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Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway reported a 7 per cent increase in profits in the second quarter, with many of the companies owned by the sprawling conglomerate benefiting from the economic recovery. The investment company disclosed on Saturday that it had earned $28.1bn, or $18,488 per class A share, in the three months to the end

WhatsApp has condemned Apple’s new child safety tools as a “very concerning . . . surveillance system”, even as governments around the world have cheered the decision to proactively search for illegal photos of child sexual abuse. The stand-off sets up a battle between other tech platforms and officials calling for them to adopt similar tools. An Indian government

Apple intends to install software on American iPhones to scan for child abuse imagery, according to people briefed on its plans, raising alarm among security researchers who warn that it could open the door to surveillance of millions of people’s personal devices. Apple detailed its proposed system — known as “neuralMatch” — to some US

Robinhood shares surged as much as 82 per cent at the start of trading on Wednesday, prompting multiple trading halts as the market capitalisation of the newly listed US brokerage briefly climbed to $71bn. The rally, which lifted the stock to a high of $85, has accompanied a furious start to trading in the company’s

New York City will require proof of vaccination for a variety of indoor activities from dining to health clubs and concerts, Bill de Blasio, the city’s mayor, announced on Tuesday. The city is believed to be the first in the US to introduce such restrictions as the highly infectious Delta coronavirus variant causes a rise

A failed vote to unionise at an Amazon warehouse in Alabama should be rerun over concerns the tech giant improperly influenced workers, a US labour board official has recommended. Employees at the facility in the town of Bessemer voted overwhelmingly against unionisation in April, with a final tally of 1,798 votes to 738, following a

House prices are booming in almost every major economy in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, forging the broadest rally for more than two decades, and reviving economists’ concerns over potential threats to financial stability. Of the 40 countries covered by OECD data, just three experienced real-terms house price falls in the first three months

A leading US bond manager has warned of inflationary pressure from housing rental costs that could push interest rates higher and overturn a sense of complacency among investors. The comments by Dan Ivascyn, chief investment officer at Pimco, which has $2.2tn under management, comes after US 10-year interest rates eased in recent months to about

China-based companies will have to disclose more about their structure and contacts with the Chinese government before listing in the US, the Securities and Exchange Commission said on Friday. Gary Gensler, the chair of the US corporate and markets regulator, has asked staff to ensure greater transparency from Chinese companies following the controversy surrounding the

Amazon’s revenue rose in the second quarter but fell short of Wall Street’s lofty expectations, even though the ecommerce giant increased its overall profits by 50 per cent compared with the same period last year. Net income for the three months from April to June came in at $7.8bn, or $15.12 per diluted share, comfortably

Apple, Microsoft and Alphabet said on Tuesday that their latest revenues and earnings had surged above the stock market’s already optimistic expectations, confirming that demand for their digital services and gadgets continued to soar as some countries began to emerge from the pandemic. Apple Apple’s profits almost doubled in its latest quarter to $21.7bn, as

The value of Chinese shares on Wall Street has soared from just a few billion dollars to $2tn over the past two decades as investors turned a blind eye to the precarious legal structure underpinning many of the country’s biggest US listings. But a crackdown by Beijing on China’s $100bn tutoring industry over the past

Roughly every other glass of orange juice drunk around the world comes from the orchards of São Paulo state, boasts Duarte Nogueira. “We have everything beginning with the letter ‘C’,” says the mayor of Ribeirão Preto, a city four hours inland from the state capital, before reeling off the Portuguese names of produce cultivated in

The British government is exploring ways to remove China’s state-owned nuclear energy company from all future power projects in the UK, including the consortium planning to build the new £20bn Sizewell nuclear power station in Suffolk, according to people close to the discussions. The change in mood at the top of government also affects proposals

US stocks ended Friday at a new high, reversing steep losses at the start of the week, as fears about the Delta variant of coronavirus were soothed by strong corporate earnings and continued central bank support for financial markets. The S&P 500 climbed 1 per cent, lifting the index’s weekly gain to 2 per cent

Supply disruptions, a drought in China and rebounding electricity demand have fired up the market for thermal coal, making the world’s least liked commodity one of this year’s best-performing assets. Since the start of the year, the price of high energy Australia coal — the benchmark for the vast Asian market — has climbed 80

Netflix lost 430,000 subscribers in the US and Canada in the second quarter and issued disappointing forecasts for later in the year, rekindling investor doubts over how the streaming group will fare after the economic reopening. The California-based company predicted it would add 3.5m subscribers in the third quarter, disappointing investors who were looking for

European equities were heading for their worst session of the year as the growing threat of the Delta coronavirus variant triggered falls in global share markets and commodities, while investors sought havens in government bonds and gold. Europe’s region-wide Stoxx Europe 600 lost 2.7 per cent, the biggest drop since October, while London’s FTSE 100

Opec and its allies have reached an agreement to raise oil production at a time of soaring prices after compromising over how the output targets of some of its largest members are calculated. Members of the Opec+ group including the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Russia, Iraq and Kuwait will all be awarded higher production baselines —

With just over two months to go until polling day, the devastating floods that swept through western Germany this week have catapulted climate change to the heart of the German election campaign. Most of Germany’s political parties agreed that global warming was to blame for a catastrophe that left 103 people dead and visited destruction