The number of Americans applying for jobless claims rose last week, but layoffs remain at healthy levels despite lingering inflation and high interest rates. Unemployment benefit applications for the week ending June 1 rose by 8,000 to 229,000, up from 221,000 the week before, the Labor Department reported Thursday. In total, 1.79 million Americans were collecting jobless benefits during the week that ended May 25, an increase of 2,000.

U.S. antitrust enforcers have decided to investigate the roles Microsoft, Nvidia and OpenAI have played in the artificial intelligence boom, according to people familiar with the pending actions. The Department of Justice will launch an investigation of chipmaker Nvidia, while the Federal Trade Commission will scrutinize close business partners Microsoft and ChatGPT-maker OpenAI, according to two people who were not authorized to publicly discuss details of the investigations and spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity. Emboldened by President Joe Biden’s push for tougher scrutiny of Big Tech’s business practices, officials have signaled that they’ve been watching out for monopolistic behavior in the rapidly advancing industry of generative AI products.

The average rate on a 30-year mortgage dipped to just below 7% this week, little relief for prospective homebuyers already facing the challenges of rising housing prices and a relatively limited inventory of homes on the market. The rate fell to 6.99% from 7.03% last week, mortgage buyer Freddie Mac said Thursday. A year ago, the rate averaged 6.71%. Mortgage rates are influenced by several factors, including how the bond market reacts to the Federal Reserve’s interest rate policy and the moves in the 10-year Treasury yield, which lenders use as a guide to pricing home loans.

French President Emmanuel Macron says France will provide Ukraine with its Mirage combat aircraft to be able to defend their country against Russian aggression. Macron said in an interview on Thursday with French public broadcaster that he will announce on Friday “a new cooperation with Ukraine and the sale of Mirage 2005, the French-made combat aircraft which will “allow Ukraine to protect its soil, its airspace” against Russian attacks. He says France will also start training Ukrainian pilots and reiterated that Ukraine should be allowed to use weapons provided by its Western allies to target Russian military targets and “neutralize the points from which (the country) is being attacked.”