Category: Business

Last-minute changes to a new North American trade deal sank U.S. hopes of making Canada and Mexico allow higher-value shipments to the countries by online retailers, such as Amazon.com, a top Mexican official said on Friday. The revised pact was set to double the value…

U.S. job growth slowed sharply in September likely as Hurricane Florence depressed restaurant and retail payrolls, but the unemployment rate fell to near a 49-year low of 3.7 percent, pointing to a further tightening in labor market conditions. The Labor Department's closely watched monthly employment…

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday strongly defended a prospective Russia-Germany natural gas pipeline as economically feasible and voiced hope that European Union nations will be able to resist U.S. pressure to thwart the project. U.S. officials have warned that Washington could impose sanctions on…

Seven-year-old Ryan drew millions of views reviewing toys on YouTube. Now, he's become a toy himself. Walmart is selling action figures in his likeness, putty with his face on the packaging and other toys under the Ryan's World brand. It's a bet that kids, who…

China's hopes of negotiating a free trade pact with Canada or Mexico were dealt a sharp setback by a provision deep in the new U.S.-Mexico-Canada trade agreement that aims to forbid such deals with "non-market" countries, trade experts said on Tuesday. The provision specifies that…

Mexico and Canada on Tuesday urged their governments to resolve a tariff dispute with the United States before signing a new trilateral trade deal that was unveiled this week. In late May, the Trump administration announced tariffs of 25 percent on steel imports and 10…

Palu, the Indonesian city devastated by an earthquake, tsunamis and mudslides, has strived to transform itself into a major trading hub, but the city's buildings and other infrastructure were no match for the triple whammy that has left more than 1,200 people dead.  The disasters…

Tesla announced record quarterly car production numbers on Tuesday but warned it was facing major problems with selling cars in China due to new tariffs that will force it to accelerate investment in its factory in Shanghai. The California-based electric carmaker, emerging from several months…

Iran's currency unexpectedly rallied Tuesday after weeks of depreciation linked to renewed American sanctions, sending Iranians rushing to exchange shops to cash in. In the Iranian capital, money exchange shops offered 135,000 rials for one U.S. dollar at one point, drawing crowds of onlookers and…

One of Australia’s biggest power companies says it will close a major coal-fired power station as it invests in renewable sources despite pressure from the government in Canberra to keep it open. "Run down, dangerous and expensive" is how an Australian newspaper described the Liddell…

American dairy farmers get more access to the Canadian market. U.S. drug companies can fend off generic competition for a few more years. Automakers are under pressure to build more cars where workers earn decent wages. The North American trade agreement hammered out late Sunday…

General Electric ousted its CEO, took a $23 billion charge and said it would fall short of profit forecasts this year, further signs that the century-old industrial conglomerate is struggling to turn around its vastly shrunken business.   H. Lawrence Culp Jr. will take over…

Fresh from clinching an updated North American commerce pact, U.S. President Donald Trump on Monday criticized Indian and Brazilian trade tactics, describing the latter as being "maybe the toughest in the world" in terms of protectionism. Addressing reporters at a White House event to celebrate…

After intense last-minute discussions ahead of a self-imposed midnight deadline, U.S. and Canadian officials announced late Sunday they reached a trade deal, allowing a modified three-way pact with Mexico to replace the nearly quarter-century old North American Free Trade Agreement.  The U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) –…

After lengthy delays, an $8.2 billion revamp of a colonial-era rail line snaking from the Arabian Sea to the foothills of the Hindu Kush has become a test of Pakistan's ability to rethink signature Chinese "Silk Road" projects due to debt concerns. The rail megaproject…

Tesla and its CEO Elon Musk have agreed to pay a total of $40 million and make a series of concessions to settle a government lawsuit alleging Musk duped investors with misleading statements about a proposed buyout of the company. The settlement with the Securities…

Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland postponed her U.N. speech Saturday as free-trade talks between the U.S. and Canada intensified. Freeland had been scheduled to deliver Canada's address to the General Assembly in New York, but Canada exchanged the slot with another country. Freeland may…

U.S. consumer spending increased steadily in August, supporting expectations of solid economic growth in the third quarter, while a measure of underlying inflation remained at the Federal Reserve's 2 percent target for a fourth straight month. Economists said Friday's report from the Commerce Department should…

Tesla without Elon Musk at the wheel? To many of the electric car maker's customers and investors, that would be unthinkable. But that's what government securities regulators now want to see. The Securities and Exchange Commission has asked a federal court to oust Musk as…

Italy’s stock market fell sharply Friday after the new populist, euroskeptic government announced a sharp public spending increase that will push the budget deficit to 2.4 percent of gross domestic product next year, risking a collision with the European Union. The benchmark FTSE MIB dropped…

Puerto Rico Gov. Ricardo Rossello flew to New York this week on a mission: convince potential tourists that the hurricane-ravaged island was ready for their return. But Puerto Rico's recovery from last year's Hurricane Maria has been a "mixed bag," Rossello told Reuters on Thursday, acknowledging that the bankrupt U.S. territory,…

U.S. securities regulators on Thursday accused Tesla Inc. Chief Executive Elon Musk of fraud and sought to ban him as an officer of a public company, saying he made a series of "false and misleading" tweets about potentially taking the electric car company private last month. Musk, 47, is…

The United States and Japan have agreed to begin negotiations on a bilateral free-trade agreement, reducing the prospect that Washington might impose tariffs against another trading partner. “We’ve agreed today to start trade negotiations between the United States and Japan,” U.S. President Donald Trump said…

Ford chief Jim Hackett on Wednesday ramped up his warnings about the tariffs imposed by President Donald Trump, saying his company was seeing profits slashed by $1 billion. Hackett said the global automaker could face more damage if the trade confrontations were not resolved quickly.…

Somalia's finance minister says World Bank grants to the government are a sign the country has "trustable leadership" again after decades of chaos and corruption. The World Bank said Tuesday it will provide $80 million in grants to Somalia's federal government, the bank's first direct…

The Federal Reserve on Wednesday raised a key interest rate for the third time this year in response to a strong U.S. economy and signaled that it expected to maintain a pace of gradual rate hikes. The Fed lifted its short-term rate — a benchmark…

The U.N. Conference on Trade and Development warns the world economy remains fragile, one decade after the collapse of the U.S. financial titan Lehman Brothers triggered a global economic crisis. In its report Trade and Development Report 2018: Power, Platforms and the Free Trade Delusion,…

Trade conflicts, rising debt and the potential impact from rising interest rates in the U.S. will likely dampen growth in the coming year, the Asian Development Bank said Wednesday in an update of its regional economic outlook report.  The Manila, Philippines-based regional lender said Wednesday…