Finance

The United States is planning to restart three closed nuclear plants to address rising energy needs. These plants were shut down due to high electricity costs but are now sought after for carbon-free energy. Large technology companies are contracting for power from these facilities, ensuring a stable revenue. Restarting these plants will be faster and cheaper than building new reactors.

Anthropic is offering Blackstone a yield above 10% for a $60 billion chip debt financing plan called Project North Star. The plan would fund the purchase of about 1.5 gigawatts of custom Google TPU chips. Blackstone is set to invest $9 billion to buy half of the subordinated loans in the deal. The transaction is seen as a key test of demand for AI-related debt, at a time when similarly rated corporate borrowers pay about 7% to raise funds in the public bond market.

Consensus estimates for India Inc's FY27 profit growth have been cut sharply as the Iran conflict drives up input costs and a weaker rupee adds to the strain, according to a report from Axis Securities. Aggregate earnings growth for September is now put at -16.9%, down from 2% in February. Consumer staples were trimmed to -3.8% from 9.8%, while real estate was upgraded to 28.1% on sustained demand for premium housing. Higher energy, freight and imported component costs were the main drag.

Elon Musk unveiled Tesla's new Roadster, which uses high-pressure air thrusters to leave the road entirely during a livestreamed event at his SpaceX facility in Texas.

UK Chancellor John Healey is considering raising the surcharge on bank profits from 3% to 8% to fund cost of living support. Banks are expecting a tax raid after the Iran war pushed interest rates higher and lifted their earnings. The Treasury has called the banking sector a jewel of the economy, but says decisions must be taken before the Budget. NatWest and Lloyds shares fell more than 2% on Friday.

Netflix stock is down nearly 50 percent compared to last year and now director David Fincher has decided to leave.

Travelers reported third-quarter 2026 results, with adjusted net income up 4% from a year earlier to $1.95bn. Earnings per share rose 13% to $9.18. The insurer's combined ratio improved 0.5 percentage points to 86.8%, while its underlying combined ratio, which strips out catastrophe losses, worsened 0.2 percentage points to 84.1%. Net investment income climbed 7% to $908m, and the company returned $1.8bn of capital to shareholders through share repurchases.

Another reason for Donald Trump to hate British regulation

Netflix is profitable and still growing. So why did it lay off 6% of its employees, cutting 1,000 jobs in its biggest workforce reduction to date?