The Hang Seng Index reversed its downward trend in Hong Kong on Thursday (February 12th), weakening by around 0.9% to around 27,000 after a strong session earlier. This decline halted the momentum of the short term rally, as investors began to reduce risk in large cap stocks. Among the index's contributors, Tencent was a major drag, with its shares falling by around 2.3%, putting pressure on the technology sector, which has recently been a driving force behind market gains. Weakness in large cap companies like this typically quickly impacts sentiment due to their significant weighting in...
TIANJIN, China — Chinese Premier Li Qiang on Wednesday called on other countries to collaborate on trade, despite rising tariffs and other barriers. "Globalization will not be reversed," he said through an official English translation, as he called on all sides not to turn trade into a political or security issue. Engaging in the international economy is a way of "reshaping the rules and order," Li added, calling on countries to keep to the "right" path. Li did not comment specifically on U.S. trade tensions or the Israel-Iran conflict. He was speaking at the opening plenary of the World...
The Trump administration's tariff plans may well just cause a one-time jump in prices, but the risk it could cause more persistent inflation is large enough for the central bank to be careful in considering further rate cuts, Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell told a U.S. Senate panel on Wednesday. Though economic theory may point to tariffs as a one-off shock to prices, "that is not a law of nature," said Powell, detailing why the central bank wants more information about the ultimate level of tariffs and the way they impact pricing and public expectations about inflation before lowering...
President Donald Trump said on Wednesday that the United States will make Spain pay twice as much for a trade deal after the country's refusal to meet a NATO defense spending target of 5% of gross domestic product. NATO leaders backed a big increase in defense spending on Wednesday that Trump had demanded, but Spain declared that it does not need to meet the goal and can meet its commitments by spending much less. Trump called Spain's decision "very terrible" and vowed to force the country to make up the difference. "We're negotiating with Spain on a trade deal. We're going to make them...
U.S. President Donald Trump reignited his criticism of Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell on Wednesday, speaking at the NATO summit. Trump said he plans to announce a replacement for Powell, whose term ends in May 2026, though it remains unclear whether he will attempt to remove him before then. "I know, within three or four people, who I'm going to pick," Trump said. "He goes out pretty soon fortunately, because I think he's terrible." Trump again questioned Powell's mental capacity, calling him a "very average person mentally." The president has repeatedly teased the idea of firing...
U.S. missile strikes did not completely destroy Iran's key nuclear sites, an initial American assessment from the Defense Intelligence Agency found, according to three people familiar with the report who spoke to NBC News. "We were assuming that the damage was going to be much more significant than this assessment is finding," one of the three sources told NBC News. "This assessment is already finding that these core pieces are still intact. That's a bad sign for the overall program." The assessment also found that the U.S. strikes set Iran's nuclear program back by around three to six...