It might be a moment of hush before chaos ensues, or it may be business as usual. U.S. employers added 151,000 jobs in February, the first full month under the new Trump administration, the Labor Department reported on Friday. The gain extended a streak of job growth to 50 months. The unemployment rate ticked up … Read more
Jerome H. Powell, chair of the Federal Reserve, said the central bank is focused on the “net effect” of President Trump’s sweeping economic agenda amid high uncertainty about which policies will actually be enacted, as he reiterated that officials are still not in a “hurry” to adjust interest rates. “As we parse the incoming information, … Read more
Meltdown The markets have spoken. The S&P 500 is on track for its worst weekly loss since the collapse of the Silicon Valley Bank crisis two years ago. And investors have wiped out post-Election Day gains as President Trump’s dizzying start-stop tariff policy fuels volatility on trading floors and in boardrooms. Another test comes this … Read more
For about a year now, the labor market has existed in a state of eerie calm: Not many people were losing their jobs or quitting, but not many of those seeking work were getting job offers. The mass layoffs now underway across the federal government, along with its employees who are voluntarily heading for the … Read more
President Trump inherited an economy that was, by most conventional measures, firing on all cylinders. Wages, consumer spending and corporate profits were rising. Unemployment was low. The inflation rate, though higher than normal, was falling. Just weeks into Mr. Trump’s term, the outlook is gloomier. Measures of business and consumer confidence have plunged. The stock … Read more
When the White House finally released the text of Mr. Trump’s orders on Thursday evening, it appeared that some of the tariffs — those covered in the U.S.-Mexico-Canada trade agreement that Mr. Trump negotiated and celebrated in his first term — were indeed permanently suspended. Other tariffs were merely paused. Most everyone involved was confused, … Read more
President Trump said on Thursday that he would offer a one-month exemption from tariffs for imports from Mexico that trade under the rules of U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement, the trade pact he signed in his first term. The president wrote on Truth Social that he would give Mexican products an exemption until April 2 from the 25 … Read more
When the United States signed a free-trade agreement with Canada and Mexico more than 30 years ago, the premise was that partnering with two other thriving economies would also benefit America. This week, President Trump abruptly scrapped that idea. He imposed a sweeping 25 percent tariff on the roughly $1 trillion of imports that Mexico … Read more
South Africa is preparing a new trade offer to present to President Trump, hoping to appeal to his transactional approach to foreign policy and ease boiling tensions with Washington, a spokesman for South Africa’s president said this week. The spokesman, Vincent Magwenya, said in an interview that South African officials are anticipating Mr. Trump will … Read more
Facing the threat of tariffs from President Trump after he took office, Mexico bent over backward to comply with his demands. Almost immediately, the government moved to secure its northern border, severely stanching migration to the United States. Then it hunted cartel leaders in a dangerous fentanyl stronghold. And just last week, in a once-in-a-generation … Read more