US Secretary of State assures US co-operation with India against terror; ATM withdrawals to get costlier from May; Tech, personal finance & more #IndiaFinance

The Indian stock market will be closed on Thursday, May 1, on account of Maharashtra Day. The Maharashtra Foundation Day is observed to commemorate the formation of the state from the erstwhile Bombay State in 1960. Maharashtra and Gujarat were carved out as separate states on May 1, 1960.

It’s a public holiday in Maharashtra and the stock markets will remain closed along with the banks, government offices, schools, colleges and other institutions. The day also coincides with International Labour Day.

Shares of Japan-based Murata Manufacturing Co., a manufacturer of components used in Apple’s iPhone, fell as much as 18% on Thursday, May 1, after it issued a profit warning and said that the impact of US President Donald Trump’s tariffs is not fully priced in yet.

This is the biggest single-day drop that the stock has seen in 25 years. The last drop of such an extent was seen back in 2000. Murata, who produces multilayer ceramic capacitors, expects its net profit to fall by a quarter (24%) for the financial year that will end in March 2026. It attributed the fall to sluggish demand for components used in cars and smartphone components, along with Donald Trump’s tariffs. A stronger Yen also weighed on the forecast.

Ford Motor has killed a program to develop next-generation electrical architecture – the brain of modern cars – that its executives have called pivotal to competing with electric-vehicle pioneers such as Tesla, three sources familiar with the matter told Reuters.

Ford had invested heavily in the system, known internally as FNV4 (for fully-networked vehicle), to streamline vehicle-software functions. The goal was to cut costs, improve quality and add profitable features in both electric and gasoline-powered vehicles.

The US Secretary of State Marco Rubio spoke to Indian External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar and Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif about the recent Pahalgam terrorist attack, encouraging them to de-escalate tensions.

Rubio encouraged India to work with Pakistan to de-escalate tensions and maintain peace and security in South Asia, the US State Department said in a statement. When speaking to Jaishankar, he reaffirmed the US’ commitment to cooperating with India against terrorism, the statement added.

As gold prices continue to climb, Akshaya Tritiya this year is seeing a shift in consumer buying patterns. Traditionally a festival that drives high demand for gold jewellery, this year is witnessing a stronger tilt toward gold as an investment.Saurabh Gadgil, Chairman and MD of PNG Jewellers, said that while jewellery continues to lead, investment demand is on the rise. “On any festive date, basically it is 70-30, 70% is jewellery buying; 30% is investment demand, which is bars and coins. This time, I think it will be 60-40,” he said.Gadgil added that many first-time investors are entering the market, driven by predictions that gold prices may touch $4,000 or ₹1,10,000 per 10 grams.

With FY26 ushering in sweeping tax changes, including a more attractive new tax regime and updated capital gains rules, financial planning needs a fresh lens. And if there’s one clear takeaway, it’s this: deductions are the deciding factor.Speaking to CNBC-TV18, Mayur Shah, Tax Partner at EY India, and Mohit Gang, Co-Founder and CEO of Moneyfront, broke down how taxpayers should evaluate the new regime versus the old one. Shah explained that “it’s a combination of the level of income and the level of deductions you intend to claim that determines whether the old or new regime is better.”

Cash withdrawals and balance inquiries at ATMs will become expensive from May 1, 2025. The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has approved an increase in ATM interchange fees, making transactions at non-home bank ATMs costlier for customers.Revised ATM chargesCash withdrawal fee: ₹17 → ₹19 per transaction

Balance inquiry fee: ₹6 → ₹7 per transactionEffective date: May 1, 2025These charges apply after customers exceed their free monthly limits—five transactions in metro cities and three in non-metro areas.

The RBI approved this revision based on a proposal from the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI).

Tools for Humanity, a startup co-founded by OpenAI Chief Executive Officer Sam Altman, plans to roll out thousands of eyeball-scanning Orb devices across the US, marking a major expansion for the company and its novel identification services.

Starting this week, people in six US cities, including San Francisco, Los Angeles and Atlanta, will be able to scan their eyes using a spherical orb device at select locations operated by Tools for Humanity’s World project as well as certain partners, the company said at an event late Wednesday. Previously, the technology was only available in the US in a limited testing capacity.

Top Silicon Valley executives lavished praise on the Trump administration, supporting its efforts to cut the size of the federal government and create more business opportunities for US tech companies during a summit with lawmakers and officials.

The increasingly cosy relationship between tech and the White House was evident throughout Wednesday’s Hill and Valley Forum. The daylong conference hit on some favourite talking points in tech circles, including artificial intelligence applications in national security, the growing AI arms race with China and the need for “securing leadership in space.”

From factory floors to corporate boardrooms, artificial intelligence is no longer just a futuristic idea — it’s already reshaping the way companies operate. Whether it’s Duolingo tying promotions and hiring to AI use, Microsoft reporting that nearly a third of its internal code is now AI-written, or Toyota training assembly line workers to build their own machine learning models — the message is clear: AI isn’t coming for jobs, it’s coming into jobs.

We’ll see you tomorrow with another 11:11