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Palantir Technologies signage on an options contract ticker as traders work on the floor of American Stock Exchange at the New York Stock Exchange in New York, U.S., on Friday, June 20, 2025.Michael Nagle | Bloomberg | Getty Images If you have any U.S. technology stocks in your portfolio (and let’s face it, who doesn’t?), you might want to look away.For the second day in a row, tech stocks dragged markets lower, with the Nasdaq Composite slipping 0.67%. Juggernauts such as Apple, Amazon and Alphabet were more meh-nificent than magnificent, falling more than 1%.Palantir — the standout S&P 500 stock,…

Oil prices have been trading in a narrow range over the past week, with Brent crude sinking to an intra-day low of $65.01 per barrel (bbl) on 13 August before rising to an intra-day high of $67.06/bbl on 15 August with momentum skewed to the downside thanks to a potential peace deal between Russia and Ukraine. Recent meetings between U.S. President Donald Trump, Russian President Vladimir Putin, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and European leaders have weighed on prompt prices, pushing them below several key moving averages. Trump has revealed that arrangements are being made for another meeting between Putin and Zelenskyy,…

Clean-energy growth helped China’s carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions fall by 1% year-on-year in the first half of 2025, extending a declining trend that started in March 2024. The CO2 output of the nation’s power sector – its dominant source of emissions – fell by 3% in the first half of the year, as growth in solar power alone matched the rise in electricity demand. The new analysis for Carbon Brief shows that record solar capacity additions are putting China’s CO2 emissions on track to fall across 2025 as a whole. Other key findings include: The growth in clean power generation, some 270…

Pictured above: a Shell-operated FPSO offshore Brazil  Image: Petrobras A new study by the Brazilian Institute of Oil and Gas (IBP) highlights the scale of the oil and gas sector’s importance in financing public policies in Brazil. The analysis shows that the industry generated more than BRL 325 billion ($59 billion USD) in 2023 for federal, state, and municipal governments combined. The survey, titled “The Importance of the O&G Sector for Public Finances,” details that in 2023 alone, federal revenues attributable to the sector exceeded BRL 155.8 billion. To illustrate the impact, this amount would be sufficient to alternatively…

Pictured above: a Shell-operated FPSO offshore Brazil  Image: Petrobras A new study by the Brazilian Institute of Oil and Gas (IBP) highlights the scale of the oil and gas sector’s importance in financing public policies in Brazil. The analysis shows that the industry generated more than BRL 325 billion ($59 billion USD) in 2023 for federal, state, and municipal governments combined. The survey, titled “The Importance of the O&G Sector for Public Finances,” details that in 2023 alone, federal revenues attributable to the sector exceeded BRL 155.8 billion. To illustrate the impact, this amount would be sufficient to alternatively…

TikTok is done nudging its e-commerce advertisers toward AI — it’s now pulling them headfirst into a future in which algorithms, not marketers, call the shots.The platform’s guidelines say that starting September 1, brands that want to pay to advertise products for sale in their TikTok Shops will have to use a tool called GMV Max, ad buyers tell Business Insider. Introduced in 2024, the TikTok tool uses an AI algorithm to decide how to get advertisers the most bang for their buck.Merchants pick products in their TikTok Shop they want to advertise, set a budget and target return on…

Wind turbines operate at a wind farm near solar panels on March 6, 2024 near Palm Springs, California. Mario Tama | Getty ImagesPresident Donald Trump on Wednesday said his administration will not approve solar or wind power projects, even as electricity demand is outpacing the supply in some parts of the U.S.”We will not approve wind or farmer destroying Solar,” Trump, who has complained in the past that solar takes up too much land, posted on Truth Social. “The days of stupidity are over in the USA!!!”The president’s comment comes after the administration tightened federal permitting for renewables last month.…

Jimmy Fallon. Alexandra Cooper. Steph Curry. The Jonas Brothers. Google isn’t just paying big to score major AI talent — it’s also ponying up for celeb talent.If you tuned into Google’s Pixel event on Wednesday, you might have lost track of the number of celebrities flashing across your screen in the first five minutes.The annual “Made by Google” keynote opened with a star-studded video montage, with celebrities “passing the phone” to each other. It kicked off with “Call Her Daddy” podcaster Alex Cooper and then cut to a number of household names and notable figures, including NBA star Steph Curry,…

Norway’s monthly oil production jumped to the highest in over a decade last month, following the ramp-up of Equinor ASA’s new Johan Castberg field in the Barents Sea. The country’s output rose 17% from June to 1.96 million barrels a day, the Norwegian Offshore Directorate said in a statement Wednesday. That was the highest in data going back to 2011.  Norwegian oil and gas producers are spending billions to squeeze output from the country’s mature continental shelf. While exports have dropped from what they were in the early 2000s, July crude loadings from the country were forecast to reached the most since…

It’s the time of year when Microsoft employees start finding out about pay raises and bonuses, and hundreds of them are sharing information about their compensation in a spreadsheet viewed by Business Insider.The document has more than 850 self-submitted entries and counting, and includes how much these Microsoft employees report making in salary, bonus, and stock awards.The competitiveness of Microsoft’s pay is particularly important now as it tries to lure top AI engineers and researchers to keep up the momentum that’s fueling its record earnings.Microsoft is going after Meta’s AI talent with multimillion-dollar offers and released new pay guidelines this…