News

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Stocks closed lower on Wednesday, as the market’s recent run higher took a breather, as traders weighed a preliminary U.S.-China trade agreement and new inflation data.

The S&P 500 lost 0.27% to end the day at 6,022.30, while the Nasdaq Composite fell 0.5% to 19,615.88. The Dow Jones Industrial Average shed a mere 1.1 points, closing at 42,865.77.

The S&P 500 has risen in six of the last seven trading days and was less than 2% below a record reached in February. At one point, the benchmark index was about 20% below a record.

The consumer price index rose 0.1% in May from April, less than the 0.2% estimate from economists polled by Dow Jones. Core CPI, which strips out volatile food and energy prices, also increased 0.1%, less than expected.

Mitsubishi Estate Co. has bought a majority stake in European private equity property fund manager Patron Capital, the latest sign of Japanese investment washing into the UK.

The Tokyo-based group’s investment management business, Mitsubishi Estate Global Partners, is acquiring the stake from Patron’s management led by founder Keith Breslauer, according to a statement Thursday. The deal will see Mitsubishi commit about €600 million ($686 million) of equity to Patron’s funds to help it build out new strategies including its nascent credit business, it said.

Republican senators are considering placing a $30,000 cap on the state and local tax deduction as a compromise between current law and the more generous limit in House’s version of President Donald Trump’s tax bill, a key GOP negotiator said.

Senator Thom Tillis, a moderate Republican involved in the talks, said Republican senators are trying to reduce the House-passed $40,000 SALT limit to at least $30,000.

Republican senators are meeting behind closed doors Tuesday afternoon to discuss the details of the bill, which the Senate is aiming to pass later this month.

SALT was a core issue in the House, where Republicans from high-tax states like New York, New Jersey and California threatened to block the bill without a substantial increase to the current $10,000 SALT cap.

General Motors Co. plans to invest $4 billion in its US plants over the next two years in response to President Donald Trump’s tariffs in a move that reduces production in Mexico while boosting domestic output of some of its some of its top-selling gas-powered vehicles.

The spending will expand factories in Michigan, Kansas and Tennessee. The moves will boost annual US production capacity by 300,000 vehicles, GM Chief Financial Officer Paul Jacobson said at a Deutsche Bank conference on Wednesday.

Assembly of several top-selling models, including its very profitable Chevrolet Silverado and GMC Sierra pickup trucks and the Chevrolet Equinox SUV, will move to factories in the US from Mexico. GM plans to add between 3,000 and 4,000 US jobs when all production is in place, a spokesman said.

Deere & Co expects sales of farm tractors and combines in Brazil will overtake those to Europe in the next five to 10 years, eventually making it the company’s second-biggest market.

Sales of machines used to sow, spray chemicals and harvest crops will climb fast in the South American nation as Brazilians continue to rapidly expand soybean and corn production to meet booming demand, according to Deere’s Chief Financial Officer Joshua Jepsen.

“Brazil is increasingly important to our strategy,” Jepsen added.

The Trump administration revealed plans for repealing mandates that force power plants to curb greenhouse gas emissions, representing its most significant action yet to reverse policies combating climate change.

The proposal by the Environmental Protection Agency, which could be finalized later this year, is being coupled with a plan to ease limits on mercury and other toxic air pollution from the facilities.

The actions come as the Trump administration seeks to make good on a campaign promise to “open dozens and dozens” of power plants to help meet an expected surge in energy demand from data centers and manufacturing.

Canadian shipbuilder Chantier Davie Canada Inc. is planning to invest more than $1 billion to buy and upgrade Galveston, Texas-based Gulf Copper & Manufacturing Corp. as part of its strategy to supply the US with icebreakers and other specialised ships.

Davie expects the acquisition to be finalised this summer. The deal between the two closely held companies is subject to financial, legal and regulatory conditions as well as land lease negotiations, Davie spokesperson Paul Barrett said.

“We share a vision with Gulf Copper to make Texas a world-class hub for American icebreaker and complex ship production,” Chief Executive Officer James Davies said in a news release, an advance copy of which was seen by Bloomberg News.

Canadian Industry Minister Melanie Joly said the government will soon announce measures to clamp down on steel dumping from foreign countries and help domestic manufacturers hit by punishing US tariffs.

“We cannot accept any form of unfair practices from different countries when it comes to our Canadian market. That’s enough,” she told reporters in Montreal on Wednesday. “We’ll make sure to take strong measures to protect our market.”

Canada already implemented 25% levies on Chinese steel and aluminium products last year, aiming to bring its trade policy closer to the US and shelter domestic producers from lower-cost products made in Asia’s largest economy.

The US Treasury Department is considering changing rules to revoke tax-exempt status for colleges that consider race in student admissions, scholarships and other areas — potentially threatening the financial stability of hundreds of institutions.

The proposals would bar private, nonprofit schools from remaining tax exempt if they favour any racial groups in matters such as financial assistance, loans, use of facilities or other programs, according to people with knowledge of the deliberations, who include a staffer in the Treasury’s Office of Tax Policy.

That office has been reviewing the draft language, said the people, who asked not to be named, discussing private talks. The proposals are being drawn up as IRS revenue procedures — a form of guidance for interpreting and enforcing tax laws. They could take effect without congressional approval.

Apollo Global Management told prospective investment-banking candidates that it won’t interview or extend offers to the class of 2027 this year, following backlash among Wall Street firms over young recruits accepting future-dated offers.

In a letter sent to candidates on Wednesday, Apollo explained its decision by saying it believes graduates should take time early in their careers and deepen their understanding of business. Apollo’s Chief Executive Officer Marc Rowan said he agreed with recent criticisms that the process for hiring young recruits had started too early.

“Hiring decisions at Apollo are among the most significant to our business,” David Sambur, co-head of private equity and Nicole Bonsignore, head of human capital, wrote in the letter seen by Bloomberg. “With that in mind, we will not formally interview and extend offers this year for the class of 2027.”

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent refrained from arguing that the tax legislation Republicans are working to finalise in Congress will avoid adding to the debt burden.

“It remains to be seen,” Bessent said Wednesday when asked during a House Ways and Means Committee hearing whether the bill would add to federal borrowing.

Republicans have consistently argued that President Donald Trump’s “one big beautiful bill” would pay for itself thanks to faster growth prompted by tax cuts. The House passed a version of the bill last month, and GOP senators are now working on changes.

The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office has estimated the House bill would add $2.4 trillion to deficits over 10 years, though that calculation didn’t account for dynamic effects such as changes in growth or debt servicing costs.

The Air Force has cut in half its request to Congress for its signature F-35s, dealing a blow to Lockheed Martin Corp., the top US defense contractor.

A Defense Department procurement request document sent to Capitol Hill this week asked for 24 of the planes, down from 48 that was forecast last year.

The proposed cut is significant because the Air Force is the largest customer for the world’s biggest weapons program. The scaling back of the F-35 request may reflect one way the service is revising its funding for fiscal 2026 to comply with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s plan to shift projected US military spending by 8% over the next five years.

US President Donald Trump’s nominee to lead the Federal Aviation Administration vowed to hold Boeing Co. accountable for the quality of its jets as the US planemaker works to produce its cash cow 737 Max aircraft at higher rates.

If confirmed, airline executive Bryan Bedford will be tasked with making decisions on how to proceed with Boeing, which the FAA is still closely monitoring following a midair mishap last year that exposed quality lapses at the company’s factories.

Bedford told US senators during a hearing in Washington on Wednesday that he wants to hold “Boeing accountable to deliver a high-quality product.”

Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said Wednesday that U.S. tariff levels on Chinese imports will not change from their current levels, even as a trade deal between Washington and Beijing has yet to be finalised.

Protests over immigration raids stretched into a fifth night in Los Angeles and spread to other cities, including New York, Chicago and Milwaukee, prompting clashes between police and demonstrators.

California’s Democratic Governor Gavin Newsom accused President Donald Trump of misusing his power by mobilizing troops in Los Angeles and warned other states to prepare for similar unrest.

At least 400 people have been arrested in the greater Los Angeles area since the weekend amid clashes between police and demonstrators rallying in response to increasingly aggressive raids by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents.

Nvidia Corp. Chief Executive Officer Jensen Huang projected that Europe’s artificial-intelligence computing capacity will increase by a factor of ten over the next two years, with more than 20 so-called AI factories in the works.

“Europe has now awakened to the importance of these AI factories,” said Huang, whose company is supplying chips for virtually every major AI-computing project. Several of massive data centers will have more than a gigawatt of capacity, potentially ranking them among the largest in the world, he said during a company event jointly held with the VivaTech tech conference in Paris.

“The researchers, the startups, your AI shortage, your GPU shortage will be resolved for you soon,” he said. “It’s coming.”

Gold rose after a softer-than-expected inflation reading bolstered bets that the Federal Reserve will cut interest rates later this year.

Underlying US inflation rose in May by less than forecast for the fourth month in a row, suggesting companies are finding ways to limit how much of higher costs from tariffs they pass through to customers.

The dollar and bond yields pushed lower after the print, sending bullion higher by as much as 1.1% before paring some of the gains. Bullion typically benefits from a lower rate environment as it pays no interest.

Gold is helped by the benign reading in inflation, which lifted the prospect for a rate cut, perhaps sooner than the October date currently priced in by the market, according to Ole Hansen, head of commodities strategy at Saxo Bank A/S.

French banking group BPCE has emerged as the leading bidder to acquire Portuguese lender Novo Banco SA from Lone Star Funds, people with knowledge of the matter said.

BPCE has pulled ahead of its main rival in the bidding, Spain’s CaixaBank SA, and is trying to hammer out terms of a deal, the people said. Lone Star has also been considering a potential listing of Novo Banco and hasn’t chosen which path to take, according to the people.

The investment firm could make a decision as soon as the coming days, the people said, asking not to be identified because the information is private. Any sale would add to the $27 billion of acquisitions announced in the banking industry this year, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

Deliberations are ongoing and talks could still fall apart, the people said. Representatives for BPCE, Lone Star, Novo Banco and CaixaBank declined to comment.

ABN Amro Bank NV’s Chief Executive Officer, Marguerite Berard launched a reorganisation at the Dutch lender, a month after taking over the role.

The Amsterdam-based bank announced internally on Wednesday it’s reorganising its corporate banking unit, impacting a “small” number of employees, a spokeswoman said, without providing further details.

Berard, a former BNP Paribas SA executive, became ABN Amro CEO in April. Earlier that month, the bank told employees it was imposing a hiring freeze to help meet its full-year cost guidance.

Turkey will sell 48 fighter jets to Indonesia in the coming decade, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said, as Ankara pushes to build its defense industry and increase exports of military hardware.

The agreement to sell the Kaan fifth-generation planes, which Turkey is still developing, is a “record-breaking” military deal for the country, Erdogan said, without disclosing financial details. It “clearly reflects the progress and capabilities of our domestic and national defense industry,” he added.

A spokesperson for Indonesia’s defense ministry didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. President Prabowo Subianto’s office said he witnessed the signing of a memorandum of understanding on fifth-generation jet procurement, without providing further details.

Billionaire investor Paul Tudor Jones said President Donald Trump is likely to appoint an “uber dovish” Federal Reserve chair to accommodate his growth agenda, adding he thinks US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent would be his likely pick when Jerome Powell’s term ends.

Jones, 70, said in an interview with Bloomberg Television that two people being floated for the appointment — Bessent and Kevin Warsh, a former member of the Fed Board of Governors — are “fabulous names.” But Trump’s focus on growth and loyalty makes Bessent a stand-out candidate, Jones said.

Coco Robotics, a startup that operates a fleet of cooler-sized delivery robots on wheels, has raised $80 million in funding from OpenAI Chief Executive Officer Sam Altman and other backers, a sign that automated delivery technology is advancing.

The financing, which Coco Robotics plans to announce Wednesday, was led by venture capital firm SNR, with participation from investors including Pelion Venture Partners, Offline Ventures and one of Altman’s brothers, Max.

With the new funding, Coco Robotics, whose corporate name is Cyan Robotics Inc., has raised more than $110 million to date, including a prior round that was led by OpenAI’s Altman. The company declined to provide a valuation.

Protests over immigration raids stretched into a fifth night in Los Angeles and spread to other cities, including New York, Chicago and Milwaukee, prompting clashes between police and demonstrators.

California’s Democratic Governor Gavin Newsom accused President Donald Trump of misusing his power by mobilising troops in Los Angeles and warned other states to prepare for similar unrest.

Almost 380 people have been arrested in the greater Los Angeles area since the weekend amid clashes between police and demonstrators rallying in response to increasingly aggressive raids by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents.

Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves vowed to renew Britain’s infrastructure and public services as she outlined three years of spending plans to build roads, railways, houses and energy projects nationwide.

“We are renewing Britain,” Reeves said in the House of Commons on Wednesday. “I know that too many people in too many parts of our country are yet to feel it. This government’s task, my task as chancellor, and the purpose of this spending review is to change that. To ensure that renewal is felt in people’s everyday lives, in their jobs, and on their high streets.”

Consumer prices rose less than expected in May as President Donald Trump’s tariffs had yet to show significant impact on inflation, the Bureau of Labour Statistics reported Wednesday.

The consumer price index, a broad-based measure of goods and services across the sprawling U.S. economy, increased 0.1% for the month, putting the annual inflation rate at 2.4%. Economists surveyed by Dow Jones had been looking for respective readings of 0.2% and 2.4%.

Excluding food and energy, core CPI came in respectively at 0.1% and 2.8%, compared to forecasts for 0.3% and 2.9%. Federal Reserve officials consider core a better measure of long-term trends, with several expressing concerns recently over the impact that tariffs would have on inflation.

Record-high purchases and a blistering rally in prices have seen gold overtake the euro as the second-largest asset in the reserves of the world’s central banks.

The share of gold in global foreign reserves at market prices reached 20% at the end of 2024, surpassing the euro at 16%, the European Central Bank said in an annual assessment of the currency’s international standing. The US dollar extended a steady decline to reach 46% of global reserves.

DayOne Data Centers Singapore Pte. secured 15 billion ringgit ($3.5 billion) of multicurrency financing to support its green data centers in Malaysia’s Johor state, according to a statement from Oversea-Chinese Banking Corporation Ltd.

OCBC and its Malaysian unit OCBC Bank (Malaysia) Bhd. acted as joint coordinators for the syndicated financing, which comprises a 7.5 billion ringgit Islamic financing and a $1.7 billion offshore term-loan facility, the bank said.

United Overseas Bank Ltd. had also served as joint coordinator for the transaction, which the bank termed as one of the largest in Southeast Asia for data center and the biggest green Islamic syndicated facility in Malaysia. The syndication involved six other banks apart from UOB, it said.

Victoria’s Secret & Co. projected profit for the current quarter that trailed Wall Street’s expectations — a hit to the fledging turnaround being led by a chief executive officer in her first year.

The lingerie retailer expects adjusted net income to be between flat and 15 cents a share. Analysts on average projected revenue of $1.4 billion and adjusted earnings of 29 cents a share. Its sales forecast met estimates.

Shares fell less than 1% in premarket trading on Wednesday. The stock had declined about 46% this year through Tuesday’s close.

The guidance shows how CEO Hillary Super’s turnaround strategy to make the retailer’s brands more appealing with younger shoppers needs more time. One way Super, who started in September, is doing that is by trying to regain the company’s authority in bras by expanding the assortment and boosting marketing.

European banks’ wait time for regulatory approvals for their shareholder payout plans is about to get shorter, as the region’s top watchdog steps up efforts to boost efficiency.

The European Central Bank is making procedures “quicker and more risk-based, including through the use of digital tools,” Supervisory Board Chair Claudia Buch said on Wednesday in Berlin. “For banks, this will mean clearer expectations, more standardised templates and faster turnaround times.”

European banks have long criticised the ECB for what they view as its cumbersome oversight, while the bloc’s politicians have recently called on regulators to ease up on lenders so they can support economic growth. That’s increased the pressure on the ECB to show how a review it kicked off in 2022 will make it more effective while not sacrificing the industry’s hard-won resilience.NewsLive TVMarketPopular CategoriesCalculatorsTrending NowLet's Connect with CNBCTV 18Network 18 Group :©TV18 Broadcast Limited. All rights reserved.