Author: News Room

Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency is no longer claiming credit for killing dozens of federal contracts after The New York Times reported last week that they had already been reinstated.The Times had identified 44 revived contracts, and 43 of them were still featured on the group’s online “Wall of Receipts” as of last week. Then, late Sunday, Mr. Musk’s group deleted those claims for 31 of the contracts from its website, eliminating $122 million of the savings it claimed to have achieved by cutting federal contracts.Those savings had actually disappeared days or weeks before, when federal agencies reversed cancellations…

The stock market is now higher than before President Trump’s broad and steep tariffs sent share prices into a tailspin. The 10-year government bond yield is now largely in line with where it started the year. On Tuesday, a widely watched measure of inflation nudged lower.Judging from a snapshot of today’s financial markets, it would be easy to conclude that very little had happened over the last four and a half months.As the administration has dialed down its trade offensive, delaying the worst of the tariffs announced on April 2 and promoting a long list of trade deals in the…

A struggling technology company that has ties to China and relies on TikTok made an unusual announcement this week. It had secured funding to buy as much as $300 million of $TRUMP, the so-called memecoin marketed by President Trump.GD Culture Group, a publicly traded firm with a Chinese subsidiary, has only eight employees, its public filings show, and recorded zero revenue last year from an e-commerce business it operates on TikTok, the Chinese-owned video-sharing app.But on Monday, GD Culture Group became the latest foreign business to seize on Mr. Trump’s crypto venture, which channels profits directly to the Trump family…

When Gov. Wes Moore of Maryland signs his state’s budget into law as soon as Tuesday, it will signify the end of a difficult saga in which local leaders cut spending and raised some fees just to close a larger-than-expected $3 billion deficit.But Mr. Moore, a Democrat, is already bracing for the next fiscal fight. Maryland and its finances are highly influenced by the federal government, and the Trump administration is looking to cut vast swaths of the aid it sends to states.“We just made in Maryland the largest cuts to our budget in 16 years,” Mr. Moore said in…

The White House on Tuesday said that President Trump, while in Saudi Arabia, had secured $600 billion in deals with the Saudi government and firms. But the details the White House provided were vague and totaled less than half that number.And a closer look at the projects the administration provided shows several were already in the works before Mr. Trump took office.The announcement was made just before Mr. Trump spoke to a gathering of business leaders at the U.S.-Saudi Investment Forum in Riyadh, where he said the only country hotter than the United States was Saudi Arabia.“We are rocking,” he…

For 17 years, Airbnb has taken on the hotel industry, and now, two billion guests later, the company is upping the competition. In an announcement today, Brian Chesky, Airbnb’s chief executive, said the company will offer the kinds of services typically found at hotels, including room service, spa treatments and personal training, all bookable on Airbnb’s redesigned app. Other services could include meals prepared by professional chefs, and salon treatments like hair, nails and makeup.The company is also reimagining Airbnb Experiences, its service that offers tours and events hosted by experts, to emphasize authentic cultural, culinary, sports and wellness activities…

The temporary reduction in tariffs that the United States and China announced in Geneva on Monday will lift, at least for now, the de facto trade embargo that had been in place between the two countries for the past month. It will reduce the chances that American shoppers will face empty shelves during the holiday season and perhaps limit the price increases they will have to endure. It sent stock prices soaring around the world.But the deal does little to clear the cloud of uncertainty that has hung over the U.S. economy since President Trump took office in January.If anything,…

In March, after a steep decline in Tesla’s share price, Elon Musk told employees, “Hang on to your stock.”The chair of Tesla’s board, Robyn Denholm, has not heeded his advice. Ms. Denholm has made $198 million in the past six months selling Tesla stock that she earned for serving on the board, according to a New York Times analysis of securities filings.That brings her total profit on the sale of Tesla stock to more than $530 million since becoming the board’s leader in late 2018, far more than her peers have made at the most valuable U.S. companies during that…

Automakers are worried that President Trump’s tariffs on imported cars and auto parts will soon increase their costs and start eating into profits.But at least one business in the auto industry thinks the tariffs could give it a lift. That company is Carvana, an online retailer of used cars that has gained fame for storing vehicles in distinctive “vending machine” towers.The Trump tariffs, which include levies of 25 percent on vehicles made in Mexico, Canada, Germany and many other nations, are widely expected to raise the prices new cars and trucks, forcing more car shoppers to opt for a used…

U.S. inflation held steady in April in what economists warn could be a final lull before a likely surge in consumer prices because of President Trump’s trade war.The Consumer Price Index rose 2.3 percent from a year earlier, slightly below the previous month’s annual increase, data released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics showed on Tuesday. Over the course of the month, prices rose 0.2 percent, an acceleration compared to March’s 0.1 percent decline.A closely watched measure of underlying inflation, which strips out volatile food and energy items, climbed 2.8 percent compared with the same time last year, in line…