.1% in July, its highest since February 1982, up from an annual rate of 9.4% in June, intensifying the squeeze on households, official figures showed on Wednesday.

Asian shares rallied on Wednesday as strong earnings for U.S.

Stronger-than-expected corporate earnings have helped fuel the rebound for U.S.

Traders and fund managers have left crude oil markets in recent months, dropping activity to a seven-year low amid the worst global energy crisis in decades as investors become unwilling to deal with persistently high volatility.

New Zealand's central bank delivered its seventh straight interest rate rise on Wednesday and signalled a more hawkish tightening path over coming months to restrain stubbornly high inflation.

Major currencies were holding steady on Wednesday, ahead of another day when central bank policy takes centre stage for traders with a Reserve Bank of New Zealand meeting and the Federal Reserve's minutes from its recent meeting both due.

Oil prices rose on Wednesday, recovering from six-month lows hit the previous day, as a larger-than-expected drop in U.S.

Japanese manufacturers' business confidence improved in August after last month's stall, while service-sector firms' mood rose for a second month to the highest point in nearly three years, the Reuters Tankan poll showed.

Canadian inflation may have peaked, but it remains far too high, Bank of Canada Governor Tiff Macklem said in a newspaper op-ed on Tuesday, after official data showed annual price increases eased to 7.6% in July from 8.1% in June.

Brazil's trade surplus this year is likely to fall short of prior forecasts, according to private economists and an Economy Ministry official, as a spike in the cost of imported fuel and fertilizer offsets strong exports of other raw materials.

The "superminister" tasked with rescuing Argentina's crisis-racked economy needs cash now, and so just days into the job he has launched a charm offensive to win over farm industry titans to access crucial debt forgiveness ahead of a looming deadline.

Britain recorded its biggest rise in foreign workers since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic in the year to June, driven overwhelmingly by workers from outside the European Union, official figures showed on Tuesday.

Investors are still bearish but no longer "apocalyptically" so, according to Bank of America's (BofA) monthly survey of global fund managers in August, as hopes rise inflation and interest rates shocks will end in the coming quarters.

The Dow inched higher on Tuesday as results from Walmart and Home Depot lifted the retail sector, while a slide in megacap growth stocks and signs of a slowing global economy weighed on the Nasdaq and the S&P 500.

A sharp rebound in Israel's economic activity and a jump in annual inflation have made a 0.75-point interest rate increase more likely next week, analysts said on Tuesday.

China slashed holdings of U.S. Treasuries for a seventh consecutive month in June, Treasury department data released on Monday showed, with investors closely tracking this measure in the wake of tensions between the world's two largest economies involving Taiwan.