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By Dawn Chmielewski LOS ANGELES, October 3 (Reuters) -Superstar Taylor Swift's latest studio album, "The Life of a Showgirl," arrives Friday with a promotional blitz that includes midnight sales at Target stores, a release party at movie theaters around the globe and pop-up experiences in New York and Los Angeles. The release follows "The Tortured Poets Department," Swift's 11th studio album, which debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 album chart, and sold the equivalent of 8 million albums in the United States, according to Luminate, a firm that tracks music sales.  "She occupies a very rare position in today's fragmented music landscape: she is an active superstar with a massive and loyal fan base," said Tatiana Cirisano, vice president of music strategy for MIDiA Research. These passionate followers, who self-identify as "Swifties," help the artist break through the fragmented music landscape, and rise to the top of the charts, said Cirisano. "So few can get such a massive number of people listening to the same thing at once. So, it would surprise me a lot if the new release did not reach her usual level of success," she said.   Swift has been building anticipation for the new album since August 11, when she posted a countdown on her website that kept fans waiting until 12:12 a.m. ET on August 12, when she revealed  the name of her 12th album "The Life of a Showgirl." The next day, Swift appeared on the "New Heights" podcast hosted by her fiancé, Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce, and his brother, retired Philadelphia Eagles lineman Jason Kelce. The Top-10 rated sports and pop-culture podcast provided a friendly platform for Swift to talk about her forthcoming album, which she said had been inspired by the joy she felt while performing around the world on her record-setting Eras Tour. The August 13 episode has surpassed 23.4 million views on YouTube. Swift has emerged as a cultural and economic force. Her globe-trotting Eras Tour was the highest-grossing tour of all time, surpassing $2 billion in ticket sales by the time it concluded in December 2024, according to Pollstar, a trade publication that tracks the concert industry. That figure does not include the boost to hotel and Airbnb rentals, restaurant tabs and merchandise sales.  Academics have said Swift rivals other pop icons, like Elvis or Michael Jackson, in terms of her cultural impact — whether it's driving tune-in to NFL gamesor leading voter registration drives. Business partners have been eager to tap into the phenomenon that's been dubbed "Swiftonomics." AMC Theatres announced plans to distribute "The Official Release Party of a Showgirl," an 89-minute film that features the first music video from the album, "The Fate of Ophelia,"  behind-the-scenes footage from the making of the music video, and Swift's reflections on songs from the album. The film will be in limited release, from Friday through Sunday, in more than 50 markets. Retailer Target plans to open some stores at midnight Friday to sell a limited-edition vinyl pressing of the album with a "gold shimmer," and three CDs featuring exclusive album and poster art. Music streaming service Spotify opened a three-day pop-up in New York City on Tuesday, to let Swift fans step into the world of the album, with song lyrics hidden among displays that included a dressing room and other trappings of a concert tour. On Friday, TikTok opened its own "Life of a Showgirl" installation in Los Angeles. Taylor Nation, the artist's promotional team, released a schedule of promotional appearances to tout the new album, including stops on "The Graham Norton Show" on Friday, "The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon" on Monday and "Late Night with Seth Meyers" on Wednesday.  (Editing by Patricia Reaney)

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A look at the day ahead in European and global markets from Ankur Banerjee: The U.S. shutdown and political gridlock in Washington show no signs of ending any time soon. That hasn't stopped stocks and gold striking fresh record highs, as investors mainly focus on the Federal Reserve sticking the rate-cut path. While the risk of a drawn out shutdown could muddle the policy path, for now, markets are shrugging that off and taking a risk-on approach. Traders don't have to bide their time for the U.S. jobs report on Friday due to the shutdown, although manufacturing data from across Europe may sway the markets and underscore the impact of tariffs. But we have been saying that for a while and data so far has shown limited impact. Data earlier this week showed U.S. manufacturing activity edged up in September, though new orders and employment were subdued as factories grappled with the fallout from President Donald Trump's sweeping tariffs. So perhaps, more of the same is in store for Europe. That may not deter the stock markets where the pan-European STOXX 600 closed at a record high on Thursday, taking its yearly gains to 12%. Futures indicate another strong open. The surge in global stocks is led by the ever-present AI mania and the rising wagers of the Fed cutting rates again this year. With no government data, traders have turned to alternative private reports that show a sluggish labour market. That has reinforced the view that the Fed will lower rates again, as traders almost fully price in a cut later this month. Gold prices, as a result, have been on a tear, with the yellow metal heading for a seventh straight week in the black, bringing yearly gains to an eye-watering 47%. Investor attention will also be on any further deals that may be unveiled after Trump announced a deal with Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla earlier this week to cut drug prices in exchange for relief from planned tariffs on imported pharmaceuticals. The Trump administration is pursuing deals across up to 30 industries, involving dozens of companies deemed critical to national or economic security, sources told Reuters. Key developments that could influence markets on Friday: Economic events: September PMIs for France, Germany, UK and euro zone. (By Ankur Banerjee; Editing by Sam Holmes)

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(Reuters) -Telstra, Australia's no.1 telecom firm, has been fined A$18 million ($11.87 million) by the Federal Court for lowering internet speed plans for about 9,000 customers without informing them, the country's competition watchdog said on Friday. Australian telecom firms are facing heightened scrutiny over governance, particularly after Optus' two back-to-back emergency call outages last month affected thousands of customers, with the first outage linked to four deaths. The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) said on Friday that Telstra migrated 8,897 customers of its low-cost value brand, Belong, to a lower-speed plan without notifying them that their maximum upload speed had been halved. The migration occurred during October-November 2020, the regulator said. "Telstra's failure to inform customers that their broadband service had been changed denied them the opportunity to decide whether the changed service was suitable for their needs," ACCC Commissioner Anna Brakey said in a statement. In addition to the penalty, Telstra has either already compensated or will compensate all affected customers with a credit or payment of A$15 for each month they were on the lower upload speed plan, the regulator said on Friday. Telstra has accepted the court's findings and is completing remediation for one group of customers, a company spokesperson told Reuters in an emailed response. Telstra shares were trading 0.7% lower, as of 0408 GMT, while the broader benchmark was up 0.5%. ($1 = 1.5161 Australian dollars) (Reporting by Nikita Maria Jino in Bengaluru; Editing by Subhranshu Sahu)

(The article has been published through a syndicated feed. Except for the headline, the content has been published verbatim. Liability lies with original publisher.)

By Dawn Chmielewski LOS ANGELES, October 3 (Reuters) -Superstar Taylor Swift's latest studio album, "The Life of a Showgirl," arrives Friday with a promotional blitz that includes midnight sales at Target stores, a release party at movie theaters around the globe and pop-up experiences in New York and Los Angeles. The release follows "The Tortured Poets Department," Swift's 11th studio album, which debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 album chart, and sold the equivalent of 8 million albums in the United States, according to Luminate, a firm that tracks music sales.  "She occupies a very rare position in today's fragmented music landscape: she is an active superstar with a massive and loyal fan base," said Tatiana Cirisano, vice president of music strategy for MIDiA Research. These passionate followers, who self-identify as "Swifties," help the artist break through the fragmented music landscape, and rise to the top of the charts, said Cirisano. "So few can get such a massive number of people listening to the same thing at once. So, it would surprise me a lot if the new release did not reach her usual level of success," she said.   Swift has been building anticipation for the new album since August 11, when she posted a countdown on her website that kept fans waiting until 12:12 a.m. ET on August 12, when she revealed  the name of her 12th album "The Life of a Showgirl." The next day, Swift appeared on the "New Heights" podcast hosted by her fiancé, Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce, and his brother, retired Philadelphia Eagles lineman Jason Kelce. The Top-10 rated sports and pop-culture podcast provided a friendly platform for Swift to talk about her forthcoming album, which she said had been inspired by the joy she felt while performing around the world on her record-setting Eras Tour. The August 13 episode has surpassed 23.4 million views on YouTube. Swift has emerged as a cultural and economic force. Her globe-trotting Eras Tour was the highest-grossing tour of all time, surpassing $2 billion in ticket sales by the time it concluded in December 2024, according to Pollstar, a trade publication that tracks the concert industry. That figure does not include the boost to hotel and Airbnb rentals, restaurant tabs and merchandise sales.  Academics have said Swift rivals other pop icons, like Elvis or Michael Jackson, in terms of her cultural impact — whether it's driving tune-in to NFL gamesor leading voter registration drives. Business partners have been eager to tap into the phenomenon that's been dubbed "Swiftonomics." AMC Theatres announced plans to distribute "The Official Release Party of a Showgirl," an 89-minute film that features the first music video from the album, "The Fate of Ophelia,"  behind-the-scenes footage from the making of the music video, and Swift's reflections on songs from the album. The film will be in limited release, from Friday through Sunday, in more than 50 markets. Retailer Target plans to open some stores at midnight Friday to sell a limited-edition vinyl pressing of the album with a "gold shimmer," and three CDs featuring exclusive album and poster art. Music streaming service Spotify opened a three-day pop-up in New York City on Tuesday, to let Swift fans step into the world of the album, with song lyrics hidden among displays that included a dressing room and other trappings of a concert tour. On Friday, TikTok opened its own "Life of a Showgirl" installation in Los Angeles. Taylor Nation, the artist's promotional team, released a schedule of promotional appearances to tout the new album, including stops on "The Graham Norton Show" on Friday, "The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon" on Monday and "Late Night with Seth Meyers" on Wednesday.  (Editing by Patricia Reaney)

(The article has been published through a syndicated feed. Except for the headline, the content has been published verbatim. Liability lies with original publisher.)

By Raphael Satter WASHINGTON (Reuters) -Oracle said on Thursday that customers of its E-Business Suite of products "have received extortion emails," confirming a warning first issued on Wednesday by Alphabet's Google. In a blog post, the California-based tech company said its investigation found that hackers had made potential use of previously identified software vulnerabilities and urged customers to upgrade their products. Oracle did not immediately respond when asked how many clients were affected. Google has described the hacking campaign as "high volume," but declined to go into detail. Cynthia Kaiser, the head of cybersecurity firm Halcyon's Ransomware Research Center, previously told Reuters that her company had seen extortion demands ranging from millions to tens of millions of dollars, with the highest coming in at $50 million. In a message to Reuters, the ransomware group tied by Google to the extortion campaign, cl0p, said Oracle had "bugged up," but added: "We not prepared to discuss details at this time." The group's members and location are not publicly known. But security researchers have long identified the group as Russia-linked or Russian-speaking. It is a ransomware-as-a-service group, meaning that it hires out its software and infrastructure for other cybercriminals in return for a cut of the proceeds. Japanese cybersecurity firm Trend Micro previously described cl0p as "a trendsetter for its ever-changing tactics." (Reporting by Raphael Satter; Editing by Thomas Derpinghaus.)

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By Rocky Swift TOKYO (Reuters) -The yen edged lower on Friday, trimming its sharpest weekly gain in more than four months, as traders considered the impact of potential rate increases by the Bank of Japan and a leadership election this weekend. BOJ Governor Kazuo Ueda reiterated that the central bank would continue raising interest rates if the economy and prices move in line with its forecast. Markets are also focused on a Liberal Democratic Party election on Saturday that will determine Japan's next prime minister. The dollar rebounded overnight despite a closure of the U.S. government that has halted the publication of key economic data, including the closely watched monthly jobs report for September that was due to be released on Friday. Canada's currency held near a four-month low on a slide in oil prices. "The government shutdown has not had a major short-term impact, but if anything, underlying pressure remains toward a weaker dollar," said Hirofumi Suzuki, the chief currency strategist at SMBC. "That said, with yen-depreciation pressure likely to linger ahead of this weekend's LDP leadership election, the pair is likely to hover around current levels," he added. The yen slid 0.2% to 147.52 per dollar, still on track for a 1.3% advance this week that would be the biggest since mid-May. The dollar index, which measures the greenback against a basket of key currencies, tacked on 0.1% to 97.895. The euro was little changed at $1.1721. Markets were keeping a close eye on speeches by BOJ officials this week after the central bank's tankan survey on Wednesday showed confidence among big manufacturers improved for the second straight quarter. Governor Ueda said the central bank expects the global economy to resume a moderate recovery path but much will depend on the U.S. economic outlook. Deputy governor Shinichi Uchida said on Thursday that the business mood is improving and corporate profits remain high even as U.S. tariffs weigh on exports.  Ueda's comments "could be used to guide the market further towards a rate hike at the BOJ's next meeting on October 30th," IG Markets analyst Tony Sycamore wrote in a note. In the U.S. overnight, a Chicago Fed report that combines private and available public data estimated the September jobless rate was 4.3%, the same as in August and evidence that a feared rapid rise in unemployment had not yet begun. But details of the report, along with other data, pointed to sluggishness in the labor market. The ADP National Employment report on Wednesday showed private payrolls decreased by 32,000 in September, boosting expectations that the Federal Reserve will cut interest rates two more times this year. Traders see a 25-basis-point cut at the Fed's October meeting as almost certain and are pricing in a 90% probability of an additional cut in December, according to the CME Group’s FedWatch Tool. Dallas Fed President Lorie Logan on Thursday said the central bank appropriately cut rates last month to guard against the risk of a sharp deterioration in the job market, but said that so far the cooling has been gradual and signalled she is not eager to cut rates further. The Canadian dollar weakened to a four-month low against its U.S. counterpart on Thursday as the price of oil fell more than 2% and investors worried about negotiations to renew a U.S.-Mexico-Canada trade agreement. The Canadian currency traded little changed at 1.3962 per U.S. dollar after touching 1.3986 on Thursday, its weakest intraday level since May 16. (Reporting by Rocky SwiftEditing by Shri Navaratnam)

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By Raphael Satter WASHINGTON (Reuters) -Oracle said on Thursday that customers of its E-Business Suite of products "have received extortion emails," confirming a warning first issued on Wednesday by Alphabet's Google. In a blog post, the California-based tech company said its investigation found that hackers had made potential use of previously identified software vulnerabilities and urged customers to upgrade their products. Oracle did not immediately respond when asked how many clients were affected. Google has described the hacking campaign as "high volume," but declined to go into detail. Cynthia Kaiser, the head of cybersecurity firm Halcyon's Ransomware Research Center, previously told Reuters that her company had seen extortion demands ranging from millions to tens of millions of dollars, with the highest coming in at $50 million. In a message to Reuters, the ransomware group tied by Google to the extortion campaign, cl0p, said Oracle had "bugged up," but added: "We not prepared to discuss details at this time." The group's members and location are not publicly known. But security researchers have long identified the group as Russia-linked or Russian-speaking. It is a ransomware-as-a-service group, meaning that it hires out its software and infrastructure for other cybercriminals in return for a cut of the proceeds. Japanese cybersecurity firm Trend Micro previously described cl0p as "a trendsetter for its ever-changing tactics." (Reporting by Raphael Satter; Editing by Thomas Derpinghaus.)

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By Leika Kihara OSAKA (Reuters) -Bank of Japan Governor Kazuo Ueda said inflation was on track to durably hit the bank's target but warned of global uncertainties that could discourage firms from raising wages, leaving himself a free hand on whether to raise interest rates in October. Ueda reiterated the central bank's resolve to continue raising still-low interest rates if the economy and prices move in line with its forecasts. But he said there were various uncertainties surrounding Japan's economic outlook, such as growing signs of labour market weakness in the United States and the expected impact of higher U.S. tariffs on Japanese corporate profits. "If uncertainty regarding overseas economies and trade policies remains high, firms may place stronger emphasis on cost-cutting and may weaken their efforts to reflect price increases in wages," Ueda said in a speech to business leaders in the western Japan city of Osaka on Friday. "The future course of the U.S. economy and the conduct of monetary policy could significantly affect Japan's economy and prices," Ueda said. "We will therefore continue to closely monitor the situation," he added. The Japanese yen weakened 0.2% to 147.60 per U.S. dollar after Ueda's comments, as some market players interpreted them as reducing the likelihood of an October rate hike. "There wasn't any clear change in the BOJ's communication that would suggest it was trying to lay the groundwork for an October rate hike," said Shotaro Mori, senior economist at SBI Shinsei Bank. "If the tariff impact were to intensify from now on, what's important would be to look at hard data on Japan's third-quarter economic growth and corporate profits," he said, predicting that a hike in December was now more likely than October. The remarks came in the wake of a U.S. government shutdown that began on Wednesday, which could delay the release of a large chunk of economic data and complicate the BOJ's rate decision. Market players have been closely watching Ueda's comments for any clues on how soon the BOJ will resume a rate-hike cycle that has been paused due to uncertainty over the economic fallout from U.S. tariffs. A hawkish board split at the BOJ's September meeting and calls for a near-term rate hike by a dovish policymaker have led markets to price in over a 60% chance the bank will hike rates to 0.75% from 0.5% at its next policy meeting on October 29-30. Ueda said Japan's economy was weathering the hit from U.S. tariffs so far, with many companies armed with buffers from high profits accumulated in the past. He also said underlying inflation, or the broad price trend excluding one-off factors, will accelerate toward the BOJ's target – removing earlier reference it will briefly stall in a nod to recent mounting pressure from rising food costs. "Given intensifying labour shortages and rising medium- to long-term inflation expectations, underlying inflation is likely to accelerate in tandem with actual inflation," Ueda said. The remark compared with language in the BOJ's policy statement in September, which said underlying inflation "will be sluggish due to slowing growth, before increasing gradually." The BOJ has justified going slow on rate hikes on the view underlying inflation, or price rises driven by domestic demand as measured by various indicators, remains short of its 2% target. "Depending on firms' wage- and price-setting behaviour, it's possible that price rises will persist longer than expected," Ueda said. But he added that prolonged food price rises could also hurt consumption and push down inflation. "We will carefully examine the likelihood of our baseline scenario materialising, as well as both upside and downside risks" in deciding on monetary policy, Ueda said. The BOJ ended a massive, decade-long stimulus programme last year and raised rates to 0.5% in January, on the view that Japan was on the cusp of durably hitting its inflation target of 2%. While consumer inflation has exceeded 2% for more than three years, Ueda has stressed the need to tread cautiously in raising borrowing costs to ensure price rises are driven by wage gains and robust domestic demand. (Reporting by Leika Kihara; Additional reporting by Kentaro Sugiyama and Makiko Yamazaki in Tokyo, Ankur Banerjee in Singapore; Editing by Muralikumar Anantharaman and Sam Holmes)

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By Leika Kihara OSAKA (Reuters) -Bank of Japan Governor Kazuo Ueda said inflation was on track to durably hit the bank's target but warned of global uncertainties that could discourage firms from raising wages, leaving himself a free hand on whether to raise interest rates in October. Ueda reiterated the central bank's resolve to continue raising still-low interest rates if the economy and prices move in line with its forecasts. But he said there were various uncertainties surrounding Japan's economic outlook, such as growing signs of labour market weakness in the United States and the expected impact of higher U.S. tariffs on Japanese corporate profits. "If uncertainty regarding overseas economies and trade policies remains high, firms may place stronger emphasis on cost-cutting and may weaken their efforts to reflect price increases in wages," Ueda said in a speech to business leaders in the western Japan city of Osaka on Friday. "The future course of the U.S. economy and the conduct of monetary policy could significantly affect Japan's economy and prices," Ueda said. "We will therefore continue to closely monitor the situation," he added. The Japanese yen weakened 0.2% to 147.60 per U.S. dollar after Ueda's comments, as some market players interpreted them as reducing the likelihood of a near-term rate hike. Market players have been closely watching his comments for any clues on how soon the BOJ will resume a rate-hike cycle that has been paused due to uncertainty over the economic fallout from U.S. tariffs. A hawkish board split at the BOJ's September meeting and calls for a near-term rate hike by a dovish policymaker have led markets to price in over a 60% chance the bank will hike rates to 0.75% from 0.5% at its next policy meeting on October 29-30. Ueda said Japan's economy was weathering the hit from U.S. tariffs so far, with many companies armed with buffers from high profits accumulated in the past. He also said underlying inflation, or the broad price trend excluding one-off factors, will accelerate toward the BOJ's target – removing earlier reference it will briefly stall in a nod to recent mounting pressure from rising food costs. "Depending on firms' wage- and price-setting behaviour, it's possible that price rises will persist longer than expected," Ueda said. But he added that prolonged food price rises could also hurt consumption and push down inflation. "We will carefully examine the likelihood of our baseline scenario materialising, as well as both upside and downside risks" in deciding on monetary policy, Ueda said. The remarks came in the wake of Wednesday's tankan quarterly survey that showed confidence among big Japanese manufacturers improved for the second straight quarter. The BOJ ended a massive, decade-long stimulus programme last year and raised rates to 0.5% in January, on the view that Japan was on the cusp of durably hitting its inflation target of 2%. While inflation has exceeded 2% for more than three years, Ueda has stressed the need to tread cautiously in raising borrowing costs to ensure price rises are driven by wage gains and robust domestic demand. (Reporting by Leika Kihara; Additional reporting by Ankur Banerjee in Singapore; Editing by Muralikumar Anantharaman and Sam Holmes)

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(Reuters) -BlackRock-owned Global Infrastructure Partners is in advanced talks to acquire Macquarie-backed Aligned Data Centers in a deal valuing the technology infrastructure company at $40 billion, Bloomberg News reported on Thursday. The companies have yet to finalize a deal, but an agreement could be announced within days, Bloomberg said, citing people familiar with the matter. Mubadala, an investor in Aligned and a backer of MGX, an Abu Dhabi AI investment firm, is also involved in the talks and would invest independently as part of the transaction, the report said. Blackrock declined to comment on the report. GIP, Aligned, Macquarie, and Mubadala did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment. The enormous uptake of AI, both in business and personal use, has prompted a host of companies to invest in AI data centers. McKinsey estimates those investments to reach $6.7 trillion by 2030 to meet computing power demand. Texas-based Aligned, which specializes in AI-related infrastructure, raised more than $12 billion in January. (Reporting by Rhea Rose Abraham and Gnaneshwar Rajan in Bengaluru; Editing by Sonia Cheema)

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