Bloomberg Bed Bath & Beyond Inc’s shares plunged after higher shipping and e-commerce costs eroded profitability in the fourth quarter, tarnishing the results as the home-furnishings retailer reported a stronger-than-expected same-store sales gain. The increase in online sales and freight expenses led to higher costs for the company, contributing to a gross margin of 31.5%, which was below the estimate …

Bloomberg The US government piled trillions of dollars of emergency funds into Americans’ accounts during the pandemic. That’s boosting the bottom lines of the banks that store their cash. Lending giants reported blockbuster profits this week, in part because stimulus payments have helped consumers bounce back from the Covid-19 crisis and prevented more severe economic damage. The emergency funds helped …

Bloomberg Morgan Stanley surprised investors with a $911 million loss tied to the collapse of Archegos Capital Management, staining what was otherwise a record quarter for revenue and profit. “The current quarter includes a loss of $644 million related to a credit event for a single prime brokerage client, and $267 million of subsequent trading losses through the end of …

Bloomberg The Bank of Thailand has responded to the US decision to keep the nation on watch for currency manipulation by asserting it has stepped into the market only to curb volatility in the baht. The central bank is committed to exchange-rate flexibility, with “interventions limited only to curbing excessive volatility and rapid movements of the baht on both sides,” …

Bloomberg Credit Suisse Group AG was sued by a small pension fund that alleges the bank misled investors and let “high-risk clients” including Greensill Capital and Archegos Capital Management take on too much leverage, in one of the first lawsuits since the twin debacles. The Michigan pension fund, City of St. Clair Shores Police & Fire Retirement System, filed the …

Bloomberg A ruling slashing a record French fine against a bank seemed to bode well for UBS Group AG as it fights an even larger 3.7 billion-euro ($4.4 billion) penalty in front of the same judges. But the Swiss lender might be a victim of its own success. According to details of the April 6 decision only revealed earlier this …

Bloomberg Switzerland’s central bank said it will continue with its policy of foreign-exchange interventions while seeking dialog with the US after the Biden administration dropped the country from its list of currency manipulators. The Treasury Department said that although the Swiss fulfilled the criteria for the manipulator label, there was “insufficient evidence” of the country trying to gain an unfair …

Bloomberg The European Union (EU) is poised to ban artificial intelligence systems used for mass surveillance or for ranking social behaviour, while companies developing AI could face fines as high as 4% of global revenue if they fail to comply with new rules governing the software applications. The rules are part of legislation set to be proposed by the European …

Bloomberg Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., the world’s largest contract chipmaker, warned for the first time that trade tensions may disrupt its access to key production equipment and hit its operations, amid increasing friction between the US and China. The company, which produces semiconductors for Apple Inc. and other major global tech companies, said in its annual report that “ongoing trade …

Bloomberg Apple Inc has been a laggard in the smart-home space, but a versatile new device in early development could change that. The company is working on a product that would combine an Apple TV set-top box with a HomePod speaker and include a camera for video conferencing via a connected TV and other smart-home functions. The device’s other capabilities …