The number of Americans filing for jobless benefits for the first time last week was 262k, notably higher than the 248k the prior week. That is the highest since Nov26 2021.

Applications for US unemployment insurance rose for a second week and held near the highest level since November, indicating continued moderation in the labor market.

Initial unemployment claims increased by 14,000 to 262,000 in the week ended Aug. 6, Labor Department data showed Thursday. The median estimate in a Bloomberg survey of economists called for 265,000 applications.

The Producer Price Index (PPI) for final demand in the US declined to 9.8% on a yearly basis in July from 11.3% in June, the data published by the US Bureau of Labor Statistics revealed on Thursday. This print came in lower than the market expectation of 10.4%. 

The annual Core PPI fell to 7.6% from 8.2%, matching the market expectation. On a monthly basis, the Core PPI fell by 0.5% following June's 1% increase.

NAIROBI, Aug 11 (Reuters) - Two days after Kenya's general election, officials had yet to announce who is leading the presidential race in East Africa's regional powerhouse, as confused citizens struggled to make sense of divergent tallies from the media in a nail-bitingly close race.

Media houses are compiling results from images of forms that the election commission uploaded on to its website from more than 46,229 polling stations, a mammoth task that means their tallies lag far behind the amount of raw data available.

Some citizens worried the media's differing tallies could inflame claims of rigging, which have sparked violence in past elections. Many urged fellow citizens to wait for the official results.

Global oil supplies are slowly catching up with flagging demand for crude, leaving the oil market close to balanced, the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries said, suggesting the cartel sees little need in the short term to increase its output further.

The Vienna-based producers’ group cut its forecasts for global oil demand this year by 260,000 barrels to 100.03 million barrels a day, citing the impact of slowing global economies. It also cut its demand forecasts for 2023 by the same amount to 102.72 million barrels a day.

After 27 straight monthly increases, Producer Prices dropped in July (-0.5%), notably colder than the +0.2% expected - the biggest drop since April 2020. But on a YoY basis, PPI remains up a shocking 9.8%...

There was a fairly significant revision, but the claims rebounded back toward the original levels from last week and seen most recently near the 260K. The trend has been more to the upside but the employment report from Friday showed a much stronger than expected gain in jobs as service sector continues to rebuild from post pandemic declines.

The US stocks moved higher after the better-than-expected PPI, but there is some retracement of the spike higher.

This is the cherry-on-top after yesterday's CPI data. It adds to the belief that inflation has peaked. The question now is whether it will fall back to 2% at this time next year or 4%.

The US dollar is at the lows of the day after the data, breaking yesterday's lows on most fronts. USD/JPY is down 105 pips to 131.80.

LONDON, Aug 11 (Reuters) - Haleon - GSK's recently spun off consumer health unit - is not a party to U.S. litigation focused on the heartburn medicine Zantac, a spokesperson told Reuters on Thursday.

"We have never marketed Zantac in any form in the U.S., as Haleon or as GSK consumer healthcare," the spokesperson said, responding to Reuters queryinga near-20% decline in Haleon's share price this week.

The spokesperson said the drug has been sold by several companies since 1995 andthat "may make third parties liable ahead of any Haleon exposure."

LONDON, Aug 10 (Reuters Breakingviews) - Masayoshi Son is thinking the unthinkable at SoftBank Group (9984.T). His $63 billion technology and telecom empire will slash its stake in Alibaba (9988.HK) to 15% from 24%. The long-overdue shrinkage offers a blueprint for what to do next: break up the conglomerate.

This year’s tech selloff has punished the Japanese holding company, pushing it to a $23 billion net loss last quarter read more . Son’s new watchword is discipline: His Vision Funds, effectively giant venture-capital vehicles, invested just $600 million in the three-month stretch ending in June, compared with some $21 billion a year earlier.

The same focus on cash preservation seems to have informed the decision unveiled on Wednesday to cut the Alibaba holding, which has a totemic significance at SoftBank as one of the world’s most lucrative tech investments. Through derivatives deals with banks, Son could have retained the Alibaba stake by settling so-called...

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LONDON, Aug 11 (Reuters Breakingviews) - Entain (ENT.L) is on a dealmaking spree. Jette Nygaard-Andersen, chief executive of the $10 billion UK bookie, has bought five companies this year for over $1 billion in total. Her swoop for Croatia’s SuperSport, announced on Thursday, exemplifies the logic. Entain wants to plant flags across the map so that a regulatory crackdown in one country, like the United Kingdom, makes less overall difference. There are also savings in switching smaller bookies’ systems for Entain’s. Investors bid the Ladbrokes owner’s shares up by more than 5%.

The question is what this all means for Entain’s M&A dance with perennial $14 billion suitor MGM Resorts International (MGM.N), with which it has a U.S. sports-betting joint venture. MGM would like to control its own destiny in that burgeoning market and get its hands on Entain’s technology. But the UK group rebuffed its advances last year. At current market prices, and assuming MGM paid a 20%...

Turbocharging fast fashion’s business model has turned Shein into the face of the industry and one of the world’s top startups. But as