JD Sports appoints Peter Agnefjäll as chair from September

Powell chose the institutional Fed independence rope-a-dope but never threw the substantive rate knockout punch, writes Ken Thomas.Chip Somodevilla/Photographer: Chip Somodevilla/G Processing Content Key takeaway: President Donald Trump Wednesday afternoon said former Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell should be “forced to resign” from the bank’s board in the wake of a report on renovation cost…

Six years after its founding, banking infrastructure company Increase is now a bank. Increase Bank, announced in a news release Wednesday (July 29), is designed to combine a “modern bank core” with regulated banking services to help companies build financial products with more speed, precision, and control. “Founded in 2020, Increase’s banking infrastructure and APIs…

Mortgage application activity rebounded last week as stronger home purchase demand offset a modest decline in refinancing, even with borrowing costs climbing to their highest level since last August. The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) reported a 1.9% increase in total application volume on a seasonally adjusted basis for the week ending July 17. Purchase applications…

TikTok was Julia Kong’s biggest source of brand deals when she started her creator career in 2020. Today, Instagram has replaced it as her top revenue driver, though her TikTok following is still vastly larger. “It’s what brands would prefer to reference when deciding whether or not to work with you,” Kong, who posts about…

Reliance Retail Ventures Ltd is expanding its dark store network to improve delivery speed and reliability, including in smaller cities. CFO Dinesh Taluja said the company is scaling quick commerce and broader e-commerce while keeping unit economics central. Investments in supply chain and technology are expected to support margins contributing positively from the next financial…

Gasoline prices rose at a slower year-over-year rate in June (+20.5%), but RBC Economics estimates the pace picked up again in July, with gasoline averaging approximately 25% above year-ago levels, as ongoing conflict in the Middle East continued to disrupt shipping through the Strait of Hormuz. For brokers monitoring the Bank of Canada’s (BoC) rate path, the…