U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent met with BlackRock Inc executive Rick Rieder in New York on Friday, as the Trump administration continued its search for a new chair for the Federal Reserve, a source familiar with the matter said. Bessent has now spoken with four of the 11 candidates on the administration's list of candidates to replace Fed chair Jerome Powell, whose term expires in May, the source said. Bloomberg first reported Bessent's meeting with Rieder, BlackRock's CIO of fixed income, and called him a rising contender for the post. The two met for two hours and discussed...
President Donald Trump said on Tuesday that the US and China are "very close" to extending their trade truce, which has curbed tariff escalation and eased restrictions on rare earth metals and technology exports. Trump added that he would meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping before the end of the year if a deal is reached. The current truce is set to expire on August 12. Last week, US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng held talks in Stockholm, the third round in less than three months. Without a deal, global supply chains are likely to face renewed...
President Donald Trump announced Tuesday that Scott Bessent has declined consideration for Federal Reserve Chair while praising "both Kevins" - Kevin Warsh and Kevin Hassett - as "very good" candidates for the position. Speaking on CNBC, Trump reiterated his criticism that current Fed Chair Jerome Powell has been "too late to cut rates" and mentioned he has "two other people aside from the two Kevins in mind" for the position. The president warned he would impose a 35% tariff on European Union goods if the bloc "doesn't meet obligations" following recent trade deals with the EU and...
The ISM Services PMI unexpectedly fell to 50.1 in July 2025 from 50.8 in June, below forecasts of 51.5. The reading showed the services sector nearly stagnated, with seasonal and weather factors having a negative impact on business. A slowdown was seen for business activity/production (52.6 vs 54.2), new orders (50.3 vs 51.3) and inventories (51.8 vs 52.7). Also, price pressures intensified to the highest since October 2022 (69.9 vs 67.5), with the most common topic among survey panelists remaining tariff-related impacts, particularly in commodities. In addition, employment fell faster...
President Donald Trump said Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told him he did not want to be nominated to replace Jerome Powell as the next chair of the Federal Reserve. "I asked him just last night, is this something you want? Nope, I want to stay where I am," Trump said Tuesday in an interview with CNBC. "He's doing a great job, and he wants to do what he's doing, so I just take him off. He does not want it," Trump continued. "He likes being Treasury secretary. He's doing a really good job." Trump said he was considering four candidates — including former...
Russia accused the United States on Tuesday of exerting illegal trade pressure on India after U.S. President Donald Trump threatened again to raise tariffs on India over its purchases of Russian oil. "We hear many statements that are in fact threats, attempts to force countries to cut trade relations with Russia. We do not consider such statements to be legal," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters. "We believe that sovereign countries should have and do have the right to choose their own trading partners, partners for trade and economic cooperation, and to choose for themselves...
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...
Poland rejected on Friday a suggestion by Donald Trump that Russian drone incursions into its airspace could have been a mistake, a rare contradiction of the U.S. president from one of Washington's...