META PLATFORMS PLANS TO RAISE UP TO $25 BILLION VIA BOND ISSUANCE

- Oil prices reversed course Thursday, with Brent crude futures losing 3% to trade above $114 a barrel and West Texas Intermediate futures falling 2% to trade above $104 - Wall Street is coming off a mixed session, with the Dow losing more than 200 points on Wednesday while the S&P 500 and Nasdaq ended the session along the flatline. - Federal Reserve voting to hold interest rates steady in the range of 3.5% to 3.75%, as investors had largely expected, although the 8-4 vote marked the first time four Fed officials have dissented since 1992. - Thursday also marks the final trading day of April, a month that has seen a surge for tech names. The S&P 500 is on pace for a 9.3% advance, while the Nasdaq is heading for a 14.3% jump. Both indexes are on track for their best month since 2020. - The core personal consumption expenditures price index, which excludes food and energy, accelerated a seasonally adjusted 0.3% for the month, pushing the 12-month inflation rate to 3.2% - Commerce Department reported that gross domestic product grew at a 2% seasonally adjusted annualized pace in the first quarter, up from 0.5% in the fourth quarter of 2025 but lower than the 2.2% estimate - Meta Platforms — The Facebook parent tumbled 9% after hiking its full-year capital expenditures guidance to a range of $125 billion to $145 billion, raising concern over its AI spending. That forecast overshadowed a better-than-expected Q1 report. - South Korea’s benchmark Kospi index logged its strongest monthly gain, up nearly 31%, since January 1998 - Microsoft — The “Magnificent Seven” inched higher. icrosoft reported an earnings and revenue beat in its fiscal third quarter. Revenue from Azure and other cloud services rose 40%. - Amazon — Shares rose 4% after the company reported first-quarter results that were above estimates.

CHINA'S XI CALLS FOR STRONGER SUPPORT AND CONCRETE MEASURES TO BOOST BASIC RESEARCH AND REINFORCE THE FOUNDATION FOR BUILDING A TECHNOLOGY POWERHOUSE - XINHUA