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Weekly Recap: 10 Finance Press Releases You Need to See

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A roundup of the most newsworthy financial press releases from PR Newswire this week, including an NBA fintech partnership to support small businesses and earnings reports from PNC, BofA and more.

NEW YORK, April 18, 2025 /PRNewswire/ — With thousands of press releases published each week, it can be difficult to keep up with everything on PR Newswire. To help finance journalists and consumers stay on top of the week’s most newsworthy and popular releases, here’s a recap of some major stories from the week that shouldn’t be missed.

The list below includes the headline (with a link to the full text) and an excerpt from each story. Click on the press release headlines to access accompanying multimedia assets that are available for download.

NBA Legends Carmelo Anthony, Dwyane Wade, and Chris Paul’s Social Change Fund United Partners with Stackwell to Support Los Angeles Small Businesses
“The Visionary Ventures Program represents our commitment to creating change in underserved communities,” said Anthony, Paul, and Wade in a joint statement. “By partnering with Stackwell, we’re offering holistic financial education and development resources to help businesses thrive, particularly during these challenging times as our community works to rebuild from the wildfires.”Americans Believe They Will Need $1.26 Million to Retire Comfortably According to Northwestern Mutual 2025 Planning & Progress Study As the inflation rate falls, people’s ‘magic number’ for retirement drops $200K, returning to 2022 and 2023 levels. However, among Americans who have retirement savings, one in four (25%) say they have just one year or less of their current annual income put aside for it.Home Price Growth Remains Steady in First Quarter Single-family home prices increased 5.2 percent from Q1 2024 to Q1 2025, largely unchanged from the previous quarter’s year-over-year growth pace of 5.3 percent, according to the latest reading of the Fannie Mae Home Price Index. The FNM-HPI is a national, repeat-transaction home price index measuring the average, quarterly price change for all single-family properties in the United States, excluding condos.S&P Global and CME Group to sell OSTTRA to KKR for $3.1 billion Established in 2021 as a joint venture between CME Group and S&P Global, OSTTRA serves the global financial ecosystem with a comprehensive suite of critical post-trade offerings across interest rates, FX, credit and equity asset classes. OSTTRA provides end-to-end connectivity and workflow solutions to banks, broker-dealers, asset managers, and other market participants across trade processing, trade lifecycle, and optimization.Single in Retirement: Looking for Love and Financial Security For many Americans, being single in retirement was not part of their life’s plan. Yet millions will face their second act without a partner, adding financial strain to this significant life transition, according to a new Advisor Authority study powered by the Nationwide Retirement Institute.Eagle Hill Consulting Employee Retention Index Signals Employees More Likely to Stay in Their Jobs Over Next Six Months “The Index data indicate that employees are more likely to stay put in the coming months, and there’s a rising sense of unease among workers regarding their job prospects. While this is good news for employers facing chronic labor shortages, it’s a tough situation for employers who now must reduce their labor costs,” said Melissa Jezior, president and chief executive officer of Eagle Hill Consulting.eBay announces global payment acquiring partnership with Checkout.com Guillaume Pousaz, CEO at Checkout.com said: “Payments performance is critical at this enterprise-level scale, and our technology, data, and acquiring expertise will help eBay maximize acceptance in global markets and drive efficiency across its platform. Together, we’re shaping the future of the digital economy.”PayPal and TerraPay Partner to Expand Access to Cross-Border Payments Across Middle East and Africa “The Middle East and Africa are at the forefront of the digital transformation, yet financial barriers still limit growth for many,” said Otto Williams, senior vice president, regional head and general manager, Middle East and Africa, at PayPal. “At PayPal, we’re committed to changing that. By partnering with TerraPay, we’re making it easier for businesses and individuals to make cross-border transactions, quickly, securely, and without friction.”Crunch Fitness Announces Strategic Investment from Leonard Green & Partners Founded in 1989 in New York City’s Greenwich Village, Crunch has grown from a single gym with a unique “No Judgments” philosophy into one of the fastest-growing and most respected fitness brands in the world. Leonard Green & Partners, a leading private equity investment firm, will acquire a majority interest in Crunch Fitness from TPG Growth and Crunch’s minority shareholders.California Coast Credit Union and San Diego County Credit Union Announce Intent to Merge In a move that would change the financial landscape of Southern California, California Coast Credit Union (Cal Coast) and San Diego County Credit Union (SDCCU) have announced plans to merge, pending regulatory approval and a Cal Coast membership vote. Upon approval, the combined credit union will boast a powerhouse organization with assets totaling nearly $13.5 billion, 65 branch locations, and more than 1,400 employees.

For more news like this, check out all of the latest finance-related releases from PR Newswire.

Do you have a finance press release to distribute? Sign up with PR Newswire to share your story with the audiences who matter most.

Can’t-Miss Earnings

In addition to these popular releases, earnings season kicked off this week and several must-read earnings reports crossed the wire, including the quarterly results for Bank of America, PNC, KeyCorp, Truist, Ally Financial and Huntington Bancshares.

Catch up on all the latest earnings reports here.

Helping Journalists Stay Up to Date on Industry News

These are just a few of the recent press releases that consumers and the media should know about. To be notified of releases relevant to their coverage area, journalists can set up a custom newsfeed with PR Newswire for Journalists.

Once they’re signed up, reporters, bloggers, and freelancers have access to the following free features:

Customization: Users can create customized newsfeeds that will deliver relevant news right to their inbox. Newsfeed results can be targeted by keywords, industry, subject, geography, and more.Photos and Videos: Thousands of multimedia assets are available to download and include in a journalist or blogger’s next story.Subject Matter Experts: Journalists will have access to ProfNet, a database of industry experts to connect with as sources or for quotes in their articles.Related Resources: Our journalist- and blogger-focused blog, Beyond Bylines, features regular media news roundups, writing tips, upcoming events, and more.

About PR Newswire

PR Newswire is the industry’s leading press release distribution partner with an unparalleled global reach of more than 440,000 newsrooms, websites, direct feeds, journalists and influencers and is available in more than 170 countries and 40 languages. From our award-winning Content Services offerings, integrated media newsroom and microsite products, Investor Relations suite of services, paid placement and social sharing tools, PR Newswire has a comprehensive catalog of solutions to solve the modern-day challenges PR and communications teams face. For 70 years, PR Newswire has been the preferred destination for brands to share their most important news stories across the world.

For questions, contact the team at media.relations@cision.com.

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SOURCE PR Newswire

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JAMS Launches AI for Enterprise Job Scheduling: JAX and JAMS MCP, on the Model You Choose

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A new AI agent and an open-standard connector let IT teams query, diagnose, and manage automation in plain language, on the model they choose, with operational data staying inside their own network

LONDON, July 24, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — JAMS Software, an orchestration solution for scheduled and event-driven automation, today announced the general availability of two AI capabilities for enterprise job scheduling: JAX, an AI agent built into the JAMS Web Client, and JAMS MCP, a connector built on the open Model Context Protocol standard that brings JAMS into external AI coding tools. Both capabilities ship at no additional cost as part of JAMS Web.

Automation environments grow faster than the teams that run them. Jobs multiply across SQL Server, Azure Data Factory, Airflow, SAP, JDE, and Banner, and when one fails, finding the root cause often means searching several consoles at once, frequently outside business hours. At the same time, IT leaders carry pressure to adopt AI while staying accountable for where operational data goes. JAX and JAMS MCP close both gaps together.

Full details on how JAX and JAMS MCP work, including the control model behind every action, are available at jamsscheduler.com/product/ai.

JAX is an AI agent that runs inside the JAMS Web Client. It finds jobs, troubleshoots failures, and answers how-to questions in plain language, with each response grounded in the JAMS user guide and checked against a built-in glossary. JAX acts only when a user asks it to. Reads flow freely, and every write action pauses for the user’s explicit approval before it runs. JAX does not learn between sessions, and conversations are not retained on the server.

JAMS MCP is a connector, built on the open Model Context Protocol standard, that brings JAMS into the AI tools engineering teams already use, including Cursor, VS Code with Copilot, Claude Code, Claude Desktop, and Codex. Users query jobs, investigate failures, and manage runs in plain language without leaving their tool.

Both capabilities run inside the customer’s own network and act as the signed-in user, with that user’s exact JAMS permissions. There is no elevated AI account: whatever a user cannot do in the JAMS interface, JAX and JAMS MCP cannot do on that user’s behalf. Every JAX and MCP operation is recorded in its own dedicated log, and changes made through the JAMS API land in the JAMS audit trail like any other change. Customers choose their own AI model, whether a commercial provider such as OpenAI or Anthropic or a model running entirely on their own hardware, and JAMS never trains on customer data. In the current release, neither feature edits or deletes a job, folder, schedule, or agent definition. For teams that must keep operational data within a defined boundary, JAX runs on a local model entirely inside the customer’s own network, so nothing leaves at all.

“Adopting AI usually means giving something up, most often visibility into where your data goes,” said Pete Hegland, Chief Executive Officer of JAMS Software. “We built JAX and JAMS MCP so that trade does not have to happen. Every action runs as the signed-in user, every change waits for approval, and the model itself can run entirely inside your own network.”

“IT teams across the United Kingdom and EMEA tell us the same thing: they want the benefit of AI without losing sight of where their data goes,” said Greg McLaughlin, Account Executive for EMEA at JAMS Software. “JAX and JAMS MCP let them keep operational data inside their own network and still get answers in plain language. That combination is what makes this practical for the teams I work with.”

JAX and JAMS MCP are available now to all JAMS Web customers across the United Kingdom and EMEA, with no separate licence, SKU, or additional cost. AI-assisted creation of new jobs and workflows from a plain-language description is on the roadmap for a future release, gated by the same approvals and permissions as every other action.

Learn how JAX and JAMS MCP work at https://jamsscheduler.com/product/ai.

Fast facts

JAX is an AI agent built into the JAMS Web Client for job scheduling and workflow automation.JAMS MCP is a connector built on the open Model Context Protocol standard, for Cursor, VS Code with Copilot, Claude Code, Claude Desktop, and Codex.Both act as the signed-in user, with that user’s exact JAMS permissions, and there is no elevated AI account.Customers choose the AI model, including a local model that runs entirely inside their own network.JAMS never trains on customer data.Both are available now at no additional cost as part of JAMS Web.

About JAMS Software

Founded in 1987, JAMS Software is an orchestration solution that helps IT teams centralize, automate, and manage scheduled and event-driven jobs across complex, hybrid environments. Over 850 customers rely on JAMS to run their automated workloads. JAMS Software, LLC is headquartered at 108 Patriot Drive, Suite A, Middletown, DE 19709.

Media Contact
Bobby Schmidt, Vice President of Marketing
press@jamssoftware.com
800.261.4267

 

 

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Video: CNPC offers green chemical answer

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BEIJING, July 24, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — A news report from chinadaily.com.cn:

Located on the edge of the Taklamakan Desert in Northwest China’s Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region, the Tarim 1.2 MTA Phase II Ethylene Project and its supporting green and low-carbon demonstration facility of PetroChina Dushanzi Petrochemical Company, a subsidiary of China National Petroleum Corporation, are offering a new example of China’s low-carbon industrial transformation.

Watch the video to discover how CNPC is exploring a cleaner and more circular future for the industry.

View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/apac/news-releases/video-cnpc-offers-green-chemical-answer-302834036.html

SOURCE chinadaily.com.cn

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Shanghai Electric showcases embodied intelligence robot matrix and AI-native smart factory solutions at WAIC 2026

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Featuring humanoid robots with 41 degrees of freedom, pipe‑inspection robots with ±1mm positioning accuracy, and 51 industrial‑grade AI agents

SHANGHAI, July 24, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Operations in high-end equipment manufacturing often involve confined spaces, complex objects, and fine manipulation tasks that demand sustained and stable precision. At the recent 2026 World Artificial Intelligence Conference and High-Level Meeting on Global AI Governance (WAIC 2026), Shanghai Electric (SEHK: 02727, SSE: 601727) showcased its comprehensive portfolio of embodied intelligence solutions tailored to a range of industrial scenarios.

Themed “AI for All: Smart Squad, Shining Without Limits,” Shanghai Electric highlighted its capabilities across embodied AI robots, robot core components, and AI-native smart factory solutions, demonstrating end-to-end capabilities spanning complete robot systems, critical parts, industrial software, and smart factory architecture.

“The true value of embodied intelligence lies in understanding real industrial tasks: combining the strength, precision, and stability of machines with human experience and judgment to drive a genuine paradigm of ‘machine-assisted, human-machine collaboration,'” said Wang Chunlei, deputy general manager of the Robotics Business Unit at Shanghai Electric Automation Group.

Shanghai Electric’s robotics portfolio covers five key industrial scenarios: connector insertion, electrical operations, flexible sorting, intelligent assembly, and pipe processing. Highlights include:

“SUYUAN” bipedal humanoid robot: With 41 degrees of freedom for enhanced mobility, it is equipped with a multimodal visual sensing system on the head and torso, along with a dual-battery hot-swap system. It is well-suited for inspection, material handling, and assembly tasks.”TUOYUAN” industrial wheeled humanoid robot: Powered by an embodied intelligence foundation model and force-position hybrid control, it is capable of multi-spec connector insertion, material sorting, and loading/unloading of automotive sheet metal parts.”Mermaid” bionic wheeled humanoid robot: Capable of autonomously identifying buttons, knobs, and air switches, it generates real-time operation paths.Autonomous pipe inner-wall chamfering robot: Designed for confined spaces, it can position and process thousands of hole edges with accuracy within 1 millimeter while transmitting data in real time.

Shanghai Electric also showcased its portfolio of core components ranging from power-output to end effectors. Among them, the planetary roller screw offers more than three times the load capacity of traditional ball screws, while the DexHand dexterous hand is designed to meet diverse gripping and manipulation requirements.

Shanghai Electric launched 51 AI models and agents under its “StarCloud Intelligent Manufacturing” series across three domains: R&D and design, production and manufacturing, and operations and maintenance—covering critical equipment processes such as process optimization and wind power facility maintenance.

These industrial agents are embedded in robotic decision-making systems and the operational logic of AI-native smart factories, transforming industrial expertise into digitized, reusable capabilities. They support production-line scheduling, quality inspection, and predictive maintenance, driving the evolution of manufacturing systems from experience-driven to data-driven operations.

Shanghai Electric also released the “AI-Native Smart Factory Technology White Paper,” proposing an active evolution architecture that enables real‑time, closed‑loop optimization of production data, giving the factory self‑perception, self‑decision, and self‑execution capabilities. Built on First Principles, the AI‑native smart factory vertically integrates process flows, industrial software, agents, and smart equipment to dismantle traditional hierarchies while horizontally bridging data silos. The architecture features three core layers: the AI factory brain as the “control center,” industrial agents and embodied robots as the “execution network,” and the physical twin as the “digital mirror.”

Leveraging its deep industrial expertise and comprehensive solution capabilities, Shanghai Electric will continue to drive the implementation of AI in industrial settings, tackle technical challenges facing embodied intelligence in complex scenarios, accelerate the large‑scale deployment of AI‑native smart factories, and deliver replicable solutions across diverse manufacturing environments.

SOURCE Shanghai Electric

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