Business and technology quick bites: 14.06.2021

Updated version at 8.10 am

The highlighted words in red are links to the news article.

June 14, 2021,

Business News

1. Asian stocks set for muted start as investors prepare for a key Federal Reserve meeting. The dollar was steady against Group-of-10 peers during early Asia trading in the wake of a Group-of-Seven leadership meeting that emphasised unity.
2. G7 leaders agreed to raise their contributions to meet an overdue spending pledge of US$100 billion a year by rich countries to help poorer countries cut carbon emissions and cope with global warming, but only two nations offered firm promises of more cash.
3. Bitcoin jumped above $39,000 after Elon Musk said Tesla would resume transactions with the cryptocurrency when mining is done with more clean energy.
4. Used cars and truck prices climbed 7.3% on the month and 29.7% for the past 12 months fueling acceleration in inflation.
5. Abu Dhabi sovereign fund ADQ is in talks to invest about $500 million in India’s Flipkart, the Walmart Inc.-backed e-commerce firm, which would value the company between $35 billion and $40 billion.
6. One of the main focuses for investors this week will be on the Federal Reserve’s June policy decision and key economic data releases including May retail sales.
7. Grab CEO confident the deal with Altimeter Growth, a US blank-cheque company, will be completed by year-end, following a delay caused by a review of its financials, set to be one of the largest-ever mergers with a special purpose acquisition company.
8. Geely, which owns Volvo Cars and 9.7% stake in Daimler AG, will keep working on vehicles powered by methanol, in a way to lower overall carbon emissions.
9. McDonald’s the latest big company to be hit by a data breach that has exposed customers’ details in Taiwan and South Korea.

Technology News

1. Samsung suspends production of one of its mid-range phones because of a chip shortage, the latest sign of global semiconductor supply problems.
2. Insight Partners, a New York-based venture firm, is notching big returns from its Israeli investments, most notably from its 43% stake in Monday.com, which went public last week.
3. The first bitcoin upgrade in four years has just been approved by miners around the world, which would mean greater transaction privacy and efficiency and it will unlock the potential for smart contracts, a key feature of its blockchain technology.