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A US judge blocked President Donald Trump’s efforts for now to shutter the Department of Education, including a plan to slash the workforce in half and remove thousands of employees.

 

US District Judge Myong Joun in Boston wrote in a Thursday ruling that the personnel cuts would “likely cripple the department” and ordered the administration to reinstate employees to carry out duties required under US law, including managing federal student loans, aiding state education programs and enforcing compliance with civil rights laws.

Deutsche Bank AG won’t move ahead with a plan to add restrictions on financing oil and gas, as it assesses the legal risks of doing so, according to its chief executive.

 

“The legal environment has changed, and we are currently analysing this in detail in order to minimise potential risks for the bank,” CEO Christian Sewing told shareholders at Deutsche Bank’s annual general meeting on Thursday.

 

At the same time, Sewing sought to reassure investors that Deutsche Bank isn’t backing away from its climate goals. Germany’s largest lender has “largely completed” an update of its guidelines for the oil and gas industry, which includes limits on the financing of oil sands, hydraulic fracking in certain geographies and Arctic exploration, he said. But the timeline of the update’s implementation is currently unclear, he said.

Six unions representing Walt Disney Co. theme-park workers in Florida called on companies to work with employees who are losing their legal status in the US after the Trump administration revoked protected status for hundreds of thousands Venezuelan immigrants, forcing Disney to suspend dozens of employees.

 

“These workers — our colleagues, friends, and neighbors — have contributed immensely to the success of the Walt Disney Company and to the vibrant culture of Central Florida,” the Service Trades Council Union, labor coalition, said in a joint statement Thursday. “The cancellation of TPS was not just a policy decision; it was a cruel and calculated attack on immigrant communities.”

TP ICAP Group Plc was hit by a German court ruling ordering it to pick up a potentially multimillion-euro tax bill because the broker allowed its managers to commit crimes with Cum-Ex trading.

 

A Hamburg court issued the judgment in a case brought by M.M. Warburg & Co, which sued TP ICAP and others over losses of €291 million ($329 million) — the amount the German lender had to repay to authorities in the affair.

 

While TP ICAP won dismissal of a part of the suit, it lost a portion where the judges ruled that it needs to reimburse Warburg for some of those losses. How much is still to be determined. Warburg claims it’s €82 million. The court said in the ruling that working out the exact amount is likely to take “considerable effort.”

Bitcoin surpassed $111,000 for the first time, with traders increasingly bullish on the prospects of the original cryptocurrency amid mounting institutional demand and support from Donald Trump’s administration.

 

Bitcoin climbed as much as 3.3% on Thursday to hit a record of $111,878, before paring some of the increase. Smaller tokens also rose in a broad rally, with second-ranked Ether at one point up about 7.3%.

 

A wave of optimism is buoying Bitcoin after the advancement of a key stablecoin bill in the US Senate fueled hopes of greater regulatory clarity for digital-asset firms under President Trump, who is avowedly pro-crypto. Surging demand from Michael Saylor’s Strategy, which has stockpiled over $60 billion worth of Bitcoin, and a growing list of token hoarders is another driving force behind the rally.

Investec shares surged in South Africa and the UK after the dual-listed bank posted a record dividend for the third year in a row.

 

The specialist lender with operations in the UK and South Africa posted a 7.8% increase in “pre-provision” adjusted operating profit to £1.04 billion ($1.4 billion) — the first time the gauge has surpassed the £1 billion mark — buoyed by a 5% jump in revenue, it said in a statement on Thursday.

 

The stock price jumped 3.3% to 120.65 rand by 3:08 p.m in Johannesburg, while advancing as much as 3.6% in London.

Russia said its air defenses downed 485 Ukrainian drones over a period of two days, a sustained attack that delayed more than 100 flights as airports around Moscow temporarily halted operations.

 

Since 8 p.m. local time on Tuesday, Russian defenses repelled unmanned aerial vehicles over 13 regions as well as Crimea, the Black Sea peninsula the Kremlin seized in 2014, the Defense Ministry in Moscow said Thursday on its Telegram channel. That included 63 over the capital region. No injuries have been reported.

 

All four airports in the greater Moscow area have suspended flight operations multiple times over the past day, according to a flight safety watchdog.

LVMH lost its place among Europe’s top five listed companies as the luxury-goods maker endures its worst year-to-date slide since the 2008 financial crisis.

 

The French company’s shares fell about 3% on Thursday, taking their decline for this year to 25%. Its market value of about €239 billion ($270 billion) slipped below that of Swiss packaged-foods maker Nestle SA.

Stocks were mixed Thursday following a sizable sell-off on Wall Street as worries about a ballooning deficit deepened.

 

The 30-year Treasury yield hit its highest since October 2023 as lawmakers passed a bill that investors fear could worsen the US deficit.

 

The Dow Jones Industrial Average slipped 92 points, or 0.2%. The S&P 500 fell 0.1%, while the Nasdaq Composite advanced 0.2%.

Bank of England rate-setter Swati Dhingra said there was new evidence that Brexit had dealt a bigger blow to Britain’s services trade than previously realised.

 

Dhingra said on Thursday that early results from her research showed that UK services firms that were affected by trade barriers erected after Brexit have suffered a 8.5% fall in exports to the European Union relative to other developed countries.

 

“We’ve congratulated ourselves how well we’ve been doing on services exports,” Dhingra said at the Economic Statistics Centre of Excellence conference in London. “So has everyone else. We’re not exceptional. If anything, we’ve actually lagged behind.”

Northvolt AB will stop making cells at its last remaining factory in northern Sweden at the end of June, marking the demise of what was once Europe’s best hope of a homegrown battery champion.

 

An absence of buyers to save the battery maker led the trustee managing its bankruptcy estate to conclude production needs to wind down, according to a statement on Thursday that confirmed an earlier report by Bloomberg News.

 

“The bankruptcy estate does not foresee any realistic prospects for a purchaser to assume control of the production in the near term,” trustee Mikael Kubu said in the statement.

Federal Reserve Governor Christopher Waller said the central bank could cut interest rates in the second half of 2025 if the Trump administration’s tariffs on US trading partners settle around 10%.

 

“If we can get the tariffs down closer to 10% and then that’s all sealed, done and delivered somewhere by July, then we’re in good shape for the second half of the year,” Waller said Thursday during an appearance on Fox Business.

 

“Then we’re in a good position at the Fed to kind of move with rate cuts through the second half of the year,” he added.

 

Fed officials have held the central bank’s benchmark interest rate steady this year, citing an overall solid economy and uncertainty surrounding President Donald Trump’s tariff policies.

Deutsche Bank AG has reduced its exposure to companies that are sensitive to the new US tariffs, after the German lender conducted a series of internal stress tests.

 

“We have selectively reduced risk and customer limits in tariffs-sensitive sectors and downgraded individual customer ratings,” Chief Financial Officer James von Moltke told investors at the bank’s annual shareholder meeting.

 

Deutsche Bank said last month that it had added a “dedicated tariff overlay” to its credit provisions to account for the impact of the trade war and the worsening economic environment. Among the sectors most exposed are the automobile and steel industries, von Moltke said now.

 

“The overall quality of our loan book remains stable,” he told shareholders on Thursday.

Initial unemployment insurance filings edged lower last week, a further indication that companies are retaining workers.

 

Jobless claims totalled a seasonally adjusted 227,000 for the week ending May 17, a drop of 2,000 from the prior period and just below the Dow Jones estimate for 230,000, the Labour Department reported Thursday. The four-week moving average nudged higher to 231,500.

 

Continuing claims, which run a week behind, totalled 1.9 million, up 36,000 from the prior period. The four-week moving average rose to 1.89 million, its highest level since Nov. 27, 2021.

Oil declined for a third day with OPEC+ members discussing another super-sized production increase for July, just as demand faces headwinds from the US-led trade war.

 

Brent traded near $64 a barrel, touching the lowest in a week. If OPEC+ approves the potential increase of 411,000 barrels a day when it meets on June 1, it will mark the third month in a row the cartel has agreed to boost supplies by triple the initially scheduled amount.

France wants to keep building a “strong economic relationship” with Beijing, President Emmanuel Macron told Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping ahead of a trip to Southeast Asia.

 

“Chinese investment is welcome in France,” Macron said in a post on X on Thursday following a phone call with Xi. “But our companies must benefit from fair competition in our two countries, it’s a fundamental point.”

 

The French president said the two leaders agreed to make progress as quickly as possible on the question of Cognac.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan signalled the potential revival of a state-backed loan guarantee program that previously triggered a surge in corporate lending, raising the prospect of looser financial conditions for businesses.

 

“I care about the Credit Guarantee Fund,” Erdogan told reporters on his return from a visit to Hungary, according to broadcaster NTV, adding that he had issued the “necessary warnings” to officials to activate the program.

 

A jump in lending could complicate the central bank’s efforts to maintain tight monetary policy and credit conditions as part of its ongoing inflation fight.

Xiaomi Corp.’s billionaire founder outlined plans Thursday to outfit its top-end devices with advanced homegrown mobile processors, showcasing the company’s ambitions to expand its tech portfolio and compete with American heavyweights.

 

Lei Jun, who shot to fame with bold plans to unseat Apple Inc. in China, gave online viewers a sneak peek at its Xring O1 chip, which he said would power three devices, including the Xiaomi Tablet 7 Ultra, another product launched at the same event, livestreamed from Beijing. At 3nm, that processor is aimed at matching Apple and Qualcomm Inc. chips.

 

“We also want to become one of the top chipmakers, with our phones targeting iPhones, can our chips also be compared against those of Apple’s?” he said.

Shares of Urban Outfitters surged 18% on Thursday morning after the apparel retailer reported quarterly results that were stronger than analysts had expected.

 

The firm posted earnings of $1.16 per share, exceeding the 84 cents per share consensus, per LSEG. Urban Outfitters’ revenue of $1.33 billion was also higher than the forecast $1.29 billion.

 

The company’s earnings beat comes at a time when tariff-induced uncertainty has mired the path forward for other retailers. Shares of Target sank 5% on Wednesday after the company cut its full-year sales outlook.

Tesco Plc’s chief executive officer for the UK Matthew Barnes stepped down after just over a year in the role, a surprise move by an executive once seen as a potential successor to lead Britain’s biggest grocer.

 

Barnes, who joined the supermarket in March 2024 after serving as Aldi’s UK & Ireland CEO, will be replaced by Tesco’s Chief Commercial Officer Ashwin Prasad next month, the grocer said in a statement Thursday.

 

The move comes as Tesco’s Group CEO Ken Murphy nears five years at the helm. Under his leadership, the company has grown its UK market share to almost 28%, well ahead of rival J Sainsbury Plc’s at 15%, according to research firm Kantar.

President Donald Trump’s signature tax bill narrowly passed the House Thursday morning, advancing a sprawling multi-trillion dollar package that would avert a year-end tax increase at the expense of adding to the US debt burden.

 

The bill now heads to the Senate, where groups of Republicans are pressing for extensive change. Lawmakers plan to vote on approval by August. It includes a $4 trillion increase in the US debt ceiling, which the Treasury Department forecasts could otherwise force a default as soon as August or September, adding urgency to the timeline.

 

The 215-214 House vote, with one abstention, was met with cheers from Republicans in the chamber. It followed a furious offensive by Trump, who visited the Capitol to rally Republicans, worked lawmakers by phone late into the night and summoned holdouts to the Oval Office. His budget office released a statement branding any GOP lawmaker who failed to support the package guilty of the “ultimate betrayal.”

Toronto-Dominion Bank said it will cut about 2% of its workforce as part of a restructuring program begun in the second quarter following its historic anti-money laundering settlement.

 

The bank, with about 95,000 employees, said the restructuring will cost up to C$700 million ($505 million) in pre-tax charges over the next several quarters, according to a statement Thursday. It expects the effort will generate about C$100 million in pre-tax savings this fiscal year and annual savings of up to C$650 million going forward.

 

Canada’s second-largest lender reported earnings that beat estimates after setting aside less money than expected for souring loans. It earned C$1.97 per share on an adjusted basis in its fiscal second quarter, topping the C$1.78 average analyst forecast. Provisions for credit losses totalled C$1.34 billion for the three months through April, less than the C$1.41 billion analysts had forecast.

There’s a crisis brewing for the next generation of venture capitalists. While Silicon Valley heavyweights like Sequoia Capital and Andreessen Horowitz are still able to bring in big checks, up-and-coming VCs are finding fundraising increasingly difficult.

 

Hundreds of small firms — which make up the majority of the VC industry — are struggling to raise money in the current market. Traditional investors in venture funds, like family offices and wealthy individuals, have pulled back thanks to high interest rates and economic uncertainty. Meanwhile, universities and their endowments have come under increasing financial pressure from House Republicans and the Trump administration.

Futures for the S&P 500 and Nasdaq 100 edged up by 0.1% and 0.2% respectively, while Dow Jones Industrial Average futures dipped 38 points, or 0.1%.

A global sell-off in bonds is gathering pace as investor unease over worsening fiscal outlooks intensifies. The trigger: a US credit rating downgrade by Moody’s and President Donald Trump’s proposed tax bill, which could potentially inflate the American deficit by up to $5 trillion.

Turkey’s central bank kept its year-end inflation forecast unchanged, saying the impact of March’s currency volatility on prices was limited following its monetary tightening.

Annual consumer inflation is expected to slow to 24% by the end of the year, unchanged from the previous forecast, Governor Fatih Karahan said at the central bank’s headquarters in Istanbul. The projection serves as a guide for policymakers aiming to reach a long-term inflation target of 5%. Markets expect year-end inflation to settle at 30.4%, according to the latest forecasts.

The bank also kept its inflation estimate for end-2026 unchanged at 12%.

Private-sector activity in the euro area unexpectedly shrank in May as services recorded their worst performance in 16 months.

The Composite Purchasing Managers’ Index by S&P Global fell to 49.5 from 50.4 in April, dipping below the 50 threshold separating expansion from contraction, data Thursday showed. Analysts had predicted a slight increase to 50.6.

“The euro-zone economy just cannot seem to find its footing,” Cyrus de la Rubia, an economist at Hamburg Commercial Bank, said in a statement. “While foreign demand for services is softening, it is the sluggish domestic demand that seems to be dragging the sector down.”

Germany’s private sector unexpectedly shrank in May as the worst result for services in two and a half years outweighed improvements in the manufacturing sector.

S&P Global’s Composite Purchasing Managers’ Index for Europe’s largest economy dropped to a five-month low of 48.6 from 50.1 in April, data Thursday showed. That’s below the 50 threshold separating growth from contraction. Analysts had anticipated a reading of 50.3.

“On the bright side, manufacturing is doing better,” Cyrus de la Rubia, an economist at Hamburg Commercial Bank, said in a statement. “In the service sector, by contrast, activity has taken a sharper tumble. And since services make up a big chunk of the economy, that drop has pulled overall activity into contraction.”

OPEC+ members are discussing whether to agree on another super-sized production increase at their meeting on June 1, potentially making it the third consecutive month in which the group would add extra barrels to the market.

An output hike of 411,000 barrels a day for July — three times the amount initially planned — is among options under discussion, although no final agreement has yet been reached, delegates said, asking not to be named because the information is private.

That’s the same amount that the cartel is adding to the market this month and next, having accelerated its planned supply revival in a bid to punish OPEC+ quota cheats by driving down prices. Group leader Saudi Arabia warned overproducing members at their last meeting that it could amplify a historic shift in policy and deliver further production increases unless they fall in line.

Bitcoin continued its rally on Thursday, hitting a brand new record high above $111,000.

Bitcoin hit $111,886.41 in early trading hours in London, according to Coin Metrics, before paring some of those gains to trade at around $111,012.00 at 07:03 AM in London.

Bitcoin’s move has been “driven by a mix of positive momentum, growing optimism around U.S. crypto regulation, and continued interest from institutional buyers,” James Butterfill, head of research for crypto-focused asset manager CoinShares, told CNBC by email.NewsLive TVMarketPopular CategoriesCalculatorsTrending NowLet's Connect with CNBCTV 18Network 18 Group :©TV18 Broadcast Limited. All rights reserved.