Lithium-ion batteries represent a new technological hazard that one fire science expert has said keeps him awake at night, as fire service chiefs warn the ubiquity of lithium-ion batteries in everyday products is outpacing public understanding and safety regulations. The blaze that devastated a historic building in Glasgow and resulted in the continuing closure of Central Station, Scotland’s large...
Lithium-ion batteries represent a new technological hazard that one fire science expert has said keeps him awake at night, as fire service chiefs warn the ubiquity of lithium-ion batteries in everyday products is outpacing public understanding and safety regulations. The blaze that devastated a historic building in Glasgow and resulted in the continuing closure of Central Station, Scotland’s largest rail interchange, is believed to have started in a shop selling vapes, which are powered by lithium-ion batteries. The latest data reveals a sharp increase in battery-related fires across Scotland, while firefighters in London attend an e-bike or e-scooter fire every other day. Paul Christensen, professor of pure and applied electrochemistry at the University of Newcastle, underlines that, while the probability of a fire from a lithium-ion battery is very low, the hazard is “very, very high, as we’ve seen with this fire in Glasgow”. “It’s a new technology that comes with an unintended new hazard,” says Guillermo Rein, professor of fire science at Imperial College London, “that keeps me awake at night.” “A lithium battery fire – in terms of the way it develops, the way we detect it and how we suppress it – is completely different from the sorts of fires we have protected our homes, businesses and public buildings against. It breaches most of the layers of protection that we know. And they [the batteries] are omnipresent.” Lithium-ion batteries are used in mobile phones, tablets, laptops, electric toothbrushes, tools, toys and vapes, and are also used to power e-bikes, e-scooters and electric vehicles. View image in fullscreen An e-bike that caught fire in a bedroom in London, causing life-changing injuries when a man tried to put it out with a fire extinguisher. Photograph: London Fire Brigade If used incorrectly or damaged, they bring a specific hazard, called thermal runaway: a dangerous chain reaction where the temperature inside the battery rises uncontrollably, produ...
(RTTNews) - France's equity benchmark CAC 40 slipped into negative territory around late morning on Friday, failing to hold early gains, as oil pared early losses and moved higher, forcing investors to refrain from picking up stocks at higher levels. Oil prices moderated earlier in the day in response to the efforts by the U.S. and Israel to ease concerns about ongoing fuel supply issues. Israeli ...
(RTTNews) - France's equity benchmark CAC 40 slipped into negative territory around late morning on Friday, failing to hold early gains, as oil pared early losses and moved higher, forcing investors to refrain from picking up stocks at higher levels. Oil prices moderated earlier in the day in response to the efforts by the U.S. and Israel to ease concerns about ongoing fuel supply issues. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said U.S. President Donald Trump had requested that there be no further attacks on the Iranian gas field. Trump suggested that he has no plans to deploy American troops to the Middle East. To increase oil supply and bring down energy prices, U.S. officials said Washington may soon lift sanctions on Iranian oil stranded in tankers. However, oil prices climbed higher subsequently on reports the U.S. President is mulling a forced takeover of Iran's Kharg Island. The CAC 40, which rose to 7,883.27 earlier, dropped to 7,771.82 before edging up to 7,813.30, up 5.43 points or 0.07%. Capgemini and Hermes International are down nearly 2%. Dassault Systemes is lower by about 1.8%, while Safran, Euronext, Publicis Groupe and Thales are down 1%-1.4%. Michelin, TotalEnergies, EssilorLuxottica and LVMH are down with modest losses. Accor is up nearly 2.5%. Saint-Gobain is gaining 1.8%, while Renault, Eiffage, Bouygues, L'Oreal, Unibail Rodamco and STMicroelectronics are up 1%-1.6%. Stellantis is up 0.5% after the company said that its battery-electric vehicles in North America now have access to the Tesla Supercharger network via adapters. Schneider Electric, Carrefour, Credit Agricole, Air Liquide, Vinci, Kering and Orange are up with modest gains. In economic news, The euro area current account surplus increased in January to the highest level since June 2024, data from the European Central Bank showed Friday. The current account surplus rose to EUR 38 billion from EUR 13 billion in December. This was the highest since June 2024, when the surplus totall...
Italy is in talks with Algeria to buy more natural gas from the North African nation with the Iran war squeezing energy shipments, according to people familiar with the matter. Italy’s Eni SpA is renegotiating contracts with Algeria’s Sonatrach to try and secure more gas, the people said, asking not to be named as the talks are private. The Algerian firm, however, has asked Italy to buy any extra ...
Italy is in talks with Algeria to buy more natural gas from the North African nation with the Iran war squeezing energy shipments, according to people familiar with the matter. Italy’s Eni SpA is renegotiating contracts with Algeria’s Sonatrach to try and secure more gas, the people said, asking not to be named as the talks are private. The Algerian firm, however, has asked Italy to buy any extra fuel from the spot market, where gas is traded for immediate delivery and prices are currently higher, some of them said. It’s unclear whether Italy would accept those terms, the people said. Italy’s overtures reflect European countries’ mounting anxiety over securing oil and gas supplies, and Algeria’s role as a key alternative supplier. Countries that have pipeline links to the area could start competing to secure additional supplies. Both Italy and Spain are in talks with Algeria, seeking to boost their import of gas from the country. Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni is set to visit the capital Algiers as soon as next week. The Italian government said Meloni’s trip has been planned for a while and that energy will be discussed as part of a broader set of topics, declining to comment further. Algerian officials weren’t available for comment on Friday, a public holiday. A representative for Eni declined to comment. Europe received around 10% of its gas imports fro North Africa last year, and Algeria was European Union’s fourth largest LNG supplier by mid-2025. Spain is considering buying more gas from the country, Bloomberg News previously reported, and other European countries are similarly inquiring about increasing purchases, the people said. Read More: Spain Weighs Buying More Algerian Gas as War Tightens Supplies Italy previously renegotiated its gas contracts with Algeria after Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022, depriving Italy of crucial Russian energy supplies. Those contracts are now nearing expiration, and the war in Iran has made negotiations more urgent, some...
Stocks came off 2026 lows and oil prices reversed lower amid Iran war comments from President Trump and Israeli PM Netanyahu. Tesla stock broke key levels.
Stocks came off 2026 lows and oil prices reversed lower amid Iran war comments from President Trump and Israeli PM Netanyahu. Tesla stock broke key levels.
Sergii Zyskо/iStock via Getty Images The market seemed to overreact to the central bank meetings this week. The market heard Fed Chair Powell as more hawkish than the FOMC statement and took the dollar sharply higher. Yesterday, it overreacted to the Bank of England and European Central Banks and sold the greenback aggressively. The swaps market is discounting three rate hikes this year by the ECB...
Sergii Zyskо/iStock via Getty Images The market seemed to overreact to the central bank meetings this week. The market heard Fed Chair Powell as more hawkish than the FOMC statement and took the dollar sharply higher. Yesterday, it overreacted to the Bank of England and European Central Banks and sold the greenback aggressively. The swaps market is discounting three rate hikes this year by the ECB and BOE and about three basis points of tightening by the Federal Reserve. Still, after yesterday’s sell-off, the dollar has bounced back. The fog of war seems to contribute to the desire for short-term market participants not wanting to be short dollars into the weekend. Even though the US and Israel say that they will not strike Iranian oil infrastructure, there is little sign of de-escalation, and yesterday, US Treasury Secretary Bessent made a reference to the possibility that Kharg Island could be taken over by the US. Adding to the mix is today’s “triple-witching” that see a relatively large $5.7 trillion of options on individual stocks, indices and exchange-traded funds expire. This comes amid a further sell-off in stocks and bonds. Prices G10 • After practically no follow-through euro selling yesterday and the sharp drop during Fed Chair Powell’s press conference on Wednesday, the euro rallied strongly yesterday. It reached a six-session high, almost $1.1615. ECB President Lagarde seemed to take a wait-and-see stance and expressed no sense of urgency, but unnamed hawks played up the risk of a hike as early as next month, and today the Bundesbank’s chief made the same point. And it is not just one hike, but now the swaps are pricing in nearly three hikes before the end of the year. However, with the weekend at hand, given the fog of war, the short-term market does not want to be short dollars. The euro has held below $1.16 today and was sold in the $1.1535 area ahead of the North American session. This risks a test on $1.15, where options for 1.5 bln euros expire to...
Bonjour et Bienvenue to the Paris Edition. I’m Bloomberg Opinion columnist Lionel Laurent . If you haven’t yet, subscribe now to the Paris Edition newsletter . Waning Appeal The boss of Norway’s $2 trillion sovereign wealth fund, Nicolai Tangen, visited the annual Euronext conference in Paris this week to issue a stark warning to bankers, investors and officials: Europe is losing. Citing the (Swed...
Bonjour et Bienvenue to the Paris Edition. I’m Bloomberg Opinion columnist Lionel Laurent . If you haven’t yet, subscribe now to the Paris Edition newsletter . Waning Appeal The boss of Norway’s $2 trillion sovereign wealth fund, Nicolai Tangen, visited the annual Euronext conference in Paris this week to issue a stark warning to bankers, investors and officials: Europe is losing. Citing the (Swedish) pop hit “The Winner Takes It All,” he pointed to his own index-tracking fund as an indicator of where global capital has gone over the past decade, with its US allocation rising to 55% from 37% while Europe has halved to 21%. This has real consequences in a time of war, transatlantic tension and energy shocks. Every euro counts when addressing Europe’s huge investment needs, from the data centers powering artificial intelligence to the re-armament drive designed to reduce dependence on the US. Yet while the continent has no shortage of talent or promising startups, Tangen argued fragmented markets and complex rules were chasing them away. Driving home the urgency for Europeans amid the effective closure of the Strait of Hormuz and oil prices above $100 a barrel, Tangen also warned in an interview on the sidelines of the conference that the Iran war required gaming out new scenarios for the future that were far from reassuring. A return of inflation would have negative consequences for global markets on balance, as would a continued fragmentation of economic and trade ties. Throw in the risk of a reversal of stretched tech valuations and things could get bumpy. All the more reason to keep up the pressure in Paris and across the region to deliver geopolitical self-help and economic resilience through closer market integration and the unlocking of trillions of Europeans’ savings for future investment. Echoing Tangen’s call, Euronext CEO Stephane Boujnah said a proposal by France, Germany and four other countries for having one regulator for Europe’s big stock exchanges wa...
(RTTNews) - Aumann AG (AAG.DE, AUUMF), a German manufacturer of machinery and equipment, announced Friday its preliminary fiscal 2025 results, reporting lower EBITDA, a key earnings metric, with weak revenues and orders, while EBITDA margin improved from last year. Looking ahead for fiscal 2026, the company projects a decline in revenues and margin. Further, Aumann proposed a dividend of 0.25 euro...
(RTTNews) - Aumann AG (AAG.DE, AUUMF), a German manufacturer of machinery and equipment, announced Friday its preliminary fiscal 2025 results, reporting lower EBITDA, a key earnings metric, with weak revenues and orders, while EBITDA margin improved from last year. Looking ahead for fiscal 2026, the company projects a decline in revenues and margin. Further, Aumann proposed a dividend of 0.25 euros per share. On the XETRA in Germany, the shares were gaining around 5.8 percent to trade at 13.92 euros. In fiscal 2025, EBITDA decreased 21.2 percent to 28.2 million euros from last year's 35.8 million euros. The EBITDA margin, however, improved to 13.8 percent from 11.5 percent last year. Aumann generated annual revenue of 204.0 million euros, down 34.7 percent from previous year's 312.3 million euros. Order intake fell 26.3 percent to 147.5 million euros from 200.1 million euros in the previous year. Order intake in the E-mobility segment fell 44.4 percent to 91.0 million euros in a challenging market environment for the European automotive industry and in the face of continued reluctance to invest. The Next Automation segment's order intake climbed 35.3 percent year-on-year to 56.5 million euros. Across all segments, the order backlog at the end of the year fell by 33.6 percent to 122.2 million euros. Looking ahead for fiscal 2026, the company expects EBITDA margin between 6 percent and 8 percent and revenue of around 160 million euros. Aumann plans to publish full Annual Report 2025 on March 31. The views and opinions expressed herein are the views and opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Nasdaq, Inc.
The UK government has promised a different approach to tech procurement following the award of controversial contracts to Palantir. Speaking to MPs, science minister Patrick Vallance said that the government's deals with Palantir – which has large contracts with the NHS and the Ministry of Defence – would be done differently in the future, instead emphasizing investment in UK technology and compan...
The UK government has promised a different approach to tech procurement following the award of controversial contracts to Palantir. Speaking to MPs, science minister Patrick Vallance said that the government's deals with Palantir – which has large contracts with the NHS and the Ministry of Defence – would be done differently in the future, instead emphasizing investment in UK technology and companies. Addressing the NHS contract, he said: "The Palantir contract was made under the previous government and it is under a different Department. I cannot comment on the details of that, but I hope I have been clear in describing a very different way of doing contracts: putting British companies there and procuring innovation here." Appearing before the House of Commons Science, Innovation and Technology Committee, Lord Vallance said: "I have described how I want to change things going forward in terms of domestic [policy]; in terms of Palantir, I think that is a matter for the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC). It is a contract with DHSC, and if there are issues around that, they are the ones that need to look at that. I cannot." However, he was pressed by the committee on whether the government could seek an early break in the contract, according to the terms laid out when it was signed. Committee member and Liberal Democrat MP Martin Wrigley said: "These are existing contracts with break points, so the break points must be exploited to move to UK solutions – sovereign solutions – otherwise we just continue doing the same stuff." Lord Vallance responded: "We are not continuing. We are doing something very different." Palantir began as a spy-tech firm with backing from the CIA and heavily supports the controversial US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency. It signed a contract with NHS England in late 2023 under the previous Conservative government. NHS England's public announcement in 2023 said the £330 million investment in the Federated Data Platform...
Luke Littler has made an application with the Intellectual Property Office to trademark his face. It is understood the application will prevent fake products powered by AI using his picture without permission and breaking copyright laws. The teenager, who has won back-to-back World Darts Championship titles, is highly marketable and his face appears on a wide variety of branded products, from his ...
Luke Littler has made an application with the Intellectual Property Office to trademark his face. It is understood the application will prevent fake products powered by AI using his picture without permission and breaking copyright laws. The teenager, who has won back-to-back World Darts Championship titles, is highly marketable and his face appears on a wide variety of branded products, from his own dart board to video games and bags of nuts. Littler has already trademarked his “the Nuke” nickname in the US. The 19-year-old won the night seven of the Premier League in Dublin on Thursday and admitted he is “still learning not to react to the fans” after silencing some boos with an astonishing comeback in the final. Littler, who hit out at hecklers following a win over Rob Cross at the PDC world championship in December, came from 5-0 down in the final to beat the Welshman Gerwyn Price 6-5. After winning his first leg to avoid a whitewash, Littler celebrated sarcastically and then when trailing 5-1 waved goodbye, only for Price to miss three match darts before the world champion produced a remarkable turnaround. “I’ve definitely learnt a lot, especially with the fans,” the teenager told a press conference. “In the first game against [Stephen] Bunting I didn’t give anything to the fans, I didn’t give any reaction and got the job done. “It was the same in the final when I was 5-0 down, everyone doubted me, I definitely doubted myself but I had a little laugh and a joke. I was just having a bit of fun because I knew I was beaten. “I’m still learning not to react to the fans. I didn’t do much then, only for the first leg, and then I can build on it. It is what it is, people want to see new winners but I’ve won again.”
PM Images/DigitalVision via Getty Images When building a portfolio to live off of dividends in retirement, chasing yields seldom works, as it often steers investors into the path of some major landmines that end up blowing up via dividend cuts and major stock price declines. That being said, it is very possible to still build a portfolio of high-dividend stocks that prove to be dependable over tim...
PM Images/DigitalVision via Getty Images When building a portfolio to live off of dividends in retirement, chasing yields seldom works, as it often steers investors into the path of some major landmines that end up blowing up via dividend cuts and major stock price declines. That being said, it is very possible to still build a portfolio of high-dividend stocks that prove to be dependable over time. However, I do not necessarily advise it for everyone, because in order to do this effectively, you really need to be a capable and willing active investor. High-yielding stocks are generally not the type that you buy and hold indefinitely, but instead, you need to actively monitor and actively manage your portfolio of them. Additionally, I only suggest trying to maximize your retirement income through almost exclusively high-dividend stocks if you absolutely need to generate enough income to retire on. If you have a really large portfolio and can easily live on a dividend yield of 3%, 4%, or 5%, I would personally target a more conservative portfolio, especially if you do not want to be an active investor. If you want to be an active investor in high-yield dividend stocks, and you need to feel comfortable evaluating and managing them, by all means, do so, regardless of your portfolio size. If you are instead looking for more of a buy-and-hold approach, I think it would be better to focus on some lower-yielding, more sustainable stocks like Realty Income ( O ), Dividend Kings and Dividend Aristocrats ( REGL ) ( NOBL ) like Coca-Cola ( KO ) and Procter & Gamble ( PG ), as well as broadly diversified low-cost dividend growth ETFs like the Schwab US Dividend Equity ETF ( SCHD ) that has a dividend yield of about 3.5%. However, for those who are pursuing a high-yielding dividend portfolio, I want to provide a few guidelines and individual investment ideas in this article to help you on your journey. Four Pillars of High-Yield Success First and foremost, it is important to app...