The ISM Services PMI rose to 52.4 in October 2025 from 50 in September, beating forecasts of 50.8, pointing to the strongest expansion in the services sector since February. Both business activity (54.3 vs 49.9) and new orders (56.2 vs 50.4) rebounded while the continued contraction in employmet (48.2 vs 47.2) shows a lack of confidence in the continued strength of the economy. "There was no indication of widespread layoffs or reductions in force, but the federal government shutdown was mentioned several times as impacting business activity and generating concerns for future layoffs",...
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...
Indonesia's economy grew 0.53% qoq in Q4 of 2024, compared with market consensus of 0.56% and after a 1.5% increase in Q3. It was the third straight quarterly growth but the softest in the sequence, amid a sharp slowdown in fixed investment (2.44% vs 8.35% in Q3). Meanwhile, private consumption recovered (1.64% vs -0.48%), boosted by spending related to year-end, as did government expenditure (38.58% vs -1.17%). On the trade front, exports (4.63% vs 7.78%) and imports (3.23% vs 9.37%) slowed, on weaker demand both globally and domestically. Production-wise, activity slowed for mining (3.25%...
UK retail sales rose by 0.9% on a like-for-like basis in March 2025, outpacing market forecasts of a 0.5% increase. The boost was largely driven by unseasonably warm weather, which spurred spending on gardening, DIY, food, and health and beauty products. Mother's Day also contributed to the uplift, though the late timing of Easter this year somewhat distorted year-on-year comparisons. Food sales grew by 1.6% in March, while non-food sales saw a modest 0.6% increase. Helen Dickinson, Chief Executive of the British Retail Consortium, commented: "Despite a challenging global geopolitical...
No country should bypass international laws to authorise resource exploration in the seabed, China's foreign ministry said on Monday, following a report of U.S. plans to stockpile deep-sea metals to counter China's dominance in the sector. The Trump administration is drafting an executive order to enable stockpiling of deep-sea metals found on the Pacific Ocean seabed to counter China's dominance of battery minerals and rare earth supply chains, the Financial Times reported on Saturday, citing people familiar with the matter. The stockpile would "create large quantities ready and available...
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...
American consumers struggling to access food assistance payments due to the government shutdown are unable to fill their shopping carts, and that's "hurtful," according to the company behind Stop...