Business News

Trump says he will announce 25% steel and aluminum tariffs Monday, and more import duties are coming

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump says he’ll announce Monday the United States will impose 25% tariffs on all steel and aluminum imports, including from Canada and Mexico, as well as other import duties later in the week. Shares of U.S. steel companies rose sharply in futures trading before the opening bell Monday. Trump also reaffirms he’ll announce “reciprocal tariffs.” That means the U.S. would impose import duties on products in cases in which another country has levied duties on U.S. goods. The Republican president spoke to reporters aboard Air Force One as he flew on Sunday from Florida to attend the Super Bowl in New Orleans.

Little to no relief from high borrowing costs expected as Fed Chair Powell heads to the Hill

WASHINGTON (AP) — The odds of further interest rate cuts this year by the Federal Reserve dwindled last week as unemployment fell and more officials say they want to see how new policies from the White House affect the economy. While Fed officials penciled in two rate cuts this year at their December meeting, economists and Wall Street investors are increasingly skeptical, with some predicting no reductions at all this year. On Friday, economists at Morgan Stanley said they now expect just one rate cut in 2025, and investors also expect just one — in July — according to pricing in futures markets.

A timeline of US-China tit-for-tat tariffs since Trump’s first term

TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) — China’s tit-for-tat duties on U.S. imports have taken effect. The move on Monday came just hours after U.S. President Donald Trump announced that he wants to slap new duties on all steel and aluminum imports to the U.S. The rapid-fire shots of tariffs and import curbs hearken back to Trump’s first term in office. The U.S. and China engaged in a trade war that spanned most of Trump’s first term and was continued to a certain extent under Trump successor Joe Biden. Trade frictions with Beijing started barely months into Trump’s first term in office and are still unresolved today.

Vance makes his debut as VP on the international stage at a high-stakes AI summit in Paris

PARIS (AP) — JD Vance is stepping onto the world stage for the first time as U.S. vice president this week, using a high-profile artificial intelligence summit in France and a gathering of national security leaders in Germany to showcase Donald Trump’s more assertive approach to diplomacy. Challenging diplomatic talks are expected while tech titans fight for dominance in the fast-moving technology industry. Among those taking part in the two-day summit are heads of state, top government officials, CEOs and scientists from around 100 countries. Chinese Vice Premier Zhang Guoqing is also attending. The summit will give many European leaders a chance to meet Vance for the first time.

Trump has unleashed chaos by distraction upon the international community. That’s no accident

LONDON (AP) — President Donald Trump has unleashed chaos by distraction around the world with a blitz of executive orders and ideas. The result — foreign leaders are scrambling to respond and regular people are wondering how they’ll get food and medicine. No one person or government could possibly keep up with the deluge. So the Saudis are furious. The Danes are scrambling. Greenlanders don’t want to be part of the United States. War-scarred people in Gaza refuse to move elsewhere as Trump has proposed. And anyone who depends on American aid for medical care or food is confronting the life-and-death implications of abruptly not having it.

Secrecy preceded the shutdown of the consumer protection agency’s Washington headquarters

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump’s budget chief has sent an email to consumer protection agency employees telling them to stop working. The message arrived Monday as the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s Washington headquarters was being shut down for the week. There are fears the bureau will be gutted like the U.S. Agency for International Development, or USAID. Over the weekend, CFPB staff members discovered windows in two basement conference rooms were covered with brown paper and blue painter’s tape. Voices could be heard inside discussing cuts to government agencies. Trump fired the bureau’s director Feb. 1. Democrats and progressives have expressed outrage over the Republican president’s decision to target the bureau.

McDonald’s improving global sales help to offset US weakness in fourth quarter

Improving international sales helped McDonald’s overcome some weakness at home in the fourth quarter. McDonald’s said Monday that its U.S. same-store sales fell 1.4% in the October-December period after an E. coli outbreak tied to its Quarter Pounder hamburgers dented demand. The company said it expects demand to return to normal by the beginning of the second quarter. McDonald’s also said demand from low-income consumers also remains weak despite its expanded value menu. But McDonald’s said it saw strong sales growth in Japan and the Middle East in the fourth quarter. It reported quarterly revenue of $6.38 billion, just short of what Wall Street was expecting.

Volunteers are now tracking what’s already been lost in the USAID freeze

A growing number of people and groups in the international development ecosystem have stepped forward to track the widespread impacts of the freeze on U.S. foreign aid. Many are nonprofits who already support grassroots groups around the world, while others are professionals volunteering their time. Sadie Healy runs a small global health consulting firm, Molloy Consultants. She and her business partner decided to document how many U.S. jobs have been lost as a result of the freeze on foreign assistance. Other groups circulated online surveys to learn about the impact of the funding cuts on nonprofits.

Can Trump bring unions into the GOP fold? His labor nominee presents a major test

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump has repeatedly challenged Senate Republicans with his Cabinet picks. But it’s the Republican president’s nomination of Lori Chavez-DeRemer for labor secretary that’s proving the hardest for many to accept. Chavez-DeRemer is the daughter of a lifelong Teamsters member. Chavez-DeRemer also is a small business owner who served as the mayor of a fast-growing suburb in liberal Portland, Oregon. And Chavez-DeRemer was a co-sponsor in the House of legislation championed by America’s labor unions. Chavez-DeRemer’s nomination is attracting some Democratic support even as her union-friendly stances generate concern from many Republicans. Chavez-DeRemer has kept quiet ahead of her confirmation hearing, which is set for Wednesday.

Super Bowl commercials rely on comedy and nostalgia to avoid potential missteps

The Philadelphia Eagles dominated the Kansas City Chiefs on the field in this year’s Super Bowl, while laughter dominated the commercials. A Northwestern University marketing professor says most Super Bowl ads were in development during last fall’s U.S. presidential election race, so avoiding controversy was even more of a priority. The overall lineup features a lot of simple humor and nostalgia but few creative risks. Budweiser’s Clydesdales returned, while Harrison Ford starred in a thoughtful ad for Jeep. Nike, Dove and the NFL all had ads promoting women in sports, while Novartis called for more early detection of breast cancer.