Rising interest rates are eating into the reserves that U.S. life insurers must hold to deal with rate fluctuations, ratings agency Fitch Ratings said on Monday, creating an accounting issue that could impact insurers’ income. Interest maintenance reserves (IMRs) smooth insurers’ balance sheets by showing interest-related capital gains and losses on fixed-income assets, and amortizing […]
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The U.S. National Institute on Aging (NIA) is funding a 6-year, up to $300 million project to build a massive Alzheimer’s research database that can track the health of Americans for decades and enable researchers to gain new insights on the brain-wasting disease. The NIA, part of the government’s National Institutes of Health (NIH), aims […]
Italy’s move to temporarily ban ChatGPT has inspired other European countries to study if harsher measures are needed to rein in the wildly popular chatbots and whether to coordinate such actions. While European parliamentarians disagree over the content and reach of the EU AI Act, some regulators are finding that existing tools, such as the […]
NASA on Monday named the first woman and the first African American ever assigned as astronauts to a lunar mission, introducing them as part of the four-member team chosen to fly on what would be the first crewed voyage around the moon in more than 50 years. Christina Koch, 44, an engineer who already holds […]
U.S. manufacturing activity slumped in March to the lowest level in nearly three years as new orders plunged, and analysts said activity could decline further due to tighter credit conditions. The Institute for Supply Management (ISM) survey on Monday showed all subcomponents of its manufacturing PMI below the 50 threshold for the first time since […]
The European Commission is working on rules to ensure fair access to valuable car data for companies and industry but does not know when they will be ready, a spokesperson said on Monday as industry groups fret about unfair competition from U.S. and Chinese tech companies. The huge potential of the connected car market, which […]
U.S. natural gas prices last week plunged to a 30-month low, crossing below $2 per million British thermal units (mmBtu) for the second time this year, even as some producers have cut drilling to stave off further convulsions. Since the start of the year, U.S. gas futures have collapsed by about 50%, a record drop […]
Credit Suisse and UBS shares fell on Monday after Switzerland’s federal prosecutor opened an investigation into the emergency merger of the two lenders. The office of the attorney general said on Sunday that the prosecutor opened an investigation into the state-backed takeover of Credit Suisse by UBS Group last month, looking into potential breaches of […]
Sight deposits held by the Swiss National Bank declined last week, data showed on Monday, suggesting that Credit Suisse and UBS may have cut back on use of emergency funds offered them to facilitate their planned merger. Total sight deposits – meaning commercial bank cash held by the central bank overnight – fell to 563.566 […]
The pace of interest rate hikes by major developed and emerging market central banks continued at a healthy clip in March though the scale of rises tapered off somewhat as turmoil in the banking sector clouded the outlook for global growth. March saw six interest rate hikes across eight meetings by central banks overseeing the […]