Category: Business

Business

2GO Just Put Bus, Van and Ferry Trips Into One Booking — And It Could Change How Filipinos Travel Across the Islands

MANILA — For millions of Filipinos, getting from one island to another has often meant stitching together separate bus tickets, ferry bookings, van transfers and terminal schedules. 2GO Travel now wants to turn that fragmented journey into one itinerary. The shipping company has launched TraveLink, a multimodal travel service that combines 2GO sea fares with connecting bus and van transportation, allowing passengers to arrange multiple legs of a domestic trip under a single booking. Instead of

6d

Business

AMC Jumps, Lululemon Crashes and Rare-Earth Stocks Rally as Wall Street’s Premarket Turns Wild

NEW YORK — Before Wall Street even opened Friday, investors were already dealing with several very different market shocks. AMC Entertainment jumped. Lululemon collapsed. U.S. rare-earth stocks rallied. Samsara and Planet Labs surged. Adobe dropped after naming its next CEO. And a group of enterprise-software stocks learned an increasingly painful lesson: beating yesterday’s numbers may no longer be enough. CNBC’s September 4 premarket snapshot showed just how fragmented the U.S. market has be

6d

Business

Samsung’s ₱50.7-Billion Philippine Expansion Is Bringing 30 Korean Suppliers to Scout Sites — But the Bigger Prize Is the Supply Chain

MANILA — Samsung Electro-Mechanics’ massive expansion in the Philippines may be about to trigger something potentially more important than one big investment: an entire ecosystem of suppliers following it into the country. Around 30 Tier 1 suppliers of Samsung Electro-Mechanics Co. Ltd. are expected to visit the Philippines in October to conduct due diligence and evaluate possible investment sites, according to the Philippine Economic Zone Authority. The companies are being courted as the gove

6d

Business

AI Startup Boom Faces a Reality Check as VCs Turn Picky on Sky-High Valuations

After years of investors racing to secure exposure to artificial intelligence, venture capital firms are showing signs of becoming more selective—raising the possibility that the next stage of the AI boom could produce a painful shakeout among startups unable to prove that their technology creates meaningful economic value. CNBC reported that investors are increasingly focusing on productivity, revenue and cash flow rather than simply rewarding companies for attaching artificial intelligence to

6d

Business

South Korea’s AI Chip Boom Is Changing Dating, TV and College Choices — But the Biggest Shift May Be Happening to Jobs

SEOUL — South Korea’s artificial-intelligence boom is no longer confined to chip factories, corporate earnings calls or stock-market screens. It is beginning to show up in an unlikely set of places: dating preferences, reality shows, university majors and the career decisions of young Koreans. Employees of semiconductor giants Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix, once regarded mainly as well-paid engineers at blue-chip companies, are increasingly being treated as some of the country’s most desira

6d

Business

Bitcoin’s 3-Week Rally Hits a Macro Wall After $82,000 Breakout — Now Inflation and the Fed Hold the Key

Bitcoin surged to its highest level in nearly four months and appeared headed for a third straight winning week, powered by a revived “debasement trade” and renewed institutional demand. Then one surprisingly strong U.S. jobs report reminded crypto traders how quickly the Federal Reserve can change the game. Bitcoin climbed as high as $82,272.31 early Friday, its strongest level since May, after breaking out of the roughly $60,000-to-$70,000 trading range that had dominated much of the summer.

6d

Business

White House Quietly Vets Candidates for 4 Empty CFTC Seats — Just as a Make-or-Break Crypto Vote Nears

WASHINGTON — The White House has reportedly vetted candidates for all four vacant seats at one of America’s most important financial regulators, potentially opening a new front in the political battle over who will police the rapidly expanding U.S. cryptocurrency market. CNBC reported Friday, September 4, citing three people familiar with the matter, that the Trump administration has reviewed potential candidates for the four open commissioner positions at the Commodity Futures Trading Commissi

6d

Business

Proterial Is Building LIMA Estate’s First Ground-Mounted Solar Plant — But the Bigger Story Could Start After 2027

BATANGAS, Philippines — One of Southern Luzon’s biggest industrial hubs is taking another step toward cleaner manufacturing, and this time the solar panels are going on the ground. Advent Upgrade Solar Inc. (AUSI) and Proterial Philippines Inc. have signed a 20-year power purchase agreement for a 1,587.20-kilowatt-peak, or roughly 1.59-megawatt-peak, ground-mounted solar photovoltaic system at Proterial’s manufacturing facility inside LIMA Estate in Batangas. The project is targeted to begin c

6d

Business

Philippine Peso Crashes to Record ₱62.59 per Dollar — And Rising Oil Prices Could Make the Pain Worse

MANILA, Philippines — The Philippine peso has fallen to another historic low, closing at ₱62.59 against the US dollar on Friday, September 4, as surging global oil prices, a stronger greenback and rising US Treasury yields pile fresh pressure on the Philippine economy. The currency weakened by seven centavos from Thursday’s ₱62.52 close, eclipsing the previous record of ₱62.565 set just two days earlier. It marked the peso’s fifth record-low finish in six trading sessions, underscoring how quic

6d

Business

PH Businesses Turn More Pessimistic Than During Key COVID Periods—Here’s What’s Driving the Sudden Gloom

MANILA, Philippines — Philippine businesses have turned sharply pessimistic, with confidence plunging to levels that were weaker than those recorded in published business surveys during major periods of the COVID-19 crisis. The latest Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) Business Expectations Survey showed the overall business confidence index collapsing to -20.3% in July 2026, from a neutral 0% in June. A negative reading means pessimistic firms outnumbered optimistic ones. The deterioration co

6d