Business

The BOSE display at the Berkshire Hathaway Annual Shareholders Meeting in Omaha, Nebraska.David A. Grogan | CNBCBose Corp. will purchase the McIntosh Group, a deal that will give the Massachusetts-based company control of one of the most storied names in high-end audio.McIntosh will continue to manufacture the high-end audio equipment it is known for out of its longtime headquarters in Binghamton, New York, Bose CEO Lila Snyder said. The deal also includes Sonus Faber, a company that makes high-end speakers by hand in Italy.The purchase of the two audio workshops provides Bose access into the high-end luxury audio market, Snyder told CNBC in an interview. "There is this opportunity for luxury, where the consumer is more discerning, really interested in the heritage and the story, and that ...

Autonomous driving technology company WeRide has plenty of room to grow as a result of its early-mover advantage in the global self-driving market, according to Morgan Stanley, which brought the firm public in an IPO last month at $15.50 a share . Analyst Tim Hsiao initiated research coverage of Guangzhou, China-based WeRide with an overweight rating and a price target of $23, implying more than 25% upside for the stock versus Monday's close. WeRide rallied as much as 6% in early trading Tuesday to $19.43. WeRide offers several driverless vehicles such as robobuses, robotaxis and robovans, holds driverless permits in the U.S., China, the UAE and Singapore and is involved in trial and commercial activities in 30 cities. The company has partnered with Uber in the UAE, and Hsiao expects its r...

The Frenchwoman whose husband is on trial for inviting 50 men to rape her over a period of 10 years has accused them of "cowardice" and said they should have reported him to the police.Gisele Pelicot, 71, has waived her right to anonymity and gave evidence for the third time in Avignon on Tuesday. Her husband Dominique Pelicot, 72, has already admitted drugging and raping her, and allowing some 50 others to abuse her while she was unconscious.Most of the other men deny rape, claiming they thought she was asleep as part of roleplay or they were forced to have sex with her by Mr Pelicot.On Tuesday, Ms Pelicot told the courtroom: "For me, this is the trial of cowardice, there is no other way to describe it." She went on: "It is time for society to look at this macho, patriarchal society and c...

Geopolitics are raining on the stock market's parade, but other trades are working. U.S. stock futures fell Tuesday as tensions between Ukraine and Russia intensified. Contracts tied to the Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 539 points, or 1.2%. S & P 500 and Nasdaq-100 futures shed 1.1% each. Russian President Vladmir Putin warned Tuesday that the threshold for using nuclear weapons has fallen. The Kremlin's stance now is that Russia would consider using such weaponry if it — or its allies — were met with "with the use of conventional weapons that created a critical threat to their sovereignty and (or) their territorial integrity." That follows news that Ukraine hit a Russian border city with U.S.-made missiles. Global equities were also under pressure. The German DAX fell more than 1%...

Moscow signaled to the West that it's ready for a nuclear confrontation after Ukraine was given permission to attack Russian territory — and appeared to quickly act on that greenlight — using U.S.-made long-range missiles.Kyiv appeared to waste little time after reportedly being given the go-ahead by Washington Sunday to use U.S.-made ATACMS missiles against specific targets. Ukrainian news outlets reported early Tuesday that the missiles had been used to attack a Russian military facility in the Bryansk border region.Russia then confirmed the attack, with the Ministry of Defense confirming that Ukrainian forces had "struck a facility in [the] Bryansk region" using six ballistic, American-made ATACMS missiles. The ministry claimed air defense missile systems had shot down five of the missi...

Despite rising competition, Nvidia holds 80% of the fast-growing market for artificial intelligence chips as the tech industry's graphics processing unit, or GPU, of choice for making and deploying generative AI software.What investors will want to see when Nvidia reports its third-quarter earnings on Wednesday is whether it can continue to grow at a fierce rate, even as the boom in AI enters its third year.Nvidia is entering "uncharted territory" as it attempts to continue growing on a $3.5 trillion market cap, wrote HSBC analyst Frank Lee in a report this week."We have pondered this amazing growth trajectory and not only do we see no signs of a slowdown, we expect further upside in 2026 data center momentum," Lee said in his note. He has a buy rating on the stock.Future growth will have ...

On Monday, British tech lobby group Startup Coalition warned in a blog post that there was a risk Reeves' tax plans could result in a tech "brain drain.". (Photo by Oli Scarff/Getty Images)Oli Scarff | Getty ImagesVenture capital investment in European technology startups is projected to decline for a third straight year, according to VC firm Atomico — but there are signs that things are finally stabilizing as valuations improve and interest rates fall.Europe's venture-backed startups are expected to secure $45 billion of investment by the end of 2024 — slightly lower than the $47 billion they raised last year, Atomico said Tuesday in its "State of European Tech" report.Still, Atomico said this shows that European tech funding levels have finally "stabilized" despite worsening global macro...

Howard Marks, co-chairman, Oaktree Capital.Courtesy David A. Grogan | CNBCBillionaire investor Howard Marks said he was hopeful about China's economy, but cautioned that the country's growth target was a monumental challenge."I'm still optimistic on China's long-term possibilities, as long as they execute well and as long as they remain constructive with regard to the rest of the world," the co-chairman of Oaktree Capital Management said.Marks told CNBC's Emily Tan on the sidelines of the third Global Financial Leaders Investment Summit hosted by the Hong Kong Monetary Authority that "Even though the growth rate they [China] are targeting sounds modest compared to their history, it's still very much above average for for the rest of the world, and will represent a Herculean challenge."Chin...

A general view of the gate of the Thyssenkrupp industrial area in Duisburg, Germany, on August 29, 2024. (Photo by Ying Tang/NurPhoto via Getty Images).Nurphoto | Nurphoto | Getty ImagesShares of Germany's Thyssenkrupp jumped on Tuesday after the company posted a narrowed net loss and a 1-billion-euro ($1.06 billion) impairment on the firm's struggling steel division.The company's Frankfurt-listed stock was up 7.5% at 8:48 a.m. London time.Thyssenkrupp posted adjusted earnings before interest and taxes of 151 million euros in the fourth quarter, coming in above a Visible Alpha consensus of 120 million euros, according to Reuters. Across the full fiscal year ending Sept. 30, it narrowed its net loss to 1.5 billion euros after deducting minority interest, compared to a net loss of 2 billion...

Chancellor Rachel Reeves gives a speech at the Treasury on July 8, 2024 in London, England.Pool | Getty Images News | Getty ImagesLONDON — Doubts are mounting over the Labour government's flagship growth and investment agenda, with one analyst warning further tax rises could be coming as soon as next year.U.K. Finance Minister Rachel Reeves last week announced a series of reforms, including financial services deregulation and measures to boost pension investments — the latest in a slew of changes aimed at getting the country's economy growing again.A higher economic growth rate could theoretically boost the government's tax take without the need to raise taxes further, because overall revenues would be higher. Labour has a fine balance to strike, however, in keeping taxes high enough to fu...