The ISM Services PMI rose to 52.4 in October 2025 from 50 in September, beating forecasts of 50.8, pointing to the strongest expansion in the services sector since February. Both business activity (54.3 vs 49.9) and new orders (56.2 vs 50.4) rebounded while the continued contraction in employmet (48.2 vs 47.2) shows a lack of confidence in the continued strength of the economy. "There was no indication of widespread layoffs or reductions in force, but the federal government shutdown was mentioned several times as impacting business activity and generating concerns for future layoffs",...
In a post published on Truth Social on Wednesday (04/06), United States President Donald Trump called on Federal Reserve (Fed) Chairman Jerome Powell to cut policy interest rates. "ADP NUMBERS ARE OUT!!! "Too late" Powell must now LOWER RATES. He's been great!!! Europe has cut NINE TIMES," Trump said. Earlier in the day, data published by Automatic Data Processing (ADP) showed that private sector payrolls rose by just 37,000 in May, marking the lowest reading since March 2023. This reading missed market expectations of 115,000 by a wide margin. Market reaction The US Dollar (USD)...
Private business in the US added 37K workers to their payrolls in May 2025, the lowest since March 2023, compared to a downwardly revised 60K in April and forecasts of 115K. The services sector added 36K jobs, led by leisure/hospitality (38K), financial activities (20K) and information (8K) while job losses occurred in professional/business services (-17K), education/health (-13K) and trade/transportation/utilities (-4K). Also, the goods producing sector lost 2K jobs as falls in natural resources/mining (-5K) and manufacturing (-3K) offset a rise of 6K jobs in construction. "After a strong...
Alarm over China's stranglehold on critical minerals grew on Tuesday as global automakers joined their U.S. counterparts to complain that restrictions by China on exports of rare earth alloys, mixtures and magnets could cause production delays and outages without a quick solution. German automakers became the latest to warn that China's export restrictions threaten to shut down production and rattle their local economies, following a similar complaint from an Indian EV maker last week. China's decision in April to suspend exports of a wide range of rare earths and related magnets has...
U.S. President Donald Trump on Tuesday signed a proclamation raising his tariffs on steel and aluminum to 50% from 25%, making good on his earlier threat of higher levies on the two commodities. Trump said that the move was aimed at bolstering U.S. national security, which he claimed was compromised by the country's heavy dependence on steel and aluminum imports. The higher duties will be effective from Wednesday. "I have determined that it is necessary to increase the previously described steel and aluminum tariffs to adjust the imports of steel and aluminum articles and their derivative...
U.S. President Donald Trump will sign an executive order on Tuesday making official his vow to double tariffs on steel and aluminum, White House spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt told reporters in a briefing. Trump on Friday announced that he would increase tariffs on the two metals from 25% to 50%. On Monday, U.S. steel and aluminum prices jumped while shares of foreign steelmakers fell. Source : Reuters
Asia-Pacific markets traded higher, tracking Wall Street gains overnight.
Japan's benchmark Nikkei 225 rose 0.41% after hitting a fresh record high on Thursday, while the Topix added 0.61%. South...
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...
American consumers struggling to access food assistance payments due to the government shutdown are unable to fill their shopping carts, and that's "hurtful," according to the company behind Stop...