KUWAIT: Al-Ahli Bank of Kuwait (ABK) recently hosted its H1 2024 analyst conference attended by Abdulla Al-Sumait, Acting Group Chief Executive Officer; Shiamak Soonawalla, Group Chief Finance Officer; Abdulaziz Jawad, Chief Strategy Officer; and Yaqoub Almulla, Senior Manager of Investor Relations.

HONG KONG: Banking giant HSBC said on Wednesday that pre-tax profits in the first half of 2024 came in at $21.6 billion, slightly lower than last year’s record performance.

TOKYO: The Bank of Japan further unwound its massive monetary easing program on Wednesday by hiking interest rates for only the second time in 17 years and indicating plans for more if the economy performs as officials expect.

WASHINGTON: US labor costs increased moderately in the second quarter as private sector wages grew at the slowest pace in 3-1/2 years, more evidence that inflation was firmly on a downward trend and could help facilitate an interest rate cut in September.

PARIS: Airbus is facing a criminal investigation in Britain into potential violations of export control rules involving several of its British entities, the aerospace group said on Tuesday.

FRANKFURT: Eurozone inflation unexpectedly edged up in July, data showed on Wednesday, although a widely watched gauge of price growth in the services sector eased.

NEW DELHI: Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, smarting from setbacks in the April-June general election, is now being berated for last week’s budget by the country’s swing voters, the middle class, putting his party on the defensive ahead of polls in three states and a federal territory.

SEATTLE: Boeing on Wednesday named aerospace industry veteran Kelly Ortberg as its new President and CEO after a months-long search, tasking the former Rockwell Collins executive with the monumental job of turning around the struggling planemaker.

WASHINGTON: The US Federal Reserve is highly unlikely to waver from its position of holding interest rates at a two-decade high on Wednesday, but could drop hints about a September start to rate cuts.