More than $2.1 trillion was lost on the US stock market in 20 minutes
This was the 'worst three-day drop' in the S&P 500 index since October 1987.
Meanwhile, Trump is already considering suspending tariffs for 90 days for all countries except China, — Clash Report reports.
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Nahar Net
a day ago
- Nahar Net
Canadian tariffs on US steel and aluminum could rise, Carney says
by Naharnet Newsdesk 20 June 2025, 15:09 Canada's Prime Minister Mark Carney said Thursday he will impose new tariffs on U.S. steel and aluminum imports on July 21 depending the progress of trade talks with U.S. President Donald Trump. Carney, who met with Trump at the Group of Seven meetings in Alberta this week, reiterated Thursday that Canada and the U.S. "agreed to pursue negotiations toward a deal within the coming 30 days." "We will review our response as the negotiations progress," Carney said. He added: "In parallel, we must reinforce our strength at home – and safeguard Canadian workers and businesses from the unjust U.S. tariffs. That's why today we are announcing Canada will be introducing a series of countermeasures to protect Canadian steel and aluminum workers and producers. "First, Canada will adjust its existing counter-tariffs on U.S. steel and aluminum products on July 21 to levels consistent with progress made in the broader trading agreement with the United States." Carney said Trump's trade war is running the risk of a global recession. "The world is in the middle of a trade war and several wars, actual wars, including wars that can have quite significant implications for commodity prices and global growth," said Carney, who led the central banks of both Canada and the United Kingdom. Trump has imposed 50% tariffs on steel and aluminum as well as 25% tariffs on autos. Trump is also charging a 10% tax on imports from most countries, though he could raise rates on July 9, after the 90-day negotiating period set by him would expire. Canada and Mexico face separate tariffs of as much as 25% that Trump put into place under the auspices of stopping fentanyl smuggling, through some products are still protected under the 2020 U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement signed during Trump's first term. Canada is the largest foreign supplier of steel, aluminum and uranium to the U.S. and has 34 critical minerals and metals that the Pentagon is eager for. Nearly $3.6 billion Canadian dollars ($2.6 billion) worth of goods and services cross the border each day. Canada is the top export destination for 36 U.S. states. "We need to stabilize the trading relationship with the United States. We need to have ready access to U.S. markets," Carney said. Trump announced with British Prime Minister Keir Starmer that they had signed a trade framework Monday that was previously announced in May. The trade framework included quotas to protect against some tariffs, but the 10% baseline would largely remain as the Trump administration is banking on tariff revenues to help cover the cost of its income tax cuts. Carney didn't say if he would sign a deal with the U.S. if any tariffs remain in place on Canada. "This a negotiation, and it is better for the Americans, and of course for Canada, to have true free trade between our countries, particularly in the steel, aluminum and auto sectors," he said.
Nahar Net
a day ago
- Nahar Net
NATO summit success in doubt after Spain rejects big hike in defense spending
by Naharnet Newsdesk 20 June 2025, 15:06 The success of a key NATO summit hung in the balance on Friday, after Spain announced that it cannot raise the billions of dollars needed to meet a new defense investment pledge demanded by U.S. President Donald Trump. Trump and his NATO counterparts are meeting for two days in the Netherlands from next Tuesday. He insists that U.S. allies should commit to spending at least 5% of gross domestic product, but that requires investment at an unprecedented scale. Trump has cast doubt over whether the U.S. would defend allies that spend too little. Setting the spending goal would be a historic decision. It would see all 32 countries invest the same amount in defense for the first time. Only last week, NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte expressed confidence that they would endorse it. But in a letter to Rutte on Thursday, Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez wrote that "committing to a 5% target would not only be unreasonable, but also counterproductive." "It would move Spain away from optimal spending and it would hinder the (European Union's) ongoing efforts to strengthen its security and defense ecosystem," Sánchez wrote in the letter, seen by The Associated Press. Spain is not entirely alone Belgium, Canada, France and Italy would also struggle to hike security spending by billions of dollars, but Spain is the only country to officially announce its intentions, making it hard to row back from such a public decision. Beyond his economic challenges, Sánchez has other problems. He relies on small parties to govern, and corruption scandals have ensnared his inner circle and family members. He's under growing pressure to call an early election. In response to the letter, Rutte's office said only that "discussions among allies on a new defense investment plan are ongoing." NATO's top civilian official had been due to table a new proposal on Friday to try to break the deadlock. The U.S. and French envoys had also been due to update reporters about the latest developments ahead of the summit but postponed their briefings. Rutte and many European allies are desperate to resolve the problem by Tuesday so that Trump does not derail the summit, as he did during his first term at NATO headquarters in 2018. Budget boosting After Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, NATO allies agreed that 2% of GDP should be the minimum they spend on their military budgets. But NATO's new plans for defending its own territory against outside attack require investment of at least 3%. Spain agreed to those plans in 2023. The 5% goal is made up of two parts. The allies would agree to hike pure defense spending to 3.5% of GDP. A further 1.5% would go to upgrade roads, bridges, ports and airfields so that armies can better deploy, and to prepare societies for future attacks. Mathematically, 3.5 plus 1.5 equals Trump's 5%. But a lot is hiding behind the figures and details of what kinds of things can be included remain cloudy. Countries closest to Russia, Belarus and Ukraine have all agreed to the target, as well as nearby Germany, Norway, Sweden and the Netherlands, which is hosting the June 24-25 summit. The Netherlands estimates that NATO's defense plans would force it to dedicate at least 3.5% to core defense spending. That means finding an additional 16 billion to 19 billion euros ($18 billion to $22 billion). Supplying arms and ammunition to Ukraine, which Spain does, will also be included as core defense spending. NATO estimates that the U.S. spent around 3.2% of GDP on defense last year. Dual use, making warfighting possible The additional 1.5% spending basket is murkier. Rutte and many members argue that infrastructure used to deploy armies to the front must be included, as well as building up defense industries and preparing citizens for possible attacks. "If a tank is not able to cross a bridge. If our societies are not prepared in case war breaks out for a whole of society approach. If we are not able to really develop the defense industrial base, then the 3.5% is great but you cannot really defend yourselves," Rutte said this month. Spain wanted climate change spending included, but that proposal was rejected. Cyber-security and counter-hybrid warfare investment should also make the cut. Yet with all the conjecture about what might be included, it's difficult to see how Rutte arrived at this 1.5% figure. The when, the how, and a cunning plan It's not enough to agree to spend more money. Many allies haven't yet hit the 2% target, although most will this year, and they had a decade to get there. So an incentive is required. The date of 2032 has been floated as a deadline. That's far shorter than previous NATO targets, but military planners estimate that Russian forces could be capable of launching an attack on an ally within 5-10 years. The U.S. insists that it cannot be an open-ended pledge, and that a decade is too long. Still, Italy says it wants 10 years to hit the 5% target. Another issue is how fast spending should be ramped up. "I have a cunning plan for that," Rutte said. He wants the allies to submit annual plans that lay out how much they intend to increase spending by. The reasons for the spending hike For Europe, Russia's war on Ukraine poses an existential threat. A major rise in sabotage, cyberattacks and GPS jamming incidents is blamed on Moscow. European leaders are girding their citizens for the possibility of more. The United States also insists that China poses a threat. But for European people to back a hike in national defense spending, their governments require acknowledgement that the Kremlin remains NATO's biggest security challenge. The billions required for security will be raised by taxes, going into debt, or shuffling money from other budgets. But it won't be easy for many, as Spain has shown. On top of that, Trump has made things economically tougher by launching a global tariff war — ostensibly for U.S. national security reasons — something America's allies find hard to fathom.
Nahar Net
2 days ago
- Nahar Net
Global shares decline as tensions simmer in the Middle East
by Naharnet Newsdesk 19 June 2025, 15:31 Global shares retreated Thursday as worries persisted about conflict in the Middle East. On the seventh day of a conflict that began with a surprise wave of Israeli airstrikes targeting military sites, senior officers and nuclear scientists, Iranian state media reported that Iran's foreign minister planned to meet with his European counterparts in Geneva. Meanwhile, Israel carried out strikes on Iran's Arak heavy water reactor, in its latest attack on Iran's sprawling nuclear program. The escalating warfare has shaken financial markets. France's CAC 40 slipped 0.8% in early trading to 7,593.06. In Germany, the DAX fell 0.9% to 23,141.82. Britain's FTSE 100 lost 0.5% to 8,797.24. The futures for the S&P 500 and the Dow Jones Industrial Average were 0.4% lower. The Federal Reserve opted Wednesday to keep its key interest rate unchanged, while its policymakers signaled they still expect to cut rates twice this year. They project that President Donald Trump's higher import duties will fuel inflation. They also expect growth to slow and unemployment to edge higher. The Bank of England likewise was expected to keep its key interest rate unchanged at 4.25% at its meeting Thursday, after cutting it twice this year. Switzerland's central bank cut its target interest rate by a quarter of a percentage point to zero on Thursday, saying that inflationary pressures have eased. It is among many central banks opting to go ahead and ease the cost of borrowing as uncertainty over Trump's tariffs and geopolitical crises threaten global growth. In Asian trading, Japan's benchmark Nikkei 225 shed 1.0% to finish at 38,488.34. Shares in Japan's Nippon Steel Corp. jumped 2.3% after it announced that its acquisition of U.S. Steel, which met U.S. government opposition for more than a year, was finally completed. Hong Kong's Hang Seng dropped 2.0% to 23,237.74 on heavy selling of tech-related shares, while the Shanghai Composite lost 0.8% to 3,362.11. Australia's S&P/ASX 200 was little changed at 8,523.70 and in South Korea, the Kospi rose 0.2% to 2,977.74. U.S. financial markets will be closed Thursday for the Juneteenth holiday. So far, U.S. inflation has remained relatively tame, and it's near the Fed's target of 2%. But economists have been warning it may take months to feel the effects of tariffs. And inflation has been feeling upward pressure recently from a spurt in oil prices because of Israel's fighting with Iran. Fed officials are waiting to see how big Trump's tariffs will ultimately be, what they will affect and whether they will drive a one-time increase to inflation or something more dangerous. There is also still deep uncertainty about how much tariffs will grind down on the economy's growth. "Because the economy is still solid, we can take the time to actually see what's going to happen," said Fed Chair Jerome Powell. "We'll make smarter and better decisions if we just wait a couple months or however long it takes to get a sense of really what is going to be the passthrough of inflation and what are going to be the effects on spending and hiring and all those things," he said. A report released Wednesday said fewer workers applied for unemployment benefits last week, possibly indicating fewer layoffs. But another said homebuilders broke ground on fewer homes last month than economists expected. That suggests higher mortgage rates may be casting a chill on the industry. In other dealings early Thursday, benchmark U.S. crude rose 13 cents to $73.63. Brent crude, the international standard, advanced 7 cents to $76.77 a barrel. Oil prices have been yo-yoing as fears rise and ebb that the conflict between Israel and Iran could disrupt the global flow of crude. Iran is a major producer of oil and also sits on the narrow Strait of Hormuz, through which much of the world's crude passes. In currency trading, the U.S. dollar rose to 145.46 Japanese yen from 145.13 yen. The euro cost $1.1476, down from $1.1484.
