Author: News Room

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…

Vindication? In the span of 24 hours, the “buy America” trade is back on and the odds of a U.S. recession have dipped. And pressure on the Fed to cut interest rates has abated despite the uncertainty surrounding Tuesday’s Consumer Price Index report.That has made Jay Powell one of the biggest beneficiaries from Monday’s U.S.-China tariff truce. The Fed chief may feel vindicated for holding steady on borrowing costs even as Wall Street second-guessed him and President Trump called him a “fool” for refusing to cut.The markets have come around to the Fed’s thinking. Futures traders now see roughly two…

President Trump’s decision to negotiate a break for China on tariffs is galling for Japan, which is reeling from auto sector levies that the White House has shown no sign of willingness to lift.Japan, a top U.S. ally in Asia, was eager to advance trade negotiations with Washington, even as Mr. Trump imposed tariffs on automobiles, and threatened an across-the-board 24 percent tariff on Japanese goods.While Beijing and others assembled plans for retaliatory tariffs, Japan rushed to Washington for trade negotiations, armed instead with commitments to buy more American goods and boost investments in the United States to $1 trillion.Now…

The U.S. welcome mat is rolling up — at least that’s how some international travelers see it, according to the World Travel & Tourism Council, a global organization representing the travel and tourism industry. And the cost for that hospitality lapse will be high.The United States is on track to lose $12.5 billion in international travel spending this year, falling to less than $169 billion from $181 billion in 2024, according to the latest Economic Impact Research, published by the W.T.T.C. on Tuesday.That’s a 22.5 percent decline from the U.S. international spending peak of $217.4 billion in 2019 — and…

There’s a tale told about a miner who found copper cans in his garbage dump in the early days of mining. Wastewater from copper mining had flowed through his land, he said, and turned steel cans into copper.The story might be apocryphal, but the process is real, and it’s called cementation. Montana Resources, the mining company that took over from the Anaconda Copper Company, still uses this alchemical trick in a process at its Continental Pit mine in Butte, Mont.Next to the mine is the Berkeley Pit, which is filled with 50 billion gallons of a highly acidic, toxic brew.…

Two Chinas inhabit the American imagination: One is a technology and manufacturing superpower poised to lead the world. The other is an economy that’s on the verge of collapse.Each reflect a real aspect of China.One China — let’s call it hopeful China — is defined by companies like the A.I. start-up DeepSeek, the electric vehicle giant BYD and the tech powerhouse Huawei. All are innovation leaders.Jensen Huang, the chief executive of the Silicon Valley chip giant Nvidia, said China was “not behind” the United States in artificial intelligence development. Quite a few pundits have declared that China would dominate the…

President Trump has defended his decision to introduce tariffs on goods from other countries by arguing that it will lead companies to shift production to the United States, bringing back jobs.For German companies, which have been producing their goods in the United States since the late 1800s, such arguments ring hollow. Thousands of German companies already have factories in the United States, accounting for 12 percent of the country’s foreign investments.Automakers like BMW and Mercedes-Benz have long had plants in the United States. In 2023, the candy maker Haribo opened its first U.S. plant in Wisconsin, after decades of importing…

Fox Corp. revealed new details about its streaming service on Monday, including that it would debut this fall and would be called Fox One.The announcement came ahead of the company’s upfront, an annual pitch to entice advertisers with a slate of upcoming shows. Lachlan Murdoch, the company’s chief executive and son of the Fox Corp. founder, Rupert Murdoch, previewed the service on a quarterly earnings call. The name Fox One, he said, was a reference to the combined heft of the company’s TV shows, cable channels and broadcast network, including National Football League games.“Whether it’s the Super Bowl, the election…

Chandelier bidding. Quiet phone banks. Executives wiping their brows.One of the most anticipated auctions of the season proved to be anticlimactic on Monday evening at Christie’s in New York, where many objects were presold to guaranteed bids and there was little evidence of the enthusiastic buyers who defined the market’s peak in 2022. Experts said the sale was marred by the economic uncertainty surrounding President Trump’s tariffs and how they might hurt the global art market.Louise Riggio consigned nearly 40 works from the collection she built with her husband, the Barnes & Noble founder Leonard Riggio, who died last year.…

Several Hollywood industry and labor organizations wrote to President Trump on Monday asking for tax breaks that they said would help bring more film and television production back to the United States.Their letter was sent in response to Mr. Trump’s declaration on Truth Social this month that he would put a 100 percent tariff on films made outside the United States. It was signed by the Motion Picture Association, which represents the major Hollywood studios; the main writers’ and actors’ guilds; and the actors Jon Voight and Sylvester Stallone, two of Mr. Trump’s chosen Hollywood advisers.“Returning more production to the…