Author: News Room

Investors are adept at finding ways to navigate just about any government policy, good or bad. Tariffs, once set, can be modeled for how they will affect corporate profits, prices and, in turn, the broader economy. The mass firings of federal workers can be analyzed for how they might increase unemployment.The thing that investors really struggle to put a price on is uncertainty. And right now, there is a profound sense of uncertainty in the stock market.It has been brought on by the whipsawing policies and pronouncements of the Trump administration. To name just three: the on-again, off-again threats of…

Household-name companies, like Walmart and Meta, have scaled back diversity, equity and inclusion goals in recent months. These brands are part of a widespread retreat happening across corporate America, according to a New York Times analysis of annual financial filings. It has been as noticeable among tech giants as among drug makers, concert promoters and nearly every sector of the U.S. economy.So far this year the number of companies in the S&P 500 that used the language “diversity, equity and inclusion” in these filings has fallen by nearly 60 percent from 2024.The Companies That Mentioned ‘Diversity, Equity and Inclusion’ Each…

The results of a rare, closely watched auction in Japan that ended this week are about to be released. But there were no paintings or antique cars on the auction block.The government is selling 165,000 tons of rice — equivalent to roughly two billion bowls — from its emergency stockpile to make up for over 200,000 tons that some Japanese news media say have “disappeared.”But there’s more to the story.Japan doesn’t have enough rice, a pillar of its diet. A shortage forced supermarkets to implement buying limits, and soaring prices have driven restaurants to hike prices of everyday food. Things…

Niantic, the company behind the runaway hit Pokémon Go, said Wednesday that it has agreed to sell its video game business for $3.5 billion to Scopely, a company owned by the Saudi sovereign wealth fund.Pokémon Go, an augmented reality mobile game, became a cultural sensation when it was released in 2016. Tens of millions of people around the world headed to streets, parks, beaches and even to the middle of the ocean to capture monsters from the Japanese cartoon franchise.The deal is the latest acquisition by Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund in a multibillion-dollar push into the video game industry.…

The European Union is putting tariffs on a range of products from the United States in retaliation to President Trump’s steel and aluminum tariffs, and items that come from Republican-held states rank high on the hit list.The European Union plans to institute the tariffs in two phases: The first wave will take hold on April 1, and will impact goods that already had tariffs applied during Mr. Trump’s first term, such as bourbon, boats and motorcycles. For certain products like whiskey and Harley-Davidson motorcycles, those tariffs would be as much as a crushing 50 percent.The second wave is still being…

Jalen Brunson first experienced the fervor of the N.B.A.’s biggest international market in 2018 when, as a rookie, he traveled with the Dallas Mavericks to China for a pair of preseason games. The trip itself was brief, but the reception that Mr. Brunson and his teammates received left a lasting impression.“The fandom that basketball brought to that country, I thought it was really cool and interesting and something I wanted to be a part of,” Mr. Brunson said in a recent interview.Now a star for the New York Knicks, Mr. Brunson, 28, took a crucial step toward that goal before…

Tesla is getting crushed in China, its most important market outside the United States and one that it had dominated for years.When Liu Jie, 32, decided to buy an electric car in October, Tesla was one of her top choices. But after test-driving a few Chinese cars, she went with a sports sedan from Xiaomi, a consumer gadget maker better known for its smartphones, kettles and robot vacuums.“Xiaomi is more fashionable,” Ms. Liu said last week in Beijing. “Tesla, for me, it’s a little bit normal. You can see the Tesla Model Y everywhere.”It’s not personal, buyers said. Tesla is…

Trade war A new round of tariffs on aluminum and steel went into effect overnight. This time, no U.S. trading partner was spared.The new tariffs amped up the risk of a global trade war. The European Union on Wednesday vowed to roll out $28 billion in retaliatory levies next month on American products, including bourbon, jeans and agricultural products.“Jobs are at stake, prices up, nobody needs that,” said Ursula von der Leyen, president of the European Commission. Jonathan Reynolds, Britain’s trade secretary, said his country would “keep all options on the table.”European officials hope they can still strike a deal.…

Britain is parting company with the European Union by not retaliating to the tariffs that President Trump imposed on steel and aluminum imports on Wednesday, as Prime Minister Keir Starmer calculates that he can negotiate a trade deal with the United States that would spare his country in the long term.The approach contrasts sharply with that of the European Union, which hit back swiftly with retaliatory measures on American exports, including Harley-Davidson motorcycles, bourbon and jeans, and top European officials have warned about the uncertainty Mr. Trump’s policies are causing. By contrast, British officials have expressed only muted disappointment that…

Meta won a legal victory on Wednesday against a former employee who published an explosive, tell-all memoir, as an arbitrator temporarily prohibited the author from promoting or further distributing copies.Sarah Wynn-Williams last week released “Careless People: A Cautionary Tale of Power, Greed, and Lost Idealism,” a book that describes a series of incendiary allegations of sexual harassment and other inappropriate behavior by senior executives during her tenure at the company. Meta pursued arbitration, arguing that the book is prohibited under a nondisparagement contract she signed as a global affairs employee.During an emergency hearing on Wednesday, the arbitrator, Nicholas Gowen, found…