08/06/2026

BIZ & FINANCE MONDAY | JUNE 8, 2026

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Wall Street ends sharply lower as chips slide o Strong American jobs data fuels Fed rate hike fears

French telecom giants reach deal to buy SFR

PARIS: Three French telecoms giants said Saturday they had signed a deal to buy rival SFR after months of negotiations for a takeover of the ailing firm. The companies – Bouygues Telecom, Orange and Free owner Iliad – said SFR parent Altice had accepted their offer of €20.35 billion (RM94 billion) for the struggling mobile operator. The deal could reshape the French telecoms landscape by reducing the number of main operators from four to three. It is “one of the largest industrial transactions in the telecommunications sector in Europe”, the companies said in a joint statement. The deal includes a potential bonus of up to €650 million on closing the sale, and a promise to SFR employees not to cut any jobs until 2029. Bouygues would acquire 42 per cent of SFR’s operations, Iliad 31 per cent and Orange 27 per cent. In October, Altice rejected a bid of €17 billion for SFR, France’s second-biggest mobile operator. Tough competition among France’s four major operators has weighed on SFR’s sales and subscriber numbers in recent years. Altice’s billionaire owner Patrick Drahi borrowed massively to amass a telecoms and media empire. But he has recently been forced to sell assets. He had to give creditors a 45-per cent stake in the group after restructuring a €24 billion debt load last year. The negotiations for SFR have drawn scrutiny from competition regulators, with President Emmanuel Macron warning during the first sale attempt that the government would be “extremely vigilant” about the impact on prices for consumers. – AFP India sets standard pack sizes for cooking oils BENGALURU: India has ordered cooking oil makers and importers to sell their products only in a fixed set of pack sizes, a move the government said on Saturday would help shoppers compare prices across brands more easily. The order targets a common pricing tactic in the world’s most populous nation, where oils sold in odd, non-standard sizes leave buyers unable to tell which brand offers the best value for a kitchen staple. Packaging will be limited to nine standard sizes ranging from 200 millilitres to 20 litres, replacing the varied volumes currently available. The rules apply to both domestically produced and imported edible oils, and cover major varieties including palm, soybean, sunflower, mustard and groundnut. Companies have been given three months to switch to the new sizes. Packages that declare their contents by volume must also state the equivalent weight, a step the government said would further aid price comparison. Containers smaller than 200 millilitres and minor edible oils have been exempted to keep affordable small packs on shelves. The decision followed consultations with industry associations representing 90% of India’s edible oil sector, the Department of Consumer Affairs said. – Reuters

“Everyone’s that perhaps this rally off the March lows has run its course for the time being,” said Briefing.com’s Patrick O’Hare. “So you have sort of some blanket selling today by plenty of investors who ran with this thing as long as they could run with it.” Tech tremors also hit Asian markets. South Korea’s tech-heavy stock market tanked almost seven per cent at one point Friday, before ending down 5.5 per cent. The Nikkei in Tokyo was off more than one per cent, matching Thursday’s retreat. The losses come as investors anticipate the coming IPO by Elon Musk’s SpaceX, which is aiming to raise US$75 billion in the world’s biggest initial public offering. In Europe, both Frankfurt and Paris ended lower after official data showed a contraction in eurozone economic growth in the first quarter, which was dragged down by a sharp decline in Irish output due to accounting measures of multinationals. – AFP realising

NEW YORK: Wall Street’s key indices closed heavily in the red on Friday, hit by a massive sell-off in technology stocks following a recent surge driven by AI investment, and fears of US Fed rate hikes on the horizon. Oil prices retreated despite continued clashes in Lebanon, with no apparent progress in reaching a US-Iran peace deal that would open up energy exports through the Strait of Hormuz. Data showed the US economy added 172,000 jobs in May, far more than the 80,000 expected by economists polled by Dow Jones Newswires and The Wall Street Journal . Figures for the last two months were also revised higher by 93,000 indicating the US economy is resilient as rising energy costs from the Middle East war begin to hit consumers and businesses. While the figures are “good news for the US economy, borrowers and

Nasdaq plunging more than four per cent, the S&P 500 more than two per cent and the Dow more than one per cent. After pushing equity markets to record highs this year, technology firms are facing selling pressure on concerns that the eye-watering sums pumped into AI may have been overdone. The so-called “Magnificent Seven,” which includes AI players Nvidia, Google-parent Alphabet and Meta, closed lower. Meta’s stock was also weighed down by reports the company was considering a stock offering to raise tens of billions of dollars in funding for its AI push. US chipmaker Broadcom also sparked concern this week after its revenue forecast for the third quarter undershot expectations. Broadcom’s shares fell almost eight per cent on Friday, and those of rival Micron Technology dropped more than 13 per cent.

investors may feel differently,” said eToro analyst Bret Kenwell. In a best scenario, he said, a rapid resolution of the conflict that allows oil prices to drop would allow the US Federal Reserve to ride out the recent spike in inflation. “However, if policymakers even start talking about rate hikes or taking a more hawkish posture, that could throw cold water on the recent stock market surge,” Kenwell said. Yields on US Treasury bonds rose in response to the data as investors anticipated higher rates to come from the Fed. The dollar rose against main rivals as well. “This report adds to pressure on the Fed to drop its easing bias, but it may not trigger a rush to price in rate hikes anytime soon,” said Kathleen Brooks at XTB. Wall Street’s main indices all saw significant losses, with the

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang speaks to reporters as he arrives at Gimpo airport in Seoul. – AFPPIC

OpenAI plans ChatGPT ‘superapp’ overhaul: FT NEW YORK: OpenAI is planning its biggest ChatGPT overhaul yet, aiming to turn it into a “superapp” with coding tools and AI more than a dozen current and former employees. Reuters could not immediately verify the report.

to rise to 50% by year-end. ChatGPT serves more than 900 million weekly active users, OpenAI said earlier this year, adding that it had surpassed 50 million consumer subscribers. Reuters reported in May that OpenAI was preparing a confidential US IPO filing in the coming weeks. However, CEO Sam Altman has said the company is not focused on timing and will go public when it makes sense.– Reuters

To drive uptake, OpenAI is redesigning ChatGPT’s interface with new prompts and features steering users toward coding tools, image generation and partner services such as Canva and Booking.com, the report added. Most Codex users are paying customers, while two million businesses account for about 40% of OpenAI’s revenue, FT said. The newspaper added that the company expects that share

OpenAI did not immediately respond to Reuters’ request for comment. The overhaul will give greater prominence and resources to OpenAI’s coding product Codex and is set to roll out in the coming weeks, initially appearing as updates to ChatGPT’s website and mobile apps, the FT said.

agents to boost revenue ahead of a potential stock market listing, the Financial Times reported yesterday. The changes are part of a broader reorganisation at OpenAI, as it shifts resources to target lucrative enterprise clients and intensify competition with rival Anthropic, the report said, citing