
China's benchmark drop 0.79%
Asian stocks ended mostly lower on Thursday after a hawkish commentary from the U.S. Federal Reserve and amid an ongoing geopolitical unrest in Middle East.
The Federal Reserve Open Markets Committee's economic projections showed unemployment and inflation rising higher than officials previously thought due to tariff-related uncertainties.
Elsewhere, the Trump administration offered few clues about whether the U.S. will join Israel's offensive aimed at destroying Tehran's nuclear program.
The dollar was firm in Asian trade, sending gold prices down below $3,360 per ounce. Oil prices rose about 1 percent on fears that a wider regional conflict could disrupt Middle East oil exports.
China's Shanghai Composite index fell 0.79 percent to 3,362.11 as the latest stimulus announcements made at Shanghai's Lujiazui Forum fell short of expectations.
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Time of India
39 minutes ago
- Time of India
Audi weighs $4.6 billion US plant to ease tariff tensions
Volkswagen 's premium brand Audi could build a plant at a new location in the United States under scenarios being considered to placate President Donald Trump in the tariff conflict, the Spiegel news magazine reported on Friday. Audi is considering building a plant in the southern US, which would be the more expensive option out of a number of scenarios being considered, with company sources estimating costs of up to 4 billion euros ($4.6 billion), the report said. An Audi spokesperson said that the company aims to build up more of a presence in the United States. "We are currently examining various scenarios for this. We are confident that we will make a decision this year in consultation with the (Volkswagen) group on how this will look in concrete terms," she said in an emailed statement, reaffirming earlier comments made by the company. Audi has no production of its own in the US, but Volkswagen has a plant in Chattanooga, Tennessee and one under construction near Columbia, South Carolina. Trump's announcement of sweeping tariffs has already racked up hundreds of millions of euros in costs for German carmakers heavily reliant on their export business, according to an industry representative. BMW, Mercedes-Benz and Volkswagen are in talks with Washington over a possible import tariff deal, seeking to use their US investments and exports as leverage to soften any blow, sources have told Reuters.


Time of India
39 minutes ago
- Time of India
Trump's economic 'golden age' meets Fed's brass tacks
President Donald Trump 's inauguration promise in January that "the golden age of America begins right now" remains unfulfilled in the outlook of Federal Reserve officials who so far see his policies slowing the economy, raising unemployment and inflation, and clouding the horizon with a still-unresolved tariff debate that could deliver a fresh shock in coming weeks. The U.S. central bank's response has been to put planned interest rate cuts on hold until perhaps the fall while the debates over tariffs and other administration priorities unfold, and to project a slower eventual pace of rate cuts to a higher stopping point. Effectively it embeds steeper borrowing costs into Fed policymakers' outlook to insure against inflation they now see as higher in coming months than they did before Trump took office for a second time. That isn't welcome news for Trump, who has called Fed Chair Jerome Powell "stupid" for not slashing rates immediately. It is no more welcome for U.S. consumers and homebuyers hoping for lower financing costs. And it puts the Fed somewhat out of step with other central banks that continue to lower rates. But it does highlight how much Trump's early policy moves, particularly on tariffs, have reshaped the short-term outlook for the world's largest economy, which at the end of last year was seen on track for continued above-trend growth, full employment and inflation steadily falling to the Fed's 2% target. The steady series of rate cuts policymakers anticipated just six months ago has been replaced with a more tentative path as they wait for Trump's final decisions on tariffs and watch how the job market, consumer spending and inflation evolve. "We feel like we're going to learn a great deal more over the summer on tariffs," Powell told reporters on Wednesday after the Fed held its benchmark overnight rate in the 4.25%-4.50% range for the fourth straight meeting, and issued new projections showing inflation rising substantially by the end of this year and coming down slowly after that point. Trump has latched on to recent weak inflation readings to argue for rate cuts, reiterating on Thursday that the Fed should slash its benchmark rate nearly in half and noting earlier in the week that the European Central Bank and others had kept easing monetary policy. But, referring to the impact of the tariffs imposed so far, Powell said "we hadn't expected them to show up much by now, and they haven't ... We will see the extent to which they do over coming months ... That's going to inform our thinking." Little confidence At this point, investors expect the Fed to cut rates at its September 16-17 meeting, though much will depend on what happens during Powell's summer of watching and waiting. The most aggressive of Trump's tariff plans, levies on most trading partners announced on " Liberation Day " in early April, were postponed after bond yields spiked, stocks dropped, and economists began penciling in a U.S. recession. The pause ends on July 9, with countries, including those in the European Union 's combined trading bloc, supposed to negotiate deals by then or face steep import levies - 50% in the case of the EU. The only completed deal so far is a limited agreement with Britain. Live Events Though the Fed's new policy statement this week said "uncertainty about the economic outlook has diminished" since its May 6-7 meeting, when volatility around the trade issue was still intense, the situation could change quickly based on the July 9 deadline. "We don't yet know with any confidence where they will settle out," Powell said. At the meeting last month, a Fed staff projection regarded a recession this year to be "almost as likely as the baseline forecast" of slowing but ongoing growth. The situation has since improved somewhat. Powell on Wednesday said the economy remains "solid," adding that as the risk of the most severe tariffs has abated, companies have begun to puzzle through how they might adapt to more modest levies. "Businesses were in a bit of a shock after April too ... There's a very different feeling now that people are working their way through this ... It feels much more positive and constructive than it did three months ago," he said. Prices of equities have marched higher as well, and the spike in Treasury yields that drove talk of the diminished status of the dollar has also eased. Dimmer Outlook But skirting a recession is a large step from where the Fed was at the end of last year, when it was in sight of a "soft landing" from the high inflation of the COVID-19 pandemic era. The economy was at full employment and steadily growing above trend, inflation was on track to fall to the Fed's 2% target, and the central bank expected to steadily ease borrowing costs. "The U.S. economy is just performing very, very well," Powell said after the Fed's December 17-18 meeting, a session at which staff and officials had just begun thinking through the implications of a trade war that became much bigger in scope than they expected. "The outlook is pretty bright." It has dimmed since then. In projections issued this week, Fed policymakers' median outlook for gross domestic product growth had fallen to 1.4%, well below trend, from the 2.1% projected in December, with the unemployment rate projected to rise from the current 4.2% to 4.5% by the end of the year. That would be the highest level, outside of the pandemic unemployment spike, since early 2017, when Trump's first term was starting. Inflation that Powell said had been "grinding down" is now anticipated to rise to 3% this year and remain nearly half a percentage point above the Fed's target through 2026. The job market remains solid, Powell said, but he cautioned that assessment could change, and policymakers have said that their policy expectations could shift quickly if employment falters. "Labor demand is softening," Powell said. "There's not a lot of layoffs, but there's not a lot of job creation. If you're out of work, it is hard to find a job ... That is an equilibrium we watch very, very carefully because if there were to be significant layoffs and the job-finding rate were to remain this low, you would have an increase in unemployment fairly quickly."


Fibre2Fashion
an hour ago
- Fibre2Fashion
Drewry WCI falls 7.45%, after six weeks of gains
The Drewry World Container Index (WCI)—a composite measure of container freight rates—dropped for the first time in over a month, falling 7.45 per cent to $3,279 per 40-foot equivalent unit (FEU) on June 19, down from $3,543 per FEU the previous week. The index declined after six consecutive weeks of gains, mainly due to low demand for US-bound cargo. This suggests that the recent surge in US imports, triggered by the temporary halt of higher US tariffs, is unlikely to have the lasting impact initially anticipated. Drewry WCI fell 7.45 per cent to $3,279 per FEU on June 19, its 1st decline in over a month, due to weaker US-bound demand. Despite recent drops, spot rates remain significantly higher than six weeks ago. Drewry forecasts softening in the supply-demand balance in the second half of 2025, with rate volatility likely influenced by legal challenges to tariffs and new US penalties on Chinese vessels. Freight rates from Shanghai to New York fell 10 per cent to $6,584 per 40-foot container over the past week. However, spot rates remain significantly higher—up 81 per cent compared to six weeks ago (May 8). Rates to Los Angeles dropped 20 per cent this week but have risen 73 per cent over the same six-week period. Meanwhile, freight rates increased from Shanghai to Rotterdam by 12 per cent to $3,171, and from Shanghai to Genoa by 1 per cent to $4,075 per 40-foot container. However, Drewry's Container Forecaster expects the supply-demand balance to weaken again in the second half of the current year, likely causing spot rates to decline. The volatility and timing of rate changes will depend on the outcomes of legal challenges to Trump's tariffs and on capacity shifts related to the introduction of US penalties on Chinese ships—factors that remain uncertain. Fibre2Fashion News Desk (KUL)