News

US President Donald Trump said he may raise US auto tariffs in order to boost domestic auto manufacturing, a move that could further ratchet up tensions with trading partners.

Trump spoke Thursday at a signing ceremony for legislation terminating California regulations that would have banned the sale of gasoline-powered cars in 2035 — a long-sought victory for some carmakers and oil companies that attacked the rules as unachievable.

The president said raising auto tariffs from their current 25% level could offer further protection for the domestic auto industry, citing General Motors Co.’s plan to invest $4 billion in US plants over the next two years in order to avoid paying duties.

Texas Governor Greg Abbott is deploying 5,000 National Guard soldiers and 2,000 state troopers to assist local law enforcement during planned protests this weekend. Any demonstrators engaging in violence or damaging property will be arrested, Abbott warned in a statement Thursday.

A day of “No Kings” demonstrations against President Donald Trump is planned for June 14 across the US. In recent days, Trump sent National Guard troops to Los Angeles and activated 700 Marines amid protests spurred by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids. Activists held rallies in Texas cities this week in support of the Los Angeles demonstrators.

President Donald Trump ripped Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell as a “numbskull” on Thursday as he turned up the heat on the central bank chief to lower interest rates.

Trump claimed at the White House that lowering rates by two percentage points would save the U.S. $600 billion per year, “but we can’t get this guy to do it.”

“We’re going to spend $600 billion a year, $600 billion because of one numbskull that sits here [and says] ‘I don’t see enough reason to cut the rates now,’” Trump said.

A senior Trump administration official projected that Huawei Technologies Co.’s output of its Ascend AI chip will be at or below 200,000 for 2025, responding to US lawmakers’ concerns that China is gaining ground in the production of advanced semiconductors.

“It’s critical for us not to have a false sense of security, to understand that China is catching up quickly, but that is our projection for this year,” said Commerce Under Secretary Jeffrey Kessler, who oversees the agency’s export control programs. “We shouldn’t take too much comfort in the fact that China’s production of these advanced chips is relatively small, because we know they have global ambitions.”

Kessler said that most of those Huawei semiconductors would be delivered within China. The US has moved to pressure its allies against adopting the Ascend chip, warning that use of Huawei’s latest technology risked violating export controls.

US President Donald Trump on Thursday is signing three congressional resolutions that target California’s statewide efforts to adopt electric vehicles and phase out diesel engines and the sale of gas-powered cars by 2035.

California’s plan had been adopted by 11 other states. General Motors and Toyota had lobbied against California’s rules.

More evidence of cooling US inflation extended a week-long drop in bond yields and sent the dollar to a three-year low, signs that traders are convinced the Federal Reserve has room to lower interest rates should the economic expansion lose steam. Stocks rebounded.

Treasuries rallied, with money markets fully pricing in bets on two Fed reductions in 2025. Attention will soon shift to a $22 billion sale of 30-year debt for a read on whether spiralling deficits are causing investors to shun the maturity. The S&P 500 edged up as Oracle Corp. led gains in technology shares after projecting cloud infrastructure sales will jump more than 70%.

A sharp decline in immigration is keeping a lid on the unemployment rate even as the economy slows.

Government data out Friday showed the size of the workforce shrank in May, in part because of the biggest back-to-back decline in the number of foreign-born workers in the labor force since 2020. That left the jobless rate unchanged at 4.2% even as the number of people out of work rose.

Traders are once again fully pricing in expectations that the Federal Reserve will cut interest rates twice this year as reports on US producer prices and jobless claims support a rally in the bond market.

US Treasuries surged across maturities on Thursday, sending yields down six to seven basis points to the lowest levels in a week and erasing what remained of the moves sparked by strong May employment data. The rally lowered the expected yield for an auction of 30-year bonds later in the session to around 4.84%. It peaked this week at around 4.98%.

After weeks of hand-wringing around demand for long-term US debt, all eyes are on Thursday’s 30-year Treasury auction for a fresh read on whether spiralling deficits are causing investors to shun the maturity.

The $22 billion sale, set for 1 p.m. New York time is part of the government’s regularly scheduled borrowings. Yet it will take place as Congress considers President Donald Trump’s massive tax bill, which by some projections will add trillions of dollars to US budget gaps, potentially requiring more bond issuance to finance the spending.

That backdrop, along with worries that the president’s trade war threatens to reignite inflation and dim global demand for US assets broadly, has punished the longest-maturity Treasuries in particular. Investors have grown more wary of lending to the US government for such a long time, and have demanded higher yields as a result, increasing a cushion known as the term premium.

Initial filings for unemployment insurance were unchanged last week, though an indicator of longer-term unemployment hit its highest in more than 3½ years, the Labour Department reported Thursday.

Jobless claims totalled a seasonally adjusted 248,000 for the week ending June 7, flat from the previous upwardly revised total and near the Dow Jones consensus estimate for 246,000, the Labour Department reported Thursday.

However, continuing claims, which run a week behind, rose 54,000 to 1.96 million, the highest since Nov. 13, 2021.

US producer price inflation remained muted in May across the board, another sign that tariffs have yet to result in higher prices for consumers and businesses.

The producer price index rose 0.1% from a month earlier, according to a Bureau of Labour Statistics report released Thursday. The median forecast in a Bloomberg survey of economists called for a 0.2% increase. Excluding food and energy, the PPI also increased 0.1%.

The PPI report follows May consumer price data that showed a fourth month of tame inflation. While the impact of higher tariffs has so far been modest for Americans, economists see price pressures building in the second half of the year as companies look to guard against further margin weakness.

The dollar fell to the weakest level in three years amid worries over US tariffs and the outlook for the US economy.

The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index slid as much as 0.8% on Thursday to the lowest level since April 2022. All Group-of-10 currencies rose, with the euro hitting its strongest since 2021.

The latest declines come on the heels of data that showed US producer price inflation remained muted in May, held down by tame goods and services costs. Earlier in the session, the dollar came under pressure as President Donald Trump said he would notify trading partners soon of unilateral levies.

The Pentagon launched a review of a Biden-era pact to develop nuclear-powered submarines with Australia and the UK, as the Trump administration looks to shift the burden to allies and ensure the US’s own supply of warships.

The study would seek to determine whether the Aukus arrangement — signed under President Joe Biden in 2021 — is “aligned with the president’s America First agenda,” the Defense Department said in a statement on Wednesday.

The review would be aimed at making sure that allies contribute more to collective security and that America’s defense industrial base can meet domestic needs, the department said, in remarks that will fuel concerns in Canberra and London that President Donald Trump might withdraw from the deal.

Russia has likely suffered 1 million causalities since the start of its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the UK Ministry of Defence said, a staggering human cost from the war with no end in sight.

The toll from the conflict includes around 250,000 Russian soldiers who were killed or are missing and presumed dead, and comes largely as a result of President Vladimir Putin’s “desperate tactics,” the ministry said in a post on the X social media platform on Thursday.

Bloomberg was unable to independently verify the figures. Neither Russia nor Ukraine provide official figures for the number of combat casualties. Moscow has said previously that the losses suffered by its troops are far lower than western and Ukrainian estimates since the invasion began in February 2022.

While Donald Trump hailed the outcome of trade talks in London, Xi Jinping walked away with an understated strategic gain: a negotiating process that buys China time and helps defuse the threat of more harmful tariffs and technology curbs.

Shortly after two days of negotiations wrapped, Trump declared on Wednesday on social media that a deal had been “DONE” to restore the flow of critical magnets from China, and pledged to lift curbs on student visas. Hours earlier, US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick revealed Washington would unwind its recent tech curbs, if niche metals essential to US auto and defense firms now flowed fast enough.

China’s focus was very different. A People’s Daily commentary on Thursday — Beijing’s most substantial comments so far on the talks — made no mention of export controls. Instead, the Communist Party mouthpiece touted an “institutional guarantee” established in Geneva for the two sides to bridge differences via a “consultation mechanism.” In a long-awaited leaders’ call before the London negotiations, Xi told Trump the importance of using this channel, it added.

Tesla Inc. sued a former engineer with the company’s highly secretive Optimus program, accusing him of stealing confidential information about the humanoid robot and setting up a rival startup in Silicon Valley.

Zhongjie “Jay” Li worked at Tesla between August 2022 and September 2024, according to a complaint filed in a San Francisco Federal Court late on Wednesday. Li worked on “advanced robotic hand sensors—and was entrusted with some of the most sensitive technical data in the program,” Tesla’s lawyers said in the complaint.

The suit, also filed against his company Proception Inc, alleges that in the weeks before his departure, Li downloaded Optimus-related files onto two personal smartphones and then formed his own firm.

Chronos Capital, an early backer of emerging market unicorns Tyme Group and Optasia, is looking to invest in companies deploying artificial intelligence in healthcare as it seeks to capitalise on a technology that’s expected to transform the medical industry.

“AI in healthcare is going to have the biggest impact on humanity,” Roger Grobler, a partner at the investment firm said in an interview. “AI in healthcare is probably where fintech in financial services was 30 years ago. All the upside is still to be made.”

Gold rose as tensions escalated in the Middle East, and President Donald Trump ratcheted up trade uncertainty by saying he intends to impose unilateral tariffs on dozens of US trading partners within two weeks.

Gold climbed as much as 1% following a CBS report overnight that Israel was ready to launch an operation aimed at Iran, prompting the US to move some embassy staff out of Iraq and allowing military families to leave the region. A gauge of the greenback fell 0.6%.

A final warning from Singapore’s regulator has prompted major crypto exchanges operating in the country without a permit to plan for a hasty exit.

Bitget and Bybit — two top-10 exchange operators by volume with a presence in Singapore but no local license — plan to reorganise their teams, according to people familiar with the matter. Bitget will shift staff to jurisdictions including Dubai and Hong Kong, while Bybit is weighing similar moves, said the people, who refused to be identified as the plans are confidential.

Singapore is among Asia’s foremost crypto hubs and a regional base for major global players such as Coinbase and Crypto.com. But it still bears the scars of a string of local blow-ups from the last industry downturn in 2022. Even as it doles out licenses, authorities in the city-state have warned consumers against trading cryptocurrencies and restricted related advertisements.

BioNTech SE agreed to buy former Covid vaccine rival CureVac NV for about $1.25 billion in an all-stock transaction that will boost its growing oncology business.

CureVac investors will get approximately $5.46 in BioNTech shares for each CureVac one, the companies said Thursday. The price represents a 34% premium to CureVac’s closing share price on Wednesday. CureVac shareholders will own between 4% and 6% of BioNTech once the deal closes.

The deal caps decades of rivalry between the two companies that came to a head during the race to develop a Covid vaccine. BioNTech won the race with its partner Pfizer Inc., transforming into one of Europe’s leading biotechs. CureVac’s shot never made it to market after proving less effective in clinical trials.

UK goods exported to the US dropped by £2 billion ($2.71 billion) in April, figures published by the Office for National Statistics on Thursday showed, marking the biggest monthly decrease since records began in 1997.

The value of Britain’s exports stateside was the lowest since February 2022 at £4.1 billion, with the ONS saying the shift was “likely linked to the implementation of tariffs on goods imported to the United States.” Cars, chemicals and metals exports all saw declines, the ONS said.

US imports to the UK dipped by £400 million for the month to £4.7 billion, taking Washington back to a trade surplus in goods with the country for the first time since May 2024.

The European Central Bank’s interest-rate cutting campaign may soon be over, with inflation and the economy both on track, Executive Board member Isabel Schnabel said.

“This monetary-policy cycle is coming to an end as medium-term inflation is stabilizing around target,” the German official said Thursday in Brussels. She described underlying consumer-price growth — projected to be 1.9% in 2026 and 2027 — as “right at target.”

Schnabel stressed that the growth outlook is “broadly stable, despite the trade conflict” and that ECB policy “has been smoothly transmitted to financing conditions, which are no longer restrictive.”

“We are aware of initial reports and are working to gather more information.”

A detailed statement from the company is awaited.

Gold steadied, after rising on escalating tensions in the Middle East, while President Donald Trump ratcheted up trade uncertainty with remarks that he intends to impose unilateral tariffs on dozens of US trading within two weeks.

Gold rose as much as 0.7% during Asian trading hours, after CBS reported that US officials have been informed of Israel’s readiness to launch an operation aimed at Iran, prompting the US to move some embassy staff out of Iraq and allowing military families to leave the region.

Bullion pared gains later Thursday morning as a gauge of the greenback gave up some losses.

Iran said it would build a new uranium-enrichment center in response to a decision by the United Nations atomic watchdog to censure the Islamic Republic over its nuclear program, deepening a crisis that’s also drawn in the US and Israel.

The new site will be at an unspecified secure location, and will be accompanied by the replacement of enrichment devices at an existing site, Fordow, with newer machines, the Atomic Energy Organization Of Iran said in a statement Thursday. Other measures would be announced later, it said, without elaborating.

The International Atomic Energy Agency’s board of governors approved a resolution in Vienna on Thursday that deemed Iran in non-compliance of its international obligations, setting up a potential referral to the UN Security Council for a renewal of sanctions.

Shares of Boeing Company Ltd. are down 7% in pre-market trading on Thursday after an Air India Boeing 787 Dreamliner, heading towards London from Ahmedabad, crashed minutes after take-off.

Follow this blog for all the live updates on the Ahmedabad plane crash.

The US ordered some staff to leave its embassy in Baghdad, officials said, after Iran threatened to strike American assets in the Middle East in the event it’s attacked over its nuclear program.

The decision to reduce staffing in Iraq was “based on our latest analysis,” according to the US State Department. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth authorized family members of US military stationed across the region to leave, according to a Pentagon statement.

Neither statement cited a specific threat. But they came after the New York Post published an interview with President Donald Trump in which he said he was less confident the US will reach a deal with Iran. The countries are negotiating an agreement that would curb the Islamic Republic’s nuclear activities in return for sanctions relief.

Iran warned it will retaliate following a decision by the United Nations atomic watchdog to censure the Islamic Republic over its nuclear program, deepening a crisis that’s also drawn in the US and Israel.

The International Atomic Energy Agency’s board of governors approved a resolution in Vienna on Thursday that deemed Iran in non-compliance of its international obligations, setting up a potential referral to the UN Security Council for a renewal of sanctions.

Iran will “consider appropriate responses, including initiating the process of withdrawing from the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons,” Iran’s ambassador to UN, Saeid Iravani, said ahead of the vote, according to the state-run IRNA news agency.

European stock markets have opened sharply lower, with the Stoxx 600 index falling 0.42% and almost all sectors in the red led by travel, down 1.5%.

The FTSE in UK initially dipped after closing at a record high on Wednesday, but was last fractionally above the flatline after figures showed the British economy contracted 0.3% in April as exports to the U.S. dropped by the most on record.

Futures on Wall Street are down even after US President Donald Trump announced that a deal with China is “done” and is only subject to approval from leaders of both countries.

However, Dow futures are currently down 250 points, S&P 500 futures are down 35 points, while the Nasdaq futures are down 150 points.NewsLive TVMarketPopular CategoriesCalculatorsTrending NowLet's Connect with CNBCTV 18Network 18 Group :©TV18 Broadcast Limited. All rights reserved.