Category Archives: US economy

Justin Trudeau promises Trump that Canada will increase border surveillance

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Canadian PM dines with Trump, who vowed tariffs unless country stops migrants and drugs from entering US

Justin Trudeau promised Donald Trump that Canada would increase surveillance over the long undefended joint border, a senior Canadian official said on Sunday. The Canadian prime minister flew to Florida on Friday to have dinner with the US president-elect, who has promised to slap tariffs on Canadian imports unless Ottawa prevents undocumented people and drugs from crossing the frontier.

Canada sends 75% of all goods and services exports to the United States and tariffs would badly hurt the economy.

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Trump threat of 100% tariffs against Brics nations raises trade war fears

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President-elect threatens retaliation if emerging economies create new currency to rival US dollar

Fears of a global trade war have risen after Donald Trump threatened to impose 100% tariffs on countries in the Brics group if they create a new currency to rival the US dollar.

Writing on his social media platform, Truth Social, on Saturday, Trump declared that he would also act if they supported another currency to replace the dollar.

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Mexican president claims ‘no potential tariff war’ with US after call with Trump

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Sheinbaum says she had cooperative talks with president-elect who threatened 25% tariff against Mexico on Tuesday

Claudia Sheinbaum has said her “very kind” phone conversation with Donald Trump, in which they discussed immigration and fentanyl, means “there will not be a potential tariff war” between the US and Mexico.

The president of Mexico spoke to reporters on Thursday following Trump’s threat earlier in the week to apply a 25% tariff against Mexico and Canada, and an additional 10% tariff against China, when he takes office in January if the countries did not stop all illegal immigration and fentanyl smuggling into the US.

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Trump’s tariff threat sets stage for bitter global trade war

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Trade experts hail ‘new era of protectionism’ with targeted countries retaliating with their own tariffs

Donald Trump’s threat to impose steep tariffs on goods imported into the US has set the stage for a bitter global trade war, according to trade experts and economists, with consumers and companies warned to brace for steep costs.

The president-elect announced on Monday night that he intends to hit Canada, Mexico and China with tariffs on all their exports to the US – until they reduce migration and the flow of drugs into the country.

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Ireland prices corporation tax loss from Trump policies at €10bn

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Figure costed for three multinationals repatriating to US after nomination for commerce secretary hits out at Ireland’s tax regime

Ireland’s prime minister has said the country could lose €10bn (£8.35bn) in corporate tax if just three US multinationals were repatriated to America under a hostile Donald Trump administration.

His remarks come just days after Trump nominated the Wall Street investor Howard Lutnick to lead the Department of Commerce with direct responsibility for trade.

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Fed chair says he will not resign even if pressured by Trump as interest rate cut

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Trump has been a persistent critic of the Fed, which lowered rates for the second time in a row as inflation continues to ease

US Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell said he would not resign if he received any pressure from Donald Trump’s new administration to step down as the central bank lowered interest rates by a quarter-point Tuesday afternoon.

Trump has been a persistent critic of the Fed and its independence, calling its officials “boneheads” in his last administration and arguing that he should have a role in setting interest rates.

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Inflation pain helped secure Trump win but his policies mean higher prices

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Markets expect his policy package to harm trade and growth but reduce business taxes

Higher share prices. A stronger dollar. A less rapid pace of interest rate cuts. The financial market reaction to Donald Trump’s return to the White House was swift and predictable.

The man who will become his country’s 47th president has made no secret of what he plans to do: cut taxes, impose heavy tariffs on imported goods, place curbs on migration, and slash red tape.

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Harris edges out Trump on key economic questions, new poll shows

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Poll shows more voters support US vice-president’s tax and housing policies compared with the Republican nominee

Donald Trump has lost his advantage over Kamala Harris on who is best qualified to manage the economy, new polls suggest.

With millions of voters already casting early ballots for the presidency ahead of election day on 5 November, a fresh Associated Press/NORC poll says Harris, the Democratic nominee, has taken a slight lead when it comes to some key economic questions that concern middle-class voters.

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Biden’s economic legacy could decide the presidential race in Scranton

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The politically split Pennsylvania town shows why the race is so close – and it’s unclear whether the president’s legacy will be enough to carry Harris over the line

From the north, motorists pull into Scranton via the Joseph R Biden Jr Expressway. Cutting through the scenic Pocono Mountains, now at the start of autumn color season, they are greeted with a towering, electric billboard, blaring an encapsulating – if divisive – message to this working-class town: “Democrats for Trump,” it reads. “Economy,” it continues, with a green checked box next to the word.

The sign in Biden’s hometown is the perfect fall 2024 welcome mat in this crucial swing state filled with voters whose economic anxiety or satisfaction will decide next month’s election.

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Kamala Harris’s economic policy slate more popular than Trump’s – poll

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Exclusive: Harris Poll for Guardian finds Democrat put forward four of top five most popular economic proposals

Kamala Harris’s economic policies proved far more popular than Donald Trump’s plans in a blind test of their proposals.

Four of the top five most popular proposals were from the Democratic candidate’s campaign, according to a new Harris Poll conducted exclusively for the Guardian.

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Stock markets hit record highs after news of a fall in US inflation

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S&P 500 index of major US companies registers near 100% gain on year ago amid expectation of interest rate cuts

A fall in US inflation expected to pave the way for further cuts in interest rates pushed stock markets to record highs on Friday.

Ending a week of gains that began when the Chinese authorities approved a huge economic stimulus package, the S&P 500 index of major US companies soared above 5,750 to register a near 100% gain on a year ago.

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Harris says cost of living ‘still too high’ as she lays out economic agenda

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Democratic presidential nominee fleshed out economic vision for middle class and small businesses

Millions of Americans are struggling to make ends meet, Kamala Harris has said, as the Democratic presidential candidate fleshed out the economic agenda she hopes to adopt in the White House.

Conceding that the cost of living in America “is still just too high”, the vice-president argued this was true “long before” the Covid-19 pandemic ravaged the global economy, and she took office with the president, Joe Biden.

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Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway hits $1tn valuation on Wall Street

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Vast conglomerate becomes the first non-tech company to hit the major stock market milestone

The market value of Berkshire Hathaway surpassed $1tn on Wednesday, reflecting investor confidence in the conglomerate that Warren Buffett built over nearly six decades into what many consider a proxy for the American economy.

Berkshire joined six other companies, mainly from the technology sector, above $1trn: Apple, Nvidia , Microsoft, Google parent Alphabet, Amazon.com and Facebook parent Meta Platforms.

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Federal Reserve ‘poised to begin cutting rates as early as September’

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Bank officials signal readiness to start interest rate-cutting cycle to ease pressure on households and businesses

Kamala Harris’s hopes of victory in the looming US presidential election have been given a boost by mounting expectations that the US Federal Reserve will cut interest rates from as early as September.

As Democrats gather for the party’s national convention in Chicago starting on Monday, economists on Wall Street said the world’s most powerful central bank was poised to begin a cycle of interest rate cuts before the end of the year.

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Shares in New York and London tumble on fears of US recession

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FTSE 100 on track for its lowest close since April and Japan’s Nikkei suffers biggest fall since crash of 1987

Shares on Wall Street and in London have fallen heavily amid a global stock market rout triggered by fears of a recession in the US.

The tech-focused Nasdaq index dropped by 6% as trading in New York opened on Monday, while the broader S&P 500 index fell by 4.2% in a sell-off triggered by weak US jobs data. The Dow Jones industrial average lost more than 1,100 points, a 2.8% decline.

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Weak US jobs growth for July sparks Wall Street sell-off

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US economy added 114,000 jobs in July in significant dip from June while unemployment increased to highest level since October 2021

The US labor market cooled significantly last month as unemployment unexpectedly rose, sparking fears of a slowdown across the world’s largest economy.

American employers added 114,000 jobs in July – short of the 180,000 additions expected by economists, and a marked decrease from the 179,000 added in June.

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Fear of US recession rattles global markets as tech shares fall

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Europe’s main indices all decline and Japanese equities suffer worst day since 2020 while gold hits fresh record

Stock markets in Europe, Asia and New York tumbled on Friday as fears of a US economic slump grew and technology shares were hit by underwhelming earnings.

Concerns that the US could be sliding towards a recession spurred a global sell-off, which accelerated after a poor employment report on Friday showed that the US jobs market was cooling fast, pushing up the unemployment rate.

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US inflation eases slightly as economic anxiety looms over presidential election

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Consumer price index rose 3.3% in May, as Federal Reserve is due to announce latest decision on interest rates

Inflation cooled slightly in the US last month, as consumers’ frustration over high prices continues to loom over November’s presidential election.

The consumer price index rose at annual pace of 3.3% in May, slipping back from the previous month’s reading of 3.4%.

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US adds 272,000 jobs as labor market holds unexpectedly strong amid high interest rates

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Figures show unexpected resiliency of job market as officials try to tamp down 3.4% inflation

The US economy added 272,000 jobs in May, a sign the labor market continued strong amid high interest rates, the Bureau of Labor Statistics announced on Friday.

The number of May jobs was far higher than the 190,000 economists had expected and topped April’s gains, when a revised 165,000 jobs were added to the economy. The unemployment rate rose to 4% for the first time since January 2022, up from 3.9% in April.

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Federal Reserve concerned over ‘lack of further progress’ in bid to tame inflation

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While price growth has fallen sharply, with April’s 3.4% lower than March’s 3.5%, it is still higher than Fed’s medium-term goal of 2%

Policymakers at the Federal Reserve have expressed concern over stalling progress in their fight to bring down inflation.

Although price growth has fallen sharply since peaking at its highest levels in a generation two years ago, it has remained stubbornly above where officials want it to be.

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