2025-02-19 19:11

EU willing to discuss lowering car, truck tariffs, Sefcovic says EU wants mutually beneficial trade relationship with US-Sefcovic Sefcovic will seek details on priorities for Trump trade team WASHINGTON, Feb 19 (Reuters) - The European Union's top trade officials said on Wednesday the bloc was interested in making mutually beneficial trade deals with U.S. President Donald Trump, and was ready to discuss the potential for reducing or eliminating tariffs on motor vehicles and other goods. Maros Sefcovic, commissioner for trade and economic security, told an American Enterprise Institute event in Washington that he would tell Trump administration trade officials that he hoped to avoid unilateral U.S. tariffs and European retaliation. "I will be making this point to my American counterparts when I meet them later today. The EU is interested in making deals – deals that foster fairness, burden-sharing and mutual benefits," Sefcovic said. Sefcovic is slated to meet with newly confirmed U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, top White House economic adviser Kevin Hassett and U.S. Trade Representative nominee Jamieson Greer later on Wednesday. The 27-member EU could be hit especially hard by Trump's "reciprocal" tariff plan announced last week to raise U.S. import tariff rates to match those charged by other countries. The EU has a 10% tariff on passenger cars, four times the rate of the U.S. passenger car tariff of 2.5% and U.S. officials have complained about European value added taxes of at least 17.5%. Trump has erroneously said on several occasions that the EU had already agreed to lower its car tariff to 2.5%. Sefcovic confirmed the EU had taken no such action, but was ready to discuss. "So if we are going to talk about lowering the tariffs, even eliminating the tariffs, let's say for industrial products, this will be something which we are ready to discuss," he said. "We are ready to go for it." This includes discussions about lowering vehicle tariffs on both sides, he said, adding that he would also want to look at the much higher 25% U.S. tariff on pickup trucks. The duty, which stems from a 1960s U.S.-European trade dispute, keeps non-North American imports out of one of the most lucrative segments of the U.S. vehicle market. In the meeting with U.S. counterparts, he said he would like to learn their priority trade topics so that discussions can start to reach common ground in a "solid, solid package." But Sefcovic reiterated prior statements that there was no justification for unilateral U.S. tariffs, and that the EU would "respond firmly and swiftly, but we do hope to avoid this scenario." Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/business/eu-trade-chief-ready-discuss-trade-deals-lower-tariffs-with-trump-2025-02-19/

2025-02-19 19:09

FXI and KWEB ETFs draw heavy call options trading FXI and KWEB shares rallied after DeepSeek's AI assistant launch Investors bullish as tariff headlines appear less severe than feared NEW YORK, Feb 19 (Reuters) - U.S.-listed exchange-traded funds focused on China have drawn bullish options flows as the emergence of artificial intelligence startup DeepSeek brightens the outlook for Chinese tech shares, and tariff-related news seemed less threatening than before. Traders have been loading up in recent weeks on bullish options on the KraneShares CSI China Internet ETF (KWEB.P) , opens new tab and the iShares Trust-China Large-Cap ETF (FXI.P) , opens new tab, the two largest Chinese equity ETFs with combined assets of about $15 billion, options data showed. One-month average daily trading volume in KraneShares CSI China Internet ETF call options, typically bought to position for upside, outnumbers defensive put options nearly 5-to-1, close to the most bullish this measure has been in about four years, Trade Alert data showed. Options on large-cap focused FXI have also been in high demand with skew - a measure of relative demand for calls and puts - showing traders' preference for call options, recent Cboe data showed. "There's been a lot of interest in China upside. That's definitely been a big theme," said Alex Kosoglyadov, managing director for equity derivatives at Nomura. Chinese stocks have rallied in recent weeks as investors rush into AI-related stocks, betting that DeepSeek's advance will lead to a boom in the sector and give China the upper hand in an intensifying Sino-U.S. technology war. FXI shares have risen about 12% and KWEB shares are up 14% since Chinese startup DeepSeek's late January rollout of its free AI assistant it said uses cheaper chips and less data, seemingly challenging the United States as an AI superpower. "People are definitely growing optimistic about China's potential to produce an AI ecosystem that's competitive with what the U.S. has been building out," Kosoglyadov said, noting bullish flows into the FXI and KWEB ETFs. Some of the options optimism may also have to do with tariff-related relief. U.S. President Donald Trump had promised 60% tariffs on Chinese imports before he was elected, but revised that to 10% after taking office. Global hedge funds keen to navigate U.S.-China trade tensions are amassing Chinese stock bets in the hopes of making huge profits if Beijing forms a pact with Trump, or if the rest of the world and China unite against him. "I think people are ultimately optimistic because you've had a much softer tone on China from the Trump administration, if you compare what we heard during the campaign," Kosoglyadov said. Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/markets/china-etfs-draw-bullish-options-bets-ai-play-eased-tariff-fears-2025-02-19/

2025-02-19 19:00

April 16 (Reuters) - President Donald Trump and tech billionaire Elon Musk are undertaking a sweeping campaign to cut the size of the 2.3 million-strong civilian U.S. government workforce. Over 260,000 employees have been fired, taken early retirement, have been earmarked for termination or have accepted buyouts. A new wave of cuts targeting career government workers has begun, together with a second buyout offer. Over 75,000 federal employees took an original buyout deal offered in January. Sign up here. Here are details of some of the layoffs, announced firings, buyouts and resignations at federal departments and agencies gleaned by Reuters reporters. INTERNAL REVENUE SERVICE More than 22,000 employees at the tax-collecting IRS have accepted the Trump administration's latest buyout offer, two agency sources told Reuters on April 15, which coincidentally is the tax-filing deadline for most Americans. The IRS is planning to eliminate 20% to 25% of its workforce by May 15, according to a person briefed on the agency's plans. The IRS had about 100,000 workers when Trump took office. With the latest buyout figures, possibly a third will leave the agency. SOCIAL SECURITY ADMINISTRATION The Social Security Administration, the agency that provides benefits to tens of millions of older Americans and those with disabilities, plans to cut 7,000 workers, reducing its workforce by more than 12% to 50,000. DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services will cut about 10,000 full-time jobs and close half of its regional offices, it said on March 27, a major overhaul of the department under Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Employees of various departmental agencies began receiving their termination notices on April 1. The latest job cuts, and about 10,000 recent voluntary departures, will reduce the number of full-time employees at the department to 62,000 from 82,000, the department said. VETERANS AFFAIRS The Department of Veterans Affairs is planning to cut more than 80,000 workers from the agency, according to an internal memo seen by Reuters. The VA's chief of staff, Christopher Syrek, sent the memo to senior agency officials, telling them the goal was to return the agency to 2019 staffing levels of just under 400,000. That would mean cutting about 82,000 staff, many of whom are veterans. DEFENSE DEPARTMENT The Pentagon has so far approved 21,000 applications from civilian employees to take the original buyout offer, a number set to rise. The Pentagon says it has also started a hiring freeze and aims to ultimately reduce its 950,000-strong civilian workforce by 5% to 8%. USAID The U.S. Agency for International Development, which oversees the delivery of American humanitarian assistance, has said that all direct hires except essential workers will be put on leave and 1,600 USAID personnel in the U.S. will be cut. It also plans to fire the more than 10,000 foreign nationals employed by USAID, as well as U.S. diplomats and civil servants assigned to USAID missions abroad. CIA The Central Intelligence Agency has fired a slew of recent hires, three people familiar with the matter said, cuts that current and former U.S. intelligence officers warned would risk damaging U.S. national security. Reuters could not determine the exact number. DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE At least 75 career Justice Department lawyers and FBI officials, who normally keep their roles from administration to administration, have either resigned, been fired or stripped of their posts in the first weeks of the Trump administration. DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR About 2,300 workers were laid off from the Interior Department, sources said, including about 800 people from the Bureau of Land Management, which manages millions of federally owned acres for uses ranging from oil and gas development to timber harvesting, recreation and cultural preservation. Overall, the department employs more than 70,000 people and oversees 500 million acres (202.3 million hectares) of public lands, including dozens of national parks. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE The USDA fired nearly 6,000 probationary workers in mid-February, including 3,400 at the Forest Service, a division of the agency that manages millions of acres of national forests and grasslands, equal to 10% of its workforce, people familiar with the plans said. Others fired included workers at the National Institute of Food and Agriculture, which supports agricultural science and technology research, and the Economic Research Service, which produces reports and data on the farm economy, sources said. The agency was ordered by federal courts in March to reinstate those probationary workers. On April 1, it offered employees a second round of financial incentives to leave the agency, according to an email seen by Reuters, as the agency finalizes its broader plan to lay off staff. DEPARTMENT OF STATE The Trump administration has asked U.S. missions worldwide to prepare for staff cuts as part of an overhaul of the U.S. diplomatic corps. Trump says he wants a workforce that will not dither in implementing his policies. Some embassies had been asked to look into reducing both U.S. staff as well as locally employed staff by 10% each. Already, dozens of contractors working at various State Department bureaus have been laid off. DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY About 700 workers have been laid off at the Department of Energy, the agency said. Sources have told Reuters that as many as 2,000 workers have been informed they were being laid off and that managers were told to provide evidence for why some of those should be rehired. On February 14, sources said 325 workers had been sent notice that they had been laid off from the National Nuclear Security Administration, an Energy Department office that manages the U.S. nuclear weapons arsenal and secures dangerous nuclear materials around the world. But after a public uproar and a scramble by the administration to hire back some of these employees, fewer than 50 workers from the agency were ultimately purged, the Energy Department said. Overall, the Energy Department has about 14,000 employees and 95,000 contractors. ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY The Environmental Protection Agency, which enforces laws such as the Clean Air Act and works to protect the environment, has fired 388 probationary employees. The agency has also placed on leave nearly 200 employees who work on environmental justice programs. The White House has said the EPA plans to cut its spending by 65%. FEDERAL AVIATION ADMINISTRATION The FAA fired more than 300 employees out of its workforce of 45,000, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said on X, as questions arise around air traffic safety amid a spate of recent plane accidents. DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION Trump on March 20 signed an executive order intended to essentially dismantle the Department of Education, making good on a campaign promise to shutter the agency, although Congress would need to approve that. The order is designed to leave school policy almost entirely in the hands of states and local boards, a prospect that alarms liberal education advocates. The department had already announced on March 11 that it will cut nearly half its staff. Those layoffs would leave the department with 2,183 workers, down from 4,133 when Trump took office in January. NATIONAL OCEANIC AND ATMOSPHERIC ADMINISTRATION The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the agency that provides the U.S. government's weather forecasts, is planning layoffs of 1,029 workers, its second round of cuts. NOAA has already cut 1,300 employees through the mass firing of probationary workers and a voluntary buyout program. In addition to everyday forecasting, NOAA - which houses the National Weather Service, the National Hurricane Center and two tsunami warning centers - provides crucial information to help Americans survive weather emergencies. SMALL BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION The Small Business Administration, the agency that provides loans and support to small businesses across the country, said on March 21 that it will eliminate about 2,700 jobs or roughly 40% of its overall staff. OFFICE OF PERSONNEL MANAGEMENT OPM, which has led the charge on federal government firings, has laid off more than 200 of its own employees and allowed over 400 to opt into voluntary exit programs since Trump took office, two people familiar with the matter said. One of the sources said another 90 people had opted into a program to incentivize early retirement. Other agencies or independent government agencies that face cuts, or have been effectively closed, include: The U.S. Institute for Peace Voice of America The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau The General Services Administration The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration The Institute of Museum and Library Services https://www.reuters.com/world/us/how-hard-have-us-agencies-been-bit-by-trump-musks-layoffs-2025-02-14/

2025-02-19 17:27

LONDON, Feb 19 (Reuters) - A ceasefire or peace deal to end the war between Ukraine and Russia would be "net positive" for the currencies of nearby emerging economies, investment bank JPMorgan said on Wednesday. Much of that boost, though, may already be factored in, it said in a research note. JPMorgan added that it was keeping a neutral or "market weight" stance on Ukraine's government bonds until there was more clarity on the details of a peace deal. "Even as a ceasefire appears closer, a likelihood of a sustainable peace deal acceptable to all sides remains a question mark," the note said. Sovereign debt markets already price close to a 70% probability of a durable peace deal, it estimated. In the most optimistic scenario, Ukraine bonds would likely see the most positive impact while its so-called GDP warrants - bond-like instruments that pay out when Ukraine's economy grows strongly - have a more "limited" upside. U.S. President Donald Trump's surprise move last week to hold bilateral talks with Russia about ending the near three-year long war has taken Ukraine and European capitals aback and sparked fevered speculation about how a ceasefire would work. Trump has continued to stoke tensions since and denounced Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy on Wednesday as "a dictator without elections", saying he needed to move fast to secure peace or he would have no country left. It added that outside Ukraine, Hungary and Turkey's currencies could be the biggest beneficiary if a ceasefire deal helps brings down European gas prices by allowing Russian gas to be bought more freely again. Hungary is the most gas-intensive economy in the region, footing the biggest gas import bill worth 4.9% of its GDP at the 2022 peak in prices, and 1.3% in 2024. Ukraine's economy will benefit from the post-war rebuild effort. Yearly reconstruction needs likely significantly exceed $35 billion and are possibly up to $50 bn per year/ However "the risk of Russia restarting the war will limit any appetite for large reconstruction activities," JPMorgan cautioned. Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/markets/currencies/jpmorgan-sees-ukraine-peace-deal-giving-modest-lift-currencies-2025-02-19/

2025-02-19 13:54

Feb 19 (Reuters) - J.P. Morgan said equity markets in Argentina and Turkey could post returns of more than 20% this year, driven by policy reforms aimed at reducing inflation levels. "Lifting of capital controls is a potential upside driver for Argentina," said J.P. Morgan analysts in a note on Tuesday, while adding that Turkey's ongoing path to lower inflation and lower interest rates could bolster its equities. Argentina's benchmark Merval stock index (.MERV) , opens new tab is trading at nine times its 12-month forward price-to-earnings (PE) ratio, while Turkey's BIST 100 index (.XU100) , opens new tab trades at seven times, as per JPM estimates. Both indexes are trading at a discount to the broader MSCI emerging markets index (.dMIEF00000PUS) , opens new tab whose PE ratio stands at 12. MILEI'S REFORMS PAVING THE WAY Investors are doubling down on Argentina's stocks and bonds even as they hit records in 2024, as Javier Milei's government seeks to reduce inflation and eliminate capital controls that have been detrimental to business and investment. JPM expects the lifting of capital controls and the upcoming midterm elections in October to further support the region's equities. In the last 12 months, Argentina's benchmark has risen 77% in dollar-denominated terms, the second-best global performance of 92 main equity markets, as per JPM's estimates. TURNING TIDE IN TURKEY Having upgraded Turkish equities to "overweight" from "neutral" last month, JPM says falling inflation and the rate-cutting cycle could further help the broader stock market. In local currency terms, the BIST 100 index has risen about 8% in the last twelve months. After interest rate cuts of 250 basis points each in December and January, the Turkish central bank's policy rate now stands at 45% and economists expect rates to be lowered to 30% by the end of the year, which is in line with JPM's forecasts. JPM favors Argentina's financials and energy sectors, while for Turkey, the brokerage's top stock pick is food retailer BIM Birlesik Magazalar AS (BIMAS.IS) , opens new tab, but also favors Akbank (AKBNK.IS) , opens new tab, Turkish Airlines (THYAO.IS) , opens new tab and food retailer Migros . Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/markets/argentine-turkish-stocks-could-post-more-than-20-returns-this-year-says-jpmorgan-2025-02-19/

2025-02-19 12:39

BERLIN, Feb 20 (Reuters) - Germany's antitrust authority urged stronger regulation of price quotations used in the oil market on Wednesday after an examination showed pricing based on limited data which was vulnerable to manipulation, it said. Price quotations are usually linked to wholesale procurement contracts and can indirectly influence retail prices. They are provided by price-reporting agencies such as S&P Global Commodity Insights (Platts) and Argus Media, based on reported transactions. "Participants across global market trust in Argus’ independent status and rely on the price transparency Argus provides," an Argus spokesperson said on Thursday. "Adherence to the IOSCO Price Reporting Agency (PRA) principles, which are recognised by regulators around the world, ensures an internationally accepted robust compliance framework, free from conflicts of interest." S&P Global Commodity Insights (Platts) did not immediately respond to Reuters' request for comment. However, the cartel office investigation found that in some cases a small number of market participants dominated the reporting process, raising concerns about potential price manipulation. "According to the investigations, there are incentives and opportunities to influence individual price quotations in an anti-competitive manner," the report read. The Federal Cartel Office launched its investigation in 2022 into Germany's refinery and wholesale fuel market in response to price developments following Russia's invasion of Ukraine. The two-stage inquiry examined refinery-level pricing, fuel imports, supply chains, and market behaviours, aiming to enhance competition and improve price transparency. "The investigations have once again shown that the conditions for functioning competition in the mineral oil sector in Germany are difficult," Cartel Office head Andreas Mundt said in a statement. Germany's Economy Ministry declined to comment. Michaela Westrup, an antitrust lawyer at Reed Smith, said the Cartel Office has new powers since 2023 which allow the agency under certain conditions to intervene even when no clear antitrust violations exist but structural market distortions are evident. Westrup said oil pricing was a particular concern in Germany following Russia's invasion of Ukraine when prices initially surged and later dropped globally, as retail fuel prices remained high in Germany despite falling wholesale costs. "(The Cartel Office) will certainly take a closer look itself and could carry out an investigation of individual players," Westrup told Reuters. The competition watchdog recommended on Wednesday stricter legal requirements on price quotations and exploring ways to better protect them from manipulation, adding that it was also considering taking action itself. It said it was also concerned about the increasing number of price changes at petrol stations. By the beginning of 2024, prices were changing around 18 times a day, up from four to five changes a decade earlier, it said, making it difficult for consumers to make decisions. Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/germanys-antitrust-watchdog-flags-pricing-issues-oil-market-2025-02-19/