Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook will file a lawsuit to prevent President Donald Trump from firing her, a lawyer for the embattled central bank official said on Tuesday, kicking off what could be a protracted legal fight over the White House's effort to shape U.S. monetary policy. "His attempt to fire her, based solely on a referral letter, lacks any factual or legal basis. We will be filing a lawsuit challenging this illegal action," Cook's lawyer, prominent Washington attorney Abbe Lowell, said in a statement. The statement was issued a day after Trump said he would fire Cook, the...
Bank of America has cut 16 bankers from its investment banking department in Hong Kong as part of global cuts to its dealmaking workforce, three sources with knowledge of the matter told Reuters on Friday. The reductions mainly targeted junior positions, said the sources, who asked not to be named as they were not authorised to speak to media. Most junior bankers were offered positions in other departments within Bank of America, one of the sources said, but it was unclear how many of them had accepted the proposal. Bank of America declined to comment. The U.S. lender is eliminating 150...
US President Donald Trump said Friday there was a "very good chance" that the war between Russia and Ukraine could end after "productive" discussions with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday. "We had a very good and productive discussion with President Vladimir Putin of Russia yesterday, and there is a very good chance that this terrible and bloody war can finally be over," Trump said in a Truth Social post, adding that he had asked Putin to spare the lives of Ukrainian troops who are "completely surrounded." US envoy Steve Witkoff had a lengthy meeting with Putin in Moscow on...
U.S. consumer sentiment fell to its lowest level in more than two years and long-term inflation expectations jumped the most since 1993, reflecting growing concerns about the economic impact of tariffs. A preliminary March sentiment index fell to 57.9, the lowest level since November 2022, from 64.7 a month earlier, according to University of Michigan data released Friday. The reading was weaker than all estimates in a Bloomberg survey of economists. Consumers expect prices to rise at an annual rate of 3.9% over the next five to 10 years, up 0.6 percentage point from the previous month and...
The recent data on tariffs and consumer decision-making is clear: raise prices on a product due to higher import taxes, and consumers will turn to a cheaper alternative. That doesn't bode well for certain U.S. products, and the states where they are produced, as the U.S. and EU engage in tit-for-tat tariff threats. Think California almonds, Tennessee whiskey, and rearview mirrors from Michigan. From 2017-2019, Tennessee whiskey exports to the European Union dropped from $362 million to $220 million amid President Donald Trump's first term trade war, and exports remained low until the...
After flubbing his planned doubling of tariffs on Canada, which saw Canada poised to lash back with stiff increases in the cost of energy exported from the province of Ontario to the US, US President Donald Trump is shifting his tariff focus to the European Union, but maintaining the same playbook. Donald Trump's brief standoff against Canada saw the US's neighbor to the north make zero concessions. Canada is now on pace to impose a strategic package of tariffs against key US goods in retaliation for the US's steel and import tariffs that went into effect this week, and trade terms under...
President Donald Trump said he would fire Lisa Cook from the Federal Reserve's Board of Governors if she does not resign her post over mortgage-fraud accusations from a top...
The Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) maintained its cash rate at 4.1% during its April meeting, holding borrowing costs unchanged after slashing 25 bps in the February meeting, aligning with market...