Reuters

AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - Dutch nationalist Geert Wilders looked set for new electoral gains on Thursday as the Netherlands kicks off four days of voting in the European Parliament election held across the 27 EU member states.

A nationwide opinion poll published on the eve of the vote put Wilders' anti-immigration Freedom Party (PVV) in a tie for first place with the Labour/GreenLeft combination, with both projected to get 8 seats.

This would... (continue reading...)

By Leika Kihara

(Reuters) - Bank of Japan (BOJ) Governor Kazuo Ueda said on Thursday it would be appropriate to reduce the central bank's bond buying as it moves toward an exit from massive monetary stimulus.

In March, the BOJ made a landmark shift away from its radical monetary stimulus by ending eight years of negative interest rates and yield curve control (YCC), a policy that caps the benchmark 10-year yield around 0% with huge bond... (continue reading...)

By Joey Roulette

(Reuters) - SpaceX's giant Starship rocket is scheduled for a fourth test flight to space on Thursday with a tricky primary objective: survive a blazingly hot re-entry through Earth's atmosphere, the violent phase where the rocket broke apart during its last attempt.

Starship, a two-stage rocket standing nearly 400 feet (122 meters) tall, is poised to launch from SpaceX's rocket facilities in south Texas as early as 7... (continue reading...)

By Lewis Krauskopf

NEW YORK (Reuters) - A rally that has propelled U.S. equities to record highs increasingly rests on red-hot chipmaker Nvidia and a handful of other giant stocks, reviving concerns that the market’s performance has become tied to a cluster of companies.

About 60% of the S&P 500’s total return of more than 12% for the year has been driven by five companies whose shares have some of the heaviest weightings in the... (continue reading...)

By Samia Nakhoul, Humeyra Pamuk and Jonathan Landay

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Hamas has seen about half its forces wiped out in eight months of war and is relying on hit-and-run insurgent tactics to frustrate Israel's attempts to take control of Gaza, U.S. and Israeli officials told Reuters.

The enclave's ruling group has been reduced to between 9,000 and 12,000 fighters, according to three senior U.S. officials familiar with battlefield... (continue reading...)