2025-03-27 20:20

Advanced Micro Devices down after brokerage downgrade Weekly jobless claims at 224,000 S&P 500 -0.33%, Nasdaq -0.53%, Dow -0.37% March 27 (Reuters) - The S&P 500 ended lower on Thursday, as investors grappled with U.S. President Donald Trump's latest trade tariff announcement that hit shares of General Motors and Ford. Trump unveiled on Wednesday his plan to implement a 25% tariff on imported cars and light trucks effective on April 3, while the duty on auto parts begins on May 3. Investors are also bracing for a wave of reciprocal tariffs Trump plans to unveil on Wednesday, although the president has hinted there may be room for flexibility. Sign up here. In a volatile session on Wall Street, General Motors (GM.N) , opens new tab tumbled over 7% and Ford (F.N) , opens new tab slid 3.9%. Car parts manufacturers Aptiv and BorgWarner (BWA.N) , opens new tab each lost around 5%. Tesla (TSLA.O) , opens new tab edged up 0.4%, with investors betting the electric vehicle maker will be hurt less by tariffs because of its largely domestic production. Apple (AAPL.O) , opens new tab added 1.05%, helping limit the S&P 500's loss. Trump's mercurial trade policies have created uncertainty on Wall Street, as investors fret over potential disruptions to supply chains, hampered investment, and the specter of inflation threatening global economic growth. "Investors are really cautious and wary of Trump and his policies. Even more than the policies, just the constant flip-flopping," said Jed Ellerbroek, a portfolio manager at Argent Capital in St. Louis, Missouri. "That makes people really nervous to make long-term investment decisions, whether we're talking about companies or about investors." The S&P 500 declined 0.33% to end the session at 5,693.31 points. The Nasdaq dropped 0.53% to 17,804.03 points, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average declined 0.37% to 42,299.70 points. Of the 11 S&P 500 sector indexes, eight declined, led lower by energy (.SPNY) , opens new tab, down 0.85%, followed by a 0.84% loss in communication services (.SPLRCL) , opens new tab. The number of Americans filing new applications for unemployment benefits slipped last week, while the jobless rate appeared to have held steady in March. Also on Thursday, the headline figure for fourth-quarter gross domestic product growth was revised to 2.4%, higher than the consensus estimate of 2.3% in a Reuters poll. Shares of Dollar Tree (DLTR.O) , opens new tab jumped 11% as several analysts raised their price targets after the discount retailer on Wednesday said it its struggling Family Dollar business for about $1 billion. Investors on Friday will focus on the February personal consumption expenditures price index — the Federal Reserve's favored inflation gauge. Traders have trimmed their exposure to U.S. equities, with the S&P 500 down about 7% from its record high close on February 19. The Nasdaq is down almost 12% from its record high close on December 16. The S&P 500 and Nasdaq are both on course to conclude the first quarter of 2025 in negative territory. So far in 2025, the S&P 500 has lost about 3% and the Nasdaq is down almost 8%. Fed policymakers Susan Collins and Thomas Barkin are expected to share their economic insights later on Thursday. Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones within the S&P 500 (.AD.SPX) , opens new tab by a 1.3-to-one ratio. The S&P 500 posted 15 new highs and seven new lows. The Nasdaq recorded 34 new highs and 195 new lows. Volume on U.S. exchanges was relatively light, with 14.7 billion shares traded, compared to an average of 16.3 billion shares over the previous 20 sessions. https://www.reuters.com/markets/us/wall-st-futures-muted-auto-stocks-slide-after-trumps-tariffs-2025-03-27/

2025-03-27 20:18

MEXICO CITY, March 27 (Reuters) - The Bank of Mexico delivered a unanimous 50-basis-point interest rate cut to 9.00% on Thursday, highlighting progress on inflation but warning of heightened uncertainty relating to trade tensions and a weakening economy. The move, which was expected by analysts polled by Reuters, brings Mexico's benchmark rate to its lowest level since September 2022. It was the second consecutive cut of half a percentage point after the bank's five-member governing board sped up its rate-cutting pace at its February meeting. Sign up here. Cuts of the same size could be considered at future meetings, Banxico, as the Mexican central bank is known, said in a statement announcing its decision. Banxico highlighted that Mexico's disinflation progress is "well on track." Mexico's inflation rate has fallen within the bank's target range of 3%, plus or minus a percentage point. Data released days before the policy meeting showed that headline inflation eased to 3.67% on an annual basis in the first half of March, down from 3.74% in the previous month. Easing inflation comes amid mounting concerns of a possible recession in Latin America's no. 2 economy, which was battered last year by a drought and has been thrashed in recent weeks by Washington's on-again, off-again tariff threats and a related drop in investor confidence. "The changes in economic policy by the new U.S. administration have added uncertainty to the forecasts," said Banxico, adding that the effects could possibly push inflation higher or lower. Banxico's rate decision comes a day after U.S. President Donald Trump announced new tariffs on auto imports, posing a threat to Mexico's critical auto industry. Earlier this week, JPMorgan said a recession in Mexico was "unavoidable" after data from Mexico's statistics agency showed the economy shrunk 0.2% in January. Banxico said Mexico's economy "is expected to exhibit weakness once again in the first quarter of 2025." A first-quarter contraction would mark a technical recession, after the economy shrunk in the fourth quarter - its first quarterly contraction since the pandemic. Banxico does not have economic growth under its remit and has taken a more cautious approach to rate-cutting than its regional counterparts, but a cooling economy generally could give it more space to continue cutting borrowing costs. https://www.reuters.com/markets/rates-bonds/bank-mexico-cuts-interest-rate-flags-trade-economic-uncertainty-2025-03-27/

2025-03-27 20:12

March 27 (Reuters) - Social media platforms X and Reddit (RDDT.N) , opens new tab were back online after thousands of users in the U.S. experienced disruptions on Thursday, according to outage tracking website Downdetector.com. On its status page, Reddit confirmed degraded performance that affected the website at 3:16 p.m. ET. Sign up here. More than 33,000 incidents were reported at the peak of Reddit's outage, Downdetector showed, which tracks outages by collating status reports from various sources. A Reddit spokesperson said the outage was due to a bug in a recent update, which has now been fixed. The number of reports for X was around 18,000 at the peak of its outage, which started around 3:03 p.m. ET for the Elon Musk-owned social media company. X did not immediately respond to Reuters' request for comment. Downdetector's numbers are based on user-submitted reports. The actual number of affected users may vary. https://www.reuters.com/technology/musks-x-down-thousands-users-us-downdetector-shows-2025-03-27/

2025-03-27 19:55

LONDON, March 27 (Reuters) - The euro zone's economic recovery may have been held back by households' "misperception" of inflation and income, which has made them reluctant to spend, European Central Bank board member Isabel Schnabel said on Thursday. Policymakers and economists have long been puzzled by how little of their income euro zone consumers are prepared to spend, even as inflation in the 20-country bloc slows and salaries catch up with past price hikes. Sign up here. Schnabel said this may be due to many households failing to recognise a recent increase in their real income. "Over the past three years, real private consumption has increased more slowly than real disposable income," Schnabel said during a lecture on financial literacy in London. "This can be partly explained by household misperceptions of their real income developments." She added that real income grew in over half of all households in the euro area last year but that an ECB survey of consumers showed that only 11% perceived that increase. The net percentage of pessimistic households is higher for poorer and less financially educated households, the survey showed. "This implies that lower inflation due to restrictive monetary policy generally had a weaker impact on consumption due to such misperceptions, dampening the recovery," Schnabel added. https://www.reuters.com/markets/europe/euro-zone-consumers-may-be-put-off-by-inflation-misperception-ecbs-schnabel-says-2025-03-27/

2025-03-27 19:43

March 27 (Reuters) - Companies planning a flagship offshore gas project between Venezuela and Trinidad and Tobago "have not slowed down" work, Trinidad Prime Minister Stuart Young said on Thursday, despite the United States increasing pressure on sanctioned Venezuela and uncertainty over the extension of a license for the project. Following talks with U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who is visiting South American and Caribbean countries this week, Young said the "landscape is changing," referring to the imposition of secondary tariffs on importers of Venezuelan oil and gas recently announced by Washington. Sign up here. A U.S. license authorizing the gas project, located in Venezuelan waters and whose first production could come as early as next year, was granted in 2023 to Shell (SHEL.L) , opens new tab and Trinidad's National Gas Company. It is set to expire in October. The United States has not shown its commitment to extend it, even though companies see the extension as essential to secure first output once a final investment decision is made on the project, which could come this year. Trinidad's government plans to buy equipment from U.S. providers to bolster energy security, Young added, without providing details. https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/key-gas-project-with-venezuela-not-slowing-down-despite-us-pressure-trinidad-2025-03-27/

2025-03-27 19:33

March 27 (Reuters) - Bolivia's state-run energy company YPFB expects to receive a total of five diesel and gasoline cargoes through Chile by April 4, including three to be imported from Houston, the company said on Thursday. YPFB confirmed the origin of the cargoes to Reuters on Thursday, in response to LSEG shipping data showing that several tankers have loaded in recent months at the Russian Baltic ports of Vysotsk and Primorsk signaling the Chilean port of Arica as the point of discharge. Sign up here. A spokesperson for YPFB was unable to confirm the origin of the two other cargoes due to arrive in Arica. Landlocked Bolivia relies on regional ports for its diesel and gasoline supplies. https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/bolivia-expects-five-fuel-cargoes-through-chile-by-april-4-ypfb-says-2025-03-27/