Author: Money Mechanics

With the heat of summer and time to get outside and active, you may want to swap your Apple Watch band for something flexible, comfortable, and waterproof. It’s no secret that the Apple Watch Ultra 3 is a top-tier smartwatch with a rugged design, large display, and ample battery life, but the right strap is key to comfort, style, and versatility. The Apple Watch Ultra 3 shares size and dimensions with the original Apple Watch Ultra, and comes with one of the three premium Apple bands, each tailored to specific activities. Apple also offers a metal loop option for $100…

(Oil Price) – U.S. natural gas prices are set to rise through 2035, following a decade of low Henry Hub prices, as the AI data center boom and the expansion of U.S. LNG export infrastructure will underpin strong demand, analysts at Wood Mackenzie say. During the decade to 2025, the benchmark U.S. Henry Hub prices remained in a narrow range of between $2 per million British thermal units (MMBtu) $4 per MMBtu, thanks to the surge in U.S. gas production as operators invested in standalone gas plays and boosted associated gas production from oil plays. Well productivity and technology gains have also helped…

The final whistle has blown on soccer legend Cristiano Ronaldo’s final World Cup—after the Portuguese captain and his team missed out on a spot in the 2026 quarterfinals following a devastating 0-1 loss to Spain in Texas.Following an incredibly tense and largely goal-less matchup between the two teams, Spain’s Mikel Merino managed to slide one past the Portuguese goalie in the 91st minute, cementing his team’s place in the quarterfinal game.Ronaldo, 41, was incredibly emotional as he walked off the pitch—hours after confirming at a press conference that the 2026 FIFA World Cup would be the last he plays in.…

Apple’s Tim Cook sounded the price increase alarm in June. “Unfortunately, price increases are unavoidable,” he told The Wall Street Journal. “We’re doing everything we can to mitigate the huge increases being passed on to us.” The problem is a global shortage of memory chips. These components, known as DRAM (memory) and NAND (storage), are inside nearly every computing device sold today. Cook was not casual in his warning. “This is a hundred-year flood,” he said. It’s a situation that means higher prices, not just for Apple, but for consumers across the board. Normally, that would push consumers to stock…

Six people have been charged with felonies after allegedly posing as licensed contractors in the Pacific Palisades wildfire disaster zone, where prosecutors say they submitted more than $1.2 million in bids for rebuilding projects, according to the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office.A joint undercover operation by the District Attorney’s Bureau of Investigation and the California Contractors State License Board (CSLB) led to the charges, officials announced on Thursday.“As residents in Pacific Palisades and Altadena rebuild from the catastrophic wildfires in January 2025, we have a message for criminal contractors: Stay out of Los Angeles County,” said District Attorney Nathan…

A buzzy Bloomberg report citing Netflix data suggests viewers are increasingly abandoning popular shows before the second season. The likely reasons aren’t hard to guess: Netflix frequently cancels shows, there’s too long a wait in between seasons, and much of Netflix’s content is designed for an algorithm instead of for the sake of art. But the data also points to a shift in how people are consuming entertainment. Netflix’s defining innovation – the binge — was built for an era when streaming was competing with traditional TV. Today, Netflix is competing with TikTok, YouTube, Reels, and various microdrama apps. That…

Actor Orlando Bloom’s former Beverly Hills mansion is being offered up as a luxury rental, with a hefty asking price of $31,000 a month—with many of the Hollywood star’s custom upgrades still found throughout the elegant and modern dwelling.Bloom, 49, snapped up the four-bedroom, four-bathroom property in 2017 for $7 million, then made his first attempt to sell it just two years later, listing it for $8.49 million. However, it would be several years and multiple price cuts before the actor managed to offload the property—ultimately breaking even with a $7 million sale.Now, the home’s latest owner is trying their…

changed hands near $4,160 an ounce into Monday, holding most of last week’s gains after bouncing roughly 2% off an eight-month low touched earlier in the week. The metal posted a 2% weekly gain — its first up week after four straight weekly declines — but the bigger picture is a correction that’s still running. Gold sits about 26% below its all-time high of $5,602.23, set back on January 29, and the round trip from that peak to a low near $3,944 has been one of the sharpest drawdowns in the metal’s recent history. That’s the frame: a bounce inside…

Brookfield Asset Management wants to bring data centers to London’s Canary Wharf, the financial district often dubbed the “U.K. Wall Street,” CEO Connor Teskey told CNBC on Thursday. Speaking with CNBC’s “Squawk Box Europe” in Canary Wharf, Teskey said AI infrastructure, and the underlying energy requirements needed to support it, are now “the single largest theme at Brookfield today, bar none.”The firm, which invests across real estate, infrastructure, renewables and private markets, has a multi-gigawatt portfolio of data centers globally, with a growing pipeline of sites both under construction and in development. It also co-owns and manages Canary Wharf, alongside…

(World Oil) – XRG has completed the acquisition of an additional equity interest in Trains 4 and 5 of the Rio Grande LNG project in Texas, expanding its ownership across all five liquefaction trains currently under construction at the export facility. The company acquired an additional 7.6% equity interest in Trains 4 and 5 from an acquisition vehicle of Global Infrastructure Partners (GIP), part of BlackRock, building on its earlier purchase of an indirect 11.7% stake in Phase 1, which includes Trains 1 through 3. Financial terms were not disclosed. Located at the Port of Brownsville, the NextDecade-operated Rio Grande LNG project currently has…