U.S. President Donald Trump said he will meet with his budget director Russell Vought on Thursday to determine which "Democrat Agencies" to cut, as he looks to inflict pain on his political opposition in the second day of a government shutdown. "I can't believe the Radical Left Democrats gave me this unprecedented opportunity," Trump said in a social media post. Trump has already frozen federal transit and green-energy funding for Democratic-leaning states and has threatened to fire more federal workers during the shutdown, which began on Wednesday due to a partisan standoff in...
Initial applications for U.S. unemployment benefits rose last week but remained relatively subdued. New claims rose by 11,000 to 219,000 in the week ended Feb. 1. The median forecast in a Bloomberg survey of economists called for 213,000 applications. Continuing claims, a proxy for the number of people receiving benefits, rose to 1.89 million in the week ended Jan. 25, according to Labor Department data released Thursday. The level of initial claims has remained broadly in line with pre-Covid levels, and private employment data from ADP Research showed a healthy pace of hiring in January....
A group of sustainable finance experts tasked with advising the European Union have proposed changes to the bloc's rules for classifying climate-friendly activities, which they say will slash the reporting burden on companies by a third. The proposal to simplify the bloc's green investment rulebook comes ahead of a major review of the European Union's broader sustainability rules and as Brussels draws up plans to cut red tape around green finance. The EU is under pressure from member countries like France to simplify rules around doing business, while U.S President Donald Trump's pursuit...
The economic activity in the US service sector continued to expand in January, albeit at a softer pace than in December, with the ISM Services PMI declining to 52.8 from 54. This reading came in below the market expectation of 54.3. Other details of the report showed that the Prices Paid Index, the inflation component, dropped to 60.4 from 64.4, while the Employment Index edged higher to 52.3 from 51.3. Market reaction The US Dollar stays under selling pressure following these data. At the time of press, the US Dollar Index was down 0.6% on the day at 107.35. Source : Fxstreet
Private sector employment in the US rose 183,000 in December and annual pay was up 4.7% year-over-year, the Automatic Data Processing (ADP) reported on Wednesday. This reading followed the 176,000 (revised from 122,000) increase recorded in December and came in above the market expectation of 150,000. Assessing the survey's findings, "we had a strong start to 2025 but it masked a dichotomy in the labor market," said Nela Richardson, chief economist, ADP. "Consumer-facing industries drove hiring, while job growth was weaker in business services and production." Market reaction The US...
Italy's data protection authority, the Garante, said on Thursday it had ordered DeepSeek to block its chatbot in the country after the Chinese artificial intelligence startup failed to address the regulator's concerns over its privacy policy. The watchdog had questioned DeepSeek this week about its use of personal data, particularly seeking informationon what personal data is collected, from which sources, for what purposes, on what legal basis and whether it is stored in China. The Garante's order - aimed at protecting Italian users' data - came after the Chinese companies that supply the...
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. government shut down much of its operations on Wednesday as deep partisan divisions prevented Congress and the White House from reaching a funding deal, setting off what could be a long,...