While Husain wouldn’t pick winners among the cities vying to be the world’s leading fintech hub, he acknowledged the greater level of governmental support in cities such as Dubai and Singapore. “The thing in the U.S. and in Europe is (that) there is not so much involvement from the government. A lot of this support is through the investment ecosystem: the private equity firms, the venture capital firms that support the start-up community,” Husain said. “But in places like Dubai and Singapore, yo

An uproar that began with hate speech on YouTube was quelled only after a major charm offensive by Google. The Internet giant was forced to make an all-out public relations push in recent weeks to reassure big advertisers after some well-known brands had their ads placed next to objectionable content on its video service, Google CEO Sundar Pichai said late Thursday. While the ad boycott failed to dent the near-term business of Google parent Alphabet, which reported first-quarter sales and profit

It’s time for Microsoft to launch the Surface Pro 5. It’s the Surface Pro laptop/tablet hybrid that’s most appealing to consumers…or at least was most appealing. It’s no wonder Microsoft blamed slower Surface sales on “lower than expected Surface Pro unit volume,” on a call with CNBC. Microsoft first announced the Surface Pro 4, the latest model, back in October 2015. It might be wise for Microsoft to unveil the Surface Pro 5 there, too.

Amazon said AWS revenue surged 43 percent in the quarter to $3.66 billion. Microsoft wraps its Azure business into a division called Intelligent Cloud, which includes various other servers and cloud services. Microsoft also said that its full Commercial Cloud business now has an annualized run rate of $15.2 billion, but that business also includes Office 365, not just the Azure infrastructure service. The Google Cloud Platform remains a laggard and is such a small portion of Alphabet that the co

Now, one company is trying to bring their concept to more upscale products. By using this model, Xcel’s goals are to bring shoppers into its partner stores more frequently and minimize widespread markdowns that have sucked out the industry’s profits. “Like anything in life when you go fast what typically gets sacrificed is quality,” D’Loren told CNBC in an interview. How it worksWhen D’Loren founded Xcel Brands in 2011, he wanted to combine shopping with entertainment and social media. Producing

Shares of Whole Foods Market edged higher on Thursday following a report that mutual-fund manager Neuberger Berman has told the company to explore a sale. The mutual fund said that Whole Foods could also consider a joint venture, according to The Journal, which received a copy of the letter. The letter comes just a few weeks after activist investor Jana Partners took a nearly 9 percent stake in Whole Foods and suggested it should consider putting itself up for sale. Neuberger and Jana are not wo

The Trump administration, with great fanfare, rolled out a new tax plan on Wednesday. But somehow, the one-page outline for tax reform that administration officials released on Wednesday managed to include fewer details than his campaign plan. Tax reform was supposed to go more smoothly for him, in part, Americans were assured, because Trump knows and cares more about tax policy than he does about health care. There are lots of reasons why the country hasn’t seen a major tax reform effort pass C

The Trump administration released a skeletal single-page outline for tax reform on Wednesday, one that was almost entirely ripped from the president’s campaign proposals and concentrated on reducing rates for corporations and high earners. The rollout focused on the easiest part of tax reform — cutting taxes — while avoiding the hard part: picking the losers of reform, who will see their taxes rise to offset the cuts. “They are telling them all the good news,” says Michael Graetz, a tax law prof

A 2016 report from staffing agency Adecco shows just how big the skilled trades job deficit is. At the time it was published, 62 percent of firms said they were struggling to hire skilled workers in the trades. Without skilled people to do the work, Trump’s infrastructure plan may be dead on arrival. In February, there were 169,000 construction jobs unfilled in the U.S., according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. And experts predict hundreds of thousands of more trades jobs will become availab

High prices and tight supply are taking the wind out of home sales. A monthly measure of signed contracts to buy existing homes slipped 0.8 percent in March from February. The so-called pending home sales index from the National Association of Realtors is just 0.8 percent higher than it was in March 2016. Regionally, the pending home sales index in the Northeast fell 2.9 percent for the month but is 1.8 percent higher than in March 2016. Sales in the West fell 2.9 monthly and 2.7 annually.

U.S. oil prices fell below $49 a barrel on Thursday amid deteriorating gasoline futures and a higher dollar in the wake of the European Central Bank’s latest interest rate decision. Benchmark Brent and U.S. crude futures both fell more than 2 percent in late morning trade, extending losses to drop below their 200-day moving averages. The decline accelerated after the ECB left interest rates at zero percent, nudging the dollar higher. News that Libya had restarted two of its main oil fields after

The firm raised its rating on the tech giant two notches to outperform from underperform, a rare “double upgrade.” White House officials revealed on Wednesday President Trump’s plan for large tax cuts for repatriated offshore corporate profits and a reduction of the corporate tax rate. “In an environment of tax reform, we believe the company has the capacity to accelerate the company’s transition towards a diversified IT player.” The analyst cited how the company has $62 billion cash offshore, w

House Speaker Paul Ryan said Thursday there was no specific date for a vote on the latest proposal to repeal and replace major parts of Obamacare, saying Republican leaders would call that vote only when they know they will win it. Ryan, who won support from a key conservative House group on Wednesday for the revised bill, said, “I would argue that this is the bill that moderates would be more likely to vote” for. The speaker and President Donald Trump were badly embarrassed last month when Ryan

Owners plow profits back into a business, and the business itself is often 80 percent to 90 percent of their net worth, Stumpf estimated. In a fast-growth business, retained earnings should be low because the owner is reinvesting in the business. The smartphone store entrepreneur could have sold to a bigger chain or even at a higher price if his hand hadn’t been forced, Arora said. But he made good money and is now back with several new businesses, including one in the smartphone accessories mar

But his administration has found that despite the president’s hard-line rhetoric, many of his priorities have succumbed to political reality during his first 100 days in office. He vowed to begin within the first 100 days of his term, but his administration has not officially started. To reopen a trade deal, the White House must meet with lawmakers in both the House and Senate and then submit a formal notice of intent. “It is my privilege to bring NAFTA up to date through renegotiation,” Trump s

Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin did not commit Thursday when asked if he could promise President Donald Trump’s tax plan will not bust the federal deficit. In an interview Thursday on NBC’s “TODAY,” Mnuchin was asked if he could assure Americans that the White House’s massive tax cut proposal will be “revenue neutral and deficit neutral.” Mnuchin: Again, our objective, Matt, is to pay for this with economic growth. So Matt, yes, our principles are we want to pay for this with economic growth a

When asked if stocks are overvalued, Nobel laureate Robert Shiller supplies a simple answer: “yes.” And we’re in an oddball-enough mood now that we might,” Shiller said, referring to excitement surrounding President Donald Trump. “I’m reminded of Calvin Coolidge, who become president in 1923, and the market started going up, and there were people saying that valuation ratios were getting too high — for years! Although as Shiller also makes clear, investors shouldn’t obsess over the level of the

Nobel Prize-winning economist Robert Shiller is encouraging investors to go abroad as U.S. stocks hit fresh record highs. Their price-to-earnings ratios are much lower,” Shiller said Wednesday on CNBC’s “Trading Nation.” When we’re talking about the ‘Trump effect,’ that is primarily a U.S. effect. Want to be a part of the Trading Nation? If you’d like to call into our live Wednesday show, email your name, number, and a question to TradingNation@cnbc.com

You’re dying to apply for a killer job you just found. It looks nearly perfect. And, while there’s no perfect answer or formula for this, here are a few instances in which you should (and shouldn’t) take a run at a job that looks amazing, even it feels slightly out of reach. Should: You’re just a bit shy on years of experienceThe job description asks for seven to 10 years of experience. Maybe not, but it’s improbable, especially if you follow the “normal” application process of uploading your re

The difference was primarily due to “significant strength in basketball sales” last year, Under Armour said. Under Armour also will open a “footwear building” in Nike’s home turf of Portland, Oregon, and, shift its focus to shoes priced at more than $100. “We don’t like it, and we don’t really accept it,” Under Armour Vice President David Bergman said on Thursday’s call. “A step up in competition from players, including Nike and Lululemon, is one of the reasons for Under Armour’s slower growth,”