Trina Lau spent nearly three months looking for work after she was laid off from an e-commerce firm in Hong Kong in December. It was the 23-year-old’s first job after graduating with a communications degree last year. The position only lasted for six months. She sent out more than 50 job applications but only received calls for interviews for six of them. Advertisement Lau conceded that it was slo...
Trina Lau spent nearly three months looking for work after she was laid off from an e-commerce firm in Hong Kong in December. It was the 23-year-old’s first job after graduating with a communications degree last year. The position only lasted for six months. She sent out more than 50 job applications but only received calls for interviews for six of them. Advertisement Lau conceded that it was slow going because the economy was not picking up as quickly as she would have liked. But now, she said, she had the added worry that her main competitor would be rapidly rising and evolving artificial intelligence (AI), which would make junior workers like her redundant. Advertisement “For instance, if I get a job in e-commerce, and suppose I rise to a senior position in two to three years, my job could be replaced by AI, and I will have to change industry,” she said. Lau is among the tens of thousands of fresh graduates caught in a bind, analysts say, as they find themselves not fully immersed in the world of AI while jobs are being transformed by this new technology.
BMW could be approaching the end of the tunnel in China as signs of stabilisation raise hopes of a turnaround after the German carmaker reported that sales dropped by double digits in the key market in 2025. “Transaction prices in the market for our products have stabilised … and are actually improving slightly compared to [the third quarter],” said Walter Mertl, chief financial officer, during a ...
BMW could be approaching the end of the tunnel in China as signs of stabilisation raise hopes of a turnaround after the German carmaker reported that sales dropped by double digits in the key market in 2025. “Transaction prices in the market for our products have stabilised … and are actually improving slightly compared to [the third quarter],” said Walter Mertl, chief financial officer, during a press conference on Thursday. “If the run rate continues this way, we have the opportunity to go back to prior year levels in China,” he said, adding that the company’s products had been well received and dealerships were operating more smoothly. Advertisement The slight optimism came after the group posted another year of negative results in its single biggest market, where sales dropped by 12.5 per cent. CEO Oliver Zipse said sales in China did not meet the group’s target last year “due to the intense competitive market environment”. He added that China was the only major market where BMW sales fell in 2025. Advertisement In broader terms, the group saw a 3 per cent drop in its net profit to €7.45 billion (US$8.6 billion) – much better than its German peer Mercedes-Benz, which reported that net profit in 2025 almost halved. BMW is betting on the roll-out of its Neue Klasse electric vehicle (EV) models, which have seen strong demand in other markets, to help it win back Chinese customers, senior managers said. The first such car to hit the mainland, the China-made version of the iX3, is set to launch at the Beijing Auto Show in April. Zipse called it “the most Chinese car” the German group had ever built.
Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jnr’s pitch for a United Nations Security Council seat this week was notable for his sidestepping of an issue at the core of Manila’s foreign policy in recent years. As he appealed to UN members in New York, Marcos framed the Philippines as a bridge connecting developing countries and middle-income economies, without making any direct reference to the South Ch...
Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jnr’s pitch for a United Nations Security Council seat this week was notable for his sidestepping of an issue at the core of Manila’s foreign policy in recent years. As he appealed to UN members in New York, Marcos framed the Philippines as a bridge connecting developing countries and middle-income economies, without making any direct reference to the South China Sea dispute. The president’s restrained speech, which avoided mentioning China despite ongoing tensions between Manila and Beijing in the contested waters, reflects a deliberate diplomatic campaign aimed at broadening the Philippines’ appeal in the Global South, according to analysts. Advertisement Speaking at a special plenary meeting at the UN headquarters on Tuesday, Marcos urged member states to back the Philippines for a non-permanent seat on the Security Council, presenting the country as a “representative voice” for developing nations and a partner committed to diplomacy and coalition-building. “We, of the Philippines, offer a voice from this region, the voice of developing countries, the voice of climate vulnerable nations, and the voice of middle-income countries facing competing challenges and priorities … All this, whilst persevering to achieve the well-being and security of our peoples,” Marcos said. Advertisement In his speech, Marcos did not address maritime tensions in the South China Sea, noting that as a “responsible state party, we abide by the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea”.
Some Chinese lawmakers and advisers are pushing to secure higher pensions for elderly farmers, underscoring the persistent income disparity between the country’s urban and rural residents. The latest government work report , approved on Thursday, confirmed a 20-yuan (US$2.91) monthly increase to basic pension payments for a third consecutive year, bringing the national minimum to 163 yuan. However...
Some Chinese lawmakers and advisers are pushing to secure higher pensions for elderly farmers, underscoring the persistent income disparity between the country’s urban and rural residents. The latest government work report , approved on Thursday, confirmed a 20-yuan (US$2.91) monthly increase to basic pension payments for a third consecutive year, bringing the national minimum to 163 yuan. However, some deputies from China’s top legislature contend that this level is inadequate. “A pension of just over 100 yuan each month is really, really difficult” to live on, said Bi Lixia, a deputy of the National People’s Congress (NPC), China’s top legislature, who urged the government to raise the monthly minimum to 400 yuan for rural residents aged 70 or older. Advertisement Another deputy, Lei Maoduan, called for the basic pension for elderly farmers to be raised to 500 yuan over the next three years. He argued that, while farmers’ contributions to the nation’s social security scheme may be relatively small, they have made significant contributions to society through their labour and agricultural production. The appeals on the sidelines of the “two sessions” – the annual meetings of the NPC and the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), the nation’s top political advisory body – come as the country grapples with persistent rural-urban income inequality. 05:41 Why China's elderly farmers can't afford to retire Why China's elderly farmers can't afford to retire While Beijing sees rural spending as a means to help drive China’s shift towards a consumption-led growth model, many in the countryside struggle to afford basic living costs.
The software engineering world is currently wrestling with a fundamental paradox of the AI era: as models become more capable, the "systems problem" of managing them has become the primary bottleneck to real-world productivity. While a developer might have access to the raw intelligence of a frontier model, that intelligence often degrades the moment a task requires a long horizon or a deep contex...
The software engineering world is currently wrestling with a fundamental paradox of the AI era: as models become more capable, the "systems problem" of managing them has become the primary bottleneck to real-world productivity. While a developer might have access to the raw intelligence of a frontier model, that intelligence often degrades the moment a task requires a long horizon or a deep context window. But help appears to be on the way: San Francisco-based, Y Combinator-backed startup Random Labs has officially launched Slate V1 , described as the industry’s first "swarm native" autonomous coding agent designed to execute massively parallel, complex engineering tasks. Emerging from an open beta, the tool utilizes a "dynamic pruning algorithm" to maintain context in large codebases while scaling output to enterprise complexity. Co-founded by Kiran and Mihir Chintawar in 2024 , the company aims to bridge the global engineering shortage by positioning Slate as a collaborative tool for the "next 20 million engineers" rather than a replacement for human developers. With the release of Slate V1, the team at Random Labs is attempting to architect a way out of this zone by introducing the first "swarm-native" agentic coding environment. Slate is not merely a wrapper or a chatbot with file access; it is an implementation of a "hive mind" philosophy designed to scale agentic work with the complexity of a human organization. By leveraging a novel architectural primitive called Thread Weaving , Slate moves beyond the rigid task trees and lossy compaction methods that have defined the first generation of AI coding assistants. Strategy: Action space At the heart of Slate’s effectiveness is a deep engagement with Recursive Language Models (RLM) . In a traditional setup, an agent might be asked to "fix a bug," a prompt that forces the model to juggle high-level strategy and low-level execution simultaneously. Random Labs identifies this as a failure to tap into "Knowledge Overh...
Cotton futures saw mostly higher trade at Thursday’s close, as may was the exception down 3 points, with the rest up 7 to 25 points. Crude oil was up $9.15 to $96.40, with the US dollar index up $0.535 to 99.760. Export Sales data showed 253,177 RB of cotton sold in the week ending on March 5, back from the week prior and 4.84% above the same week last year. Vietnam was the buyer of 116,300 RB, wi...
Cotton futures saw mostly higher trade at Thursday’s close, as may was the exception down 3 points, with the rest up 7 to 25 points. Crude oil was up $9.15 to $96.40, with the US dollar index up $0.535 to 99.760. Export Sales data showed 253,177 RB of cotton sold in the week ending on March 5, back from the week prior and 4.84% above the same week last year. Vietnam was the buyer of 116,300 RB, with 28,200 RB to Bangladesh. Shipments were the largest since last May at 370,131 RB in the first week of March. Don’t Miss a Day: January cotton export excluding linters from Census were pegged at 927,984 bales, the lowest since 2016. The Cotlook A Index was up 55 points on March 11 at 75.75 cents. The Seam showed sales on 1,838 bales on 3/11, averaging 61.44 cents/lb. ICE certified cotton stocks were down 1,936 bales on Wednesday via decertification, with the certified stocks level at 119,517 bales. The Adjusted World Price was back up just 6 points on Thursday to 51.50 cents/lb. May 26 Cotton closed at 65.14, down 3 points, Jul 26 Cotton closed at 67.15, up 7 points, Oct 26 Cotton closed at 69.01, up 13 points More news from Barchart The views and opinions expressed herein are the views and opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Nasdaq, Inc.
Corn futures closed the Thursday session with contracts fractionally to 4 cents higher across the board. March expires on Friday. The CmdtyView national average Cash Corn price was up 2 1/4 cents to $4.19 ¾. Crude oil was up another $9.15 on Thursday to add to some spillover support. Export Sales data from this morning showed 1.53 MMT of old crop corn sold in the week ending on March 5. That was d...
Corn futures closed the Thursday session with contracts fractionally to 4 cents higher across the board. March expires on Friday. The CmdtyView national average Cash Corn price was up 2 1/4 cents to $4.19 ¾. Crude oil was up another $9.15 on Thursday to add to some spillover support. Export Sales data from this morning showed 1.53 MMT of old crop corn sold in the week ending on March 5. That was down from last week, but 58.2% larger than the same week last year. Japan was the top buyer of 670,000 MT, with 367,600 MT sold to Mexico and 209,100 MT to South Korea. New crop sales were just 500 MT. Don’t Miss a Day: Census data showed 6.61 MMT (260.1 mbu) of corn shipped in January, which was a record for the month. Distillers were the highest in 4 years for January at 1.01 MMT. Ethanol shipments were 212.07 million gallons a record. Mar 26 Corn closed at $4.48 1/4, up 4 cents, Nearby Cash was $4.19 3/4, up 2 1/4 cents, May 26 Corn closed at $4.62 1/2, up 2 1/4 cents, Jul 26 Corn closed at $4.74, up 2 cents, More news from Barchart The views and opinions expressed herein are the views and opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Nasdaq, Inc.
The wheat complex closed the Thursday session with mixed trade, as SRW contracts were the strongest and spring wheat the weakest. Chicago SRW futures were up 2 1/4 to 3 3/4 cents on the day. KC HRW futures were steady in the front months to a couple pennies lower in the deferreds. MPLS spring wheat was down 1 ¼ to 3 1/2 cents in the front months on Thursday. The next 7 days look on the drier side ...
The wheat complex closed the Thursday session with mixed trade, as SRW contracts were the strongest and spring wheat the weakest. Chicago SRW futures were up 2 1/4 to 3 3/4 cents on the day. KC HRW futures were steady in the front months to a couple pennies lower in the deferreds. MPLS spring wheat was down 1 ¼ to 3 1/2 cents in the front months on Thursday. The next 7 days look on the drier side for much of the Southern Plains, with the eastern half of the country and SRW area looking wetter. Don’t Miss a Day: Weekly Export Sales data from this morning showed a total of 455,439 MT of wheat sold in the week ending on March 5. That was the largest in 4 weeks, and more than double the previous week. Mexico was the top buyer of 238,600 MT, with 68,900 MT sold to China, and 66,700 MT to Japan. New crop sales were 40,350 MT. Monthly wheat exports in January were 1.529 MMT (59.2 mbu), which was a 3-year high for January. Expana trimmed their export forecast for EU soft wheat by 0.5 MMT to 27.1 MMT. Production for 2026/27 was up 0.3 MMT to 128.6 MMT. Mar 26 CBOT Wheat closed at $5.92 1/4, up 3 3/4 cents, May 26 CBOT Wheat closed at $5.98 1/2, up 3 3/4 cents, Mar 26 KCBT Wheat closed at $6.01 1/2, unch, May 26 KCBT Wheat closed at $6.13 1/2, unch, Mar 26 MIAX Wheat closed at $6.22 3/4, down 3 1/2 cents, May 26 MIAX Wheat closed at $6.35 1/2, down 3 1/2 cents, More news from Barchart The views and opinions expressed herein are the views and opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Nasdaq, Inc.
Live cattle futures closed Thursday with contracts up 87 cents to $1.30. Cash trade has been mostly $372 dressed as well as a few live sales of $235-236. The Thursday morning Fed Cattle Exchange online auction showed sales of $235.50 on 447 of the 1,656 head offered, with other bids of $231-235. Feeder cattle futures were down 30 to 59 cents in the front months, with other contracts up a dime to 7...
Live cattle futures closed Thursday with contracts up 87 cents to $1.30. Cash trade has been mostly $372 dressed as well as a few live sales of $235-236. The Thursday morning Fed Cattle Exchange online auction showed sales of $235.50 on 447 of the 1,656 head offered, with other bids of $231-235. Feeder cattle futures were down 30 to 59 cents in the front months, with other contracts up a dime to 75 cents. The CME Feeder Cattle Index was down another $3.83 to $360.97 on March 11. The weekly APHIS update on New World Screwworm showed 9 new cases (7 in cattle) in the Mexican state of Tamaulipas, which took the total to 23 active cases in the bordering state (15 in cattle). Don’t Miss a Day: Export Sales data showed a total of 25,443 MT of beef sold in the week ending on March 5, which was the largest sales total since February 2023. South Korea was the buy 11,600 MT in that week, with 5,900 MT to Japan. Shipments were the lowest for the calendar year at 11,427 MT. Census data from converted to a carcass basis showed 195.4 million lbs of beef exports in January, the lowest since 2016. Wholesale Boxed Beef prices were higher in the Thursday afternoon report, with the Chc/Sel spread narrowing to $6.27. Choice boxes were up 39 cents to $397.09, while Select was $1.57 higher to $390.82. USDA estimated federally inspected cattle slaughter for Thursday at 108,000 head, with the week to date total at 425,000 head. That is down 8,000 from the previous week and 57,938 head shy of the same week last year. Apr 26 Live Cattle closed at $231.250, up $1.100, Jun 26 Live Cattle closed at $229.375, up $1.300, Aug 26 Live Cattle closed at $227.275, up $1.100, Mar 26 Feeder Cattle closed at $348.225, down $0.500, Apr 26 Feeder Cattle closed at $343.000, down $0.300, May 26 Feeder Cattle closed at $339.925, up $0.100, More news from Barchart The views and opinions expressed herein are the views and opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Nasdaq, Inc.
Lean hog futures closed the Thursday session slipping back a tick to 25 cents in the front months. The USDA national average base hog negotiated price was reported at $89.39 on Thursday afternoon, down $1.63 from the day prior. The CME Lean Hog Index was up 9 cents from the previous day at $89.41 on March 18. Pork export sales were lagging again this week, totaling just 18,069 MT in the week of Ma...
Lean hog futures closed the Thursday session slipping back a tick to 25 cents in the front months. The USDA national average base hog negotiated price was reported at $89.39 on Thursday afternoon, down $1.63 from the day prior. The CME Lean Hog Index was up 9 cents from the previous day at $89.41 on March 18. Pork export sales were lagging again this week, totaling just 18,069 MT in the week of March 13, a calendar year low. Mexico was the buyer of 4,700 MT, with Japan buying 3,500 MT. Shipments totaled 32,851 MT, back down from last year. Mexico was the destination of 11,000 MT, with 6,200 MT headed to South Korea. Commodity Bulletin: Thursday afternoon’s FOB plant pork cutout from USDA was up 67 cents at $95.86 per cwt. The picnic and ham were the only primals reported lower. USDA estimated the Thursday Federally inspected hog slaughter at 471,000 head, taking the week to date total to 1.804 million head. That is down 150,000 from last week and 142,667 head below the same week last year. Apr 25 Hogs closed at $85.550, down $0.025, May 25 Hogs closed at $88.600, down $0.100 Jun 25 Hogs closed at $96.250, down $0.250, More news from Barchart The views and opinions expressed herein are the views and opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Nasdaq, Inc.
Soybeans slipped back from the midday highs, as contracts were still 2 ½ to 13 ¼ cents higher, led by the front months. The cmdtyView national average Cash Bean price was up 13 1/4 cents at $11.52 1/4. Soymeal futures were up $1.90 to $4.80, with Soy Oil futures were up 13 to 26 points at the close. Crude oil was up another $9.15 on Thursday to add to some spillover support. USDA Export Sales data...
Soybeans slipped back from the midday highs, as contracts were still 2 ½ to 13 ¼ cents higher, led by the front months. The cmdtyView national average Cash Bean price was up 13 1/4 cents at $11.52 1/4. Soymeal futures were up $1.90 to $4.80, with Soy Oil futures were up 13 to 26 points at the close. Crude oil was up another $9.15 on Thursday to add to some spillover support. USDA Export Sales data from this morning showed 456,740 MT of old crop soybean sold in the week ending on 3/5. That was the largest in 3 weeks, but still 34.15% below the same week last year. Indonesia was the top buyer of 204,300 MT, with 129,900 MT to Mexico, and 107,800 MT to Egypt. New crop business was 9,518 MT. Don’t Miss a Day: Soybean meal sales were 166,002 MT, which was on the low end of estimates 150,000 to 400,000 MT. Soybean oil sales totaled net cancellations of 2,835 MT. January soybean exports were tallied at 5.821 MMT (157.9 mbu), above the year prior. Meal exports were a record for any month at 1.678 MMT, with bean oil at 77,396 MT. Mar 26 Soybeans closed at $12.13, up 12 1/2 cents, Nearby Cash was $11.52 1/4, up 13 1/4 cents, May 26 Soybeans closed at $12.27 1/4, up 13 1/4 cents, Jul 26 Soybeans closed at $12.40, up 12 3/4 cents, More news from Barchart The views and opinions expressed herein are the views and opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Nasdaq, Inc.
Brazil Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes barred a US State Department official from visiting Jair Bolsonaro , the right-wing former president who is serving a 27-year prison sentence in the country’s capital. Darren Beattie, a Trump administration official, had sought to meet Bolsonaro during a trip to Brazil for a critical minerals summit in Sao Paulo next Wednesday. But after initially a...
Brazil Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes barred a US State Department official from visiting Jair Bolsonaro , the right-wing former president who is serving a 27-year prison sentence in the country’s capital. Darren Beattie, a Trump administration official, had sought to meet Bolsonaro during a trip to Brazil for a critical minerals summit in Sao Paulo next Wednesday. But after initially approving the request, Moraes determined that it fell outside of the diplomatic context that authorized the issuance of Beattie’s visa to visit Brazil, according to a Thursday evening ruling. Moraes’ initial authorization came at the request of Bolsonaro, who was convicted in September of plotting a coup attempt following his 2022 election loss to President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva . The judge said that visit could only occur on the same day as the Sao Paulo event. In response to a request from Moraes, Foreign Minister Mauro Vieira then said that Beattie’s visa application cited participation in the event and meetings with representatives of the Brazilian government. Beattie, however, only sought meetings with government officials after requesting the visit with Bolsonaro, Vieira said. “It should be noted that a visit by a foreign state official to a former president in an election year may constitute undue interference in the internal affairs of the Brazilian state,” the foreign minister said in a filing submitted to the court. Moraes in response blocked the visit, saying in his order that failure to communicate his intentions to diplomatic authorities “could even warrant a review of the visa” that was granted. The US embassy in Brazil didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. The Trump administration last year placed sanctions on Moraes as part of an unsuccessful push to stop Bolsonaro’s trial. It later lifted the sanctions , along with heightened tariffs on many key Brazilian exports, after Trump and Lula began mending ties between the nations.