Author: i2wtc

Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb speaks during a Reuters interview at the 2025 annual IMF/World Bank Spring Meetings in Washington, DC, US, April 25, 2025. Photo: Reuters/ File ISLAMABAD: The government on Friday gave approval for filling the vacant positions of half a dozen state-owned entities, including the appointment of five new members of the board of Pakistan Television Corporation and a new chairman. The decision was taken by the Cabinet Committee on State-Owned Enterprises (CCoSOEs), chaired by Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb. The meeting was held in the light of instructions given by the Prime Minister’s Office to fill all the…

Stocks jumped for the second straight week and reached record highs Friday as Washington trade and shutdown drama took a back seat to cooler inflation data and stronger earnings. The S & P 500 and Nasdaq rose 2% and 2.3%, respectively, for the week. In fact, the S & P 500 on Friday peaked above 6,800 for the first time ever before closing just below that level. Both stock benchmarks finished Friday with record-high closes. Propelling stocks on the final day of the trading week was an encouraging read on the consumer price index for September , which was released…

US President Donald Trump speaks as he meets with the NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, DC, on Oct. 22, 2025.Jim Watson | AFP | Getty ImagesA mystery donor whose $130 million is meant to pay U.S. military during the government shutdown is Timothy Mellon, an heir to a renowned Gilded Age family, The New York Times reported Saturday, citing two people familiar with the matter.But Mellon’s donation works out to only about $100 per service member. And the donation might run afoul of the law, the Times noted.When President Donald…

Passive investing through exchange-traded funds may be losing its appeal.Tidal Financial Group Chief Revenue Officer Gavin Filmore finds many of his clients are no longer satisfied with buying popular ETFs tied to market indexes. “I think investors are looking beyond just the let’s call it the ‘VOO and chill approach’ where you just buy the index in an ETF, which is a great approach but they’re looking for diversification,” Filmore told CNBC’s “ETF Edge” this week.” “And they’re not finding it within the product or within the index, so they have to look beyond that.” Filmore refers to the Vanguard S&P 500…

ISLAMABAD: For the first time in nearly a decade, the Supreme Court has reported a decline in pending cases, marking a significant turnaround in judicial efficiency. According to a statement issued by the top court on Friday, the total number of pending cases, which stood at 60,446 at the start of last year, dropped to 56,169 by October this year. The court noted that for almost ten years, the backlog of cases had been rising steadily, from 25,686 in 2015 to a record high of more than 60,000 by early 2024. The consistent increase had placed growing pressure on the…

A flower baskets presenting ceremony is held at the Chinese People’s Volunteers (CPV) martyrs’ cemetery in Shenyang, northeast China’s Liaoning Province, Oct. 25, 2025. Liaoning Province on Saturday held flower baskets presenting ceremonies in Shenyang and Dandong to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the CPV’s entering the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea to fight in the War to Resist U.S. Aggression and Aid Korea. (Xinhua/Pan Yulong)A flower baskets presenting ceremony is held at the Chinese People’s Volunteers (CPV) martyrs’ cemetery in Shenyang, northeast China’s Liaoning Province, Oct. 25, 2025. Liaoning Province on Saturday held flower baskets presenting ceremonies in Shenyang…

Rana Sanaullah. PHOTO: FILE ISLAMABAD: Adviser to the Prime Minister on Political Affairs Rana Sanaullah on Friday ruled out any negotiations with the proscribed Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP), saying the group had been “created in a bid to cut into the PML-N’s vote bank”. Earlier, the Ministry of Interior has issued a notification declaring the TLP a proscribed organisation, placing it in the First Schedule under the Anti-Terrorism Act (ATA), 1997. Now a reference will be sent to the Supreme Court through the Ministry of Law. Speaking on a private TV channel programme, Sanaullah, in response to a question regarding TLP’s…

This photo taken on Oct. 13, 2025 shows a monument set up in memory of fights against Japanese invasion on the Yanliao shore of southeast China’s Taiwan.  (Xinhua/Qi Xianghui)BEIJING, Oct. 25 (Xinhua) — Eight decades ago, Taiwan — a part of China — was restored to its motherland, marking the end of half a century of Japanese colonial occupation. Its return remains a glory shared by compatriots on both sides of the Taiwan Strait, and is a national memory shared by all Chinese people.China’s national legislature on Friday voted to designate Oct. 25 as the Commemoration Day of Taiwan’s Restoration.The…

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif. Photo: File ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Friday highlighted the significance of the CPEC and transnational rail and road projects, saying that the connectivity initiatives would synergise the economic strengths of regional countries and usher in a new era of enhanced trade, economic and energy cooperation in the region and beyond. The prime minister, addressing the concluding session of the two-day Regional Transport Ministers Conference held here, said that the cooperation in the trade and economic spheres was a win-win proposition, offering rich dividends to all. “This would strengthen our common stake in peace, and…

A version of this article first appeared in CNBC’s Inside Wealth newsletter with Robert Frank, a weekly guide to the high-net-worth investor and consumer. Sign up to receive future editions, straight to your inbox.More than a third of the condo apartments sold in Manhattan over roughly the past year sold at a loss, although the top end of the market fared better, according to a new report.Despite the steady stream of headlines about eye-popping sales and soaring prices in Manhattan real estate, the median price per square foot for Manhattan condos is essentially flat from a decade ago, according to a report from Brown Harris Stevens. One in…