Bloomberg 7/29/25
China and the United States have agreed to extend their tariff truce, Vice Minister of Commerce Li Chenggang tells reporters in Stockholm.

Bloomberg 7/23/25
The US-Japan deal “could be” a model for the EU, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick tells Bloomberg TV.
Large countries would have hard time getting a tariff lower than the 15% that Japan got, Lutnick also says
Earlier: Bessent Hails Financing Pitch in Japan Deal as EU Talks Loom

Bloomberg 7/23/25
The European Union and the US are progressing toward an agreement that would set a 15% tariff for most products, according to diplomats briefed on the negotiations.
Member states could be ready to accept a 15% tariff and EU officials are pushing to have that cover sectors including cars, the diplomats said. Steel and aluminum imports above a certain quota would face the 50% duty, one of the diplomats added.

Wall Street Journal 8/20/25
President Trump has told aides he is considering attempting to fire a Biden-appointed Federal Reserve governor after one of his housing officials accused her of mortgage fraud, according to a senior White House official and another person familiar with the matter.

Bill Pulte, the head of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, alleged on social media Wednesday morning that Fed governor Lisa Cook submitted what he called fraudulent information on a pair of mortgage applications.

Trump wrote in a social media post in response to Pulte's claims that "Cook must resign, now!!!" Behind the scenes, Trump is considering going further. If she doesn't resign, Trump is discussing trying to fire her for cause, the White House official and person familiar with the matter said.

Bloomberg 7/23/25
Bank of Japan Deputy Governor Shinichi
Uchida indicated that the trade deal between Tokyo and
Washington will nudge the central bank closer to a rate hike by
boosting the prospects for suitable economic conditions.
“Uncertainty has receded, and this of course means that the
likelihood has risen” for economic forecasts to be met, Uchida
said Wednesday at a press conference in Kochi, southwestern
Japan. “But, uncertainty remains,” as other nations are still
engaged in trade negotiations, and the actual impacts from
tariffs remain to be monitored.
Uchida spoke hours after US President Donald Trump
announced a trade deal with Japan that featured lower tariff
rates than those that had previously been imposed or flagged as
coming. Stocks and bond yields soared.
“This agreement is a big major breakthrough,” Uchida said.
“Uncertainty stemming from tariffs will be lowered for Japan’s
economy.” The bank has for months indicated that lack of clarity
on the trade front represented a major hurdle for considering a
rate hike.
By referencing lingering uncertainty for the economy,
Uchida suggested there’s little immediate need to hike. Still,
his comments are likely to bolster views among BOJ watchers that
another rate hike is coming by year-end.
Traders were quick to factor in another rate hike by the
end of this year in the wake of the trade news, with overnight
index swaps indicating more than an 80% chance of a move.

South China Morning Post 7/21/25
This Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in South Korea is probably the best ­opportunity for Xi Jinping and Donald Trump to meet in person this year, multiple sources have said.
They said Trump might visit China before going to the Apec summit between October 30 and November 1, or he could meet his Chinese counterpart on the ­sidelines of the Apec event.

Bloomberg 7/30/25
The Bank of Canada left interest rates unchanged, citing uncertainty posed by US tariffs, but kept the door open to more cuts if the economy weakens and inflation pressures stay in check.
Policymakers led by Governor Tiff Macklem held the benchmark rate at 2.75% on Wednesday. The pause was expected by markets and economists in a Bloomberg survey, and marks the third consecutive meeting that officials have left borrowing costs unchanged.
The bank’s assessment of the economy struck a more dovish tone. Macklem’s opening statement suggests officials aren’t convinced that the recent run-up in core inflation pressures will persist — even though they’re not sure yet how higher tariffs will filter through to consumer prices.
Bonds rallied, pushing the two-year Canada yield to 2.754% as of 10:35 a.m. in Ottawa, down about 4 basis points from its level before the rate decision was released. The Canadian dollar initially dropped, then bounced back.

Bloomberg 6/26/25
A flurry of Federal Reserve officials this week made clear they’ll need a few more months to gain confidence that tariff-driven price hikes won’t raise inflation in a persistent way.
Fed Governors Christopher Waller and Michelle Bowman captured attention in the past week when they signaled they’d be open to lowering rates as soon as the Fed’s July 29-30 meeting if inflation remains contained.
Since then, however, nearly a dozen policymakers — including Chair Jerome Powell, New York Fed President John Williams and San Francisco Fed chief Mary Daly — have dumped cold water on that idea.

Bloomberg 6/23/25
Iran fired missiles at a US air base in Qatar in retaliation for President Donald Trump’s weekend airstrikes on three of its nuclear facilities.
Qatar said the barrage at Al Udeid base, the biggest such US facility in the Middle East, was intercepted and that there were no casualties. Al Udeid is the regional headquarters for US Central Command, which oversees the American military in the Middle East. There are about 9,000 US service members in gas-rich Qatar, which sits just across the Persian Gulf from Iran.
Oil prices fell immediately after the attack, with Brent dropping 3.3% to $74.48 a barrel as of 6:10 p.m.

@farnazfassihi
Journalist
@nytimes
United Nations Bureau Chief Iran Mideast Diplomacy | Author | War correspondent
Three Iranian officials familiar with the plans said that Iran gave advanced notice to Qatari officials that attacks were coming, as a way to minimize casualties. The officials said Iran symbolically needed to strike back at the U.S. but at the same time carry it out in a way that allowed all sides an exit ramp; they described it as a similar strategy to 2020 when Iran gave Iraq heads up before firing ballistic missiles an American base in Iraq following the
assassination of its top general.

Bloomberg 6/22/25
US President Donald Trump said American
bombers struck Iran’s three main nuclear sites, pulling the US
directly into the country’s conflict despite his longtime
promises to avoid new wars.
Trump said a “payload of BOMBS” was dropped on Fordow, the
uranium-enrichment site buried deep under a mountain and seen as
vulnerable only to “bunker buster” munitions that the US
possesses. Natanz and Isfahan, two other sites, were also
struck.

Wall Street Journal 6/18/25
Federal Reserve officials lowered their projections for U.S. economic growth this year and raised their outlook for inflation in their latest economic projections out Wednesday.

Bloomberg 6/18/25
The statement removes language noting that the committee “judges that the risks of higher unemployment and higher inflation have risen.” Fed says uncertainty about the economic outlook has “diminished but remains elevated”

Bloomberg 6/17/25
The Bank of Japan unveiled a plan to step
back from the bond market at a slower pace from next year to
ensure market stability while sticking to a path of
normalization that includes the possibility of more rate hikes.
Governor Kazuo Ueda’s policy board stood pat on its
benchmark policy rate of 0.5% at the end of a two-day meeting
Tuesday. In a widely expected move the central bank said it
would ease the pace of its cuts to monthly bond purchases from
the next fiscal year to quarterly reductions of ¥200 billion
($1.34 billion) from the current ¥400 billion.

Bloomberg 6/20/25
The Swiss National Bank cut its interest rate to zero and signaled it’s ready to go further if necessary as it seeks to deter investors from pushing up the franc.
The quarter-point reduction is the SNB’s sixth consecutive move and was forecast by most of the economists surveyed by Bloomberg after the currency’s strength caused consumer prices to drop for the first time in four years. A minority had anticipated an even bigger half-point step.

Bloomberg - 6/18/25
Two-year bonds have pared their initial gains as Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell speaks. He’s been emphatic that the US economy is pretty strong and that the full impact of tariffs hasn’t been felt yet and won’t be for months. The central bank may not move away from restrictive rates as long as the economy remains solid, he said. Meantime, as long as inflation keeps coming down and employment remains strong, there’s no urgency to move. All that being said, Powell indicated the path for rates in the dot plot are very low conviction.

Dow Jones -- OTTAWA 6/4/25
The Bank of Canada on Wednesday left its main interest
rate unchanged, at 2.75%, saying the economy has softened but not
deteriorated, and inflation has picked up steam.

Bank of Canada Gov. Tiff Macklem said senior officials expect second-growth
output to be "much weaker" after a surprise 2.2% annualized increase in the
first quarter, which was buoyed by exports and inventories as companies rushed
to purchase goods to avoid tariffs. While there was a consensus among senior
officials on the central bank's governing council to keep the interest rate
steday, Macklem said officials also agreed that another rate cut might be
needed should the economy stall due to uncertainty fueled by U.S. trade
policy.

Bloomberg 5/26/25
President Donald Trump said he would extend the deadline for the European Union to face 50% tariffs until July 9 after a phone call with Commission President Ursula von der Leyen.

“We had a very nice call and I agreed to move it,” Trump told reporters Sunday at Morristown Airport in New Jersey on his way back to Washington.

Von der Leyen, who heads the EU’s executive arm, said earlier Sunday in a post on X that “Europe is ready to advance talks swiftly and decisively,” but “a good deal” will need “time until July 9.” That’s the date that Trump’s 90-day pause of his so-called reciprocal tariffs had originally been set to end.

Bloomberg 5/27/25
Bank of Japan Governor Kazuo Ueda gave the yen a boost by clearly indicating his intention to continue raising the benchmark interest rate if the economy improves as expected.
“We will adjust the degree of monetary easing as needed” to ensure that the bank achieves its sustainable price goal if incoming data give authorities greater confidence that their economic expectations will be met, Ueda said in a speech at an international conference hosted by the BOJ in Tokyo Tuesday.
The yen rose as high as 142.12 against the dollar shortly after his remarks.

Dow Jones 5/27/25
The European Central Bank is unlikely to lower its key interest rate below 1.5% or in large steps, its chief economist said in an interview published Tuesday.
The ECB last month lowered its key rate for a seventh time since June 2024 to 2.25%. Policymakers will meet next week and investors expect them to cut again, to 2%.
In an interview with German newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung conducted on May 20, Philip Lane said that further cuts are likely if policymakers see signs of a further declines in inflation, which has fallen close to the 2% target.
"If we see signs of further falling inflation, we will respond with further interest rate cuts--but the range of discussion is not that wide: no one is talking about dramatic rate cuts," he said.
However, Lane said there is a limit to how far the ECB would likely go in lowering borrowing costs to support the economy and lift inflation, unless there is a significant weakening of the eurozone economy.
"Rates below 1.5 per cent are clearly accommodative," he said. "Going there would only be appropriate in the event of more substantial downside risks to inflation, or a more significant slowdown in the economy. I do not see that at the moment."

Bloomberg 5/19/25
Federal Reserve Bank of New York President John Williams said policymakers may need months to get a better understanding of the outlook for the economy.
“It’s not going to be that in June we’re going to understand what’s happening here, or in July,” Williams said Monday at a conference organized by the Mortgage Bankers Association. “It’s going to be a process of collecting data, getting a better picture, and watching things as they develop.”
Williams continued to stress that uncertainty was hindering not only policymakers, but also firms and households as they struggle to predict how tariffs and other policies from the Trump administration will reshape the US economy.

Bloomberg 5/22/25

US and Japanese finance chiefs confirmed
existing currency views and did not discuss foreign exchange
levels during a meeting in Canada, sending the yen briefly lower
as markets wound back expectations for a more aggressive stance.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Japanese Finance
Minister Katsunobu Kato “reaffirmed their shared belief that
exchange rates should be market determined and that, at present,
the dollar-yen exchange rate reflects fundamentals,” the
Treasury department said Wednesday.

Financial Review 5/20/25
The Reserve Bank of Australia has cut the cash rate to 3.85 per cent and
downgraded its key economic forecasts over concerns Donald Trump’s trade war
will cause consumers to save more and force businesses to rethink investment
plans.