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☆ Zuckerberg unveils Meta Quest 3 VR headset days before Apple reveals its own
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-01 | by ( Jonathan Vanian | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg teased his company's latest virtual reality headset, the Quest 3, on Thursday. Apple is expected to debut its competing VR headset next week as part of the company's June WWDC event. The iPhone-maker's consumer headset, which could also incorporate augmented reality technologies, will reportedly work with hundreds of thousands of iPad apps and cost at least $3,000. Meta continues to be spending heavily in the metaverse, the yet-to-be-developed digital universe that requires virtual reality and augmented reality technologies to access. Last October, Meta debuted its Quest Pro VR headset intended for businesses as opposed to consumers.

Persons: Mark Zuckerberg, Zuckerberg, it'll, Meta Organizations: Qualcomm, Apple, Labs, Meta, Quest Pro, Research, NPD Group, CNBC, Nvidia Locations: U.S

HONG KONG, April 26 (Reuters) - Standard Chartered PLC (StanChart) (STAN.L) on Wednesday said first-quarter profit jumped 21%, beating expectations, as rising interest rates buoyed income from its cash management and retail banking businesses. The earnings update showed how rising central bank rates have boosted revenue, as StanChart charged borrowers more interest while not passing all of the increase to depositors. StanChart, which earns most of its revenue in Asia, said January-March statutory pretax profit reached $1.81 billion. That compared with $1.49 billion a year earlier and the $1.43 billion average of 14 analyst estimates compiled by the bank. The bank said it saw signs of stabilisation in China's troubled commercial real estate market, with no increase in credit impairment from the previous quarter.

HONG KONG, April 26 (Reuters) - Standard Chartered PLC (StanChart) (STAN.L) on Wednesday said first-quarter pretax profit jumped 21%, beating analyst estimates, as rising interest rates buoyed cash management income and retail product sales of the emerging markets-focused lender. StanChart, which earns most of its revenue in Asia, said statutory pretax profit for January-March reached $1.81 billion. That compared with $1.49 billion a year earlier and the $1.43 billion average of 14 analyst estimates compiled by the bank. It was the bank's largest single-quarter profit since the start of 2014, as rising interest rates boosted lending income while its financial markets trading division saw frenzied trading from customers amid volatile markets. The earnings update from StanChart showed how rising central bank rates have boosted revenue, as it charged borrowers more interest while not passing through all of the increase to depositors.

☆ StanChart profit swells on soaring global interest rates
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-26 | by ( ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

Standard Chartered PLC (StanChart) on Wednesday said first-quarter pretax profit jumped 21%, beating expectations, as rising interest rates buoyed cash management income and retail product sales for the emerging markets-focused lender. The earnings update showed how rising central bank rates have boosted revenue, as StanChart charged borrowers more interest while not passing all of the increase to depositors. StanChart, which earns most of its revenue in Asia, said January-March statutory pretax profit reached $1.81 billion. The bank said income in its corporate cash management business tripled due to "strong pricing discipline and passthrough rate management". Retail banking income rose 53%, propelled by deposit income which also tripled to $771 million.

Unsecured loans – mostly personal loans and credit cards – do not carry any collateral and therefore pose higher risk. Indian banks have been growing their unsecured lending portfolio as the pandemic-induced stress began to ease. "Risks in unsecured lending has been on the RBI's radar," said a senior official at a private bank. This has pushed up the weighted average lending rate of banks by 95 bps in the same period. "It is trying to identify early warning signals in unsecured lending to not be caught off guard later."

But the headline number masked a more malignant trend, with all key components of core inflation accelerating. "Rising core inflation means that not much will sway the European Central Bank from the hawkish path it set out late last year," ING economist Bert Colijn said. The recession was expected to push up unemployment, naturally dampening price pressures. But employment, already at a record high, is actually going up, not down. "The delayed passthrough of high production costs and a still-strong labour market will sustain core inflation," Riccardo Marcelli Fabiani at Oxford Economics said.

☆ Meta unveils its much-hyped Quest Pro mixed reality headset
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-11 | by ( ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +4 min

Meta Platforms unveiled its Quest Pro virtual and mixed reality headset on Tuesday, marking a milestone for Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg’s break into the higher-end market for extended reality computing devices. The Quest Pro features several upgrades over Meta’s existing Quest 2 headset, which overwhelmingly dominates the consumer virtual reality market. For fully immersive virtual reality, Meta has added tracking sensors to the Quest Pro that can replicate users’ eye movements and facial expressions, creating a sense that avatars are making eye contact. Meta is pitching the Quest Pro as a productivity device, aimed at designers, architects and other creative professionals. For now, that means the Quest Pro stops short of enabling the complex commercial applications Meta has suggested it wants its metaverse tech to support.

☆ Meta's new Quest Pro headset, mixing real and virtual worlds, makes debut
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-11 | by ( Katie Paul | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +5 min

Meta/Handout via REUTERSOct 11 (Reuters) - Meta Platforms (META.O) unveiled its Quest Pro virtual and mixed reality headset on Tuesday, marking a milestone for Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg's break into the higher-end market for extended reality computing devices. The Quest Pro features several upgrades over Meta's existing Quest 2 headset, which overwhelmingly dominates the consumer virtual reality market. For fully immersive virtual reality, Meta has added tracking sensors to the Quest Pro that can replicate users' eye movements and facial expressions, creating a sense that avatars are making eye contact. PITCHING PRODUCTIVITYMeta is pitching the Quest Pro as a productivity device, aimed at designers, architects and other creative professionals. For now, that means the Quest Pro stops short of enabling the complex commercial applications Meta has suggested it wants its metaverse tech to support.

☆ India inflation likely hit five month high in Sept on food prices: Reuters poll
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-11 | by ( Arsh Tushar Mogre | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

The Oct. 3-7 Reuters poll of 47 economists suggested inflation - as measured by the Consumer Price Index (INCPIY=ECI) - rose to an annual 7.30% in September from 7.00% the previous month. Some 91% of economists, 43 of 47, expected inflation to be 7.00% or higher, suggesting the bias was for prices to go up further. "There is a strong pressure from food that is playing out," said Dharmakirti Joshi, chief economist at Crisil. The Indian government has introduced measures to calm local prices, including some export restrictions on rice to temper inflation. But consumer prices have remained defiant and stayed above the RBI's upper tolerance limit this year.

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