The Bank of England's MPC voted 5-4 to keep Bank Rate at 4% at its November 5 meeting, in line with expectations. Four members favored a 25 bps cut to 3.75%, reflecting growing support for easing. Policymakers noted that CPI inflation has peaked and underlying disinflation is developing, aided by still-restrictive policy, lower wage growth, and easing services inflation. A sluggish economy and increasing labor market slack are also strengthening disinflation. The MPC said the risks to achieving the 2% target are now more balanced: inflation persistence has become less of a concern, while...
Tencent and Baidu, two of China's largest technology companies, revealed how they're keeping in the global artificial intelligence race even as the U.S. tightens some curbs on key semiconductors. The business' methods include stockpiling chips, making AI models more efficient and even using homegrown semiconductors. While the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump scrapped one controversial Biden-era chip rule, it still tightened exports of some semiconductors from companies including Nvidia and AMD in April. Big names in the sector addressed the issue during their latest earnings...
President Donald Trump threatened Monday to divert billions of dollars in endowment funds from Harvard University and give them to vocational schools across the U.S., escalating his feud with the elite institution. "I am considering taking Three Billion Dollars of Endowment Funds from the highly anti-Semitic Harvard, and giving them to STRUGGLE SCHOOLS across our country," Trump said in a social media post. "What a great investment that would be for the U.S., and much needed!!!" Harvard did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The Trump administration has moved to freeze...
Iran would be able to survive if negotiations with the U.S. over its nuclear programme fail to secure a deal, President Masoud Pezeshkian said on Monday, after President Donald Trump described weekend talks with Tehran as "very good". The negotiations aim to resolve a decades-long dispute over Iran's nuclear ambitions, and Trump has threatened Iran with crippling economic sanctions and bombing if no new nuclear agreement is reached. "It's not like we will die of hunger if they refuse to negotiate with us or impose sanctions," Pezeshkian was quoted as saying by state media about the talks...
U.S. President Donald Trump on Sunday backed off his threat to speed up 50% tariffs on imports from the European Union, agreeing to extend his deadline for trade talks until July 9 after the head of the EU executive body said the bloc needed more time to "reach a good deal." Trump threatened on Friday to intensify his trade war after expressing frustrations that trade talks were not moving quickly enough, saying he wanted steep new import taxes to start on June 1. The threat roiled global markets. Trump relented after European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen told him during a...
During remarks delivered to the press during his weekly Executive Order signing, US President Donald Trump added further, though not always clear, tariff comments to his social media posts earlier Friday. Key highlights We're talking about big factories. Technology has come a long way in terms of safety and cost. We need a tremendous amount of electricity. Talks with the EU are going slowly. (On his threat of new 50% tariffs on the EU): I'm not looking for a deal, the tariffs are set at 50%. I can talk about delaying the EU tariffs if they start moving factories to the US. We have a...
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...
The U.S. Supreme Court's tough questioning of President Donald Trump's global tariffs has fueled growing speculation that they will be overturned, but it also raises the potential for further...