2025-05-30 23:42

May 30 (Reuters) - San Francisco Federal Reserve Bank President Mary Daly said on Friday cooling inflation offers "relief" for Americans suffering from high prices, but that there are risks of higher inflation ahead. "The inflation number that printed today, that's good relief for American consumers," Daly said on Fox Business' "Maria Bartiromo's Wall Street," referring to the 2.1% rise in the personal consumption expenditure price index increase last month, the slowest annual increase in four years. Sign up here. But the data is an "incomplete picture of what we have to look at as policymakers; we have to look forward, and there are risks," she said. She repeated her view that monetary policy is in a good place, and that she's comfortable with two interest-rate cuts this year should the economy stay fundamentally strong and inflation continue to move down. "We can actually move one way or another as the data unfolds, but you want to keep the policy rate modestly restrictive for now until we are sure that inflation is going to get to that 2%," she said. https://www.reuters.com/business/feds-daly-april-pce-inflation-is-relief-incomplete-fox-business-2025-05-30/

2025-05-30 23:10

Tariff increase announced at Pennsylvania steel plant Shares of steelmaker Cleveland-Cliffs surge Tariffs take effect on June 4 Canadian Chamber of Commerce denounces tariff hike WEST MIFFLIN, Pennsylvania, May 30 (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump said on Friday he planned to increase tariffs on imported steel and aluminum to 50% from 25%, ratcheting up pressure on global steel producers and deepening his trade war. "We are going to be imposing a 25% increase. We're going to bring it from 25% to 50% - the tariffs on steel into the United States of America, which will even further secure the steel industry in the United States," he said at a rally in Pennsylvania. Sign up here. The doubling of steel and aluminum levies intensifies Trump's global trade war and came just hours after he accused China of violating an agreement with the U.S. to mutually roll back tariffs and trade restrictions for critical minerals. Trump announced the higher tariffs just outside Pittsburgh, where he was talking up an agreement between Nippon Steel (5401.T) , opens new tab and U.S. Steel (X.N) , opens new tab. Trump said the $14.9 billion deal, like the tariff increase, will help keep jobs for steel workers in the U.S. He later posted on social media that the increased tariff would also apply to aluminum products and that it would take effect on Wednesday. Shares of steelmaker Cleveland-Cliffs Inc (CLF.N) , opens new tab surged 26% after the market close as investors bet the new levies will help its profits. The announcement drew harsh reactions from U.S. trading partners around the world. Canada's Chamber of Commerce quickly denounced the tariff hike as "antithetical to North American economic security." "Unwinding the efficient, competitive and reliable cross-border supply chains like we have in steel and aluminum comes at a great cost to both countries," Candace Laing, president of the chamber, said in a statement. Canada's United Steelworkers union called the move a direct attack on Canadian industries and workers. The European Commission said on Saturday that Europe is prepared to retaliate. "This decision adds further uncertainty to the global economy and increases costs for consumers and businesses on both sides of the Atlantic," a European Commission spokesperson said. "The EU is prepared to impose countermeasures, including in response to the latest U.S. tariff increase." Australia's centre-left government also condemned the tariff increase, with Trade Minister Don Farrell calling it "unjustified and not the act of a friend." Trump spoke at U.S. Steel's Mon Valley Works, a steel plant that symbolizes both the one-time strength and the decline of U.S. manufacturing power as the Rust Belt's steel plants and factories lost business to international rivals. Closely contested Pennsylvania is also a major prize in presidential elections. The U.S. is the world's largest steel importer, excluding the European Union, with a total of 26.2 million tons of imported steel in 2024, according to the Department of Commerce. As a result, the new tariffs will likely increase steel prices across the board, hitting industry and consumers alike. Steel and aluminum tariffs were among the earliest put into effect by Trump when he returned to office in January. The tariffs of 25% on most steel and aluminum imported to the U.S. went into effect in March, and he had briefly threatened a 50% levy on Canadian steel but ultimately backed off. Under the so-called Section 232 national security authority, the import taxes include both raw metals and derivative products as diverse as stainless steel sinks, gas ranges, air conditioner evaporator coils, horseshoes, aluminum frying pans and steel door hinges. The 2024 import value for the 289 product categories came to $147.3 billion with nearly two-thirds aluminum and one-third steel, according to Census Bureau data retrieved through the U.S. International Trade Commission's Data Web system. By contrast, Trump's first two rounds of punitive tariffs on Chinese industrial goods in 2018 during his first term totaled $50 billion in annual import value. https://www.reuters.com/business/trump-says-he-plans-double-steel-tariffs-50-2025-05-30/

2025-05-30 22:24

Trump comments on China keep market trading choppy Ulta Beauty gains after raising annual profit forecast Dow up 0.1%, S&P 500 dwn 0.01%; Nasdaq down 0.3% NEW YORK May 30 (Reuters) - The S&P 500 ended a volatile session little changed on Friday as U.S. President Donald Trump slammed China before sounding upbeat about reaching a trade deal, but the benchmark index tallied its biggest monthly increase since November 2023. The Nasdaq also registered its biggest monthly percentage gain since November 2023. Sign up here. May was a choppy month for stocks as Trump's erratic trade policies kept investors on edge, but his softening tariff stance, along with upbeat earnings and tame inflation data, helped the S&P 500 rebound from its April lows. On Friday, all three major stock indexes opened lower after Trump accused China on his Truth Social platform of breaching a trade agreement with the U.S. and issued a new veiled threat to get tougher with Beijing. But the market pared losses as Trump said on Friday afternoon he will speak to China's President Xi Jinping and hopefully work out their differences on trade and tariffs. Strategists said the constant stream of tariff news is unnerving. Investors "don't know how to react to tariff" news at this point, said Jake Dollarhide, CEO of Longbow Asset Management in Tulsa, Oklahoma. "The news cycle is maddening." The Dow Jones Industrial Average (.DJI) , opens new tab rose 54.34 points, or 0.13%, to 42,270.07. The S&P 500 (.SPX) , opens new tab lost 0.48 points, or 0.01%, at 5,911.69 and the Nasdaq Composite (.IXIC) , opens new tab fell 62.11 points, or 0.32%, to 19,113.77. The S&P 500 also finished Friday with a weekly gain that lifted it less than 4% from its February all-time high. The benchmark index rose about 6.2% in May, while the Nasdaq surged 9.6% for the month. "February, March and April was one of the worst three-month periods since COVID, so we needed some gains," Dollarhide said. While the effective U.S. tariff on imports was 2% to 3% before Trump took office, it stands at about 15%, according to Oxford Research estimates. This would have been lowered to about 6% by a trade court ruling, but an appeals court's emergency stay has kept the higher rate in place for now. Investors on Friday also digested data showing U.S. consumer spending increased 2.1% year-on-year in April after advancing 2.3% in March. The Federal Reserve tracks the PCE price measures for its 2% inflation target. Traders maintained bets that the U.S. central bank would cut its target for short-term borrowing costs in September. On the earnings front, shares of Ulta Beauty (ULTA.O) , opens new tab jumped 11.8% after the cosmetics retailer raised its annual profit forecast after beating quarterly results. Declining issues outnumbered advancers by a 1.14-to-1 ratio on the NYSE. There were 94 new highs and 62 new lows on the NYSE. On the Nasdaq, 1,849 stocks rose and 2,651 fell as declining issues outnumbered advancers by a 1.43-to-1 ratio. Volume on U.S. exchanges was 19.34 billion shares, compared with the roughly 18 billion average for the full session over the last 20 trading days. https://www.reuters.com/business/wall-street-futures-down-trumps-tariffs-stay-put-after-latest-court-ruling-2025-05-30/

2025-05-30 22:03

Acronyms reflect volatility and uncertainty in Trump-era markets Investment strategies capitalize on Trump's policies and international goals Acronyms like TACO and MEGA highlight market reactions to Trump's actions NEW YORK, May 30 (Reuters) - Four months into President Donald Trump's second term, market observers have taken a cue from his fondness for condensing slogans into catchy acronyms like MAGA, DOGE and MAHA, and devised a few of their own that have been spreading across trading desks. Even those acronyms that do not directly reflect a specific trading strategy, still capture factors that traders say are important in Trump-era markets, such as volatility and uncertainty, that investors need to consider when making decisions. Sign up here. Some of the new labels are associated with investment strategies that aimed to capitalized on Trump's economic and trade polices, and international relations goals. Others riff off economic implications or his abrupt U-turns as markets and trade partners react to his proposals. The "Trump Trade" that played on the Make America Great Again theme in the wake of his November election victory and January inauguration, and contributed to record highs on Wall Street in February, is hardly discussed now that stocks, the dollar and Treasury bonds have succumbed to worries about his tariff polices. "Post the election, we heard a lot about YOLO (You Only Live Once), which seemed to promote taking outsize risks in a concentrated investment theme," Art Hogan, strategist at B. Riley Wealth, said. YOLO, is an acronym used to describe the tendency that was part of that Trump trade to chase high momentum strategies such as cryptocurrency. "While the term YOLO was popular for a period of time, it goes against all traditional advice," Hogan said. Here are of few more acronyms that have gotten play in the investment world in recent weeks: ** TACO (Trump Always Chickens Out) - This one coined by a Financial Times columnist, has been used as a way to describe Trump's to-ing and fro-ing on tariffs in the wake of his April 2 "Liberation Day" speech. When asked about TACO in a recent press conference, the president lashed out, calling the question "nasty" "Where we end up might not be too far from what he promised on the campaign trail. So, does he always chicken out? I wouldn't go as far as to say that," said Christian DiClementi, fixed income portfolio manager at AllianceBernstein. "I think that he wants to rebalance the economy without pushing it off a cliff. And we're watching that being executed in real time. I think some of the ideas are thought out and some of them change on the fly." ** MEGA (Make Europe Great Again) - Mega first coined last year to address European competitiveness, resurfaced this Spring as a way to describe the flurry of investor interest in and flows into European markets. MEGA hats, spoofing their MAGA counterparts, are easily purchased online It's been revived by investors and traders in light of the outperformance European stocks in the immediate aftermath of Trump's "Liberation Day" tariffs bombshell. ** MAGA (Make America Go Away) - While the original Trump Trade was also known as the MAGA trade, this variation cribbed the president's motto, first appearing in response to Vice President JD Vance's brief and unfruitful visit to Greenland, the autonomous territory of Denmark, which Trump has expressed interest in annexing. At least one Canadian investor says that quip is making the rounds of trading desks in Toronto and Montreal and sparking "wishful thinking" about simply boycotting U.S. investments. ** FAFO (Fuck Around and Find Out) - Although the acronym also came into being well before Trump's inauguration, it is being heard with increasing frequency in trading desk conversations. It is used to capture the financial market's volatility and chaos that Trump's policymaking process has created. Mark Spindel, chief investment officer of Potomac River Capital LLC, described the market as being caught in a "pinball machine as a result of that policymaking process." When reached for comment, White House spokesman Kush Desai said in an email "these asinine acronyms convey how unserious analysts have consistently beclowned themselves by mocking President Trump and his agenda that've already delivered multiple expectation-beating jobs and inflation reports, trillions in investment commitments, a historic UK trade agreement, and rising consumer confidence." https://www.reuters.com/world/us/taco-fafo-investors-love-parodies-trump-acronyms-2025-05-30/

2025-05-30 21:43

SAO PAULO, May 30 (Reuters) - Wind farm developer Casa dos Ventos has regulatory approval to move ahead with a 300-megawatt project in northeast Brazil where the company has been discussing a major data center investment with the owner of TikTok. Brazil's national power grid operator gave the green light to connect the project at the Pecem port complex in Ceara, Casa dos Ventos told Reuters on Friday. The total investment in infrastructure and equipment for the data centers is expected to reach 50 billion reais ($8.7 billion), the company added. Sign up here. The regulatory approval should speed up talks with major technology companies, including ByteDance, the Chinese parent company of TikTok, a person familiar with the negotiations told Reuters. Reuters first reported last month that the Chinese company was eyeing a major Brazilian data center investment with Casa dos Ventos, which partnered in 2022 with TotalEnergies (TTEF.PA) , opens new tab on its wind power portfolio. A technical reassessment by the national power grid operator and Brazil's Ministry of Mines and Energy cleared the way to authorize the project after an initial rejection threatened to make it unviable. Casa dos Ventos said it now plans to start construction in the second half of this year and begin operations in the second semester of 2027. To address concerns about water use that have confronted data center projects in some regions, the company said its project will use closed loop cooling systems, significantly reducing water demand. Casa dos Ventos estimates the water usage for the first phase of the project will be equivalent to about 0.045% of the residential demand in the city of Caucaia, which neighbors the port complex. ($1 = 5.7180 reais) https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/brazil-power-co-gets-ok-data-center-project-with-tiktok-interest-2025-05-30/

2025-05-30 21:29

SAO PAULO, May 30 (Reuters) - Moody's Ratings on Friday changed its outlook on Brazil to stable from positive while affirming its Ba1 ratings, citing "slower-than-expected progress in addressing spending rigidity and building credibility around fiscal policy." In its report, Moody's, which had upgraded Brazil in October to the Ba1 sovereign rating - one step from investment grade - also attributed the outlook revision to "a pronounced deterioration in debt affordability." Sign up here. Moody's said that the challenges offset upside investment and GDP growth potential, as well as economic reforms that "are broadly supportive of Brazil's credit quality." In a statement after the revision, the Brazilian Finance Ministry reaffirmed its commitment to improving fiscal results and continuing the process of structural reforms. The rating from Moody's is Brazil's highest from the top three credit agencies, with S&P and Fitch considering the nation two notches away from investment grade. https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/moodys-changes-brazils-outlook-stable-positive-affirms-ba1-ratings-2025-05-30/