Business

FRANKFURT, Germany (AP) — The European Union’s executive commission cut its growth outlook and predicted higher inflation due to sharply higher energy prices from the war in Iran — but said the economy will avoid an outright recession.

“As a net energy importer, the EU’s economy is highly susceptible to the energy shock caused by the conflict in the Middle East,” the commission said in a statement Thursday. The rising cost of fuel “means higher household bills and surging business costs that reduce profits for many industries.”

The commission’s spring forecast lowered the outlook for growth in the 21 countries that use the euro to 0.9% for this year, from 1.2% in its autumn forecast, and to 1.2% from 1.4% for 2027. Inflation is now expected to reach 3.0% for 2026, up from the earlier forecast of 1.9%.

The new inflation figure exceeds the inflation goal of 2% set by the European Central Bank, and higher inflation expectations have led to predictions the ECB will raise its interest rate benchmarks this year to combat inflation.

Oil prices rose sharply after risk of Iranian drone and speedboat attacks closed off most ship traffic through the Strait of Hormuz, the sea passage for about a fifth of the world’s oil and natural gas. On top of that, news of the war has shaken consumer confidence, which fell to a 40-month low amid mounting fears of job losses and higher inflation.

Still, the commission said the economy will continue to show modest growth and avoid an outright recession.

It warned however that a downside scenario of a prolonged period of higher energy prices would push growth lower and inflation higher.

The new inflation figure exceeds the inflation goal of 2% set by the European Central Bank, and higher inflation expectations have led to predictions the ECB will raise its interest rate benchmarks this year to combat inflation.

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KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Ukrainian drones smashed into another Russian refinery overnight, starting a fire that produced huge clouds of black smoke, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Thursday, in what appeared to be the latest long-range attack on Moscow’s vital oil industry.

The drones targeted the Syzran oil refinery, located more than 800 kilometers (500 miles) inside Russia, Zelenskyy said on social media, where he posted a video of the aftermath.

It was not possible to verify the video or independently confirm the attack. The governor of Russia’s Samara region, Vyacheslav Fedorishchev, said that two people were killed by Ukrainian drones in Syzran but he didn’t mention the refinery. Russia’s Astra news outlet said that Ukrainian drones struck the Syzran refinery owned by oil and gas giant Rosneft.

Ukraine has expanded its mid- and long-range strike capabilities, deploying eye-catching drone and missile technology that it has developed domestically as it battles to defeat Russia’s 4-year-old invasion. Ukrainian weaponry and expertise are now sought by other countries, whereas earlier in the war Kyiv had to plead for massive foreign military aid.

Ukrainian drones hit another refinery the previous day, Zelenskyy said, as attacks on Russian oil assets that play a key part in funding the invasion have become almost daily occurrences.

“Overall, our long-range plan for May is being carried out largely in full,” Zelenskyy said in a social media post late Wednesday. “The key targets are Russian oil refineries, storage facilities, and other infrastructure tied to these oil revenues.”

The escalating attacks have hurt Moscow’s revenue at the same time as it feels the economic pinch of international sanctions. With some attacks reaching more than 1,500 kilometers (900 miles) into Russian soil, the strikes have contributed to some Russians feeling unsafe due to the war and heaped pressure on Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Ukraine’s new reach has also helped it push Russian troops back along parts of the front line, with Ukrainian forces making their most significant battlefield gains since 2024, according to the Institute for the Study of War.

“Ukraine’s intensified midrange strike campaign against Russian logistics, military equipment, and manpower since early 2026 has also degraded Russian forces’ ability to conduct offensive operations across the theater and has also likely supported recent Ukrainian advances,” the Washington-based think tank said in an assessment late Wednesday.

Ukraine has slowed Russia’s battlefield advance and is gradually regaining the initiative along the front line, Defense Minister Mykhailo Fedorov said, partly due to Russian forces being denied access to Starlink satellite services to steer its drones toward targets.

“Russia has since not been able to find a full replacement (for Starlink), giving Ukraine a critical battlefield advantage,” Fedorov told reporters. He spoke on Saturday but his comments were embargoed till Thursday.

Fedorov said in February he had asked Elon Musk’s SpaceX to help deny Russia use of the service in Ukraine. Starlink is a global internet network that relies on around 10,000 satellites orbiting Earth.

Fedorov said that mid-size drones have become a key technological advantage for Ukraine on the front line and claimed that Ukrainian forces have doubled their interception rate of Russian drones over the past four months.

Ukraine is also preparing changes to the military, covering pay and contract terms, he said.

Russia’s Defense Ministry said that air defenses downed 121 Ukrainian drones between late Wednesday and early Thursday.

In the Belgorod region that borders Ukraine, eight people were injured by Ukrainian drones, according to the regional governor, Alexander Shuvayev.

Russia has also invested heavily in drones, using them to bombard civilian areas of Ukraine throughout the war and killing more than 15,000 civilians, according to the United Nations.

Ukraine’s air force said Thursday it shot down 109 out of 116 drones that Russia launched overnight.

One civilian was killed and at least six others were wounded in the strikes in the north, south and east of the country, emergency services said.

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Hatton reported from Lisbon, Portugal. Associated Press writer Samya Kullab in Kyiv, Ukraine, contributed to this report.

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Follow the AP’s coverage of the war in Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine

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WASHINGTON (AP) — In the year since President Donald Trump signed an executive order promising to create a deep-sea mining industry from scratch, businesses have raised millions of dollars from investors, stock prices have soared and federal regulators have raced to fast-track a permitting process.

At least nine companies are in talks with the government for access to seabed minerals, according to an Associated Press review. Sections of the seafloor from American Samoa to Alaska could be auctioned for offshore mining this summer and through the fall.

All the action suggests the U.S. may soon give the green light for companies to commercially mine the seabed — something that’s never been done in international waters.

But a close look at some of the companies involved reveals uncertain track records and histories spattered with legal disputes, while major questions about how the minerals would be processed and refined remain unanswered. Watchers of the nascent industry are skeptical the promised riches will ever materialize.

“It just feels right to people thinking that there is a cornucopia of metals on the bottom of the seafloor that are just there to be plucked up like seashells on the seashore,” said Victor Vescovo, a private equity investor and deep-sea explorer who has chosen not to back any deep-sea mining companies.

“If there’s more scrutiny on their actual financial models,” he added, “you would go, ‘Wait a second, this is much more uncertain.’”

Trump’s executive order in April last year marked a sudden embrace of an industry long dormant in the U.S. The president hailed seafloor minerals as vital to America’s future prosperity and its trade independence from China. He directed U.S. agencies to expedite permitting.

The most widely prized ores are fist-shaped rocks known as polymetallic nodules, formed over millions of years from the remains of sunken shark teeth and shells. They contain high grades of manganese, copper, nickel and cobalt, and some rare earth elements.

Other parts of the seafloor have drawn prospectors, too: the mineral-rich crusts atop volcanic seamounts, and the rocky mounds flecked with gold and silver near hydrothermal vents. Nearer to shore, companies have proposed dredging ocean sands for titanium, zirconium and phosphorites. But for many companies, seafloor nodules hold the most allure.

Trillions of nodules lie on the international seabed between Mexico and Hawaii, scientists say. For more than a decade, delegates from dozens of countries have convened at the headquarters of the International Seabed Authority in Jamaica with the difficult task of creating globally agreed upon mining rules for those areas, which belong to no single country.

The agency has so far granted exploration rights to nearly two dozen contractors, but has not allowed any to mine commercially. Under its mandate, the minerals are designated for the shared benefit of “all humankind.”

Trump’s order suggests the U.S. will decide for itself when to mine the global seabed, reversing the decision of previous administrations to honor the seabed authority’s rules.

In a statement, a White House spokesperson said “all presidential actions are legally sound.”

Geologists have known about polymetallic nodules for more than a century, but it wasn’t until the 1960s that companies started building technology to haul them to the surface.

At the time, the laws of the sea were still in the making, with ongoing talks at the United Nations over how countries would use and protect the oceans beyond their borders. When it came to seabed mining, the U.S. was at odds with much of the world over how the resources and technology should be shared.

In 1980, with global talks still in progress, Congress passed the Deep Seabed Hard Mineral Resources Act and created a process for U.S. companies to mine the deep sea. The U.S. issued four exploration licenses in 1984.

Yet in the decades that followed, low metals prices and the brewing uncertainty around international rules pushed several of those companies to forfeit their licenses or dissolve. Today, more than 150 countries agree that deep-sea mining should be mutually governed by the seabed authority. Lockheed Martin holds the only two exploration licenses still active in the U.S.

Two U.S. agencies will enforce rules: the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which oversees minerals beyond U.S. borders, and the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, a division of the Department of the Interior that regulates offshore oil, gas, wind and minerals in U.S. waters.

NOAA has never approved a commercial project for seabed mining; nor has BOEM, beyond a short-lived mining effort in California waters more than 60 years ago. But their leaders, appointed by Trump, are pushing for that to change.

In June, Interior Secretary Doug Burgum announced a mandate for BOEM to “speed up” the development of critical minerals offshore, and outlined steps to streamline the regulatory process. The agency soon announced it was evaluating seabed mining in the waters of Alaska, Virginia, American Samoa and the Northern Mariana Islands. It plans to hold the first lease sale as early as August, according to a budget proposal, and in the coming months will restructure under the new name of the Marine Minerals Administration.

NOAA, too, is working quickly to approve permits. Until this year, the agency required companies to have an exploration license before they could pursue commercial operations; in January, it said companies could apply for both activities at once. NOAA has requested funds to expand its permitting staff and set a target of processing 16 applications next fiscal year.

So far, the companies answering the call of Trump’s executive order include a firm that once made its money hunting for sunken treasure, and a South Carolina-based startup that sprung from an effort to find Amelia Earhart’s long-lost plane.

And it includes The Metals Company, long seen as the front-runner in the industry. If the U.S. grants a permit, the firm says it is ready to commercially mine the seafloor before the end of next year. It is one of few companies to have tested equipment in deep-water conditions — hauling up 3,000 metric tons of nodules in a 2022 trial.

The company has close ties to the Trump administration. CEO Gerard Barron says he was in the White House on the day Trump signed the executive order, and since then, he’s been invited to speak at three congressional hearings on deep-sea mining. The Metals Company has received financial advice from Cantor Fitzgerald, the investment group Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick led for decades until Trump appointed him to federal office. Lutnick is now in charge of NOAA and could be influential in the final decision on permits.

In a January congressional hearing, U.S. Rep. Ed Case, a Hawaii Democrat, accused The Metals Company of being “in bed” with NOAA and having advance knowledge of the agency’s plans, citing the close timing of certain events. The Metals Company submitted its seabed mining applications within a week of the executive order last year, and resubmitted them under the streamlined regulations one day after NOAA finalized the new rules.

At the hearing, Barron denied the accusation, saying it’s the company’s job to respond to and anticipate government action. “We had lobbied hard” against some of the regulatory inefficiencies, he added.

Since 2024, records show the company spent nearly $800,000 on lobbying for seabed mining issues, including permitting. Its stock price hit record highs across the last year.

A spokesperson for The Metals Company said in a statement the firm had no unfair advantages, and is well-poised to address the strategic priorities of the U.S. after 15 years of preparation and testing.

Barron got his start in deep-sea mining as an investor of a company, Nautilus Minerals, which won a license from Papua New Guinea for the world’s first commercial seabed mining effort in 2011. But Nautilus folded before mining began, leaving the government, which had a 15% stake in the project, with more than $100 million in debt.

Tampa, Fla.-based Odyssey Marine Exploration has also signaled interest in offshore mining. Odyssey formed in the 1990s with a mission to discover sunken treasure and sell the artifacts for profit. The company claims to have found more shipwrecks than any other organization in the world.

But Odyssey ran into trouble in 2007, when it discovered an underwater shipwreck littered with silver and gold coins that Odyssey brought to the U.S. Later, the government of Spain said the wreck matched descriptions of a Spanish naval ship sunk by the British in 1804. Warships are immune to the claims of salvagers. Odyssey argued the remains couldn’t reliably be identified, but after years of bitter court battles, relinquished the treasure.

Amid the legal fight, the company pivoted to pursuing seafloor minerals.

There, too, Odyssey ran into controversy. The company’s subsidiary was awarded mining permits in Mexico’s Gulf of Ulloa for a project that would have dredged 7 million tons of mineral sands per year, operating 24 hours per day, according to Odyssey’s proposal, with a goal of extracting phosphate for fertilizer.

But the Mexican government withdrew its support during its environmental review out of concern the mining would disturb marine habitats and threaten loggerhead turtles. Officials later argued Odyssey didn’t have enough mining experience.

The company sued the government of Mexico for damages, winning $37 million in 2024, more than 10 years after it received the first mining permit.

In December, BOEM announced that Odyssey had requested the agency begin the regulatory process to consider mining off the coast of Virginia. As in Mexico, the company is hoping to dredge coastal sands.

In a statement, an Odyssey spokesperson said the company carefully selected the area to avoid sensitive marine habitats and shipping traffic, and that dredging is an established tool for construction projects and can be done safely.

This spring, the company said it will merge with and adopt the name of American Ocean Minerals Corporation, which incorporated last year and has applied for NOAA’s permission to explore for seafloor nodules.

Out in the U.S. territories of the Pacific Ocean, another fight is brewing over potential mining. The startup Impossible Metals has set its sights on seafloor nodules in U.S. waters near American Samoa and the Northern Mariana Islands, despite growing outcry from local residents and leaders.

American Samoa has banned deep-sea mining in local waters, while a similar push is underway in the Northern Marianas. Nearby Guam has banned deep-sea mining, too. Republican House representatives from all three territories worry their constituents will bear the environmental and economic harms. But the final decision is in the hands of the federal government, which controls U.S. waters beyond 3 miles from shore.

Impossible Metals boasts of being the most environmentally friendly deep-sea mining company. Most mining machines are built to drive along the seafloor, endangering the sea sponges, nematodes and brittle stars that live among nodules. Impossible Metals is building a fleet of robots that it says will float above the seabed and collect only rocks that don’t contain marine life. The company has offered island territories 1% of future profits.

Critics question whether the technology will work, and if there will in fact be any profits to share.

Impossible Metals didn’t respond to the AP’s questions or requests for comment. The company has said previously that it’s engaging with local communities and is committed to building something lasting.

Still other companies are lining up for U.S. permission. American Metal Resources and SeaX, both formed last year, applied for exploration licenses that are under NOAA review.

Deep Sea Minerals Corp., founded in 2022, is publicly traded in Canada and announced its application to explore for nodules in March. The company recently issued a press release saying its advertisements may have “overstated” the certainty of its future growth. It does not yet have deep-sea mining rights or any specialized marine technology, it said.

There are some early signs of discord: American Metal Resources and The Metals Company have both sued each other, alleging the misuse of confidential information.

Deep-sea ecologists and ocean advocates have fought against seabed mining for years on the grounds that the deep ocean remains vastly under-studied, and that mining could extinguish its fragile life.

But a number of analysts and investors also question its economic merit.

Of the four metals contained in polymetallic nodules, copper is the surest bet to see sustained demand given the booming need for electrical wiring.

But mineral forecasts, said mining consultant Lyle Trytten, “often get a lot of attention when they’re very high, and then things change.”

Five years ago, The Metals Company built its marketing on the surging demand for metals to build electric vehicle batteries. Forecasters projected global shortages and prices soared.

In the years since, battery design has evolved and no longer depends as much on cobalt and nickel, leaving seabed mining companies with a more subdued outlook on profits. Even highly-sought copper is already being replaced in some industry sectors with aluminum.

Ian Lange, a professor of mineral economics at the Colorado School of Mines, said deep-sea mining advocates seem to overlook the more affordable and widely available sources of minerals on land. He questioned whether demand is strong enough: Copper mines in Michigan and Wyoming are fully permitted but inactive; a cobalt mine is idled in Idaho.

“I personally am skeptical that what’s holding people back (from deep-sea mining) is nonmarket things like permitting,” he said.

The Securities and Exchange Commission requires publicly listed mining companies to assess the economic viability of their projects in a document known as a pre-feasibility study.

The Metals Company did so last year, and forecast that it would break even in its eighth year of commercial seabed mining – the same year that it forecast the mineral reserves to be “all mined.”

“No one goes into a project saying, ‘In the best-case scenario, we’ll break even,’” said mining consultant Steven Emerman. “Anyone at my level would know to come to the conclusion that now is the time to abandon the project.”

Unless the project expands, said Simon Jowitt, Nevada’s state geologist and director of the Nevada Bureau of Mines and Geology, “there’s not going to be any profit in the project.”

The Metals Company says it expects to find billions of dollars’ worth of seabed minerals after the project breaks even. But it has yet to prove those additional resources are economical to mine.

Forecasting this way is unusual, Jowitt said.

Other experts, including Trytten and Emerman, said the company’s forecast is overly optimistic, projecting high metals prices and low costs. Trytten reviewed the forecasts at the request of an environmental group, the National Ocean Protection Coalition, and Emerman at the request of opponents to deep sea mining, including Greenpeace. Both said their analysis was independent.

The Metals Company said it had completed mining plans and seafloor surveys for the first eight years of the project, and that the costs of surveying, sampling and analyzing additional seafloor minerals were best incurred once the project was underway. The company is confident those resources will be minable, a spokesperson said.

It would take at least three land-based mines to produce the four minerals that exist in seafloor nodules, the company said, and this variety makes the project resilient to economic headwinds or changing demand for metals.

Deep-sea mining companies will also face challenges around where to process the nodules. Despite Trump’s focus on trade independence, the U.S. currently has no major processing facilities for nickel, manganese or cobalt.

Building these facilities on U.S. soil will take time and money – a lot of it. “That is going to take some engineering and some capital,” said James Deckelman, head of Deep Sea Minerals Corp. “But there’s just so much support from the U.S. government right now, so much momentum.” Indeed, the White House told AP it’s a priority to expand domestic refining capacity.

Records show The Metals Company began lobbying around “financing for domestic processing of minerals” early this year.

In the near term, companies will have to rely on existing supply chains abroad. The Metals Company has thus far explored processing in Japan, South Korea and Indonesia.

But reliance on foreign partners could raise a host of legal issues for companies. Most other countries involved in deep-sea mining are bound by their commitments to the International Seabed Authority. Their governments, companies or citizens could be sued for helping the U.S. tap the global seabed, said Coalter Lathrop, a legal expert on the law of the sea.

It could be financially devastating to The Metals Company if foreign companies cut ties. The firm relies heavily on the Swiss company Allseas, which owns the deep-sea mining ship and designed the deep-sea “collector vehicles” that would gather nodules from the seafloor. In a statement, Allseas said it was committed to following all national and international laws, and would deploy its technology “only once we are confident that all relevant regulatory conditions are satisfied.”

In a congressional hearing, Impossible Metals suggested the U.S. government could smooth over some of these hurdles by purchasing nodules for the National Defense Stockpile — a store of metals held in reserve for supply chain emergencies.

Stockpiling the nodules would offer deep-sea mining companies “a guaranteed buyer” in the government, said Oliver Gunasekara, CEO of Impossible Metals, in his January testimony. Not only would it spur industry investment, he suggested, but the government could profit in the future as metals prices rise.

Trytten, the mining consultant, disagrees. “If you can’t process it, it doesn’t do you any good sitting there in a warehouse.”

A spokesperson for the Defense Logistics Agency, which runs the national stockpile, said there was currently no plan to acquire seafloor nodules.

Elizabeth Klein, BOEM’s director under the final two years of Joe Biden’s presidency, denied a 2024 request from Impossible Metals to consider a mining lease near American Samoa. She told the AP she was concerned about local opposition and the suitability of current regulations to a novel industry.

“You want to make sure that the operators are financially capable … (that) they actually have the skills and the resources that would be required,” Klein said. “The current regs don’t speak to much of that at all.”

A spokesperson for BOEM said in a statement that companies demonstrate their financial capability in the bidding process for a mining lease, along with a required deposit. Current regulations require BOEM to ensure the project is carried out safely and responsibly, the spokesperson said.

Tony Romeo, founder of Deep Sea Rare Minerals, which planned to change its name to Eco Minerals this week, isn’t discouraged by the naysayers. Every new source of energy or metal requires some trial and error before it becomes profitable, he told AP.

His South Carolina company got its start in deep-sea operations by pursuing a personal obsession of his – scanning the seafloor for Earhart’s plane. Now, the company is awaiting updates from NOAA on its application to explore for nodules and is considering bidding on mining leases near Alaska and the Northern Mariana Islands.

“There’s going to be some flops. There’s going be some failures. Some businesses aren’t going to make it, but somebody will,” Romeo said. He hopes his company will be producing offshore minerals by 2028.

By then, Trump’s second term will be in its final year. Company executives are pushing hard for assurances that their projects won’t be canceled by a future president who’s not as eager to mine the sea.

At an industry conference in January, top officials at NOAA and BOEM deflected when asked about what kind of certainty they can promise. No one has a crystal ball, they said – but for now, they’re “open for business.”

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NEW YORK (AP) — Walmart delivered another quarter of impressive sales as speedy deliveries and low prices served as a magnet for shoppers across the income spectrum.

Yet like other major retailers posting financial results this week, it was cautious about the rest of the year given the current economic uncertainty. On Thursday, it issued a forecast for the current quarter that was weaker than what Wall Street had been expecting.

Walmart has resonated with many Americans who are increasingly careful about where they spend their money as inflation has taken a bigger bite out of paychecks, particularly since the start of the Iran war in late February. Traffic at Walmart can be a barometer of consumer spending given its vast customer base. More than 150 million customers are on its website or in its stores every week, according to Walmart.

Walmart’s promise of lower prices, improved merchandise and faster delivery has broadened its base to include wealthier shoppers, with the biggest gains in market share coming from households with annual income over $100,000. That development is taking place as lower-income shoppers become more entrenched in what economists call a K-shaped economy.

“Our results reflect our continued focus on delivering across the enterprise — better shopping experiences, a broader assortment, and faster delivery,” CEO John Furner said in a statement Thursday.

Yet U.S. retailers have spent months navigating an uncertain economic environment, first with President Donald Trump’s tariffs, and now the impact soaring gasoline prices due to the war. The average price for a gallon of regular gasoline has raced higher this week, and did so again overnight. Gasoline prices are 40% above where they were at this time last year.

Based on early reports from retailers including Target and Home Depot, shoppers are cautious but still spending, helped by more generous tax refunds, economists said. Yet there is a widespread belief that once of those benefits dry up, shoppers will pull back their buying

Target reported the largest jump in comparable sales in four years Wednesday, but a cautious outlook overshadowed convincing evidence that changes under the company’s new CEO are resonating with customers. Target raised its annual revenue outlook, but the upgraded sales expectations were still below the pace of the first quarter given so much economic uncertainty.

The nation’s two largest home improvement retailers Home Depot and Lowe’s this week reported a sales lift from professionals and also homeowners stocking up on spring supplies. But executives from both companies said that customers are still holding back on larger discretionary home projects.

“I think, overall, this has been the most difficult housing market that that I’ve faced in this business since the financial crisis, ” Lowe’s CEO Marvin Ellison told analysts on Wednesday.

Walmart, based in Bentonville, Arkansas reported first-quarter earnings of $5.33 billion, or 67 cents for the quarter ended April 30. Adjusted per-share results were 66 cents, matching the 66 cents that analysts expected, according to FactSet.

For the year-ago quarter, the company reported net income of $4.48 billion, or 56 cents per share.

Sales rose 7.3% to $177.75 billion in the fiscal first quarter, above the $174.84 billion that analysts predicted,

Comparable sales at U.S. Walmart stores, including online sales, rose 4.1% during the three-month period ended April 30. That’s below the 4.6% gain in the fourth quarter.

The company said Thursday that consumers are feeling some economic pressure, but sales strength has persisted and it saw one of its strongest quarters of market share gains.

For the second quarter, Walmart expects sales will be 4% to 5% higher than the same period a year ago. That brings the range to between $182.8 billion and $184.59 billion. It also expects per-share profit to be between 72 cents and 74 cents. Analysts had been projecting per-share earns of 75 cents on sales of $186.2 billion, according to FactSet.

For the year, Walmart stuck to the guidance it issued in February of per-share earnings between $2.75 and $2.85, and an increase in sales of between 3.5% and 4.5%, or between $731.1 billion and $738.2 billion.

Wall Street has been anticipating profits of $2.92 per share on sales of $749.01 billion for the year.

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May 20 (Reuters) – PepsiCo is preparing to raise prices on some of its smaller bags of chips due to higher expenses in the U.S., Bloomberg News reported on Wednesday.

The planned increases were prompted by higher production, distribution and retail expenses in the U.S., and are not a direct response to the Iran war, which has caused energy prices to surge, the report said, citing a PepsiCo spokesman.

The company is planning to hike prices by 10 to 20 cents on certain single-serve bags that are now retailing for $2.69 in the coming weeks, the report said. Smaller bags, often sold as two for $1, are also expected to be priced higher, the report added.

An increase would also apply to a limited number of single-serve products beginning in late June, the report also said, citing a company spokesman.

PepsiCo did not immediately respond to Reuters’ request for comment.

The company had topped Wall Street estimates in April, helped partly by the price cuts for salty snacks in the U.S.

(Reporting by Neil J Kanatt in Bengaluru; Editing by Leroy Leo)

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By Tom Polansek

CHICAGO, May 20 (Reuters) – Cargill stopped paying about 1,700 employees at a beef plant in Fort Morgan, Colorado, on Wednesday in an escalating labor dispute, after suspending cattle slaughtering at the facility a month ago, the workers’ union said.

   The U.S. beef industry is in a period of upheaval as prices have set records this year, with strong demand from consumers even as the nation’s cattle herd is the smallest in 75 years. 

Meatpackers are processing fewer cattle due to tight supplies and reporting losses in their beef businesses because soaring cattle costs have outpaced gains from higher meat prices.

Cargill and rival JBS, which resolved its own labor dispute last month, have pushed back against employees seeking higher pay. Workers, faced with a rising cost of living, have dug in against billionaire owners.

Privately held Cargill said it initiated a lockout in Fort Morgan, about 132 kilometers northeast of Denver, after employees rejected a contract proposal that the company called fair, saying it represented an estimated $33.4 million investment in employees.

“This was not the outcome we wanted,” Cargill said in a statement.

Cargill offered a raise of 70 cents per hour in the first year of a five-year contract and a 30-cent raise in the fifth year, said Dean Modecker, who runs the Teamsters Local 455 union that represents workers. Employees were seeking a $1 raise in the first year and want a three-year contract due to volatility in the beef industry, he said. 

Since 2018, base wages increased to $23.50 per hour from $15.35, according to Cargill.

“We can’t afford to pay our bills,” Modecker said, noting higher gasoline prices.

“This is a multi-billion-dollar corporation, yet we can’t get a dollar-an-hour raise?”

President Donald Trump has accused meatpackers of driving up beef prices through collusion and directed the Department of Justice to investigate them. Cargill and JBS are among four major U.S. beef processors, along with Tyson Foods and National Beef Packing Company.             

“When the beef industry is doing bad, we’re willing to be with them,” Modecker said. “But when the beef industry is doing good, we want them to pay us.”

Cargill said it has halted slaughtering in Fort Morgan since April 23 and redirected cattle to other processing plants. The facility’s costs exceed its returns, according to the company.

“We cannot operate the facility safely and responsibly amid continued uncertainty of a potential work stoppage,” Cargill said.

Cargill continued to pay employees while slaughtering stopped, though that ended after workers rejected the contract offer, Modecker said. He said workers were also frustrated over bathroom breaks.

“Literally we have people urinating in their pants because they are not allowed to go to the bathroom,” he said.

Cargill said it was committed to providing employees adequate restroom access and treating them with dignity.

This spring, about 3,800 employees ‌at JBS’s beef plant in Greeley, Colorado, went on strike over pay and working conditions. At Tyson Foods, thousands of workers lost their jobs this year when the company closed a beef plant in Nebraska and reduced operations at a Texas facility.

(Reporting by Tom Polansek; Editing by Emily Schmall and David Gregorio)

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By Zaheer Kachwala, Stephen Nellis and Max A. Cherney

May 20 (Reuters) – Nvidia forecast second-quarter revenue above Wall Street expectations on Wednesday and announced an $80 billion share repurchase program.

Shares of the company ticked down 0.2% in extended trading.

The world’s most valuable company expects revenue of $91 billion, plus or minus 2%, compared with estimates of $86.84 billion, according to data compiled by LSEG.

Nvidia’s results are largely considered a barometer for the AI market’s health, as its chips are used in virtually every major data center in the world, powering the largest and most advanced AI models.

“Nvidia delivered another beat, but at this point that’s essentially priced in as it keeps beating quarter after quarter,” said eMarketer analyst Jacob Bourne. “The lingering question is whether it can convince investors the AI buildout has durability into 2027 and 2028, especially as the narrative shifts toward inference workloads and competing silicon from Google, Amazon, AMD, and Intel.”

The company also said it would increase its quarterly cash dividend to 25 cents per share from 1 cent.

Spending on AI infrastructure continues to grow rapidly, with U.S. tech giants, including Alphabet, Amazon and Microsoft, expected to spend more than $700 billion on AI this year, a sharp jump from around $400 billion in 2025.

RISING COMPETITION FROM CUSTOM CHIPS

While heavily relying on Nvidia’s expensive processors, the companies are also pouring funds into developing their own custom chips to run models, posing a risk to Nvidia’s long-held dominance over the chip industry.

Those chips are targeted at inferencing – the process by which AI responds to user queries – which represents a much larger market than training.

Nvidia is facing competition not only from Big Tech but also from other chip rivals, including Intel and Advanced Micro Devices, which have touted a large revenue opportunity from the inference market.

COMPANY MOVES TO PROTECT POSITION

The Santa Clara, California-based company has made moves to defend its position. It unveiled a new central processor and AI system built on technology from Groq – a chip startup specializing in inference – in March.

In the company’s quarterly results call with financial analysts, Nvidia’s finance chief, Colette Kress, said the market for Nvidia’s central processors, or CPUs, is roughly $200 billion and the company has “visibility into nearly $20 billion in total CPU revenue” this fiscal year.

The company is also spending heavily to ensure it does not hit supply-chain snags during a global memory chip crunch. Nvidia said on Wednesday that its supply rose to $119 billion in the fiscal first quarter, up from $95.2 billion the previous quarter.

Nvidia reported first-quarter revenue of $81.62 billion, beating analysts’ average estimate of $78.86 billion, according to data compiled by LSEG.

Data center revenue in the quarter came in at $75.2 billion, compared with the average analyst estimate of $72.8 billion.

On an adjusted basis, the firm earned $1.87 per share, compared with market estimates of $1.76.

Nvidia also disclosed $30 billion worth of cloud computing agreements, up sequentially from $27 billion, which it said were to help its research and development efforts. Seaport analyst Jay Goldberg said in a research note last year that such commitment likely represents “backstops” in which Nvidia agrees to pay cloud computing companies that buy its hardware for excess capacity from those companies running Nvidia systems.

(Reporting by Zaheer Kachwala and Anhata Rooprai in Bengaluru and Stephen Nellis and Max A. Cherney in San Francisco Editing by Shinjini Ganguli and Matthew Lewis)

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NEW YORK (AP) — Promising a commitment to “ambitious journalism and agenda-setting conversations,” media scion James Murdoch has struck a deal with the Vox Media digital company to acquire New York magazine, the Vox Media Podcast Network and the Vox editorial brand.

The deal with Vox, widely seen as liberal-leaning, represents a major move toward his own media empire for the 53-year-old younger son of Rupert Murdoch, who himself owned New York Magazine from 1976 until 1991. And it comes less than a year after the Murdoch family reached a deal on control of the 95-year-old mogul’s media empire after his death, ensuring no change in direction at Fox News, the most popular network for conservatives, under Rupert’s chosen heir, Lachlan Murdoch.

Under the new deal, expected to close within weeks, Lupa Systems, James Murdoch’s media company, acquires the three divisions — about half of Vox Media. Neither Vox Media nor Lupa was disclosing the sum. The New York Times cited people familiar with the matter saying it was more than $300 million. The acquired divisions will operate, according to a statement, as a subsidiary of Lupa — called Vox Media.

Not included in the deal are the Vox brands Eater, Popsugar, SB Nation, The Dodo, and The Verge. But the deal does include, along with New York magazine, its verticals The Cut, Vulture, Intelligencer, The Strategist, Curbed, and Grub Street.

It also includes the Vox Media Podcast Network. which features wildly popular shows like “Criminal” and “Pivot” with Kara Swisher and Scott Galloway. The network “has been the fastest growing business within Vox Media and will immediately put Lupa at the top of the podcast field,” said the Vox statement.

James Murdoch, a former CEO of 21st Century Fox who resigned from the board of News Corporation in 2020 over differences about content and direction, is known to hold less conservative views than his father. In the deal reached last year, James and his two older sisters. Prudence MacLeod and Elisabeth Murdoch, gave up any claims to control of Fox in exchange for stock valued at the time at $3.3 billion.

That deal created a trust establishing control of the Fox Corp. for Lachlan Murdoch, along with his younger sisters, Grace and Chloe.

In his own remarks about the Vox deal, James Murdoch said the acquisition “aligns well with our existing holdings and investments and reflects both our interest in the forward edge of culture and our deep commitment to ambitious journalism and agenda-setting conversations.

It will allow us to apply new tools across the businesses we are building, adding substantial production, distribution, and editorial capability to our group,” Murdoch said.

Current Vox chairman and CEO Jim Bankoff will lead the new Vox Media, becoming CEO of the new company upon closing.

“We are incredibly proud to have built and scaled several of the leading media properties of this generation,” Bankoff said. “Together under Lupa’s stewardship we are primed to be the best home for talent and the most dynamic media company of this new era.”

David Haskell, New York magazine’s editor-in-chief, noted in an email to subscribers that Lupa now becomes the magazine’s sixth owner since 1968.

Haskell promised that the magazine would continue with “the fearless, independent journalism that you expect from us.”

“We will continue to create news cycles, start conversations, contribute to the most important debates in politics and society, identify and explore what’s most interesting in contemporary culture, and always do our best to challenge our readers, surprise them, and help them make sense of the modern world,” Haskell said.

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Jocelyn Noveck covers the intersection of media and entertainment for The Associated Press.

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Artificial intelligence chipmaker Nvidia’s quarterly results surpassed Wall Street’s expectations once again, fueled by massive demand for its high-end AI chips.

The company said Wednesday it earned $58.32 billion, or $2.39 per share, in the February-April period, up from $18.78 billion, or 76 cents per share, in the same period a year earlier. Excluding one-time items, Nvidia earned $1.76 per share.

Revenue jumped 85% to $81.62 billion from $44.01 billion.

Analysts, on average, were expecting earnings of $1.75 per share and revenue of $78.91 billion, according to a poll by FactSet. Nvidia’s results have exceeded the analyst projections that shape investors’ perceptions since Nvidia’s high-end chips emerged as AI’s best building blocks three years ago.

“The buildout of AI factories — the largest infrastructure expansion in human history — is accelerating at extraordinary speed,” said CEO Jensen Huang in a statement.

For the current quarter, Nvidia forecast revenue of about $91 billion. Analysts are forecasting $87.29 billion.

Shares of the Santa Clara, California-based company dipped slightly after-hours to $222.12 after closing at $223.47 in the regular trading session. As of Wednesday’s close, Nvidia had a market value of $5.4 trillion.

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By Christina Amann, Marie Mannes and Nick Carey

BERLIN/STOCKHOLM/LONDON, May 20 (Reuters) – Demand for electric vehicles in Europe has surged as high fuel prices linked to the Iran war propel sales of new and second-hand EVs, data exclusively shared with Reuters shows, providing a much-needed boost to the auto industry.

Although sales of fully electric cars grew 30% across Europe in 2025, EV adoption on the continent has lagged industry expectations. Carmakers from Volkswagen to Fiat-owner Stellantis, which had invested heavily in expectation of much higher EV demand, have over the last year booked multi-billion-dollar charges to cover asset writedowns.

Buyers’ calculations have been transformed by an upsurge in international oil prices to well above $100 a barrel since U.S. and Israeli airstrikes on Iran at the end of February unleashed a wider conflict and led to unprecedented energy supply disruption.

“This isn’t a blip, it’s an inflection point,” said Gurjeet Grewal, CEO of UK-based Octopus Electric Vehicles, which registered a 95% year-on-year increase in demand for new EVs and 160% rise for used EVs in April.

As a net importer of energy, Britain has been particularly exposed to increases in inflation and food prices.

Across Europe, data provided to Reuters by research group New Automotive and industry group E-Mobility Europe, showed registrations of new EVs rose 34%, year-on-year, in April.

The data covers 16 markets that account for more than 80% of European Union and European Free Trade Association car sales.

It showed strong EV growth in Denmark and the Netherlands, where electric cars are already popular, but also in markets such as Italy, where EVs have been slow to take off.

Volvo Cars’ Chief Commercial Officer Erik Severinson said the Swedish automaker’s orders have risen, especially for its entry-level small EX30 electric SUV “where customers are most sensitive to increase in oil prices”.

“We are also seeing increased customer enquiries in our fully-electric cars even in southern European markets where EV penetration is comparatively lower,” Severinsson said.

CARMAKERS CONSIDER PRODUCING MORE EVS

France’s Renault said 50% of its registrations in Britain in April were EVs, with EV-related enquiries on its UK website up 48% since the Iran war began. April registrations – which lag orders – are the first to fully reflect the impact of the Iran war.

“Interest in Renault’s EV range has undergone a seismic shift,” said Renault UK managing director Adam Wood.

A source at the automaker, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the company was working to raise production.

Markus Haupt, CEO of the Seat/Cupra – both Volkswagen brands – said in early May his sales team in Germany reported that EVs made up nearly 60% of orders, well above their quota of 25%.

“We have a production budget for this year,” Haupt said. “But maybe we’ll need to increase the amount of EVs.”

CHINESE BRANDS APPEAL FOR AFFORDABILITY

Online marketplaces have also experienced increased searches for new and used EVs, with a pronounced jump for Chinese brands with their more affordable models.

Since the war began, German marketplace Carwow said its share of EV enquiries has risen to 75% from around 40%, while conventional gasoline engine cars have fallen to 16% from 33%.

“What is striking is the strong momentum of Chinese manufacturers,” said Carwow Germany Managing Director Philipp Sayler von Amende. Major names like BYD have gone from “niche brands” to some of the most sought-after.

Carwow said purchase inquiries for BYD on its website grew by a massive 25,000% in the first quarter, while those for Leapmotor increased 436% and Xpeng rose 153%.

Rival online marketplace ​OLX said customer enquiries for EVs on its French website were up 80% since the war began.

During past spikes in fuel prices dating back to the 1970s, consumers also switched to more fuel-efficient cars but changed back to less efficient ones when the pain at the fuel pump abated.

This time could be different, industry players said.

“The Iran conflict has fundamentally reshaped how people think about energy security in their daily lives,” said OLX CEO Christian Gisy. “Europeans have shifted from ‘maybe someday’ to ‘right now’ on electric vehicles.”

(Reporting by Christina Amann, Marie Mannes and Nick Carey; Additional reporting by Gilles Guillaume in Paris and Kalea Hall in Detroit; Editing by Adam Jourdan and Barbara Lewis)

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