(Reuters) -Royal Bank of Canada on Tuesday asked its employees to return to office three or four days a week, as Canada’s largest lender eases its COVID-19 protocols.

In an internal memo to employees seen by Reuters, RBC said that “starting May 1, employees in hybrid work arrangements will come together in person for the majority of the time. This means you have the option to work remotely for one to two days each week, depending on your team”.

The bank said its senior leaders will finalise plans and provide updates to individual teams.

An RBC spokesperson confirmed the details of the memo.

Nearly three years after the onset of the pandemic, companies across the globe have ramped up efforts to bring more employees back to offices.

RBC Chief Executive Officer Dave McKay last year asked its employees to return to office more often, but said the hybrid work approach was “here to stay”.

National Bank of Canada said it has an average objective of 40% of the time in office for its employees, while Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce said time spent at the office depends on the role.

(Reporting by Jaiveer Singh Shekhawat in Bengaluru; Additional Reporting by Niket Nishant; Editing by Maju Samuel, Devika Syamnath and Shounak Dasgupta)

By Lisa Pauline Mattackal and Medha Singh

(Reuters) – As crisis stalks the traditional world of stocks and bonds, bitcoin is suddenly looking like a safe haven.

The infamously volatile cryptocurrency seems positively hale and hearty, just as a banking meltdown drives markets into the arms of a recession.

    Bitcoin has risen 21% this month, while a choppy S&P 500 has lost 1.4% and gold has gained 8%.

“If you were going to describe an environment where there were successive bank runs because central banks are trying to fight inflation with fast rate increases, that is pretty close to as spot-on a thesis for owning bitcoin as you’ve ever heard,” said Stéphane Ouellette, CEO at digital asset investment platform FRNT Financial.

The cryptocurrency has, for now, severed its ties with stocks and bonds and tagged on to a rally in gold, fulfilling at least one part of creator Satoshi Nakamoto’s dream – that bitcoin can serve as a refuge for suffering investors.

Bitcoin’s 30-day correlation with the S&P 500 has slid to negative 0.12 over the past week, where a measure of 1 indicates the two assets are moving in lock step. 

A selloff in banks has wiped out hundreds of billions of dollars in market value and forced U.S. regulators to launch emergency measures. The past couple of weeks has seen Silicon Valley Bank and crypto lender Silvergate go under, while Credit Suisse has teetered on the brink.

Graphic: Bitcoin refuge amid chaos https://www.reuters.com/graphics/FINTECH-CRYPTO/WEEKLY/egvbyjaakpq/chart.png

‘RETURN TO CORE ETHOS’

Let’s not carried away, though. This is bitcoin.

“The bearish argument would be that these dynamics are temporary, and ultimately this rally is not going to sustain,” said Ouellette.

It remains to be seen if bitcoin’s bullishness will endure as attention shifts to the Federal Reserve’s policy meeting this week where the U.S. central bank must walk a fine line as it fights inflation and bank stresses.

Furthermore, the cryptocurrency’s allure hasn’t all been about safety.

The rapid price rise has forced some short-sellers to cut their bets and buy coin back. Data from Coinglass shows traders liquidated $300 million worth of crypto positions on Monday, with most of that total – $178.5 million – short positions.

Nonetheless, bitcoin is resurgent.

It now commands nearly 43% of the total crypto market, its highest share since last June, according to CoinMarketCap data, while the total cryptocurrency market’s capitalization has jumped 23% to $1.1 billion since March 10.

“We’re seeing a return to bitcoin’s core ethos, that of a financial asset independent from the opacity and meddling of the centralized financial system,” said Henry Elder, head of decentralized finance (DeFi) at digital asset investment manager Wave Digital Assets.

The mainstream bank crisis has also fueled some interest in DeFi, with the total value of tokens linked to such platforms rising to $49 billion from $43 billion over the past week, according to DappRadar. 

BITCOIN IN A BANK CRISIS

Not all areas of the digital world have been immune to the banking fallout, though. The no. 2 stablecoin Circle USD or USDC lost its 1:1 peg to the dollar after disclosing its reserves were parked at the shuttered Silicon Valley Bank.

As worries spread over USDC’s ability to maintain its peg, its market cap slid to $36.8 billion last Friday from $43.8 billion a week earlier, even as leading stablecoin Tether gained around $4 billion.

Market participants said some USDC withdrawals were likely reinvested in bitcoin as well, helping fuel the rally.

“It’s too soon to say that bitcoin has proven the narrative that it’s an alternative in a banking crisis,” cautioned Ed Hindi, Chief Investment Officer at Tyr Capital in Geneva.

But he added: “The rally we are currently witnessing in bitcoin will be looked back at as the point in time where its main property as a decentralized non-sovereign asset was stress tested.”

(Reporting by Medha Singh and Lisa Mattackal in Bengaluru; Editing by Vidya Ranganathan and Pravin Char)

By Moira Warburton

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. Senate Banking Committee will hold the first of several hearings on the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank on March 28, Democratic Chairman Sherrod Brown said on Tuesday.

The first hearing will hear from witnesses including Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation Chair Martin Gruenberg, Federal Reserve official Michael Barr, and Nellie Liang, an under secretary at the U.S. Treasury Department, according to a statement from Brown.

“It is critical that we get to the bottom of how Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank collapsed so that we can maintain a strong banking system, protect Americans’ hard-earned money, and hold those responsible accountable, including the CEOs,” Brown said.

Silicon Valley Bank was taken over by federal regulators on March 10, with Signature Bank following suit a few days later. Multiple federal agencies – including the U.S. Department of Justice and the Securities and Exchange Commission – are probing SVB. Global banking markets have been skittish and investors remain fearful of wider economic repercussions.

Last week, Brown told reporters that new bank industry legislation is unlikely to emerge from Congress.

“There are people who will introduce bills, but I cannot imagine with the hold that the banks have on Republicans in Congress that we could pass anything significant,” Brown told reporters.

Brown added that new regulatory actions were possible.

The U.S. House of Representatives Financial Services Committee previously said it will hold a bipartisan hearing on the banks’ collapse on March 29, with Barr and Gruenberg testifying again.

(Reporting by Moira Warburton in Washington; editing by Jonathan Oatis)

By Koh Gui Qing

NEW YORK (Reuters) -Global shares leapt on Tuesday after the rescue of Credit Suisse stemmed a rout in equities and whetted risk appetite, although financial system uncertainties limited buying as investors awaited the outcome of a Federal Reserve meeting.

The Fed began a two-day meeting earlier on Tuesday and, after a wild few sessions, investors are divided about whether the central bank will raise interest rates by 25 basis points on Wednesday, or skip a chance at raising borrowing costs this month.

“We expect a 25-basis-point rate hike,” economists at TD Securities said in a note. “Post-meeting communication is likely to emphasize that the Fed is not done yet in terms of tightening, with officials also flagging the more uncertain economic environment.”

The Dow Jones Industrial Average jumped 0.98%, the S&P 500 rallied 1.3% to finish at 4,002.87 points, and the Nasdaq Composite Index climbed 1.6%.

Shares of First Republic Bank, a top concern of U.S. investors, surged 29.5% on news that JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon is leading talks with other big banks on new steps to stabilise it, including through a possible investment.

Many investors had thought concerns about banking sector stability were a thing of the past after the 2008 crisis. But the collapse of two U.S. regional banks, plus the 11th-hour rescue of Credit Suisse, are forcing central bankers to prioritise fighting inflation alongside keeping money flowing through the financial system.

The jury is out on whether the Bank of England will hold fire when it meets this week, and the picture is not much clearer for the European Central Bank, which raised rates last week but left traders without much idea of what to expect next.

“It seems the penny is dropping, most central banks hiked interest rates too late and then raised rates too fast. And now the world is reeling with a banking crisis,” Saxo Bank strategist Jessica Amir said.

European banking stocks, which seem headed for their biggest monthly slide in three years, rose by 3.8% on Tuesday, helping lift the regional STOXX 600 index by 1.3%.

Analysts said the Swiss government-backed takeover of Credit Suisse by UBS helped soothe concerns over European financial stability, even though a wipeout of some Credit Suisse bondholders has sent shockwaves through bank debt markets.

In a nod to concerns that banks may not be out of the woods, U.S. Treasury Secretary Jane Yellen said on Tuesday that further U.S. government intervention was possible if another smaller bank experienced difficulties similar to those of other recently failed lenders.

Indeed, Bloomberg News reported on Monday that U.S officials were looking at ways to temporarily expand Federal Deposit Insurance Corp coverage to all deposits.

“While global regulators are acting with pace, this appears to be a game of ‘whack-a-mole,'” bank analyst Jonathan Mott at Barrenjoey in Sydney said.

Aided by market tension, gold has shot up to around $2,000 an ounce this week for the first time in a year. Spot gold prices took a breather on Tuesday and fell 1.95% to $1,940 an ounce.

SWISS RULES

At the heart of Monday’s steep drop in banking shares was the $17 billion write-down in Credit Suisse’s “additional tier 1” debt – part of its capital buffers – to zero.

Bondholders usually outrank shareholders in the event of a restructuring or bankruptcy. But Credit Suisse AT1 owners ended up empty-handed, which unleashed a wave of selling in this kind of debt in the European market.

Regulators in Europe and Britain stepped in to reassure investors that it would not set a precedent, and prices stabilised on Tuesday, when it became apparent that the Credit Suisse write-down was more a function of Swiss rules.

With the focus on the outlook for monetary policy, the dollar index edged lower to 103.21 against a basket of currencies around its lowest since Feb. 14, as investors grew confident enough to dip into other assets.

Fed funds futures imply about a 1-in-4 chance of the Fed pausing on Wednesday, according to CME’s FedWatch tool, while markets are divided evenly on the prospect of a hike in Britain when the Bank of England meets on Thursday.

In line with dominant expectations that U.S. rates could rise to between 4.75% and 5% on Wednesday, the two-year Treasury yield rose to 4.1686%, from Monday’s close of 3.924%. The yield on 10-year Treasury notes also climbed to 3.5999% compared with its close of 3.477% on Monday.

“The banking sector’s near-death experience over the last two weeks is likely to make Fed officials more measured in their stance on the pace of hikes,” said Steve Englander, Standard Chartered’s head of G10 FX research.

The dollar rose 0.87% against the Japanese yen to 132.28 and lost out to the euro, which rose 0.41% to $1.0766.

(Additional reporting by Iain Withers in London and Tom Westbrook in Singapore; Editing by Jacqueline Wong, Mark Potter, Susan Fenton, Andrea Ricci and Richard Chang)

By David French, Nupur Anand and Lananh Nguyen

(Reuters) – Shares of U.S. regional lenders including battered First Republic Bank surged on Tuesday as fears of a wider banking crisis abated and investors turned their focus to the U.S. Federal Reserve’s next move.

The Fed’s relentless rate hikes to rein in inflation have been partly blamed for sparking the biggest meltdown in the banking sector since the 2008 financial crisis, and traders are split over whether the central bank will be forced to pause its hiking cycle on Wednesday to ensure financial stability.

The tumultuous 10 days for banks that culminated in the 3 billion Swiss franc ($3.2 billion) Swiss regulator-engineered takeover of Credit Suisse by rival UBS were triggered by the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank, which sank under the weight of bond-related losses due to a surge in interest rates last year.

“The banking sector’s near-death experience over the last two weeks is likely to make Fed officials more measured in their stance on the pace of hikes,” said Standard Chartered head of G10 FX research, Steve Englander.

Worries over the health of midsized U.S. lenders linger, particularly First Republic Bank. But Credit Suisse’s rescue appeared to have assuaged the worst fears of systemic contagion, boosting shares of European banks and U.S. regional lenders.

After surging as much as 60% during Tuesday’s session, First Republic shares ended 29.5% higher, recovering some of their deep losses over the past two weeks, while larger U.S. banks also rallied. First Republic has shed 80% of its market value this month, even after Tuesday’s rebound.

US Bancorp jumped almost 9%, while JPMorgan Chase, Citigroup, Wells Fargo and Bank of America all climbed more than 2%. 

The S&P 500 banks index rallied 3.6%, its largest one-day gain since November.

First Republic is looking at ways it can downsize if its attempts to raise new capital fail, three people familiar with the matter told Reuters. JPMorgan Chase has been helping the bank find new sources of capital after a $30 billion injection of deposits from big banks failed to stem fears over its viability.

The bank is examining how it can sell parts of its business, including some of its loan book, in a bid to raise cash and cut costs, one source familiar with the situation said.

A sale of loans to other parties, including private equity firms, is one option under consideration, two of the sources said. While a sale of the entire bank remains possible, First Republic is focused on raising capital, the third source said.

The scenarios were being discussed as major bank chief executives gathered in Washington for a scheduled two-day meeting starting Tuesday, sources familiar with the matter said.

‘FEEL SECURE’

Policymakers from Washington to Tokyo have stressed the current turmoil is different from the crisis 15 years ago, saying banks are better capitalised and funds more easily available.

In the latest effort to calm jitters, U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said the country’s banking system was sound despite recent pressure.

Yellen said she was committed to taking actions that would mitigate risks to financial stability and taking necessary steps to ensure the safety of deposits and the U.S. banking system.

Political pressure continued to grow in the United States to hold bank executives accountable. The Senate Banking Committee’s chairman said the panel will hold the “first of several hearings” on the collapse of SVB and Signature Bank on March 28.

Yellen’s reassurances were echoed in Britain by Finance Minister Jeremy Hunt, who said banks and the financial system there were well-placed to cope with the problems, and by Swedish Central Bank Governor Erik Thedeen.

“We should also feel secure in the fact that the authorities that have the job to deal with this are working closely together and are working with the government. So there is good capacity to act should this head into another phase,” Thedeen said.

The European Central Bank’s top bank supervisor Andrea Enria said euro zone banks on average increased their capital ratios in the final quarter of last year and remain solid, adding that funding and liquidity positions were not “materially affected” by the Credit Suisse crisis.

Traders bet on rate hike as fears of bank crisis ease Traders bet on rate hike as fears of bank crisis ease, https://www.reuters.com/graphics/USA-RATES/FEDWATCH/xmpjkbnxmvr/chart.png

Worries about a new financial crisis contributed to a tumble in German investor sentiment in March, the ZEW economic research institute said.

Over $95 billion in market value wiped out in 2 weeks, https://www.reuters.com/graphics/GLOBAL-BANKS/USA/myvmobkeovr/graphic.jpg

The investor focus in Europe also shifted to the massive blow some Credit Suisse bondholders will take, prompting euro zone and British banking supervisors to try to stop a rout in the market for convertible bank bonds.

Additional Tier 1 bonds, or AT1s, are issued by banks to help them make up the capital buffers which regulators require them to hold. They can be converted into equity but until they are, they do not dilute a lender’s share capital.

At Credit Suisse, whose main regulators are in Switzerland, its AT1 prospectus made clear that holders would not recover any value. Nevertheless, lawyers are talking to a number of AT1 bond holders about possible legal action, law firm Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan has said. Law firm Pallas Partners also said it and a Swiss counsel are working on possible legal action for some Credit Suisse bond investors whose holdings were wiped out.

Swiss authorities also imposed curbs on bonus payments for Credit Suisse employees, a move that penalises bankers after the state-backed takeover.

GRAPHIC-Credit Suisse rescue, https://www.reuters.com/graphics/GLOBAL-BANKS/myvmobgwyvr/chart.png

($1 = 0.9280 Swiss franc)

(Reporting by Tatiana Bautzer, Saeed Azhar, Scott Murdoch, Tom Westbrook, Shubham Batra, Amruta Khandekar, Ankika Biswas, Noel Randewich and Francesco Canepa; Writing by Lincoln Feast, Alexander Smith and Deepa Babington; Editing by Sam Holmes, Catherine Evans and Matthew Lewis)

By Stephen Nellis

(Reuters) -Raja Koduri, the chief architect at Intel Corp, is leaving to start a company that aims to loosen longtime rival Nvidia Corp’s grip on the digital movie and video game markets.

Koduri, whose departure was announced by Intel Chief Executive Pat Gelsinger in a tweet on Tuesday, told Reuters his as-yet-unnamed company will aim to make a new wave of so-called generative artificial intelligence tools that work on chips from Intel, Advanced Micro Devices, Apple Inc or even future chips based on open-source RISC-V technology.

New software tools can generate fresh imagery from just a text prompt and hold great promise for fields like visual effects and video games, Koduri said. But they typically are designed to work only on Nvidia chips.

Koduri said his first efforts will be aimed at creating a service that lets movie and game artists easily use those AI tools whether they are using a PC, Mac, iPad or other device without having to dive deep into software code.

Those artists “are not technical. They just get baffled by all this stuff,” Koduri said.

Koduri, a veteran of Advanced Micro Devices and Apple Inc, joined Intel five years ago. He was part of a wave of outsiders hired by Intel, which had been known in the chip industry for promoting executives from within, to rethink the company’s approach as it lost market share to rivals.

But Koduri, who has worked on nearly two dozen generations of computer graphics chips, has also had a long interest in movies. More than a decade ago, he helped fund a special effects firm in India called Makuta Effects that will be rolled into the new venture, and one of his cousins recently won an Oscar for work on the Telugu blockbuster “RRR.”

Though he declined to give a dollar figure, Koduri said he has raised a round of seed funding for his new venture and that it will have a major presence in India as well as Singapore and the United States.

He said the company would work on software to support chips made with open-source technology such as RISC-V.

“Any RISC-V based or open architecture based hardware that’s available, we will be the first user to give them feedback and encourage them,” he said. “Because to truly democratize AI computing for everybody, we have got to get the cost down dramatically.”

(Reporting by Stephen Nellis in San Francisco;Editing by Leslie Adler and Alison Williams)

(Reuters) -Alphabet Inc’s Google suspended the Play version of PDD Holdings Inc’s Pinduoduo app for security concerns, after malware issues were found on versions of the Chinese e-commerce app outside Google’s app store, a company spokesperson said on Tuesday.

“Off-Play versions of this app that have been found to contain malware have been enforced on via Google Play Protect,” the spokesperson said in a statement, adding that the Play version of the app has been suspended for security concerns.

Google Play Protect scans Android devices with Google Play Services for potentially harmful apps and works to prevent the installation of malicious apps.

“Google Play has informed us this morning that Pinduoduo App has been temporarily suspended as the current version is not compliant with Google’s Policy, but has not shared more details,” a Pinduoduo spokesperson said in an email to Reuters.

There are several other apps that have been suspended by Google Play, Pinduoduo said, adding that there are multiple reasons an app is temporarily suspended. Google did not immediately respond to a query on the suspension of other apps on the Play store. 

PDD Holdings’ shares fell 1.8% in premarket trading on Tuesday.

The development comes amid efforts by the U.S. government to bolster its cyber defenses in the face of a steady increase in hacking and digital crimes targeting the country.

The government recently announced a new cybersecurity strategy that named China and Russia as the most prominent threats to the United States.

(Reporting by Baranjot Kaur and Abinaya Vijayaraghavan in Bengaluru; Editing by Dhanya Ann Thoppil)

By Rajesh Kumar Singh, Doyinsola Oladipo and Joanna Plucinska

(Reuters) – New Yorker Elizabeth Palumbi’s list of European cities to visit this spring keeps getting longer, and she is not alone.

Online searches by Americans for flights to Europe trips are surging despite soaring air fares, a worsening economic outlook and risks of gridlock at some of the airports in Europe.

The travel boom is promising record profit margins at some U.S. carriers, which are ramping up transatlantic capacity to cash in on Americans’ thirst for travel to Europe.

It also explains why U.S. carriers remain upbeat about travel spending in spite of rising interest rates, high inflation, mounting job losses and a global banking crisis.

Industry executives said lifting of pandemic-related travel restrictions in Europe is encouraging more people to travel as they no longer fear getting stranded overseas if they contract the virus. Travelers are also being emboldened by a strong U.S. dollar and more flexible work arrangements.

Palumbi, a 26-year-old meteorologist, intends to work remotely and travel to Portugal, Southern France, and Montenegro.

“It’s been impossible to open up social media over the past couple of years without seeing at least a few friends posting from Europe,” she said.

Online travel agency Hopper’s March data shows 37% of searches from U.S.-based customers for international travel this spring are for flights to Europe, a 9% increase from the same period in 2019.

Travel website Kayak said searches for travel to Europe this summer are up 77% from last year.

There is still untapped travel demand for Europe even after a busy summer last year, said Hayley Berg, lead economist at Hopper. As a result, from late May through fall, the region has become the top travel destination for Americans.

It’s a boost for Europe’s travel industry, which is grappling with cash-strapped domestic travelers looking for cheaper vacations and lower-than-expected bookings from high-spending Chinese travelers.

Transatlantic travel is the industry’s most lucrative long-haul market, accounting for between 11% and 20% of passenger revenue last year at the big three U.S. carriers: American Airlines, Delta Air Lines and United Airlines.

However, widespread labor strife in Europe, along with a passenger cap at Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport, did not let carriers fully capitalize on travel demand last summer. The resulting flight cancellations and reductions in service, particularly in Amsterdam, hurt Delta’s earnings.

Schiphol, one of Europe’s busiest airports, has plans to limit passenger numbers again this summer.

Both Delta and United have said they expect record profit margins this summer from the transatlantic market, without offering more details.

The three big U.S. carriers have increased transatlantic capacity by 22% this year, according to aviation analytics company Cirium.

Some European carriers like Norse Atlantic are also trying to cash in. The Norway-based airline has plans to add Los Angeles, San Francisco, Washington and Boston to its summer schedule from London Gatwick airport.

Average fare for a round-trip flight to Europe, meanwhile, has risen 31% from last year, Hopper data shows.

Palumbi has used airline miles and travel credit card points to book her flights. But if she decides to change her return flight, it could cost her up to $1,000, she said.

U.S. airline executives warn prices are only going higher.

“I would urge you to tell all your neighbors if they’re trying to go to Rome this summer, they better book early,” United Chief Commercial Cfficer Andrew Nocella said.

(Reporting by Rajesh Kumar Singh in Chicago, Doyinsola Oladipo in New York and Joanna Plucinska in London; editing by Ben Klayman and Jonathan Oatis)

By Blake Brittain

(Reuters) – The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday questioned the international limits of federal trademark law, hearing oral arguments from two industrial parts makers and the Biden administration in a case that could clarify when companies can recover for trademark violations that happen overseas.

Hetronic International, an Oklahoma-based subsidiary of Methode Electronics, makes remote-control systems for cranes and other industrial machinery. Hetronic Germany, which was later bought by Abitron Germany GmbH, distributed its products in Europe.

Hetronic sued Abitron and its affiliates in Oklahoma federal court for making and selling Hetronic-branded products with unauthorized parts. After a jury verdict for Hetronic, the court awarded it $114 million in damages, $90 million of which was for violations of federal trademark law.

The 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed the verdict, despite Abitron’s argument that it was a foreign company and the vast majority of the sales were in Europe.

The appeals court said Abitron’s actions had a substantial effect on U.S. commerce and cost it millions in foreign sales. The court also said some of the infringing Abitron products sold overseas ended up in the United States, and there was evidence that they caused confusion among U.S. customers.

Abitron attorney Lucas Walker of MoloLamken told the justices Tuesday that the company should not be liable in the United States for conduct abroad, and that holding otherwise would risk causing “international friction.”

Justices Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson questioned Abitron’s position.

“We’re walking down the street in Manhattan and we see all of these fraudulent or fakely branded goods,” Jackson said. “If they are made overseas and we can figure out who made them, wouldn’t that be sufficient?”

“If the uses of the trademark confuse in the domestic market, that seems as though it should be enough,” Kagan said.

Masha Hansford of the U.S. Solicitor General’s office, arguing on behalf of the Biden administration, said U.S. law should apply only if the foreign acts are likely to confuse consumers in the United States, and that the 10th Circuit gave the law “sweeping extraterritorial reach.”

Some justices expressed concern about the scope of the Solicitor General’s argument, though others seemed to indicate some support for it.

“Would listing the product or the products’ appearance on the internet anywhere always constitute causing confusion?” Chief Justice John Roberts asked. “You have to assume somebody’s going to look at it at some point and might be confused. I don’t quite know the extent to which your test has any limits at all.”

Hetronic attorney Matthew Hellman of Jenner & Block said that “since 1952, this court has held and repeatedly reaffirmed” that U.S. trademark law “reaches infringement of U.S. marks that is carried out overseas.”

Hellman also fielded questions about the scope of Abitron’s argument.

“Beyond your jurisdictional point, I don’t see what the outer limits are,” Justice Clarence Thomas said.

(Reporting by Blake Brittain in Washington)

By Jody Godoy

(Reuters) – A federal judge has ruled that shareholders suing chip maker Qualcomm Inc for allegedly hiding anticompetitive sales and licensing practices may bring their claims as a class action.

The lawsuit filed in San Diego, California, alleges Qualcomm and its executives repeatedly described its businesses of selling chips and licensing its technology to other companies as separate, when in fact the company bundled them in a bid to stifle competition.

The investors leading the case claim the misrepresentations artificially inflated the price of Qualcomm shares between 2012 and 2017.

Qualcomm has called the allegations meritless.

U.S. District Judge Jinsook Ohta on Monday rejected Qualcomm’s argument that the sales practices were already publicly known.

Qualcomm’s responses to antitrust allegations by regulators revealed “far more detail” about the practices and the customers affected, she wrote.

The class covers investors who bought Qualcomm common stock between Feb. 1, 2012 and Jan. 20, 2017 and incurred losses.

Qualcomm paid the Korea Fair Trade Commission 1.03 trillion won ($912.34 million) in 2017 for what the regulator called unfair business practices in licensing and chip sales.

The San Diego-based company also faces a consumer lawsuit in California alleging its practices violated state law.

The case is Shah v. Qualcomm Incorporated et al., U.S. District Court, Southern District of California, No. 17-121

(Reporting by Jody Godoy in New York; Editing by Bill Berkrot)

By Fergal Smith

(Reuters) -Canada’s benchmark stock index rose on Tuesday to its highest closing level in one week, helped by gains in energy and financial shares after domestic data showed consumer prices easing more than expected in February.

The Toronto Stock Exchange’s S&P/TSX composite index ended up 135.49 points, or 0.7%, at 19,654.92, its highest closing level since March 14, preliminary data showed.

Canada’s annual inflation rate slowed more than expected in February to 5.2%, its lowest level in 13 months, backing up the Bank of Canada’s plans to hold off on further interest rates hikes.

If inflation is falling in Canada, “it’s only a matter of time for it to continue to fall in the U.S.,” said Barry Schwartz, portfolio manager at Baskin Financial Services.

Wall Street also advanced as widespread fears over liquidity in the banking sector subsided and investors turned their focus to the Federal Reserve, which has convened for its much-anticipated two-day policy meeting.

“We went into the weekend concerned about our banking system,” Schwartz said. “You can tell from the action of some of the bank stocks at least that confidence is slowly coming back.”

Heavily-weighted financials rose 1.2%, while energy added 3.2% as the price of oil settled 2.5% higher at $69.33 a barrel.

(Reporting Fergal Smith; Additional reporting by Johann M Cherian in Bengaluru; Editing by Pooja Desai and Jonathan Oatis)

By Jonathan Stempel

(Reuters) – A new lawsuit accuses Mark Zuckerberg and other Meta Platforms Inc executives and directors of failing to do enough to stop sex trafficking and child sexual exploitation on Facebook and Instagram.

The complaint made public late Monday by several pension and investment funds that own Meta stock said Meta’s leadership and board have failed to protect the company’s and shareholders’ interests by turning a blind eye to “systemic evidence” of criminal activity.

Given the board’s failure to explain how it tries to root out the problem, “the only logical inference is that the board has consciously decided to permit Meta’s platforms to promote and facilitate sex/human trafficking,” the complaint said.

Meta rejected the basis for the lawsuit, which was filed in Delaware Chancery Court.

“We prohibit human exploitation and child sexual exploitation in no uncertain terms,” it said in a statement on Tuesday. “The claims in this lawsuit mischaracterize our efforts to combat this type of activity. Our goal is to prevent people who seek to exploit others from using our platform.”

Zuckerberg, Meta’s billionaire co-founder and chief executive, told Congress in 2019 that child exploitation was “one of the most serious threats that we focus on.”

Meta, based in Menlo Park, California, has long faced accusations that its platforms are a haven for sexual misconduct.

In June 2021, the Texas Supreme Court allowed three people who became entangled with their abusers through Facebook to sue, saying Facebook was not a “lawless no-man’s-land” immune from liability for human trafficking.

Meta separately faces hundreds of lawsuits from families of teenagers and younger children who claimed to suffer mental health problems by becoming addicted to Facebook and Instagram. Some school districts have also filed lawsuits over the problem.

Monday’s lawsuit is a derivative case, where shareholders sue officers and directors who allegedly breached their duties.

Damages are paid to the company, often by the officers’ and directors’ insurers, instead of to shareholders.

The case is Employees’ Retirement System of the State of Rhode Island et al v Zuckerberg et al, Delaware Chancery Court, No. 2023-0304.

(Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York; editing by Jonathan Oatis)