Economic News

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. retail sales fell more than expected in March as consumers cut back on purchases of motor vehicles and other big ticket items, suggesting that the economy was losing steam at the end of the first quarter because of higher interest rates.

By Sinéad Carew and Saqib Iqbal Ahmed (Reuters) – Shares in U.S. banks were a mixed bag on Friday with JPMorgan Chase soaring 7.0% after its quarterly report impressed investors while PNC Financial was among regional bank decliners after it reduced growth expectations for 2023.

ANKARA (Reuters) – Turkey summoned the Danish ambassador in Ankara to express its strong condemnation and protest over what it said had been attacks on the Koran and on the Turkish flag on Friday, the Foreign Ministry said.

(Reuters) – Walmart Inc U.S. chief merchandising officer Charles Redfield is stepping down after just over a year in the role, according to an internal memo seen by Reuters on Friday, at a time the retailer is navigating a tightening spending environment.

(Reuters) – Federal Reserve Governor Michelle Bowman said on Friday that the recent failures of Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank were not an indictment of the bank regulatory landscape, although she conceded that some changes may be warranted.

By Marc Jones LONDON (Reuters) – Turkey’s lira is likely to drop sharply and could near 30 to the dollar following next month’s elections, bankers at JPMorgan have predicted, if it looks like only modest changes will be made to its unorthodox economic policies.

PARIS (Reuters) – France’s Constitutional Court on Friday cleared plans by the government of President Emmanuel Macron to raise the legal retirement age to 64 from 62. [L1N36H0EO]

(Reuters) – Wells Fargo & Co’s profit rose in the first quarter as it earned more from interest rate payments, helped by the U.S. Federal Reserve’s tighter monetary policy, the lender reported Friday.

By Ethan Wang, Ryan Woo and Lisandra Paraguassu

CARACAS (Reuters) – Venezuelan authorities have arrested Colombian businessman Alvaro Pulido in an ongoing investigation into alleged corruption at Venezuelan state-run oil company PDVSA, Venezuela’s communications minister said on Friday.

By Katharine Jackson and Luc Cohen (Reuters) – The United States has charged leaders of the Mexico-based Sinaloa Cartel with running a fentanyl trafficking operation fueled by Chinese chemical and pharmaceutical companies, U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland said on Friday.

By Jack Queen (Reuters) – Opening statements are set to begin on Monday in Wilmington, Delaware in a defamation lawsuit by Dominion Voting Systems against Fox Corp and Fox News, which is seeking $1.6 billion in damages over the network’s coverage of false vote-rigging claims in

By Sinan Abu Mayzer JERUSALEM (Reuters) – Muslim worshippers packed Jerusalem’s Al-Aqsa compound for noon prayers on the fourth Friday of the holy month of Ramadan under heightened Israeli police presence.

WARSAW (Reuters) – China on Friday hit back at comments by the Polish prime minister that linked the war in Ukraine to a possible Chinese attack on Taiwan, accusing him of interfering in its internal affairs.

(Reuters) – The Canadian Supreme Court ruled on Thursday that Quebec’s provincial ban on cannabis grown in private homes is constitutional, in a blow to cannabis advocates who said it was at odds with a federal law allowing a small number of plants to be grown

By Brendan Pierson (Reuters) – New court-imposed restrictions on the abortion pill mifepristone could cut off access to the drug entirely for months, the Biden administration and the drug’s distributor, Danco Laboratories, said in petitions asking the U.S. Supreme Court to lift the curbs.

MADRID (Reuters) – A 50-year-old Spanish extreme athlete has emerged from spending 500 days living 70-metres deep in a cave outside Granada with no contact with the outside world, in an experiment closely monitored by scientists seeking to learn more about the capacities of the human

By George Obulutsa NAIROBI (Reuters) – Kenya’s opposition alliance has written to the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) asking him to open an investigation into the head of the police who it accuses of ordering attacks on its supporters during anti-government protests.

NEW DELHI (Reuters) – A proposed Indian government unit to fact-check news on social media is not about censoring journalism nor will it have any impact on media reportage, a federal minister said on Friday.

BANGKOK (Reuters) – Thai Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha got a soaking on Friday as a surprise participant in one of the world’s biggest water fights, showing no signs of any dampened spirits from a slump in popularity just weeks from an election.