Author: News Room

Even before President Trump’s tariffs threatened to upend Apple’s manufacturing business in China, the company’s struggle to make new products was leading some people inside its lavish Silicon Valley headquarters to wonder whether the company had somehow lost its magic.The tariffs, which were introduced April 2, caused Apple to lose $773 billion in market capitalization in four days and briefly lose its standing as the most valuable publicly traded company in the world. But investors had already started to sour on the company, sending its share price down 8 percent in the first four months of the year, double the…

Stocks on Wall Street ended a volatile week with a bounce on Friday, while government bond markets continued to signal investor worry about the impact of new import taxes, as China raised its tariffs on American-made products to 125 percent.The S&P 500 fell as much as 0.9 percent in morning trading before rallying through the afternoon to a gain of 1.8 percent, taking the week’s rise to 3.8 percent. Last week, the index recorded its worst tumble since the 2008 financial crisis.Markets around the world have veered sharply between large gains and losses amid the turmoil and confusion caused by…

Rick Levine, an award-winning television commercial director who brought a big-screen sensibility to the small screen with widely celebrated spots, like a Diet Pepsi Super Bowl ad from the 1980s featuring Michael J. Fox risking life and limb for love, died on March 11 at his home in Marina del Rey, Calif. He was 94.The death was confirmed by his daughter Abby LaRocca.Mr. Levine was a product of what is often called the golden age of advertising, rising in the business through the “Mad Men” era of the 1960s and founding his own company, Rick Levine Productions, in 1972. It…

Five more prominent law firms facing potential punitive action by President Trump reached deals on Friday with the White House to provide a total of $600 million in free legal services to causes supported by the president.Four of the firms — Kirkland & Ellis, Latham & Watkins, A&O Shearman and Simpson Thacher & Bartlett — each agreed to provide $125 million in pro bono or free legal work, according to Mr. Trump. A fifth firm, Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft, agreed to provide at least $100 million in pro bono work.With the latest round of deals, some of the biggest firms…

In a speech broadcast to the Food and Drug Administration’s Maryland campus on Friday morning, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. introduced himself as the nation’s health secretary with a meandering speech touching on everything from birds of prey to pollution in Lake Erie to the C.I.A.Mr. Kennedy told the agency staff members, in the throes of losing 20 percent of their work force under his overhaul of the Health and Human Services Department, to boldly avoid the impulse to protect the corporations they regulate.The layoffs, voluntary departures and cutbacks in funding have already decimated divisions that govern oversight of tobacco, the…

Federal Reserve officials have had one clear message since President Trump sharply escalated the global trade war this month. Keeping inflation expectations in check as price pressures rise is their No. 1 priority.On Friday, they faced a big setback.A new survey released by the University of Michigan found that as consumer sentiment took another nosedive because of fears associated with Mr. Trump’s tariffs, expectations about inflation — in the year ahead and over a longer time horizon — jumped sharply.Over the next 12 months, respondents now expect inflation to surge to 6.7 percent, the highest reading since 1981 and a…

Germany has long taken flack from Wall Street and financial capitals around Europe for the extreme fiscal conservatism that has kept the country’s debt levels low. But as global markets convulsed this week, investors rewarded Germany’s caution by snapping up its government bonds, which are known as bunds.Investors have reeled after President Trump imposed 10 percent tariffs on nearly every trading partner, temporarily rescinded even higher “reciprocal” tariffs hours after they came into effect and steadily ratcheted up tariffs on China to well above 100 percent.The resulting tumult hit U.S. assets hard, including Treasuries and the dollar, normally considered haven…

The bedrock of the financial system trembled on Friday, with government bond yields rising sharply as the chaotic rollout of tariffs shook investors’ faith in the pivotal role played by the United States in the financial system.U.S. government bonds, known as Treasuries because they are issued by the U.S. Treasury, are backed by the full faith of the American government, and the market for Treasuries has long been deemed one of the safest and most stable in the world.But the Treasury market’s erratic behavior all week has raised fears that investors are turning against U.S. assets as President Trump’s trade…

President Trump didn’t seem to mind as his worldwide tariffs set off stock market sell-offs and wiped out trillions of dollars in wealth.“Be cool,” he told Americans.Then he blinked on Wednesday afternoon in the face of financial turmoil, particularly a rapid rise in government bond yields that could shake the dominant position of the dollar and the foundation of the U.S. economy.By pausing some tariffs for dozens of countries for 90 days, he also gave away something to his main rival, Chinese leader Xi Jinping, with whom he’s engaged in a game of chicken that risks decoupling the world’s two…

Tesla’s sales in the United States fell almost 9 percent in the first three months of the year even as the overall market for electric vehicles grew, according to data compiled by a research firm.Car buyers are moving away from Teslas and toward models like General Motors’ Chevrolet Equinox electric vehicle, which starts at around $35,000 and can travel more than 300 miles on a charge, Cox Automotive, the research firm, said in a report.Sales of all electric vehicles in the United States rose 11 percent during the first quarter to about 300,000 cars and light trucks, Cox said, much…