US stocks retreat on tariff uncertainty
After last week's focus on Congress passing the White House's spending plan, Trump announced he would send the first tariff letters Monday to various countries that have yet to reach deals with Washington.
The administration has said steep tariffs would take effect on August 1 if there is no agreement.
About 15 minutes into trading, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 0.2 percent at 44,733.06.
US stocks gain after solid June jobs figures
The broad-based S&P 500 declined 0.4 percent to 6,253.73, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index dropped 0.6 percent to 20,469.99.
Trump on Monday also threatened a further 10 percent tariff on countries aligning themselves with the emerging BRICS nations, accusing them of 'anti-Americanism' after they slammed his tariffs at a summit on Sunday.
'Markets like certainty and this tariff situation increases uncertainty,' said Adam Sarhan of 50 Park Investments.
Besides tariffs, analysts said the market was primed for a period of weakness after the S&P 500 and Nasdaq shot to fresh records last week.
Among individual companies, Tesla slumped 7.5 percent after Trump blasted CEO Elon Musk's plan to launch a new political party in opposition to Trump's fiscal plans.
The back-and-forth escalated a conflict between the two men that investors fear will hurt Musk's companies.
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Express Tribune
32 minutes ago
- Express Tribune
BRICS declares the South is done begging
As the world frays under trade wars, resource conflicts and the US credibility unravels under the weight of its own aggressive exceptionalism, BRICS declared that the emperor has no clothes and the Global South was done waiting for crumbs from imperial banquet tables. Held under the shadow of US belligerence and amid fresh wounds inflicted by wars equipped and backed by the West, the bloc's latest summit took on the air of a reawakened Non-Aligned Movement, with Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva asserting the Washington must stop 'behaving like an empire and 'begin respecting the sovereignty of others'. His response came in response to US Donald Trump's renewed tariff theatrics in the wake of the bloc's asserting of its sovereignty. The alliance's leaders reaffirmed their commitment to multilateralism, sovereign equality and a restructuring of global governance to reflect a 'new multipolar reality.' In a joint declaration the bloc warned that rising protectionism threatened global trade and called for reforms of institutions like the UN Security Council and the IMF so they better reflect emerging economies. The declaration was unusually muscular and named the reality of Gaza as a 'war of aggression' and condemned tactics such as starvation sieges that even NATO countries tiptoe around. Furthermore, it strongly backed Palestinian self-determination and expressing 'grave concern' over Israel's Gaza war and reiterating support for a Palestinian state within 1967 borders. The declaration also denounced the US–Israeli bombing of Iran's nuclear sites as a 'violation of international law'. Blasting trade wars, the communique took aim at 'unilateral tariff…barriers' that 'flout WTO regulations'. One major theme at Rio was financial autonomy. Rio's leaders agreed to build out practical infrastructure for cross-border payments in local currencies and endorsed a BRICS Cross-Border Payments Initiative – an alternative to SWIFT – to make trade faster and safer within the bloc. The system, spearheaded by the New Development Bank (NDB), aims to interconnect national payment platforms so that goods can be settled directly in, say, rupees for goods from Brazil, or yuans for contracts with China. Climate justice and the Green South Climate change was another urgent focus, especially with Brazil hosting the upcoming COP30 climate conference. The BRICS ministers used Rio to outline a 'climate geopolitics' agenda grounded in justice and development. They insisted that environmental policy cannot be separated from social welfare. Another key demand was massive climate financing. BRICS leaders noted developed countries had pledged US$100 billion per year by 2020, but actual flows remain far below need. They cited data showing climate finance requirements have soared to about $1.3 trillion (due to worsening impacts), while only a fraction of that is funded. As Ethiopia's ambassador warned in Rio, the 2030 development goals were way off track, and 'only about 17% of the goals are on track'. His plea was blunt: rich countries caused the bulk of emissions since the Industrial Revolution, yet poor nations bear the worst consequences. The bloc cast climate change as a development and justice issue, not just an environmental problem. It demands that wealthier nations deliver on past commitments and scale them up dramatically. Looming behind all the summit talk was a critique of the existing financial order – in essence, an indictment of the Western-led model of capitalism. BRICS leaders and allied thinkers pointed out how that model has pitted developing countries on the losing end of debt, austerity and austerity. For many in the Global South, today's 'free market' prescriptions have brought crisis after crisis. Moreover, IMF and World Bank have compounded a 'polycrisis' of hunger, climate, and debt by imposing punitive conditions and surcharges on vulnerable countries. For example, the IMF's insistence on cutting subsidies or raising interest rates forced Egypt to quadruple bread prices, sparking unrest, even as the IMF simultaneously imposed 'junk fees' (surcharges) that extra-burdened already cash-strapped governments. The numbers are stark. Debt justice advocates note that over half of the world's poorest countries are now in debt crisis. Since 2013 the number of Global South nations on the verge of default has more than doubled. As of 2022, 54 countries were classified as facing unsustainable debt burdens. In these countries, interest payments are crowding out everything else, Recent research finds they now spend five times more on repaying creditors than on climate adaptation and resilience. In other words, money that could build hospitals or flood defence is siphoned off to foreign banks and bondholders. For instance, Pakistan, hit by devastating floods in 2022, was forced to divert billions from reconstruction to service external debt even as development benchmarks languished Tariffs and limits of coercion On the other, just as the declaration landed with a thud, US President Donald Trump, in a characteristically forceful social media post on 7 July 2025, declared, 'Any Country aligning themselves with the Anti-American policies of BRICS, will be charged an ADDITIONAL 10% Tariff. There will be no exceptions to this policy. Thank you for your attention to this matter!' On the same day, Trump dispatched his infamous tariff letters, thinly veiled as diplomatic overtures but steeped in unilateral belligerence as the outlines of a broader geopolitical reordering became visible. The letters, which rationalised arbitrary tariff hikes under the guise of 'reciprocity,' were less about trade and more about a desperate assertion of imperial prerogative. However, beneath the surface ran the unmistakable traces of failed coercion, faltering hegemony and the paranoid anxiety that BRICS was no longer merely an acronym, but a nascent counter-power. The breakdown of negotiations over the preceding three months exposed the fraying limits of American economic statecraft. The old instruments of leverage such as sanctions, tariffs and financial blackmail appeared to have fatigue, not fear. Trump's pivot from suspension to escalation in the China tariff war revealed a strategic cul-de-sac. Plagued by its own contradictions and upsetting its own allies, the administration alienated long-time partners while inadvertently catalysing an emerging geopolitical bloc rooted in the shared experience of imperial exclusion. The BRICS summit in Brazil unfolded against this backdrop. No longer the butt of Western punditry, the bloc has matured into a platform with infrastructural and political density. Ten full members, dozens of interested observers, and over fifty states engaged in formal and informal dialogue suggest a layered institutional emergence, rather than mere rhetorical alignment. Measured by purchasing power, BRICS economies account for nearly half of global GDP and over half of the global population. Their economic trajectories increasingly set the pace for global growth. The states also command vast shares of industrial production, energy reserves, agricultural capacity and critical minerals, locating them within the core of the material reproduction processes on which global stability depends. As the financial capital in the West remains long decoupled from productive investment, BRICS economies remain anchored in physical output and strategic sectors, grounded in systemic exchange value and deriving strength from infrastructure, energy and commodities rather than speculative cycles. The key difference is that energy in these economies is not a volatile asset class, but a prerequisite for sovereign development. Russia, Iran, Brazil, the UAE and Saudi Arabia dominate fossil fuel markets, while China leads in renewables and storage technologies. These capacities form the base of coordinated state-led planning. Unlike the credit-driven economies of the North Atlantic, where returns are chased through stock buybacks and asset bubbles, BRICS states engage in long-term provisioning. Economic derangement In the United States, financialisation has advanced to the point of economic derangement. Productive sectors have been hollowed out. Industrial investment lags behind speculative flows. Shareholder returns dictate policy. Decades of offshoring and deindustrialisation have produced sharp internal polarisation: real wages stagnate, infrastructure decays, and essential services become unaffordable for large sections of the population. On the global stage, the dollar functions less as a stabilising currency than as a mechanism of control. Washington's reliance on financial warfare – via sanctions, reserve freezes, and regulatory overreach –has exposed the fragility of this model. As volatility is offloaded onto the Global South, states have begun to seek institutional and monetary alternatives. However, the desire to delink is not ideological but comes from the structural asymmetries imposed by dollar dependency. Meanwhile, Europe grapples with its own, increasingly intertwined crises. The break from Russian energy has frayed the continent's industrial core. Politically, Europe appears unmoored. It invokes strategic autonomy while subordinating security policy to NATO. It speaks the language of multilateralism while confiscating foreign assets, invoking liberal peace while escalating militarisation and even remains silent as genocide and economic exploitations wreak havoc with its leadership staggeringly beholden to the US security umbrella. However, analysts note this is not a tactical misstep but a deeper crisis of orientation, with competing imperatives pulling the project apart. The intensification of Western hostility toward BRICS must be situated within this broader geopolitical fatigue. The confrontations are not limited to foreign policy disputes but reflect a deeper structural unease. Russia's assertion of resource sovereignty, Iran's defiance of financial blackmail and China's infrastructural ascendancy all constitute affronts to a global order increasingly unable to reproduce itself on its own terms. States that refuse to act as auxiliaries are subjected to diplomatic pressure and narrative containment. The postwar liberal consensus and its unipolar afterglow are no longer capable of securing ideological consent. Inflation, ecological crisis, inequality, and institutional fragmentation are not imported shocks; they are endogenous to the prevailing model. The externalisation of blame through sanctions and military build-ups only hastens systemic fragmentation. The BRICS configuration does not emerge from vacuum. It arises from decades of structural adjustment, resource plunder and financial dependency. Its institutional evolution – through the NDB, cross-border payment systems and currency swaps – offers both protective infrastructure and a set of alternatives. Similarly, local currency trade, infrastructure investment without neoliberal conditionalities and policy coordination on energy and technology signal a concerted attempt to reclaim developmental sovereignty. Countries across Africa, Latin America, and Southeast Asia increasingly view BRICS+ as a strategic space to exit from the permanent austerity logic of Bretton Woods institutions. China, in this configuration, operates not as an imperial centre but as a strategic fulcrum. Its approach remains focused on connectivity, logistics and planning capacity. However, it is important to steer clear of the old post-Cold War shallow binaries: the 'authoritarian countries' in the BRICS are intending a reversal of globalisation but calling for a redirection. With their emphasis on real economy coordination, development financing and institutional redundancy, they are preparing for strategic insulation, not isolation. The bloc reflects a wider historical motion: a world disenchanted with liberal finance and searching for new instruments of survival and cooperation. The South is no longer a passive recipient in a preordained order. The architecture being assembled across BRICS states is uneven, unfinished and fraught, but undeniably real. The West can interpret this shift as a threat or a mirror. However, the historical momentum no longer centres on its crises. It centres elsewhere – in the slow, stubborn accumulation of material capacity outside the imperial core.
Express Tribune
2 hours ago
- Express Tribune
At Least 20 killed, including child, in Israeli strikes on Gaza
A view of the site of Israeli strike that damaged and destroyed residential buildings, at Shati (Beach) refugee camp, in Gaza City on July 4, 2025. Photo Reuters At least 20 Palestinians, including a child and a woman, were killed in Israeli attacks across Gaza on Saturday, according to local media and health officials. In Gaza City's Sabra neighbourhood, a child was killed in a strike on the Al Daya family home, Al Jazeera reported. A separate attack in the same area killed a woman and wounded three others. Elsewhere, at least 10 people were reported killed in Israeli strikes on Nuseirat in central Gaza. Three more died in attacks on al-Mawasi, while five were killed in western Gaza City. Family of slain US citizen in West Bank urges US-led probe The family of Sayfollah Musallet, a 20-year-old US citizen killed by Israeli settlers in the occupied West Bank, is calling on Washington to launch an independent investigation and hold those responsible to account. Musallet, known as Saif, was reportedly surrounded and beaten for three hours during an assault on Friday, according to a family statement. The attackers also allegedly targeted medics attempting to reach him. 'This is an unimaginable nightmare and injustice that no family should ever have to face,' the family said. They described Saif as a kind and hardworking young man from Florida who had been striving to build a better future. 'We demand that the US State Department lead an immediate investigation and hold the Israeli settlers who killed Saif accountable for their crimes. We demand justice,' the statement added. Rights group urges prosecution of Trump over Gaza aid killings The Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor has called for US President Donald Trump to be prosecuted for alleged complicity in genocide over his support for the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation's (GHF) aid distribution model. In a statement on X (formerly known as twitter), the Geneva-based group urged international legal bodies to hold Trump accountable for backing the GHF, where Israeli forces have killed hundreds of Palestinians at aid collection points in recent weeks. Euro-Med calls for prosecution of Trump and immediate shutdown of Gaza Humanitarian Foundation over massacres at aid points — Euro-Med Monitor (@EuroMedHR) July 12, 2025 The group said field testimony pointed to the presence of private US security contractors working alongside Israeli forces during some of the fatal incidents. It also accused Trump's administration of offering Israel broad military, financial, political and diplomatic support during its ongoing war in Gaza.
Express Tribune
7 hours ago
- Express Tribune
Trump slaps 30% tariff on Mexico, EU
Listen to article President Donald Trump on Saturday targeted Mexico and the European Union with steep 30 percent tariffs, dramatically raising the stakes in already tense negotiations with two of the largest US trading partners. Both sets of duties would take effect August 1, Trump said in formal letters posted to his Truth Social platform. The president cited Mexico's role in illicit drugs flowing into the United States and a trade imbalance with the EU as meriting the tariff threat. The EU swiftly slammed the announcement, warning that it would disrupt supply chains, but insisted it would continue talks on a deal ahead of the deadline. Since returning to the presidency in January, Trump has unleashed sweeping tariffs on allies and competitors alike, roiling financial markets and raising fears of a global economic downturn. But his administration is coming under pressure to secure deals with trading partners after promising a flurry of agreements. So far, US officials have only unveiled two pacts, with Britain and Vietnam, alongside temporarily lower tit-for-tat duties with China. The fresh duties for Mexico announced by Trump would be higher than the 25 percent levy he imposed on Mexican goods earlier this year, although products entering the United States under the US-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) are exempted. "Mexico has been helping me secure the border, BUT, what Mexico has done, is not enough," Trump said in his letter to Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum. "Starting August 1, 2025, we will charge Mexico a Tariff of 30% on Mexican products sent into the United States." The EU tariff is also markedly steeper than the 20 percent levy Trump unveiled in April, as negotiations with the bloc continue. "Imposing 30 percent tariffs on EU exports would disrupt essential transatlantic supply chains, to the detriment of businesses, consumers and patients on both sides of the Atlantic," European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen said in a statement, in reply to Trump's letter to her. "We remain ready to continue working towards an agreement by August 1. At the same time, we will take all necessary steps to safeguard EU interests, including the adoption of proportionate countermeasures if required," she added. The EU, alongside dozens of other economies, had been set to see its US tariff level increase from a baseline of 10 percent on Wednesday, but Trump pushed back the deadline to August 1. Since the start of the week, Trump has sent out letters to more than 20 countries with updated tariffs for each, including a 35 percent levy for Canada. A US official has told AFP that the USMCA exemption was expected to remain for Canada. Brussels said Friday that it was ready to strike a deal with Washington to prevent the return of 20 percent levies. The EU has prepared retaliatory duties on US goods worth around 21 billion euros after Trump also slapped separate tariffs on steel and aluminum imports earlier this year, and they are suspended until July 14. European officials have not made any move to extend the suspension but could do it quickly if needed. "Despite all the movement toward a deal, this threat shows the EU is in the same camp of uncertainty as almost every other country in the world," said Josh Lipsky, chair of international economics at the Atlantic Council. He told AFP that the path forward now depends on how the EU responds, calling it "one of the most precarious moments of the trade war so far."
