Finance
Japan finance chief sees need for stable forex moves amid weak yen

Japanese Finance Minister Shunichi Suzuki on Friday stressed the need for foreign exchange rates to move stably by reflecting economic fundamentals, saying that excessive fluctuations should be rectified.
Speaking at a press conference during his visit to Georgia, Suzuki declined to comment on whether Japan intervened in the currency market when the yen spiked in a short span of time Wednesday in New York.
Japanese authorities have threatened to take action against excessive volatility in the currency market, with the yen falling sharply against the U.S. dollar.
Japanese Finance Minister Shunichi Suzuki (C) and Bank of Japan Deputy Governor Ryozo Himino (R) give a press conference in Tbilisi on May 3, 2024. (Kyodo)
“Foreign exchange rates should be determined by market forces, reflecting fundamentals. It’s desirable that they move stably,” Suzuki told a press conference in the Georgian capital of Tbilisi on the fringes of meetings related to the Asian Development Bank.
Suzuki added that rapid changes cause negative impacts for households and businesses in making plans. “It may become necessary to smooth out excessive moves,” he said.
Despite market talk of currency interventions by Japanese authorities, Japanese government officials have remained silent, leaving traders in the dark.
“Stealth interventions” are used to make traders jittery and prevent them from making bold moves.
Based on data from the Bank of Japan and market sources, Japan likely spent around 8 trillion yen ($52 billion) this week to step into the market and slow the yen’s decline.

Japanese Finance Minister Shunichi Suzuki (5th from L) and Bank of Japan Deputy Governor Ryozo Himino (4th from L) are among the officials attending a meeting of finance ministers and central bank governors from Japan, China, South Korea and the members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations in Tbilisi on May 3, 2024. (Kyodo)
The yen, which earlier this week tumbled past 160 to the dollar, has regained some of its strength. It rose to the 151 zone on Friday.
Still, the underlying trend of a weak yen remains intact, reflecting the wide interest rate differential between Japan and the United States.
The BOJ raised interest rates for the first time in 17 years in March, but rapid hikes are not considered likely. The U.S. Federal Reserve, for its part, is now expected to take a longer time before starting to cut interest rates.
Related coverage:
Yen briefly rises to 151 in N.Y. after weak U.S. labor data
Another suspected market intervention likely cost Japan 3 trillion yen
BOJ’s March minutes show no urgency to raise rates further

Finance
Walmart should ‘eat the tariffs,’ Trump says, after retailer warns of looming price hikes
Walmart (WMT) joins rocker Bruce Springsteen and pop music icon Taylor Swift as getting a verbal lashing from president Trump on social media this week.
The president ripped Walmart execs on Saturday for signaling tariff-driven price hikes that are poised to begin later this month.
“Walmart should STOP trying to blame Tariffs as the reason for raising prices throughout the chain. Walmart made BILLIONS OF DOLLARS last year, far more than expected. Between Walmart and China they should, as is said, ‘EAT THE TARIFFS,’ and not charge valued customers ANYTHING. I’ll be watching, and so will your customers!!!,” Trump said in a post on Truth Social.
“We have always worked to keep our prices as low as possible and we won’t stop. We’ll keep prices as low as we can for as long as we can given the reality of small retail margins,” a Walmart spokesperson told Yahoo Finance.
Walmart CEO Doug McMillon was among the CEOs who met with the president in late April to discuss tariff implications. A person familiar with the discussions told Yahoo Finance Walmart made a case to remove tariffs on China altogether as even lower tariffs would have major implications on prices for general merchandise items such as furniture and toys.
The Trump administration and China agreed to dial back tariffs for 90 days last week. The US tariff rate on China now sits at 30%, down from 145% at the height of the trade tussle between the economic superpowers.
“Low prices is what we stand for, and we’re going to keep prices as low as we can as long as we can,” Walmart CFO John David Rainey said on Yahoo Finance’s Catalysts (video above) this week following the company’s first quarter earnings. “But when you look at the magnitude of some of the cost increases on certain categories of items that are imported, it’s more than what retailers can bear. It’s more than what suppliers can bear.”
“And so we’ll work hard to try to keep prices low. But it’s unavoidable that you’re going to see some prices go up on certain items.”
Rainey said increases will be noticeable later this month.
Rainey added, “Well, if you’ve got a 30% tariff on something, you’re likely going to see double digits [in price increases].”
The most impacted areas for Walmart will include baby strollers, furniture, and toys. Price hikes in these departments could major impacts on suppliers such as Newell Brands (NWL), reports Yahoo Finance’s Brooke DiPalma.
Walmart’s earnings day was mixed as shoppers spent somewhat cautiously given the greater economic uncertainty.
Finance
Anthropic raises $2.5B in debt to finance growth investments – SiliconANGLE

Large language model developer Anthropic PBC has secured $2.5 billion in debt financing, CNBC reported today.
The loan is structured as a revolving credit facility. Standard debt financing deals require the borrower to pay back the funds in a fixed number of installments. A revolving credit facility, in contrast, has no such requirement. Additionally, the borrower can draw down funds again after repaying the loan.
Anthropic’s revolving credit facility will run for five years. It’s underwritten by Morgan Stanley, Barclay, Citibank, Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan, Royal Bank of Canada and Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group. Several of those banks also backed a $4 billion revolving credit facility that OpenAI, Anthropic’s top rival, raised last year.
“This revolving credit facility provides Anthropic significant flexibility to support our continued exponential growth,” said Anthropic Chief Financial Officer Krishna Rao.
The company previously raised $8 billion from Amazon.com Inc. in the form of convertible notes. A convertible note is a type of loan that can be turned into shares. Amazon turned a sizable portion of Anthropic investment into shares during the first quarter, which was reportedly one of the reasons its earnings per share surpassed analyst expectations.
In conjunction with the announcement of its revolving credit facility, Anthropic disclosed today that its annualized revenue topped $2 billion in the first quarter. That represents a year-over-year increase of more than 100%. In the same time frame, the number of customers that pay at least $100,000 for Anthropic’s AI models jumped eightfold.
The company regularly launches new products to maintain its sales growth.
Earlier this month, Anthropic updated the application programming interface that customers use to integrate its LLMs into their software. The company added a tool that allows its LLMs to search the web if the information requested by a user isn’t readily available. Pricing starts at $10 per 1,000 searches.
A few weeks earlier, Anthropic debuted a new Max plan for its Claude chatbot. It’s available in two editions priced at $100 and $200 per month, respectively. They offer usage caps up to 20 times higher than the most affordable paid Claude tier.
Anthropic’s largest competitors are experiencing rapid sales growth as well.
In March, Bloomberg reported that OpenAI expects to triple its revenue to $12.7 billion by the end of 2025. More recently, a source told Reuters that Cohere Inc. has doubled its annualized recurring revenue since the start of the year. The company reportedly makes most of its revenue from providing highly regulated organizations with customized AI models that they can run on their own infrastructure.
Image: Anthropic
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Finance
Galiano Gold Inc (GAU) Q1 2025 Earnings Call Highlights: Strong Financial Position and …
Release Date: May 15, 2025
For the complete transcript of the earnings call, please refer to the full earnings call transcript.
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Galiano Gold Inc (GAU) maintains a robust financial position with $106 million in cash and zero debt.
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The company achieved significant exploration success at Abore, identifying a promising high-grade zone beneath the main pit.
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A 75% increase in gold production is projected by 2026, indicating strong future growth potential.
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The secondary crusher project is on track for completion in Q3 2025, which is expected to enhance mill throughput.
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Operating costs are being well managed, with unit costs for mining at Abore and Assassi in line with expectations.
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The company experienced two lost time injuries (LTIs) during the quarter, reflecting a need for improved safety measures.
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An unscheduled two-week mill shutdown due to repairs reduced production by approximately 5,000 ounces.
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Net earnings were negatively affected by fair value adjustments to the hedge book, resulting in a net loss of $29 million.
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The impact of high gold prices and increased government levies could raise all-in sustaining costs (ASIC) by up to $55 per ounce.
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Production figures for Q1 2025 were lower than expected, moving towards the lower end of guidance for the year.
Q: Can you walk us through your intermediate and longer-term expectations for drilling, especially in the south pit? A: Unidentified_5 (Exploration VP): We focused on the south pit to confirm the robustness of the high-grade zone, which exceeded our expectations. The strike length expanded from 90m to 180m. We discovered a new high-grade zone below the reserve pit, which was unexpected. We plan to test deeper targets along the ore body and explore both open pit and underground mining scenarios.
Q: What happened with the cost of the secondary crusher equipment versus expectations, and what downtime should we expect for the install? A: Unidentified_4 (CFO): The secondary crusher project remains on budget, with most equipment costs paid in installments. We expect minimal downtime for installation, as most pre-works can be done while the plant is running. The shutdown for tie-in will be brief, and we plan to conduct other maintenance simultaneously.
Q: Should we model any significant impact from the crusher installation shutdown? A: Unidentified_3 (COO): We don’t expect a significant impact from the shutdown. We have contingencies in place, and the production forecasts already account for this downtime.
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