Indian rupee hits 2-month high at ₹94.3 per USD

Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal has said that India will finalize its proposed trade deal with the US once Washington provides a preferential tariff advantage to Indian exporters. Speaking at the National Workshop on Leveraging FTAs - Outreach Programme, Goyal emphasized that India's tariff rates under trade agreements should either be better than those offered to competitors or reduced to zero.

The Indian rupee opened on a strong note today, hitting a two-month high. The currency appreciated by 67 paise against the US dollar at the opening, trading at ₹94.3 per dollar as compared to Wednesday's close of ₹94.97. This comes after a rough start to the week for the currency, which had seen some depreciation earlier.

A rare piece of Apple history is set to go under the hammer once again. The "Hatfield" Apple 1 computer, which fetched a whopping $671,400 in 2013, will be auctioned this fall. The Bonhams auction house estimates it will sell for between $500,000 and $800,000 this time around. The price range is slightly higher than its original retail price of $666.66 back in 1976.

BSE's shares surged by 4.5% today, following comments from the exchange's MD and CEO Sundararaman Ramamurthy. Speaking to CNBC-TV18, Ramamurthy said that the National Stock Exchange(NSE) cannot self-list after its mega initial public offering (IPO). He also confirmed that NSE has denied any plans for self-trading with its offer document. At around 1:00 pm, BSE shares were trading 4.5% higher at ₹3,308 apiece.

The US Justice Department is working with Elon Musk's X to trace the hackers behind a recent password-recovery attack. The assault targeted hundreds of thousands of users on the social media platform this week. US Attorney General Todd Blanche confirmed the collaboration in a statement on X, noting that "sophisticated cyber criminals" attempted the attack but were thwarted by the platform.

As India's festive season approaches, e-commerce giants Amazon and Meesho are ramping up their hiring efforts. The companies are expecting a surge in demand during this period and are preparing accordingly. Amazon India has announced over 1.6 lakh temporary positions across its network to support both its e-commerce and quick commerce businesses.

Apple is working on a new feature called "iPhone Handoff," which will let users share a single phone number across two iPhones. The move is aimed at eliminating the need for manually swapping SIM cards, forwarding calls, or paying for an extra cellular line. The feature was briefly previewed during the WWDC 2026 keynote in June and has now been integrated into the upcoming iOS 27 update, according to MacRumors.

IFA 2026, Europe's largest consumer tech show, is underway in Berlin, Germany. Even before the public opening, several innovative gadgets have been unveiled. These include a potential rival to Apple's MacBook Neo from Dell and a portable gaming controller for on-the-go gamers. Acer has also introduced a concept handheld device designed to balance work and play.

The Dutch central bank (DNB) has shifted 86 tons of gold from the US and Canada to London. The transfer took several months and was prompted by "increasing geopolitical unrest." The precious metal is now held by the Bank of England for easier trading in a crisis. DNB President Olaf Sleijpen said this move was "necessary to strengthen our resilience and preparedness."

ByteDance, the Chinese tech giant behind TikTok, has bagged a massive $29.6 billion loan. The move marks Asia's second-largest dollar-denominated borrowing this year. The company had initially sought a $20 billion facility but decided to increase the amount after receiving strong commitments from banks. The proceeds from this loan will mainly be used for general corporate purposes. SoftBank Group bagged Asia's biggest dollar-denominated loan of 2026: a $40 billion bridge facility signed in March to fund further investment in OpenAI.