Economy

Trump’s ‘unmitigated crap’ on California wildfires
2018-08-07 21:23:33 UTC
U.S. President Donald Trump has weighed in on the California wildfires. But it wasn’t to express condolences for the victims or to praise the incredible bravery of firefighters — it was to try to score political points. And he did so by badly twisting the science of how wildfires work. In a now-deleted tweet, Trump blamed “bad environmental laws” for “diverting” water into the Pacific Ocean. Scientists mock Trump’s tweet on wildfires as ‘comedically ill-informed’ and ‘unmitigated crap.’ His climate denial is "a crime against the planet" warns climatologist. <blockquote><img alt="Trump_has_said_that_climate_change_is_a_hoax_%e...
EU raises concerns over new US move on Iran
2018-08-06 17:59:19 UTC
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Trump administration expects economic sanctions that it is re-imposing on Iran this week to further cripple the Iranian economy and will aggressively enforce the measures, senior U.S. administration officials said on Monday. But the U.S. sanctions strategy has several weak spots, especially a reluctance by Europe and China to curtail business with Iran. The European Union voiced regret and expressed concern at the new U.S. move. “We deeply regret the re-imposition of sanctions by the U.S.,” the bloc said in a joint statement with the foreign ministers of France, Germany and Britain. One EU measure to...
Apple became the first $1 trillion listed US company
2018-08-02 18:06:54 UTC
SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Apple became the first $1 trillion publicly listed U.S. company on Thursday, crowning a decade-long rise fueled by its ubiquitous iPhone that transformed it from a niche player in personal computers into a global powerhouse spanning entertainment and communications. The tech company’s stock jumped 2.8 percent to as high as $207.05, bringing its gain to about 9 percent since Tuesday when its reported June-quarter results above expectations and said it bought back $20 billion of its own shares. Started in the garage of co-founder Steve Jobs in 1976, Apple has pushed its revenue beyond the economic outputs of P...
British car makers and consumers would suffer from "No-Deal" Brexit
2018-07-31 02:14:06 UTC
LONDON (Reuters) - A no-deal Brexit is not an option for Britain’s car industry, given the costs and disruption that carmakers and consumers would suffer, the head of the country’s automobile industry group said on Tuesday. Mike Hawes, chief executive of the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT), said carmakers were “increasingly concerned” about the lack of clarity around the manner of Britain’s departure from the European Union. With less than eight months until the divorce is due to take place, Prime Minister Theresa May has yet to find a proposal to maintain economic ties with the bloc that pleases both sides of her d...
Plunge in Facebook shares rattled Amazon options market
2018-07-26 18:56:45 UTC
SAN FRANCISCO/NEW YORK (Reuters) - A plunge in Facebook Inc shares rattled the Amazon.com Inc options market on Thursday, with the social network’s fellow FAANG company due to report quarterly results later in the day. Facebook on Wednesday warned about a margin hit as revenue growth slows and user privacy costs climb, and its 20 percent share drop heightened focus on the online retailer, already a closely watched stock. Amazon was the second-biggest decliner in the so-called FAANG group of high-flying tech companies, but Facebook’s second-quarter earnings also cast a pall on shares of Apple Inc, Netflix Inc and Google parent Alphabe...
Hostile rhetoric between Trump and Tehran escalating
2018-07-23 16:27:09 UTC
Hostile rhetoric between Washington and Tehran escalated on Sunday after a tit-for-tat between Trump and his Iranian counterpart, Hassan Rouhani. U.S. President Donald Trump told Iran it risked dire consequences “the like of which few throughout history have suffered before” if the Islamic Republic made more threats against the United States. His words, spelled out in capital letters in a late night Twitter message, came hours after Iranian President Hassan Rouhani told Trump that hostile policies toward Tehran could lead to “the mother of all wars.” Despite the heightened rhetoric, both sides have reasons to want to avoid st...
EU to protect oil exports & firms from US sanctions on Iran
2018-07-17 21:13:17 UTC
The Iran nuclear agreement marked its third anniversary in a gloomy state. Despite repeated attempts to keep him on board, US President Donald Trump withdrew the United States from the deal – signed on July 14, 2015 under the formal title the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) – and thereby pulled the rug from under Europe’s feet. European policymakers are now focused on salvaging the agreement. For a growing number of European corporate decision-makers, the deal is already dead. In reality, the JCPOA is on life support and the next few months could open either its next or final chapter. Despite the significant challenges they face...
Trade war: China accuses US of “opening fire”
2018-07-05 16:53:07 UTC
BEIJING/WASHINGTON (Reuters) - China accused the United States on Thursday of “opening fire” on the world with tariffs set to take effect on Friday, warning that it will respond the moment that duties on $34 billion in Chinese goods kick in. U.S. President Donald Trump has threatened to further escalate the trade conflict between the world’s two largest economies with tariffs on as much as $450 billion worth of Chinese goods if China retaliates, as the initial round of tariffs take effect at 12:01 a.m. EDT (0401 GMT) on Friday. There was no evidence of any last-minute negotiations between U.S. and Chinese officials, business sources ...
World Trade Organization rules in favor of Canada against US
2018-07-05 16:28:20 UTC
GENEVA (Reuters) - Canada won the bulk of a ruling at the World Trade Organization on Thursday in a dispute over U.S. duties on Canadian exports of supercalendered paper, which is used in glossy magazines and catalogues. Canada filed the complaint in 2016, saying Washington was wrong to penalize Canada for subsidizing its paper industry. The ruling can be appealed by either side. The panel of WTO judges declined to rule on several of Canada’s arguments, but in other respects they found almost entirely in Canada’s favor. Canada had complained about U.S. subsidy investigations into Canadian firms Port Hawkesbury Paper LP and Reso...
Volkswagen offers carsharing service with electric vehicles
2018-07-04 19:11:31 UTC
FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Volkswagen plans to start offering car sharing services using fully electric vehicles in German cities next year as part of efforts to serve consumers who don’t want to buy their own vehicles. Its offering will compete in its home market with DriveNow and Car2Go, the soon-to-be-merged carsharing services of BMW and Daimler Benz. Volkswagen said on Wednesday the new carsharing service would be expanded to major cities in Europe, North America and Asia as early as 2020 and focus on core VW brand cars. VW is seeking to move on from its diesel emissions scandal of 2015, the repercussions of which are still being...
Harley-Davidson move shows consequences of Trump's trade war
2018-06-27 00:38:30 UTC
WASHINGTON/CHICAGO (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump threatened Harley-Davidson Inc with higher taxes on Tuesday and said the motorcycle maker, which he previously hailed as a model of American manufacturing, would suffer from a public backlash if it went ahead with a plan to move production for European customers overseas. Trump’s attack, the latest in a series of criticisms of U.S. companies, was an about-face for the president, who hosted company officials and gleaming Harley-Davidson bikes on the White House lawn shortly after his inauguration. “A Harley-Davidson should never be built in another country-never! Their employe...
Brexit: Pro European Union Protesters March in London
2018-06-23 22:01:31 UTC
LONDON (Reuters) - Around 100,000 supporters of the European Union marched through central London on Saturday to demand that the British government hold a final public vote on the terms of Brexit, organizers said. Protesters packed the main arteries of the capital, waving British, Irish and European flags and colorful banners to call for a “People’s Vote” on the eventual deal in which Britain leaves the world’s biggest trading bloc. On the second anniversary of the 52 to 48 percent Brexit vote, polls show political divisions are entrenched. Despite some confusion over what Brexit will actually mean there has been no clear change of h...
Tesla to close 14 solar facilities, cut jobs
2018-06-22 04:44:58 UTC
SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Electric car maker Tesla Inc’s move last week to cut 9 percent of its workforce will sharply downsize the residential solar business it bought two years ago in a controversial $2.6 billion deal, according to three internal company documents and seven current and former Tesla solar employees. The latest cuts to the division that was once SolarCity - a sales and installation company founded by two cousins of Tesla CEO Elon Musk - include closing about a dozen installation facilities, according to internal company documents, and ending a retail partnership with Home Depot Inc that the current and former employees ...
Poll: 70 percent of Canadians boycott U.S. products
2018-06-16 07:43:47 UTC
OTTAWA (Reuters) - Seventy percent of Canadians say they will start looking for ways to avoid buying U.S.-made goods in a threat to ratchet up a trade dispute between Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and U.S. President Donald Trump, an Ipsos Poll showed on Friday. The poll also found a majority of Americans and Canadians are united in support of Trudeau and opposition to Trump in their countries’ stand-off over the renegotiation of the 1994 North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). Amid the spat, Trump pulled out of a joint communique with six other countries last weekend during a Quebec summit meeting of the Group of Seven rich nati...
Iran to Kim: Don't trust Trump, he quits deals within hours
2018-06-12 23:46:34 UTC
LONDON (Reuters) - Iran warned North Korean leader Kim Jong Un on Tuesday against trusting U.S. President Donald Trump, saying he could cancel their denuclearization agreement within hours. Tehran cited its own experience in offering the advice to Kim a month after Washington withdrew from a similar deal with Iran. Trump and Kim pledged at a meeting in Singapore on Tuesday to work toward complete denuclearization of the Korean peninsula while Washington committed to provide security guarantees for its old enemy. “We don’t know what type of person the North Korean leader is negotiating with. It is not clear that he would not cancel...
Trump's massive tax cuts drive up U.S. deficits: Just in May alone, $147 billion
2018-06-12 23:06:23 UTC
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. government had a $147 billion budget deficit in May, an increase of 66 percent from the same month last year as the ledger took a hit from declining revenue and higher spending, according to Treasury Department data released on Tuesday. Treasury reported a budget deficit of $88 billion in the same month last year, the department’s monthly budget statement showed. Economists polled by Reuters had forecast the Treasury recording a $144 billion deficit in May. When accounting for calendar adjustments, the government’s deficit was $131 billion compared to an adjusted deficit of $88 billion in the same m...
Canadian province of Quebec offers C$100 million in loans to companies hit by U.S. tariffs
2018-06-11 22:15:23 UTC
MONTREAL (Reuters) - The Canadian province of Quebec will offer C$100 million ($77.1 million) in loans and guarantees on loans to steel and aluminum companies hit by recent U.S. tariffs, the province’s economy minister said on Monday. Companies that transform the metals will benefit from the program after the United States recently slapped a 25 percent tariff on steel and a 10 percent tariff on aluminum imports. Economy Minister Dominique Anglade told reporters in Montreal that the program came after aluminum and steel companies received feedback from clients who are not willing to pay the tariffs. “What they’re telling us is some...
Mexico puts tariffs on products from key Republican congressional districts
2018-06-07 02:50:01 UTC
WASHINGTON/MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Mexican tariffs are roiling U.S. congressional campaigns in states where U.S. exporters could take a hit and President Donald Trump’s Republicans face tough races in November congressional elections. Mexico announced the levies this week in retaliation to Trump’s decision to slap tariffs on metal imports from Mexico and other countries. They fall on only about $3 billion in U.S. exports, but were crafted to have a “very specific” focus on vulnerable Republicans, said one senior Mexican official who asked not to be named. “We wanted to ensure that the issue is a top priority for key decision makers a...
Renowned Economist: No one express “a single word of respect for Trump”
2018-06-02 15:51:31 UTC
American economist Jeffrey Sachs has written a scathing takedown of President Donald Trump, calling him a delusional, psychopathic “threat to the nation and the world.” He might be a “Manchurian Candidate” who is working as a “stooge” for some foreign power to destroy the U.S., Sachs wrote on CCN’s website Friday, referring to the spy movie thriller. “Much more likely, Trump is just mentally unstable and narcissistic,” he added, calling the new announcement of tariffs on exports from Canada, Mexico and the European Union part of a “psychopath’s trade war.” Sachs, a renowned Columbia University professor who heads its Center for Su...
United States completely isolated itself at G7 meeting
2018-06-01 19:03:28 UTC
WASHINGTON/WHISTLER, British Columbia (Reuters) — U.S. isolated at G7 meeting as tariffs prompt retaliation. At a meeting of the Group of Seven top world economic powers in Canada, France’s Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire castigated the United States for its tariffs, saying Washington was isolated. “Unfortunately we are going to have a G6 plus one with the United States alone against everyone and running the risk of economic destabilization,” Le Maire told reporters in Whistler, British Columbia. US president Donald Trump told Canada and the European Union on Friday to do more to bring down their trade surpluses, a day after hitti...
France: The American consumer will pay for Trump's tariffs bill
2018-06-01 05:26:35 UTC
PARIS (Reuters) - U.S. trade tariffs on European metals exports are unjustified and will be met with a proportionate and calibrated EU response, the French government said on Thursday. “Today, France and the EU disapprove, of course, these measures. We are getting ready to put in place safeguards, rebalancing measures because we won’t let unjustifiable and unjustified measures go unanswered,” ,” France’s junior trade minister Jean-Baptiste Lemoyne told reporters. <blockquote> The United States said earlier it would impose tariffs on aluminum and steel imports from Canada, Mexico and the EU, ending months of uncertainty about potenti...
EU, Canada, Mexico announce retaliatory measures against US products
2018-06-01 00:35:36 UTC
WASHINGTON/PARIS (Reuters) - Canada and Mexico retaliated against the United State’s decision on Thursday to impose tariffs on steel and aluminum imports and the European Union had its own reprisals ready to go, reigniting investor fears of a global trade war. The tariffs, announced by U.S. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross in a telephone briefing on Thursday, ended months of uncertainty about potential exemptions and suggested a hardening of the Trump administration’s approach to trade negotiations. The measures, touted by President Donald Trump in March, drew condemnation from Republican lawmakers and the country’s main business lobby...
Wall Street stocks: Dow Jones falls nearly 400 points
2018-05-29 21:41:34 UTC
NEW YORK (Reuters) - A spiraling Italian political crisis provoked a global stock market sell-off on Tuesday, cut the euro to a 10-month low and spiked borrowing costs for the government in Rome. Investors fear that repeat elections - which now seem likely in the euro zone’s third-largest economy as soon as July - may become a de-facto referendum on Italian membership of the currency bloc and the country’s role in the European Union. Safe-haven U.S. Treasury bonds and German bunds rallied, as did the Japanese yen, the U.S. dollar and gold by midday in the U.S. trading day. Oil sank further from the near-four-year highs set earlier in...
EU privacy law: Companies to be more attentive to user data
2018-05-25 06:40:19 UTC
BRUSSELS (Reuters) - New European privacy regulations that go into effect on Friday will force companies to be more attentive to how they handle customer data, while bringing consumers both new ways to control their data and tougher enforcement of existing privacy rights. The European Union General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) replaces the bloc’s patchwork of rules dating back to 1995 and heralds an era where breaking privacy laws can fetch fines of up to 4 percent of global revenue or 20 million euros ($23.48 million), whichever is higher, as opposed to a few hundred thousand euros. Many privacy advocates around the world have ...
T-Mobile, operated by Germany's Deutsche Telekom, to buy Sprint for $26 billion
2018-04-29 18:11:58 UTC
T-Mobile agreed to acquire Sprint in an all-stock deal for $26 billion that will combine the third and fourth largest U.S. wireless carriers and is expected to attract regulatory scrutiny. The agreement caps four years of on- and off- talks between the companies, setting the stage for the creation of a carrier with 127 million customers that will be a more formidable competitor to the No.1 and No.2 wireless players, Verizon Communications Inc and AT&T Inc. U.S. regulators, which have challenged in court AT&T’s $85 billion deal to buy U.S. media company Time Warner Inc, are expected to grill Sprint and T-Mobile on how they will price ...