Australian artificial-intelligence start up Firmus Technologies Pty. appointed three new company directors ahead of an expected initial public offering later this year. Experienced business figures Lee Hatton , Christine Bartlett and Julie Shuttleworth began as non-executive directors this month, Firmus said in a statement on Tuesday. Hatton, currently leading global financial operations at Block ...
Australian artificial-intelligence start up Firmus Technologies Pty. appointed three new company directors ahead of an expected initial public offering later this year. Experienced business figures Lee Hatton , Christine Bartlett and Julie Shuttleworth began as non-executive directors this month, Firmus said in a statement on Tuesday. Hatton, currently leading global financial operations at Block Inc. , has held senior positions at National Australia Bank Ltd. , Suncorp Group and Afterpay Ltd . Bartlett, who chairs NSW Ports and think tank CEDA , will lead Firmus’ remuneration and nomination committee. Shuttleworth is the former chief executive of Fortescue Future Industries Pty, the green energy unit of Fortescue Ltd . Firmus was valued at around A$6 billion ($4.2 billion) late last year . Australia has emerged as the third largest market for data center spending, behind the US and China. US chip giant Nvidia Corp. is partnering with Firmus to construct a large fleet of renewable energy-powered data centers across Australia to capture a significant share of this AI infrastructure investment.
Former Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp says speculation that he will return to management with Real Madrid this summer is "nonsense". The 58-year-old has been linked, external with a move to replace Alvaro Arbeloa at the end of the season. Klopp left Anfield at the end of the 2023-24 season and has not coached since - taking up a role as head of global football with Red Bull. He denied any talks wi...
Former Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp says speculation that he will return to management with Real Madrid this summer is "nonsense". The 58-year-old has been linked, external with a move to replace Alvaro Arbeloa at the end of the season. Klopp left Anfield at the end of the 2023-24 season and has not coached since - taking up a role as head of global football with Red Bull. He denied any talks with Real but says he might coach again. The German told reporters at the Magenta TV World Cup team presentation in Munich: "If Real Madrid had phoned, we would have heard about it by now. "But that's all nonsense. They haven't called even once, not once. My agent is there, you can ask him. They haven't called him either. "Right now I'm not thinking about that, luckily there's no reason to. "For my age I'm quite advanced in life, but as a coach I'm not completely finished. I haven't reached retirement age. "Who knows what will happen in the coming years? But there's nothing planned."
Gabriella Imperatori-Penn/DigitalVision via Getty Images The recent volatility in the US markets has me looking for value investing options once again. The iShares MSCI USA Value Factor ETF ( VLUE ) certainly seems worthy of research, as the fund is ranked second out of 88 multi-cap value funds on Seeking Alpha. It is rated as a Buy by the site's quant rating scale, with recent positive momentum b...
Gabriella Imperatori-Penn/DigitalVision via Getty Images The recent volatility in the US markets has me looking for value investing options once again. The iShares MSCI USA Value Factor ETF ( VLUE ) certainly seems worthy of research, as the fund is ranked second out of 88 multi-cap value funds on Seeking Alpha. It is rated as a Buy by the site's quant rating scale, with recent positive momentum being a big part of that overall evaluation. Seeking Alpha VLUE is passively managed, following the stocks that are included in the MSCI USA Enhanced Value Index . This index includes stocks from both the large-cap and mid-cap spaces that exhibit “higher value characteristics relative to their peers” within their sectors. The variables used to make the final selections for the index are three ratios—price-to-book value, forward P/E, and enterprise value-to-cash flow from operations. There are a number of different rules-based methodologies in the value investing space that claim varying levels of success. This one from MSCI was able to produce returns in 2025 that placed VLUE in the top percentile for all ETFs in the large-cap value category on Morningstar. In the first 11 weeks of 2026, the fund has been able to keep its hot streak going with a gain of about 5%, while many US equity funds are showing a loss. However, the fund appears to produce these returns with a slightly higher level of risk given its current concentration in its top holdings. This keeps me from recommending the ETF as a buy, even as I do believe the iShares MSCI USA Value ETF is a decent way to manage through the volatility that will likely stay with the market through the end of the first half of this year. Even with its stellar 2025 returns in the not-so-distant past, I rate the fund only as a Hold for the reasons discussed below. ETF Overview Opened in April of 2013, VLUE has just over $10 billion in assets under management. As of March 20, it had 147 holdings, with just over 57% of those holdings co...
Trump Admin Strikes Deal With Energy Firm To Nix Offshore Wind Plans Authored by John Haughey via The Epoch Times, A global energy corporation based in France has ceded leases off North Carolina and New York where it planned to spend nearly $1 billion to build offshore wind turbines back to the U.S. Department of Interior and will instead redirect that investment into natural gas projects in Texas...
Trump Admin Strikes Deal With Energy Firm To Nix Offshore Wind Plans Authored by John Haughey via The Epoch Times, A global energy corporation based in France has ceded leases off North Carolina and New York where it planned to spend nearly $1 billion to build offshore wind turbines back to the U.S. Department of Interior and will instead redirect that investment into natural gas projects in Texas. The “landmark agreement” was jointly announced by the department and TotalEnergies in Washington on March 23, and confirmed by Interior Secretary Doug Burgum and TotalEnergies CEO Patrick Pouyanné during a press conference at the 44th annual CERAWeek by S&P Global conference at the Americas Hilton-Houston. Burgum said much of TotalEnergies’ offshore wind investments were tied to Biden-era “green energy” subsidies rather than in direct power generation, forcing American taxpayers “to pay for energy sources twice. They were paying for it in terms of high utility bills, but they were all paying for it in terms of the taxpayer subsidies.” Under the agreement, he said, the department will reimburse TotalEnergies “dollar for dollar” for the $928 million it spent on securing the leases, much of that placed in bonds required to develop federal lands, in exchange for the company agreeing to reinvest that money into a Texas LNG project it was already developing. The vacated offshore leases were acquired in 2022. They are in the Carolina Long Bay area off North Carolina and in New York Bight off Long Island. “With this agreement, we’re allowing this great company to redirect those dollars to affordable, reliable, and secure oil and natural gas production in the U.S.,” Burgum said. Pouyanné said offshore wind development in the United States, “unlike those in Europe,” is costly and “might have a negative impact on power affordability” for the electrical customers they were designed to serve. “TotalEnergies considers there is no need to allocate capital to this technology in the U.S.,...
TOKYO, JAPAN - FEBRUARY 05: Tourists and shoppers walk through the Tsukiji shopping area on February 5, 2026 in Tokyo, Japan. Tomohiro Ohsumi | Getty Images News | Getty Images Japan's headline inflation rate eased for a fourth straight month in February as the economy cooled on stabilizing food prices, though soaring energy prices risk pushing up living costs. The consumer price index fell to 1.3...
TOKYO, JAPAN - FEBRUARY 05: Tourists and shoppers walk through the Tsukiji shopping area on February 5, 2026 in Tokyo, Japan. Tomohiro Ohsumi | Getty Images News | Getty Images Japan's headline inflation rate eased for a fourth straight month in February as the economy cooled on stabilizing food prices, though soaring energy prices risk pushing up living costs. The consumer price index fell to 1.3% last month, according to data released Tuesday, its lowest level since March 2022 and below the central bank's 2% target. It was down from 1.5% in January. Core inflation rate, which strips out fresh food prices, moderated to 1.6% in February, missing economists' forecast for 1.7% rise and compared with 2% rise in January. The so-called "core-core" inflation, excluding prices of fresh food and energy, came in at 2.5%, compared with 2.6% in January. The Bank of Japan has pegged its forecast for core inflation and "core-core" for fiscal 2026, which begins April 1, at 1.9% and 2.2%, respectively. The central bank has projected that year-on-year increase in consumer prices may fall below 2% in the first half of this year, due to government efforts to ease living costs and stabilize food prices. Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi had pledged to suspend an 8% food tax for two years during the election campaign. Last week, the BOJ held its interest rate steady at 0.75% as expected while cautioning upside risks to inflation stemming from the conflict in the Middle East, which has sent energy prices soaring. Japan's economy expanded just 0.1% year-on-year in the fourth quarter last year, narrowly avoiding a technical recession and slowing from 0.6% growth in the third quarter. This is breaking news. Please refresh for updates. Choose CNBC as your preferred source on Google and never miss a moment from the most trusted name in business news.