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The Securities and Exchange Commission is preparing a proposal to scrap the ​requirement for companies to report their earnings every quarter ‌and instead give them the option to share results twice-yearly, according to a report in the Wall Street Journal which added that the ​rule is expected to make quarterly reporting optional and ​not eliminate it altogether. In preparation for the proposal, regulators have been talking to officials at the major exchanges to discuss how they may need to adjust their rules. 

 

Wall Street Journal

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The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission is calling for public comment ahead of a regulatory proposal ​it said would shape government oversight of the burgeoning market for ‌events contracts and prediction markets.  Reuters notes that the agency has weighed regulating prediction markets for nearly two decades.  It is fighting for jurisdiction with state gaming regulators who say they have oversight over such markets because ​the wagers are essentially tantamount to traditional gambling.

 

Reuters

Apple has reduced the commission it charges app developers in China, lowering its standard App Store fee from 30% to 25%, while cutting the rate for small developers and mini-app creators from 15% to 12%. The move follows discussions with Chinese regulators and aims to ease tensions with major tech firms such as Tencent and ByteDance while reducing the risk of antitrust action in one of Apple’s most important markets.

 

Bloomberg

China Daily

Wall Street Journal

AI is increasing the speed, density and complexity of work rather than reducing it, according to an analysis of 164,000 workers’ digital work activity by workforce analytics and productivity-tracking software company ActivTrak. The data covers more than 443 million hours of work across 1,111 employers, making it one of the biggest studies of AI’s effects on work habits to date, the Wall Street Journal reports. “It’s not that AI doesn’t create efficiency,” observed Gabriela Mauch, ActivTrak’s chief customer officer. “It’s that the capacity it frees up immediately gets repurposed into doing other work, and that’s where the creep is likely to happen.”

 

Wall Street Journal

Private capital’s problems are far worse than acknowledged by Wall Street, as traditional metrics obscure weaknesses in the leveraged buyout market, according to a top credit hedge fund's research.

 

Financial Times

One-third of Americans cut back on other expenses to cover healthcare in 2025, according to a survey of nearly 20,000 U.S. adults in all 50 states and in the District of Columbia conducted from June to August 2025 by ​the West Health-Gallup Center. The research found ​that 33% of respondents had made at least one trade-off in daily expenses ​to pay for healthcare, and this was far more common among Americans ⁠who do not have health insurance. "We're actually finding that people are reporting higher incidences of metabolic disease or depression and anxiety. We're not getting healthier as a society, we're actually getting sicker, and the healthcare cost is ​going up on top ​of it," ⁠said Timothy Lash, president of West Health Policy Center, a nonprofit organization focused on healthcare and aging.

 

Reuters

PhonePe, the Walmart-backed Indian fintech company, has halted plans for an IPO as worsening global market conditions and geopolitical tensions trigger a sharp decline in Indian equities. The Bengaluru-based digital payments group said it would pause its listing process until global capital markets stabilise. The IPO had been expected to raise up to $1.5bn, with Walmart - which owns about 71.8% of PhonePe - planning to sell roughly 9% of the company. The decision comes as India’s Nifty 50 index has fallen more than 7% this month, marking its worst monthly performance since March 2020, largely driven by the escalating conflict in the Middle East and weakening investor sentiment. PhonePe remains the largest operator on India’s Unified Payments Interface (UPI), processing nearly half of all transactions on the platform, but the market downturn has prompted the company to delay its public market debut.

 

Bloomberg

Reuters

The Trump administration is set to receive a roughly $10bn fee from investors in the recently completed ​deal to take control of TikTok's U.S. business. TikTok's Chinese owner, ByteDance, in January finalized a deal to establish a majority American-owned joint venture that will secure U.S. ​data, to avoid a U.S. ban on the short video app ​that is used by over 200m Americans. The $10bn payment would be nearly unprecedented for a government helping arrange a transaction, the Wall Street Journal notes. When President Trump announced the framework for the deal in September, he said: “It hasn’t been fully negotiated, but we’ll get something,” adding that the deal's size, and money and effort expended by the government, justify compensation. 

 

Wall Street Journal

U.S. District ​Judge Valerie ​Caproni ⁠in Manhattan has dismissed a ​lawsuit which accused automaker ‌Stellantis - whose ​brands include Chrysler, Dodge, Fiat, Jeep and Peugeot - of defrauding investors by failing to disclose how it overloaded ​retailers with excessive inventory, ​known as channel stuffing, precipitating ⁠short-term sales increases and ​long-term sales declines. The company was accused in the ​proposed class action of making ​false and misleading statements about its ‌pricing ⁠power, inventory and margins, inflating its share price. The judge said that shareholders had not ​demonstrated a strong inference ​that ⁠Stellantis was motivated to defraud them, or offered compelling circumstantial ⁠evidence ​of conscious misbehavior ​or recklessness.

 

Reuters

Criminal prosecutors in Italy have ​requested trial for Amazon's European unit and four of its managers over alleged tax evasion said to be worth ‌around €1.2bn ($1.38bn). Reuters says the move is unprecedented for a case of this kind in Italy, because Amazon agreed in December to pay €527m, including interest, to Italy's Revenue Agency to settle ​the dispute. After December's settlement, Amazon said it would "forcefully defend its position on the potential ungrounded criminal case," adding "Unpredictable regulatory environments, disproportionate penalties, and protracted legal proceedings are increasingly affecting Italy's attractiveness as an investment destination."

 

U.S. News

European businesses warn that a push for “tech sovereignty” could hit profits and risk undermining the continent’s competitiveness, as Brussels boosts efforts to reduce its reliance on U.S. tech giants. 

 

Financial Times

Hong Kong plans to expand its "name-and-shame" regime for sloppy listing applications to include law firms and auditors. Under a new Enhanced Return Mechanism proposed by Hong Kong Exchanges & Clearing Ltd, all professional parties involved in a deal will be publicly identified if a listing application is rejected for being "not substantially complete." The exchange seeks to compel more rigorous due diligence before filings ever reach the regulator by including legal and accounting advisers in the public record of failed applications.

 

Bloomberg