Author: News Room

When Jerome H. Powell, chair of the Federal Reserve, last testified in front of Congress in July, he hailed the “considerable progress” the central bank had made in taming rapid inflation and set the stage for a pivot toward lower interest rates.Mr. Powell confronts a far different economic and political landscape as he prepares to face lawmakers again on Tuesday and Wednesday. The Fed has paused its rate-cutting plans with inflation still above its target, and questions are swirling about how it will navigate the economic and institutional ramifications of tariffs and other policies that President Trump has put at…

The largest refinery in the Midwest will have an unpalatable choice if President Trump imposes tariffs on Canadian oil: Pay more for the crude that it transforms into gasoline and diesel, or slash production.Both options threaten to increase prices at the pump, albeit modestly if Mr. Trump sticks with the 10 percent rate he announced this month.It is not clear whether the tariff will take effect after Mr. Trump decided to hold it in abeyance until at least early March.Yet this refinery, built around 1889 on the south shore of Lake Michigan, near Chicago, is a reminder of just how…

America has seen this movie before: President Trump, who imposed stiff tariffs on Monday on imported steel and aluminum, did so once before, in 2018. So domestic industries have a pretty good idea of how the story ends.Manufacturers of trucks, appliances and construction equipment scramble to find U.S. sources of metal inputs, keeping steel and aluminum producers busier than they were before. Companies that need specific alloys that aren’t made domestically are forced to pay more. Prices rise, making end products more expensive.But there may be plot twists along the way. Will Mr. Trump cut deals with some countries, allowing…

The new king of the Chinese box office is an adorably ugly, demonic child fighting off monsters.In less than two weeks since its release, “Ne Zha 2,” an animated film based loosely on Chinese mythology and a famous 16th century novel, has become the highest-grossing movie ever in China, with more than $1 billion in ticket sales. It is also the first film not made by a Hollywood studio to cross that mark.The blockbuster delivered a rare dose of good news for the Chinese film industry, which is struggling with anemic ticket sales and a slumping economy. The few films…

Barely two days after Russell Vought, the new acting director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, ordered the agency to close its office and halt all its work, employees spent Monday in a state of deep confusion about what they should — or should not — be doing.Mr. Vought, the recently confirmed director of the Office of Management and Budget whom President Trump installed late Friday night as the consumer bureau’s temporary leader, sent an all-staff email on Monday reiterating the instructions he issued over the weekend: Stop everything.“Stand down from performing any work task,” Mr. Vought wrote. “Employees should…

President Trump on Sunday said that he would impose a 25 percent tariff on all foreign steel and aluminum imports into the United States as of Monday and would soon announce reciprocal tariffs on America’s trading partners.Speaking from Air Force One en route to the Super Bowl, the president said his metal tariffs would apply to “everybody,” including Canada and Mexico, America’s allies and its largest trading partners.“Any steel coming into the United States is going to have a 25 percent tariff,” Mr. Trump said. “Aluminum, too.”Mr. Trump’s decision to tax foreign metals and impose reciprocal tariffs comes in the…

The Weekend has scored his fifth No. 1 album with “Hurry Up Tomorrow,” posting the biggest overall numbers on the Billboard chart since Taylor Swift nearly a year ago.The release of “Hurry Up Tomorrow,” which the poppy-yet-creepy Canadian star announced at a livestreamed concert in São Paulo in September, was delayed by a week to Jan. 31 because of the Los Angeles wildfires. But then it got a prominent boost when the Weeknd performed a two-song medley on the Grammy Awards broadcast last week, revealing that he had quashed his four-year boycott over the show’s voting process.“Hurry Up Tomorrow,” the…

Two weeks ago, Netflix’s chief content officer, Bela Bajaria, strutted across the stage of the Egyptian Theater in Los Angeles and crowed about the company’s 13 Oscar nominations for its Spanish-language musical, “Emilia Pérez.”“We just received more Oscar nominations than any other studio,” she boasted.Finally the most coveted prize, the Academy Award for best picture, which had eluded the streaming giant, seemed within its grasp.How fleeting that moment would prove to be.Just three days later, Netflix was releasing an apology on behalf of the film’s lead actress, Karla Sofía Gascón — the first openly trans actor to be nominated for…

President Trump is poised to move forward with sweeping tariffs on foreign steel and aluminum on Monday, re-upping a policy from his first term that pleased domestic metal makers, but hurt other American industries and ignited trade wars with allies on multiple fronts.The 25 percent tariffs that the president said he would impose on foreign steel and aluminum will be welcomed by domestic steelmakers, who argue they are struggling to compete against cheap foreign metals. As they did during Mr. Trump’s first term, U.S. metal makers have been lobbying the administration for protection, and Trump officials agree that a strong…

President Trump’s promise to impose 25 percent tariffs on Monday on all U.S. imports of steel and aluminum would primarily target American allies, but at their heart they strike at his longtime nemesis: China.The top five suppliers of steel to the American market in January were Canada, followed by Brazil, Mexico, South Korea and Germany. Canada has also led in aluminum exports to the United States, while the United Arab Emirates, Russia and China are far behind.China does not export a lot of steel or aluminum directly to the United States. A succession of presidents and Commerce Department rulings have…