Author: News Room

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have reeled after President Trump imposed 10 percent tariffs on nearly every trading partner, temporarily rescinded even higher “reciprocal” tariffs hours after they came into effect and steadily ratcheted up tariffs on China to well above 100 percent.The resulting tumult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…

Markets shuddered on Friday as the trade war between the United States and China continued to escalate.On Wall Street, at the end of an extremely volatile week, the S&P 500 index opened with a small drop and then climbed about half a percent higher. The Stoxx Europe 600 index slipped about 0.2 percent. Earlier on Friday, the pan-European index had dropped more steeply after China raised its tariffs on U.S. imports to 125 percent.Markets around the world have veered sharply between large gains and losses amid the turmoil and confusion caused by President Trump’s pronouncements on tariffs. The U.S. dollar…

Add this to worries about the likely impact of tariffs: costlier car insurance.The new tariffs on imported cars, metals and parts announced by the Trump administration are expected to raise vehicle prices by thousands of dollars if they remain in place. And because parts used in auto repairs will also become more expensive, the average cost of automobile insurance is expected to increase.The average annual premium for a full-coverage auto policy was just over $2,300 at the end of last year, according to an analysis by Insurify, an insurance comparison shopping website. The site initially estimated that premiums would increase…

Wall Street’s biggest firms on Friday attempted the tricky two-step of revealing the toll of President Trump’s whiplash tariff policy without outright criticizing a man who has repeatedly lashed out at the financial world for slights both real and imagined.“The economy is facing considerable turbulence,” Jamie Dimon, JPMorgan Chase’s chief executive, said in a statement.The careful choreography came at the start of earnings season, a quarterly ritual in which publicly traded firms disclose their financial results and, in many cases, give projections. It’s not typically of interest for many besides professional investors, but it took on new importance and anticipation…