U.S. stock index futures pointed to a marginally higher open on Tuesday as Secretary of State Rex Tillerson arrives in Moscow amid tensions over Syria. On the data front, the NFIB small business optimism index slipped to 104.7 in March from 105.3 in February. In Asia, the Shanghai Composite in China closed 0.58 percent higher, while the Nikkei in Japan closed 0.27 percent lower. In oil markets, Brent crude traded at around $55.90 a barrel on Tuesday, down 0.14 percent, while U.S. crude was aroun

A viral video showing an army of little orange robots sorting out packages in a warehouse in eastern China is the latest example of how machines are increasingly taking over menial factory work on the mainland. The behind-the-scenes footage of the self-charging robot army in a sorting centre of Chinese delivery powerhouse Shentong (STO) Express was shared on People’s Daily’s social media accounts on Sunday. The video showed dozens of round orange Hikvision robots – each the size of a seat cushio

A new report from UBS estimates that artificial intelligence (AI) technologies could create an economic value of about $1.8 trillion to $3 trillion in Asia by 2030. While some jobs may become irrelevant, AI will also create new categories of jobs elsewhere, Gantori said. Data scientists are expected to get a leg up in the future, with UBS describing data as the “fuel” that powers the AI engine. The firm also recommended investing in research and development-intensive companies related to AI, suc

In 2013, Hinshaw launched a new company COBOL Cowboys, which connects companies to programmers like himself. Of the 20 “Cowboys” that work as part-time consultants many have reached retirement age, though there are some “youngsters,” Hinshaw said. Experienced COBOL programmers can earn more than $100 an hour when they get called in to patch up glitches, rewrite coding manuals or make new systems work with old. For their customers such expenses pale in comparison with what it would cost to replac

Shares of Anglo-German manufacturer Dialog Semiconductor fell 20 percent on Tuesday morning after a financial analyst warned the company may lose a contract with the U.S. tech giant Apple. Bankhaus Lampe, a private bank in Germany, downgraded the manufacturer to a “sell” rating given that Apple is working on its own battery-saving chip for the iPhone – which could replace Dialog’s power circuits as early as 2019. “It could be quite alarming for the company in the medium term at least,” he said a

Discover how the gig economy and population shifts are moving social protection schemes from a single provider to a whole-of-life approach. A growing gig economy, globalization, the rise of the fourth industrial revolution and an ageing workforce, these factors are putting increasing pressure on governments to fund and nurture social protection schemes. In order to meet the demands of our modern world, a move to a whole-of-life approach is needed with collaboration taking place between governmen

Officials in Dallas said the city’s warning system was hacked late on Friday night, disrupting the city when all 156 of its emergency sirens sounded into the early hours of Saturday morning. Mr. Vaz said emergency workers and technicians had to first figure out whether the sirens had been activated because of an actual emergency. And turning off the sirens also proved difficult, eventually prompting officials to shut down the entire system. “Every time we thought we had turned it off, the sirens

Activist investor Jana Partners is attempting to engage with Whole Foods Market CEO John Mackey, sources told CNBC, but the firm has yet to speak about its ideas for the grocer with the company’s management. In a regulatory filing Monday, Jana said it is looking to first address Whole Foods’ “chronic underperformance” and secondly to make changes in the board and senior management. The firm added that it believes Whole Foods “shares are undervalued and represent an attractive investment opportun

Samsung said on Monday that preorders for its upcoming Galaxy S8 smartphone are proving to be more popular than last year’s Galaxy S7 in the United States. “The majority of consumers have been selecting the Galaxy S8+,” Samsung said in an email to CNBC, noting that the larger model is more popular than the smaller Galaxy S8. While last year’s Galaxy S7 was released without incident, the Note 7 was the last phone Samsung released in the U.S., and the Note line-up are the company’s most advanced p

An alleged Russian hacker has been detained in Spain at the request of American authorities, an arrest that set cybersecurity circles abuzz after a Russian broadcaster raised the possibility it was linked to the U.S. presidential election. Malicious software is routinely shared, reworked and repurposed, meaning that even a computer virus’ creator may have little or nothing to do with how the virus is eventually used. He has been alleged to be spam kingpin Peter Severa, according to Brian Krebs,

Microsoft’s Azure cloud is a distant second to Amazon Web Services (AWS), and Nadella is racing to grab a bigger share of the market as companies rapidly move workloads out of their own data centers and into the cloud. Promoting emerging open source projects is critical to win business from developers who want the largest possible choice of software and platforms. Databricks, one of a few companies commercializing the open source Apache Spark framework, has to date only run in AWS. And late last

AT&T said on Monday it would buy Straight Path Communications, a holder of licenses to wireless spectrum, for $1.25 billion in an all-stock deal as it aims to accumulate the airwaves it needs for a next generation network. Straight Path is one of the largest holders of 28 GHz and 39 GHz millimeter wave spectrum used in mobile communications. Between FiberTower and Straight Path, AT&T should have a similar amount of spectrum as Verizon if not more, said Wells Fargo analyst Jennifer Fritzsche, in

As the retail landscape becomes littered with bankruptcies and store closures, one brand is poised to triple its revenue over the next five years. Boruchow has an “outperform” rating on Canada Goose shares and a price target of CA$25 to CA$26. Of the 11 analysts who cover Canada Goose and are tracked by FactSet, eight have “buy” ratings. The company has already attracted the attention of PETA, which said it would buy shares of Canada Goose stock so it could attend shareholder meetings. Canada Go

The restaurant industry could be headed for an even greater funk this year, as more consumers opt to save their money rather than dine out. Diners who typically eat at least twice weekly at a fast-food chain told AlixPartners, a New York-based consulting firm, that they plan to cut back on their restaurant visits by 8 percent over the next 12 months. While consumers tend to be aspirational in their goals for saving and spending, Schnaubelt said that “the American consumer has an incredible grasp

Fox News parent Twenty-First Century Fox Inc said on Sunday it will investigate a sexual harassment claim against TV anchor Bill O’Reilly, who has seen several companies pull their ads from his top-rated news show in the past week. “21st Century Fox investigates all complaints and we have asked the law firm Paul Weiss to continue assisting the company in these serious matters,” the company said in a statement. “I’m told that they are taking it seriously, and they are going to do the investigatio

Its tools are designed for both workers and employers to access on mobile devices — responding to the fact that more than 60 percent of potential employees who visit a job site are using a mobile device. Workpop combines video applications, social references and artificial intelligence algorithms to find the best candidates and reduce turnover. It’s already drawn millions of candidates and more than 10,000 employers, helping them hire hundreds of thousands of employees. And though it’s designed

The New York Times says it mistakenly published an announcement promoting a Facebook Live event with its Pulitzer Prize winners, hours before the prizes were announced. Times spokeswoman Eileen Murphy wouldn’t confirm it had any advance word that it had won any Pulitzers. Published on Page 2 of Monday’s print edition of The Times, it read: “How does it feel to get a Pulitzer Prize? Ask The Times’s recently announced 2017 winners yourself — they’ll be taking questions live today at 4:30 p.m. The

Oil majors Royal Dutch Shell and Eni reiterated on Monday that neither they nor their personnel had been involved in any wrongdoing in Nigeria, including improper payments to Nigerian officials. The comments follow media reports alleging how hundreds of millions of dollars from the two companies were used for illicit payments. In emailed comments, an Eni spokesman said the allegations in the reports were not supported by the facts, the underlying agreements or the independent investigations cond

So once again, Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad unleashed chemical weapons against Syrian civilians. Whereas President Obama spent weeks agonizing over the implications of the “red line” he had drawn in the Syrian sand, President Trump took prompt action. At the eleventh hour, a savior arose: Vladimir Putin offered Russia’s services to oversee the removal of all chemical weapons from Syria. The message to Assad, Putin, and the world was clear: There’s a new Sheriff in town. Syria is a propitious

Reagan and JFK knew that you can’t just start and end things with tax cuts. So they both pushed for reasonable spending cuts to go along with their tax reform plans. Flash forward to 2017 and we have another example of cowardice from the White House and the Republicans in Congress when it comes to spending cuts. And speaking of that, the federal government is taking in a record amount of tax revenue so far this fiscal year. The reason why Republicans are getting nowhere fast on tax reform is bec