President Donald Trump announced a new peace pact between Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo, which he linked to US access to critical minerals. At a meeting in Washington, Trump claimed his administration had "succeeded where many others have failed," calling this the eighth war he has ended in less than a year. However, the reality on the ground is far more complicated, as fighting in eastern Congo continues despite the signing of the previous peace agreement. The agreement is not just about a ceasefire; it also concerns the mineral trade. The agreement grants US companies access...
The United States (US) Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) is set to publish the high-impact Consumer Price Index (CPI) inflation report for March on Thursday at 12:30 GMT. The CPI figures could notably impact the US Dollar (USD) and the Federal Reserve's (Fed) monetary policy outlook. What to expect in the next CPI data report?As measured by the CPI, inflation in the US is set to rise at an annual pace of 2.6% in March, down slightly from the 2.8% reported in February. Core CPI inflation, which excludes the volatile food and energy categories, is expected to ease to 3% in the same period...
Federal Reserve officials flagged the risk of more sustained inflationary pressures from tariffs when they agreed to keep interest rates steady at their meeting last month. "A majority of participants noted the potential for inflationary impacts arising from a variety of factors to be more sustained than they had projected," said the minutes of the March 18-19 policy meeting, released Wednesday. Since that meeting, President Trump has imposed broad and abrupt tariff increases that initially exceeded the high end estimates of most private-sector economists and Fed officials. Trump said...
Many companies had been steadily reducing their reliance on China as a manufacturing hub since President Donald Trump's first term, hoping to blunt the impact of punitive levies from the United States. Then his latest "reciprocal" tariffs came along. Trump's move to impose tariffs on goods on a broader swathe of countries is now putting those diversification plans in disarray and leaving companies scrambling to decide where and how their goods are produced. Steve Greenspon, CEO of Illinois-based houseware company Honey-Can-Do International, started moving more of his production from China...
The Indonesian rupiah touched an all-time low of around 16,950 per USD in April as the U.S. readied 104% tariffs on Chinese goods, escalating tensions between the world's two largest economies. Meanwhile, Indonesia faces a 32% tariff from the U.S. President Prabowo Subianto has instructed his cabinet to simplify trade rules and ease non-tariff barriers while assessing the impact on key exports such as textiles, electronics, footwear, and palm oil. Adding to the pressure, Indonesia's current account remained in deficit for the seventh quarter in Q4 of 2024, underscoring structural trade...
Markets may still be underestimating the risk of a full-blown U.S. recession following the sharp escalation in tariffs on Chinese goods, Goldman Sachs analyst said in a note. In the wake of the tariff announcement, U.S. markets experienced one of the largest two-day growth downgrades in decades, with implied GDP growth expectations dropping by 130 basis points—on par with shocks seen during COVID, the global financial crisis, and Black Monday in 1987, analysts said. Despite the massive selloff on Wall Street on April 3 and April 4, Goldman Sachs noted that markets have yet to fully price...
Asian stock markets fell in unison on Thursday, following Wall Street's decline. A brief rally in tech stocks led by Nvidia quickly faded, prompting investors to turn away from riskier assets like...
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...
President Donald Trump announced a new peace pact between Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo, which he linked to US access to critical minerals. At a meeting in Washington, Trump claimed...