Many people in China cheered the meeting Thursday between President Xi Jinping and U.S. President Donald Trump, after months of escalating bilateral tensions. Every time the two leaders meet, it helps ease tensions and creates a "positive atmosphere," Alex Hongcai Xu, chair of Beijing Honglve Consulting, said in Mandarin, translated by CNBC. "This atmosphere is beneficial for negotiations." "Each side lowering tariffs to below 10% would benefit capital flows and cooperation," Xu said. He noted that China can likely buy more U.S. soybeans and U.S.-made Boeing airplanes. Trump said Thursday...
The European Union is falling further behind global rivals on growth and governments are failing to grasp the urgency to act, former European Central Bank president and Italian prime minister Mario Draghi said on Tuesday. Draghi, who delivered a far-reaching report on EU competitiveness at the European Commission's request 12 months ago, said the EU's growth model was "fading fast", vulnerabilities were mounting and there was no clear path to financing necessary investments. Draghi said the bloc had come up with ambitious plans, but it was moving ahead too slowly and governments had "not...
The U.S. and China on Monday reached a commercial agreement that would place short-video app TikTok under U.S. ownership, with final approval expected during a Friday call between President Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, after a meeting with Chinese negotiators in Madrid, declined to disclose details, including whether TikTok's algorithm would be included. Chinese negotiator Li Chenggang confirmed a framework deal after "candid, in-depth" exchanges, adding the U.S. showed willingness to reduce investment barriers. Trump extended the deadline for...
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he would not rule out further attacks on Hamas leaders "wherever they are," as Arab and Muslim leaders held a summit to show support for Qatar following Israel's attack on the Gulf state last week. The September 9 attack targeting leaders of the Palestinian militant group in Doha marked a significant escalation of Israeli military action in a region rocked by conflict since the October 7, 2023, Hamas-led attack that sparked the Gaza war. As the gathered Arab and Muslim leaders expressed solidarity with Qatar, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio...
China is intentionally mischaracterising World War Two-era documents to put pressure on, and isolate, Taiwan, as those accords made no determination of the island's ultimate political status, the de facto U.S. embassy in Taipei said. The 80th anniversary of the war's end has been marked by a bitter dispute between Taipei and Beijing on its broader historical meaning and relevance today. Beijing says documents such as the Cairo Declaration and Potsdam Proclamation support its legal claims of sovereignty over the island, as they call for Taiwan to be "restored" to Chinese rule at a time when...
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...
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...
US President Donald Trump said Thursday that he had agreed with President Xi Jinping to cut tariffs on China in exchange for Beijing cracking down on illegal fentanyl trade, resuming purchases of...