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...
The Trump administration confirmed Wednesday morning that the base tariff on products imported into the U.S. from China remains at 145%, after a previously released fact sheet caused confusion in Asian hours. The White House, in a fact sheet on critical minerals released Tuesday afternoon Washington time (early Wednesday in Asia) included language that said China "now faces tariffs of up to 245% on imports into the United States as a result of its retaliatory actions." That language was picked up by some Asian media outlets and Asia-based market analysts who, in the overnight Washington...
Retail Sales in the United States (US) rose by 1.4% in March to $734.9 billion, the US Census Bureau announced on Wednesday. This reading followed the 0.2% increase recorded in February and came in slightly better than the market expectation for an increase 1.3%. On a yearly basis, Retail Sales were up 4.6%. "Total sales for the January 2025 through March 2025 period were up 4.1% from the same period," the press release read. "Retail trade sales were up 1.4% from February 2025, and up 4.6% from last year." Source: FXStreet
British inflation slowed to its weakest in three months in March and other measures watched by the Bank of England cooled too, but higher bills and employer costs will pressure prices soon against the backdrop of U.S. President Donald Trump's trade war. Inflation slowed to an annual rate of 2.6% in March from 2.8% in February, below expectations of 2.7% in a BoE forecast and a Reuters poll of economists. A price drop for computer games and falling fuel prices helped bring down the headline rate although the prices of clothes rose strongly after a surprise fall in February, the Office for...
The Trump administration is planning to use ongoing tariff negotiations to pressure U.S. trading partners to limit their transactions with China, according to the Wall Street Journal, citing people familiar with the discussions. The report added that the Trump administration wants to use negotiations with more than 70 countries to get them to ban China from shipping products through their countries and to bar Chinese companies from setting up business there to avoid U.S. tariffs. (Newsmaker) Source: FXstreet
As China imposes export controls on rare earth elements, the U.S. would be unable to fill a potential shortfall, according to the Center for Strategic and International Studies — and this could threaten Washington's military capabilities. Amid U.S. President Donald Trump's escalating tariffs on China, Beijing earlier this month imposed export restrictions on seven rare earth elements and magnets used in defense, energy and automotive technologies. The new restrictions — which encompass the medium and heavy rare earth elements samarium, gadolinium, terbium, dysprosium, lutetium, scandium...
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...