Business news today is being shaped by a familiar tension: higher prices, slower growth, and a fresh wave of bets on the future. In the U.S., inflation climbed to a three-year high of 4.2% in May, with energy costs surging as conflict involving Iran ripples through oil markets, complicating the outlook for households and policymakers alike. That same uncertainty is helping keep central banks cautious; the Bank of Canada left rates unchanged at 2.25% for a fifth straight meeting, trying to balance weak economic activity against renewed inflation pressure. At the same time, capital is still flowing aggressively into emerging technologies, with Germany’s Neura Robotics raising $1.4 billion from backers including Tether, Nvidia and Amazon to scale humanoid robots. And in Japan, three banking giants — MUFG, Mizuho and SMBC — are coordinating on a joint stablecoin, signaling how mainstream finance is moving deeper into digital assets.