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...
US citizens filing new applications for unemployment insurance rose to 223K for the week ending March 15, the US Department of Labor (DOL) reported on Thursday. This missed the preliminary estimate and was slightly higher than the previous week's revised count of 221K (revised from 220K). The report also highlighted the seasonally adjusted insured unemployment rate at 1.2%, while the four-week moving average rose by 750 to 227K from the previous week's revised average. Additionally, Continuing Jobless Claims rose by 33K to 1.892 million for the week ending March 8. (Newsmaker23) Source:...
German producer prices rose by 0.7% year-on-year in February 2025, up from 0.5% in January but still below market consensus of 1%. However, this was the fourth consecutive month of producer inflation, mainly driven by higher prices of non-durable consumer goods (3.0%) and durable consumer goods (1.2%).In particular, capital goods costs also rose (2.0%), especially machinery (1.9%) and motor vehicles, trailers, and semi-trailers (1.4%). In addition, intermediate goods prices rose by 0.3%. Excluding energy, producer prices rose by 1.4%. Meanwhile, energy prices shrank by 0.8%, mainly due to...
Australian employment posted a surprise fall in February although the jobless rate stayed unchanged, a soft result that sent the local dollar lower. Figures from the Australian Bureau of Statistics on Thursday showed net employment fell 52,800 in February from January. That was well under market forecasts for a 30,000 rise. The jobless rate stayed at 4.1%, matching market expectations. The Australian dollar slipped 0.3% to $0.6341 after the data. Source: Reuters
President Donald Trump's plan to revive U.S. shipbuilding using massive fees on China-linked ship visits to American ports is causing U.S. coal inventories to swell and stoking uncertainty in the embattled agriculture market, as exporters struggle to find ships to send goods abroad. Trump is drafting an executive order that would rely on funding from a U.S. Trade Representative proposal to levy fines of up to $1.5 million on China-made ships or vessels from fleets that include ships made in China. Those potential port fees have limited the availability of ships needed to move agriculture,...
The White House said Tuesday that US President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin agreed to seek a limited ceasesire on energy and infrastructure targets for 30 days. "The leaders agreed that the movement to peace will begin with an energy and infrastructure ceasefire, as well as technical negotiations on implementation of a maritime ceasefire in the Black Sea, full ceasefire and permanent peace," according to a readout of President Donald J. Trump's call with President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday. "These negotiations will begin immediately in the Middle East," the White House...
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...