US President Donald Trump said the federal government needed a shutdown this autumn to fix what he called a “mess” in the wake of a Congressional deal that ignored key elements of his budget requests. Taking to Twitter to express his irritation over an agreement sealed on Sunday between the two parties that contained no funding for his border wall, Mr Trump complained that the Republicans had inadequate […]
This past Saturday marked 100 days since Donald Trump became president, and many news organizations marked the occasion with data-intensive packages that measured his progress and made it really easy for the public to understand what’s happened so far. Some highlights: The Guardian published an interactive making it really easy to analyze the first 100 days by putting the numbers in context. They also published daily briefings […]
May 2, 2017 by: Katrina Manson in New York President Donald Trump said on Monday that he would be “honoured” to meet North Korean leader Kim Jong Un under the right circumstances, despite historic levels of mistrust and tension between the world’s superpower and the rogue state over its nuclear ambitions. Mr Trump’s comments contrast with his hardline stance on Pyongyang and Friday’s call from Rex Tillerson, […]
US stock markets climbed higher on Monday, as bipartisan agreement over a US budget deal overpowered weak manufacturing data in the US and China, with European markets closed for the May bank holiday. The benchmark S&P 500 climbed 0.3 per cent by midday in New York on news of the budget deal, shrugging off an initial tumble when data from the Institute for Supply Management showed America’s […]
Hamas, the militant Islamist group, on Monday dropped a call for Israel’s destruction and endorsed the creation of a Palestinian state inside 1967 borders, in a rhetorical shift that analysts said reflected the group’s political ambitions and changing priorities in a new Middle East. A policy paper released in Doha by Khaled Meshaal, Hamas’s political leader, described the creation of an interim Palestinian state in the 1967 […]
US corporate boardrooms’ approval of share buyback plans has fallen to its lowest level since 2012, signalling that the stock market’s surge to further highs this year is curbing a key source of demand for equities. Companies on the S&P 500 index have authorised $146bn in share buybacks this year, down 15 per cent from a year ago, according to data from Goldman Sachs. Executives have also […]
The chairman of DP World on Monday said US president Donald Trump’s push for free trade agreements was not protectionism but a drive for fairer deals. Speaking at the Arab Media Forum, Sultan Ahmed bin Sulayem said he did not believe Mr Trump would hurt global trade. Mr Trump is seeking to renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement with Canada and Mexico, although the White House […]
Besides the upcoming FOMC meeting on May 2-3, and French & Italian politics – the decisive runoff round of the French election takes place this Sunday – this week’s releases are dominated by US payrolls expected to come around 170k. The busy release calendar continues with Norges bank and RBA meetings as well as global manufacturing PMIs. The market’s focus during the week of 5/1 will begin […]
President Donald Trump was a distracting entertainment from the moment he launched his campaign in June of 2015 — until he wasn’t. His opening speech, in which he called Mexican immigrants “rapists” and told the world he would be the best jobs president “God ever created,” was looked at as the ravings of a man whose outsized ego was too big to be anything but hilarious. News […]
Mexico is urging Donald Trump to reuse agreements reached under the aborted Trans-Pacific Partnership to create a manufacturing powerhouse between the US, Mexico and Canada to compete with low-cost producers in China. Ildefonso Guajardo, Mexico’s economy minister, said in an interview with the Financial Times that elements of TPP could be used to renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement between the three countries. His comments came […]
The Trump administration has opened the door to huge potential savings for hedge fund and private equity managers by proposing to slash tax rates for small businesses in a way that could be exploited by Wall Street financiers. Hedge fund and private equity managers are a subgroup that could emerge with some of the biggest gains from the President Donald Trump’s tax plan, which was scorned by […]
Authored by Paul Craig Roberts, Not everyone likes to hear about the threat of nuclear war. Some find refuge in denial and say that nuclear war is impossible because it makes no sense. Unfortunately, humankind has a long record of doing things that make no sense. In previous posts in recent years I have pointed out both written documents and changes in US war doctrine that indicate […]
April 30, 2017 by: Roger Blitz and Michael Mackenzie Here are the key questions facing investors as the first week of May begins. How much higher can the euro go?Emmanuel Macron had an uncomfortable encounter with workers in his hometown of Amiens as he tried to shore up his position as frontrunner in the presidential election run-off with the National Front’s Marine Le Pen. However, financial markets […]
By Lawrence Delevingne | BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. Titans of U.S. industry and Wall Street gather in Beverly Hills this week to discuss how to navigate – and profit from – hot topics such as U.S. tax reform, the upcoming French election and Chinese economic growth. U.S. President Donald Trump’s first 100 days and the next 1,000, as well as the outlook for liberal democracy […]
The pope said he did not know enough about French politics to respond, but, he said, “Europe is in danger of breaking apart, this is true.” He noted that the migrant crisis fueled fears that destabilized the Continent, “but we mustn’t forget that Europe is made by immigrants.” Continue reading the main story “Centuries and centuries of immigrants,” he said. “It’s us.” That inclusive message has proved […]
Airline stocks were grounded on Thursday after American Airlines unexpectedly offered to raise wages for its crew members, exacerbating investor concerns over industry costs. American Airlines fell the most in 10 months, dropping 8.6 per cent to a two-week low of $42.41, after the company proposed giving its pilots and flight attendants an average pay bump of 8 per cent and 5 per cent, respectively. The pay […]
President Donald Trump’s populist views, reality television stardom, and penchant for Twitter insults all but guaranteed an out-of-the-ordinary first 100 days for the billionaire political neophyte. A look at the data reveals how Mr Trump compares with previous Oval Office occupants. Bills signed into law Enacted legislation for last seven presidents in first 100 days Source: govtrack.us The White House touts that Mr Trump has accomplished more […]
Donald Trump plans to end or renegotiate any trade deal that does not increase US economic growth, reduce the US trade deficit or contribute to higher US wages, according to a leaked draft of an executive order obtained by the Financial Times. The draft of the order Mr Trump had been planning to sign on Saturday before his high-profile U-turn this week calls for US officials to […]
The press freedom situation in the United States is worsening not only because of President Trump’s anti-press rhetoric but because of a constellation of factors including arrests, detainment, lawsuits, physical violence and outright censorship, according to a new report. The report, released by the London-based Index on Censorship this week, chronicles the recent threats to journalist safety and freedom of expression and takes a holistic view of […]
When the Nasdaq Composite index first spent two days above the 5,000 mark, it signalled the last gasp of a spectacular bull market. Confidence in internet companies’ power to change the world and mint fortunes was about to collapse. Seventeen years later the market has hit a milestone of 6,000, part of a run of record highs for global equity markets. While stocks have again been rising […]
Nobody should ever attempt to judge an investment over a period of just 100 days. It is far too short a time to assess the quality of performance and far too prone to random effects. And in any case, most of us need results over very much more than 100 days. It is therefore a little random to be judging the Trump presidency’s impact on investors after […]
The Government Accountability Institute, a conservative investigative research group run by conservative writer Peter Schweizer, received roughly $1.7 million. Schweizer is the author of “Clinton Cash: The Untold Story of How and Why Foreign Governments and Businesses Helped Make Bill and Hillary Rich.” Bannon helped found the group, which the Washington Post reported paid Bannon $376,000 over four years for serving on its board, even as he ran […]
The US economy expanded at its weakest pace in three years during the opening months of the year, underlining the daunting task facing Donald Trump’s administration as it seeks to attain ambitious growth targets. Gross domestic product grew at a 0.7 per cent annual rate in the first three months of 2017, according to the Bureau of Economic Analysis, a sharp drop from 2.1 per cent at […]
Good morning. Here’s our morning roundup of all the media news you need to know. Want to get this briefing in your inbox every morning? Subscribe here. When Barack Obama was vacationing recently with Bruce Springsteen, Tom Hanks and Oprah Winfrey aboard a $300 million yacht in Tahiti, one wonders if he ever hummed Springsteen’s “All Or Nothin’ At All.” At the moment, it seems like he […]
