Commodity

The cryptocurrency market has continued its slide from last week, mirroring the fall of the broader stock market. The world’s largest cryptocurrency, bitcoin, fell to $31,075.70 on Monday evening, a 10% drop from Sunday at 5 p.m. EDT, according to prices from CoinDesk. Bitcoin’s price has fallen 54% from its record high of $67,802 in November. It is on track for the worst five-day stretch since the five days ended March 16, 2020, when it fell almost 38%.…

Chinese companies like Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. BABA -5.79% are embracing buybacks and one-off dividends, handing cash to shareholders as they seek to shore up their battered stock prices and signal confidence in the long-term outlook. The dividend payouts and stock repurchases could help support a market that has been rattled by a series of challenges, which range from the economic impact of Beijing’s Covid-19 policies and sweeping regulatory crackdowns to concerns…

The decline of bitcoin, the world’s largest cryptocurrency, mirrored the slide of the overall stock market. Photo: Kin Cheung/Associated Press…

The technology industry, which powered the U.S. economy during the pandemic and grew at tremendous scale during a decade of ultralow interest rates, is confronting one of the most punishing stretches in years.Global powerhouses and fledgling startups are feeling pain from a variety of economic, industry and market factors, spawning postpandemic turbulence in e-commerce, digital advertising, electric vehicles, ride-hailing and other segments. Companies that emerged as job-creating juggernauts in the past two…

The European Union is struggling to finalize the terms of an oil embargo on Russia amid resistance by Hungary, whose leader claimed Friday that the proposed embargo would hit his economy like an atomic bomb.Prime Minister Viktor Orban has long cultivated close ties with Moscow and hasn’t joined other EU and North Atlantic Treaty Organization countries in trying to arm Ukraine. He is insisting on more time and EU money if Hungary is to join the rest of the bloc in transitioning away from…

Oil prices are at their highest in years and politicians want companies to pump more. But most large American frackers are standing pat, or even letting production decline, and instead are handing investors cash.Much of the U.S. shale industry recently reported higher profits than in the same quarter a year earlier, but companies aren’t reinvesting more in production—indeed, some have let U.S. output slip as they focus on paying investors. Nine of the largest U.S. oil producers this week said they shelled out a combined…

WASHINGTON—The Securities and Exchange Commission will boost the size of its special unit devoted to investigating cryptocurrency frauds and other misconduct, a move that follows the agency’s aggressive push to get the unregulated industry to come under federal supervision. The SEC said it plans to add 20 investigators and litigators to its Crypto Assets and Cyber Unit, which was created in September 2017 when regulators noticed a surge of new digital coins sold to the public. The…

Tesla Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk said on Sunday the US electric carmaker and his rocket company SpaceX are facing significant inflationary pressure in raw materials and logistics.Musk in a tweet also asked about inflation rate outlook and said his companies "are not alone", retweeting an article saying the Ukraine-Russia conflict sent commodity prices to their highest levels since 2008.Russia's invasion of Ukraine has been ramping up the prices of metals used in cars, from aluminum in the bodywork to palladium in…