2025-12-04 23:26

WASHINGTON, Dec 4 (Reuters) - U.S. trade with China needs to be balanced and probably needs to be smaller, U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer said on Thursday, adding that he viewed a 25% drop in goods trade with China as heading in the "right direction." "The landing zone with China is our trade with them needs to be more balanced. It needs to probably be smaller so we're not so dependent on each other, and it needs to be in areas of non-sensitive goods," he told the American Growth Summit, a policy conference in Washington. Sign up here. Greer said U.S. President Donald Trump's policies were helping to achieve more balanced trade with China and the situation was better overall than at the start of Trump's second term in January. "I don't think anyone wants to have a full-on economic conflict with China, and we're not having that," he said. He said the United States had many levers in its relationship with China, ranging from software to semiconductors, and that many allies were interested in taking coordinated action. "But the decision right now is we want to have stability in this relationship," he said, adding that the United States also needed to boost its industrial production of strategic goods, including critical minerals. Ties with China were now stable, but Washington was monitoring the situation on a daily basis, he said. Greer's comments came a day after U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said China was poised to complete its commitments under a U.S.-China trade agreement, including the purchase of 12 million metric tons of soybeans, something he said would be completed by the end of February 2026. https://www.reuters.com/world/china/us-trade-with-china-probably-needs-be-smaller-ustrs-greer-says-2025-12-04/

2025-12-04 23:05

Dec 4 (Reuters) - England manager Thomas Tuchel said he might keep his substitutes in the dressing room during matches at the 2026 World Cup next summer in an attempt to mitigate the impact of extreme heat. "If this helps the players later in the match, we have to consider it," Tuchel told BBC Sport on Thursday. Sign up here. "Nobody likes it because I want the players to be out there, feeling the energy and bringing it from the bench on to the pitch. But I saw players doing this at the Club World Cup. Hopefully we can avoid it," the manager added. Scorching heat was a major concern at the Club World Cup in the U.S. last June, when medical experts and players' unions expressed concerns about heat stress, dehydration and slower recovery times. Tuchel admitted that this would be problematic for high-level football, saying it would reduce the intensity of matches in the global event co-hosted by the United States, Canada and Mexico. "You can't play the same football in 45°C as in 21°C. We need to adapt and prepare the players as well as possible," he added. Despite the challenges, Tuchel expressed growing optimism about England’s prospects. "I'm more confident than ever that this team can win the tournament, as we've grown closer and stronger. We are arriving with the biggest goal," he said. England won all eight of their qualifiers, scoring 22 goals and conceding none. They are in pot one for Friday's draw, meaning that, as they are among the top four seeds, they will not have to face France, Spain or Argentina before the semi-finals as long as all four win their respective groups. "We need to wait until the draw but we have a clear idea against whom we want to play. We're getting closer. I think we're getting stronger. The target is to arrive in June with a strong squad and the emphasis is on the squad and the team spirit," he said. https://www.reuters.com/sports/soccer/soccer-englands-tuchel-might-keep-substitutes-inside-if-world-cup-heat-gets-too-2025-12-04/

2025-12-04 22:21

SAO PAULO, Dec 4 (Reuters) - Brazil's soybean exports jumped 64% in November from a year ago to 4.2 million metric tons, the government said on Thursday, with good local supply allowing elevated shipments before the world's largest importer China shifts to United States' beans. Brazil soy exports normally fall towards the end of the year as the country approaches the new harvest late on January or early February, but a record crop in 2025 means there are still enough supplies to keep foreign sales going, grain exports lobby Anec said on Thursday. Sign up here. Anec projects December shipments to also increase sharply, around 90%, to 2.8 million tons. The industry group sees total Brazilian soy exports at 110 million tons in 2025 from 97.3 million tons in 2024. China bought several vessels of soybeans from the U.S. recently, with loadings expected already in December. The Chinese buying is part of its trade deal with the U.S. CORN EXPORTS Brazilian corn exports, however, are expected to fall short of expectations, Anec said. The group reduced its corn shipment projection by 1 million tons for 2025, to 41 million tons, citing increasingly higher domestic demand. Brazil's booming corn ethanol and meat industries are boosting internal demand for the cereal, according to Anec. On Wednesday, an association representing pork and chicken processors, which uses corn as feed, projected a rise in output and exports for both meat types, indicating strong demand for the cereal. Despite the downward revision, Brazilian corn exports could still close 2025 with growth, considering that the country exported 37.8 million tons in 2024, according to Anec data. In December, Brazilian corn shipments are expected to reach 4.99 million tons, a nearly 38% increase compared to the same month last year. https://www.reuters.com/world/china/brazil-soy-exports-jump-64-november-ahead-chinese-shift-us-2025-12-04/

2025-12-04 22:14

NEW YORK, Dec 4 (Reuters) - Younger shoppers are helping to drive growth in some consumer products like Honest Co diapers and Kate Spade handbags despite higher prices from tariffs and other economic pressures, while artificial intelligence boosts efficiencies and margins, several CEOs said on Thursday. Speaking at the Reuters NEXT conference in New York, Warby Parker (WRBY.N) , opens new tab Co-CEO Neil Blumenthal said he expected the eyewear company to end 2025 more profitable than expected, while Tapestry (TPR.N) , opens new tab CEO Joanne Crevoiserat said the Coach handbag maker was seeing growth across all income segments and in China's middle class. Sign up here. “Young consumers may be putting off life moments like getting married or buying a home, which they see as unachievable, but they are still participating,” Crevoiserat said, adding that one of the company’s Kate Spade bags is gaining traction with younger consumers. The Honest Company (HNST.O) , opens new tab CEO Carla Vernón said in light of the Trump administration's tariff policies, it has a "tariff tacklers" team in place aimed at delivering growth without an extreme pricing strategy to help mitigate cost issues. Shoppers buying Honest’s premium-priced diapers, wipes and hair products have been swapping out to smaller sizes but not buying fewer units, Vernon said. “It's been a little bit of a moderated growth rate,” Vernon said. Consumer products companies have seen demand weaken as shoppers, particularly in the U.S., fear a downward turn in the economy. Blumenthal said Warby Parker has been aggressively hiring for its U.S. stores, particularly eye doctors. The company’s investment in artificial intelligence is allowing the doctors to spend more time with patients, rather than on administrative tasks, he said. Tapestry is also preparing to hire employees native in artificial intelligence – what is known as Generation Alpha – as they enter the workforce, Crevoiserat said. View the live broadcast of the World Stage here and read full coverage here. (This story has been refiled to identify the company as Tapestry, not Coach, in paragraph 9) https://www.reuters.com/business/retail-consumer/ceos-see-younger-consumers-driving-growth-amid-tariffs-ai-changes-2025-12-04/

2025-12-04 22:05

ORLANDO, Florida, Dec 4 (Reuters) - Wall Street's big three indices were little changed on Thursday, while the dollar and Treasury yields rose, after a surprisingly strong U.S. labor market indicator called into question how much lower the Fed will cut interest rates next year. More on that below. In my column today I look at the U.S. consumer. By some measures, delinquency rates are worryingly high as the affordability crisis bites. But other measures show they are low, leveling off, or even falling. Maybe the glass is half full, not half empty. Sign up here. If you have more time to read, here are a few articles I recommend to help you make sense of what happened in markets today. Today's Key Market Moves Today's Talking Points * China flexes at FX fix China's yuan has been on a tear lately, powering to 14-month highs against the dollar and bringing the 7.00/$ level into view. But its impressive rally shouldn't be confused with a willingness in Beijing to let it go unchecked. On Thursday the PBOC's daily fix was 179 pips weaker than a Reuters estimate - the largest weak-side deviation since the data was available in November 2022. And as Reuters exclusively reported, state-owned banks have been buying dollars but using a different intervention strategy. Beijing is still in the driver's seat. * The claim game The number of Americans filing new applications for unemployment benefits fell last week to 191,000, its lowest since September 2022. In contrast to the surprise fall in ADP private sector jobs reported earlier this week, this suggests the labor market is holding up just fine. This is historic. As economist Phil Suttle notes, it is only the 9th time since 1970 that initial weekly claims have fallen below 200,000. And 191,000 today is a much smaller share of the labor force than it was in the past. Does this look like a labor market in need of more rate cuts? * The Fed's division bell Barring an extraordinary upside surprise in the September PCE inflation data on Friday, the Fed will almost certainly cut interest rates again next week. But the division of opinion, and number of dissenting votes, will garner more market attention than the decision itself. There hasn't been a unanimous FOMC vote since June, and there have been more dissents in 2025 than any year since 1993. The FOMC has not had three or more dissents at a meeting since 2019, and that has happened just nine times since 1990. A 7-5 split next week would make upcoming meetings very interesting, especially with more hawkish regional Fed presidents becoming voters in 2026. U.S. consumer delinquency glass is half full Years of high borrowing costs and sticky inflation have spawned an affordability crisis in the United States, but some consumer delinquency figures suggest the economic picture might not be so grim. Today there is much talk of the so-called "K-shaped" economy: the rich are thriving while the rest are barely surviving. Proponents of this narrative often point to the millions of consumers struggling to service their debts, be they credit card, auto, student, or other loans. If the labor market continues to weaken, they argue, incomes will be squeezed, delinquencies will accelerate, and economic growth will slow. In a worst-case scenario the economy could tip into outright recession. With the unemployment rate the highest in four years and rising, this is a compelling argument, especially now that the slowdown in hiring is threatening to flip into outright firing. And it's true that, by some measures, consumer delinquency rates are "elevated", as the New York Fed notes. But by others, they are either low, or are leveling off from the steady rise that followed the pandemic. "Household leverage and debt servicing costs remain low by historical standards, and credit card delinquency rates continued to level off through 2025 Q3," Goldman Sachs economist Joseph Briggs wrote on Monday. Indeed, at the aggregate level, household debt service payments as a percentage of disposable personal income have steadied in recent quarters at just over 11%. That is lower than the level just before the Covid-19 recession, and, more significantly, is also below levels that immediately preceded the three prior recessions going all the way back to 1990. Combine this with the likelihood of falling interest rates and fiscal stimulus in the coming year, and the outlook for the U.S. consumer - and, by extension, the economy - may be brighter than feared, even at the lower end of the income scale. CREDIT WHERE CREDIT'S DUE Outstanding credit card debt in the United States is around $1.23 trillion, roughly a quarter of the $5.09 trillion of total household debt. And credit card interest rates are among the highest of all borrowing costs, with the average annual rate currently running comfortably above 20%. Yet credit card delinquencies are falling. At the end of September, the aggregate rate stood at 2.98%, according to Fed data, down from 3.22% in June last year, which was the highest since 2011. Drilling down, there are even encouraging signs for lower income deciles, says John Silvia, CEO and founder of consultancy Dynamic Economic Strategy. Excluding the top 100 banks that typically cater to wealthier consumers, credit card delinquency rates at the remainder of the roughly 4,000 U.S. commercial banks are below 7%, down from a multi-decade peak near 8% a couple of years ago, he finds. "Credit card delinquencies are a sensitive indicator of the credit cycle," Silvia says. "From a small bank point of view, there is no immediate problem – steady economic growth, rising home prices and lower two-year (Treasury) yields are all positive." Importantly, lower interest rates also appear to be on the horizon, with the Federal Reserve likely to resume its easing cycle next week. This will obviously benefit the wealthiest cohorts by further boosting asset prices, but it should also help all borrowers by reducing debt servicing costs to some degree. WATCH WAGE GROWTH Income growth is crucial to keeping a lid on delinquencies, of course, and here the signs are reasonably encouraging, for now at least. According to the Atlanta Fed, average annual nominal wage growth is still above 4% and therefore still positive in real terms. To be sure, inflation remains elevated, job creation has slowed and one can find compelling counterarguments about the health of the consumer in the reams of debt and delinquency data. For example, student loan defaults have spiked after the 12-month moratorium on payments expired late last year. These loans total $1.65 trillion, around a third of all non-mortgage household debt, and the burden is getting heavier. If the labor market sours, the debt picture will certainly darken. But as things currently stand, there are grounds for cautious optimism that U.S. consumers are servicing their debts, and the worst may even be over. What could move markets tomorrow? Want to receive Trading Day in your inbox every weekday morning? Sign up for my newsletter here. Opinions expressed are those of the author. They do not reflect the views of Reuters News, which, under the Trust Principles , opens new tab, is committed to integrity, independence, and freedom from bias. https://www.reuters.com/world/china/global-markets-trading-day-graphic-2025-12-04/

2025-12-04 21:44

Train 2 down nearly a month after initial start-up, sources say LNG Canada to provide update later this week, spokesperson says Facility faces technical issues, no export increase despite Train 2 start HOUSTON, Dec 4 (Reuters) - Shell-led (SHEL.L) , opens new tab LNG Canada's second processing unit, known as Train 2, remains down nearly a month after its initial start-up, two sources told Reuters. The company said on November 20 that a re-start had been scheduled for December 1 and would last about two weeks. Sign up here. A spokesperson for LNG Canada said on Thursday it expects to provide an update later this week. Located in Kitimat, British Columbia, the complex is the first major LNG export facility in Canada and the first on North America's West Coast with direct access to Asia, the world's largest market for the liquid fuel. When fully operational, LNG Canada is expected to export 14 million metric tonnes of LNG per year. Since starting up in July, the plant has had challenges, with its first train experiencing technical issues involving a gas turbine and refrigerant production unit. The company on November 6 announced it had started production from its second train, but data from financial firm LSEG has not shown an increase in exports since then. In both October and November, LNG Canada exported just above half a million tonnes of the superchilled gas, the LSEG data showed. LNG Canada is a joint venture between Shell, Malaysia's Petronas (PGAS.KL) , opens new tab, PetroChina (601857.SS) , opens new tab, Japan's Mitsubishi Corp (8058.T) , opens new tab and South Korea's KOGAS (036460.KS) , opens new tab. https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/shell-led-lng-canadas-second-processing-unit-still-down-sources-say-2025-12-04/