European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said she will travel to Scotland this weekend to meet with US President Donald Trump, as both sides aim to reach a trade deal before the August 1 deadline when 30% tariffs on the bloc's exports are due to take effect. After months of negotiations and back-and-forth diplomacy between Brussels and Washington, D.C., the two sides have zeroed in on a deal last week that will see the EU face 15% tariffs on most of its trade. Limited exceptions are expected to apply to aviation, some medical devices and generic drugs, some alcoholic beverages,...
Staff from the Trump administration have been hard at work on Thursday, pushing a raft of announcements on a wide range of investment projects with the United Arab Emirates (UAE) that President Trump has been pursuing hard since taking office in January. As is usual for announcements from several faces of the White House team, specific details remain thin, and it remains unclear what kind of timeline these announced projects are expected to take, or how they'll even be accomplished. According to the US Commerce Department, the United Arab Emirates and the US government have agreed on an "AI...
U.S. Federal Reserve officials feel they need to reconsider the key elements around both jobs and inflation in their current approach to monetary policy, given the inflation experience of the last few years and the possibility that supply shocks and the associated price increases may become more frequent in the years ahead, Fed chair Jerome Powell said Thursday. "We may be entering a period of more frequent, and potentially more persistent, supply shocks—a difficult challenge for the economy and for central banks," Powell said in opening remarks at a two-day conference reconsidering the...
US producer prices fell by 0.5% in April 2025, following a revised flat reading in March and defying market expectations of a 0.2% increase. This was the first decline in the PPI since October 2023 and the sharpest drop since April 2020, during the early aftermath of the COVID-19 outbreak. The decline was largely driven by a 0.7% fall in service costs, the largest since data collection began in December 2009, primarily due to a 1.6% decrease in margins for trade services, suggesting businesses may be absorbing some of the impact from higher tariffs. Prices for final demand services...
US retail sales rose by 0.1% mom in April 2025, following an upwardly revised 1.7% surge in March. The modest gain suggests consumers scaled back spending in response to a wave of tariff announcements in early April, yet the result still exceeded market expectations for no change. Biggest increases were seen in sales at food services and drinking places (1.2%), building material and garden equipment supplies dealers (0.8%), furniture (0.3%) and electronics and appliances stores (0.3%). On the other hand, the largest decreases were recorded at sporting goods, hobby, musical instrument,...
Initial jobless claims in the United States were unchanged from the previous week at 229,000 on the period ending May 10th, aligned with market expectations, to hold the decline form the two-month-high of 241,000 from the last week of April. In the meantime, outstanding claims edged slightly higher to 1,881,000 in the first week of May, slightly below market expectations of 1,990,000. The result continued to reflect a resilient labor market when compared to historical levels, aligned with the assessment by Federal Reserve Chairman Powell in the central bank's latest decision. In the...
China's official NBS Manufacturing PMI increased to 49.7 in June 2025 from May's 49.5, matching market expectations while marking the third consecutive month of contraction in factory activity.
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Both the STOXX 50 and STOXX 600 hovered around the flatline on Friday, as investors adopted a cautious stance ahead of further developments in trade talks between US President Trump and Chinese...
President Donald Trump locked horns with Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell during a rare presidential visit to the U.S. central bank on Thursday, criticizing the cost of renovating two historical...