SES, Intelsat Deal Creating Satellite Giant Cleared by UK
By and Upmanyu Trivedi
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SES SA 's $3.1 billion acquisition of Intelsat SA was cleared by the UK 's competition regulator, in a move that will create a satellite giant to compete more closely with Elon Musk's Starlink.
The Competition and Markets Authority decided on the basis of 'the information currently available to it,' to not subject the deal to an in-depth probe, it said in a statement on Friday.
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Yahoo
15 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Morning Bid: Trump-Musk bust-up smolders
By Mike Dolan LONDON (Reuters) - What matters in U.S. and global markets today Donald Trump's hotly anticipated meetings with the leaders of the world's two other biggest economies ended up being sideshows compared to his online bust-up with billionaire backer Elon Musk. It's Friday, so today I'll provide a quick overview of what's happening in global markets and then offer you some weekend reading suggestions away from the headlines. Today's Market Minute * White House aides scheduled a call between Donald Trump and Elon Musk for Friday, Politico reported, after a huge public spat that saw threats fly over government contracts and ended with the world's richest man suggesting the U.S. president should be impeached. * U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping confronted weeks of brewing trade tensions and a battle over critical minerals in a rare leader-to-leader call on Thursday that left key issues to further talks. * China has signalled for more than 15 years that it was looking to weaponise areas of the global supply chain, a strategy modelled on longstanding American export controls Beijing views as aimed at stalling its rise. The scramble in recent weeks to secure export licences for rare earths shows China has devised a better, more precisely targeted weapon for the trade war. * By any measure, the recent resilience of U.S. stocks is remarkable, with Wall Street powering through numerous headwinds to erase all its tariff-fueled losses and move into positive territory for the year. Reuters columnist Jamie McGeever explains why the rally may still have some juice left in it. * There are some tentative early signs that weak thermal coal prices are starting to boost import demand among Asia's heavyweight buyers China and India. Read Reuters Columnist Clyde Russell to find out more. Trump-Musk bust-up smolders For markets trying to navigate everything from creeping signs of labor market weakness to the latest European Central Bank easing, the spat between the U.S. president and the world's richest man proved more than a distraction. It remains to be seen if it overshadows the May payrolls report later on Friday. The extraordinary sparring match drew in other major political and business figures and included potentially seismic accusations and threats. In turn, the share price of Musk's Tesla plummeted almost 20% at one point, dragging Wall Street stock indexes and crypto tokens deep into the red. The public feud appeared to cool off somewhat overnight and allowed stock futures to regain some lost ground. But the fact that the spat overshadowed the other major events of the day was another marker of this administration's unpredictability. The substance of the row was over Trump's "one big beautiful" fiscal bill that Musk thinks is a "disgusting abomination" due to the amount of spending. The bill, which has yet to be passed by the Senate, is expected to add $2.4 trillion to the U.S. debt over the next decade, based on CBO estimates. The vast bulk of this will likely be incurred over the next four years. In the background, the call between Trump and China's President Xi Jinping delivered no breakthroughs in the trade row apart from warmer words and an agreement to resume talks. The Oval Office meeting with Germany's Chancellor Friedrich Merz was relatively positive about trade and diplomatic issues. Earlier in the day, the ECB cut rates again as expected and suggested that there may be a pause at its next meeting and that it could be near the end of its easing cycle now that 'real' inflation-adjusted rates are back near zero. The euro hit a six-week high on Thursday regardless, although it gave back those daily gains today. Rising weekly U.S. jobless claims, meantime, cast a shadow over today's release of the May employment report. Consensus forecasts are for a slowdown in payroll growth to 130,000. Treasury yields, which ebbed and flowed all day on the conflicting signals from the trade meetings and stock gyrations, are back hovering at the week's lows ahead of the jobs report. Even though Federal Reserve officials continue to signal caution about the uncertain outlook ahead, markets are now priced for a resumption of Fed cuts by September. Into the already confusing mix, the Treasury released its annual report on potential currency manipulation overseas, adding Switzerland and Ireland to its watchlist, which already includes China, Japan, Germany, South Korea, Taiwan, Singapore and Vietnam. The list likely carries more heft than usual amid multiple tense trade negotiations. Markets assume the U.S. may pressure other countries to let their currencies appreciate versus the dollar as part of deals to avert severe tariffs being re-imposed next month. The Swiss National Bank responded on Friday by saying it would intervene in currency markets where necessary to keep inflation on track. Intervention to cap a super-strong franc has been a critical monetary tool used over the past decade and may need to be tapped again now that Swiss inflation has returned negative just as the SNB's key interest rate is set to return to zero in June. Elsewhere, China's yuan slipped against the dollar while falling to a near two-year low versus its major trading partners on Friday as the Trump-Xi call fell short of many expectations. Stock markets overseas were mixed on Friday as Wall Street remained on edge and the U.S. jobs report loomed. In the euro zone, first-quarter GDP was revised higher to show twice the growth originally estimated: 0.6% quarter-on-quarter, leading to an annual rate of 1.5%. India's central bank cut key rates by a larger-than-expected 50 basis points to 5.5%, its steepest cut in five years. It also slashed its cash reserve ratio - funds that banks are required to hold - by 100 bps to 3% in a surprise move aimed at boosting lending and speeding up policy transmission. In single stocks, Tesla shares recovered around 5% in Frankfurt on Friday, having closed down 14% in New York yesterday amid the Trump-Musk spat. It lost about $150 billion in market value yesterday, which caused the erstwhile member of the 'Magnificent Seven' megacaps to drop to ninth in the list of most-valuable firms behind Broadcom and Berkshire Hathaway. Broadcom's shares, however, fell 4% in extended trading overnight as its forecast-beating earnings seemed to underwhelm the Street. In Bank of America's weekly tally of fund flows, U.S. stocks saw outflows of $7.5 billion, the third week of exits, while European shares saw inflows of $2.6 billion, the eighth week of inflows. Weekend reading suggestions * 'BLUE BONDS': European countries should seize the moment to boost the size and liquidity of jointly-issued euro sovereign debt, and a solution could be to replace a proportion of the stock of national bonds with senior Eurobonds, or 'blue bonds'. So says a 'working document' from Peterson Institute senior fellow and former IMF chief economist Olivier Blanchard in a paper jointly written with Citadel's Angel Ubide. * NUCLEAR BLIND SPOTS: United Nations nuclear watchdogs appear to have lost track of some critical elements of Iran's nuclear activities since U.S. President Donald Trump ditched a 2015 deal that imposed strict restrictions and close supervision by the International Atomic Energy Agency. Reuters Francois Murphy and John Irish report on key blind spots that include not knowing how many centrifuges Iran possesses or where the machines and their parts are produced and stored. * OCEAN ECONOMY: Trade in the global 'ocean economy' hit as much as $2.2 trillion in 2023, about 7% of total world trade, but this trade is increasingly threatened by climate change and environmental problems, the United Nations trade and development arm UNCTAD showed in a report this week. The ocean economy grew faster than the world economy at large in the five years to 2020 and an estimated 100 million jobs depend on it. * 'TRUMP DOCTRINE': The emerging foreign policy under President Donald Trump resembles a 'look the other way' doctrine or a 'none of our business' doctrine, argues former George W. Bush State Department official Richard Haass on Project Syndicate. "The U.S. sought to change the world, annoying some and inspiring others. Those days are gone, in some ways for better, but mostly for worse. The US has changed. It is coming to resemble many of the countries and governments it once criticized." * MAGNETIC FEW: A small team in China's Ministry of Commerce decides the fate of the global auto industry, one rare earth magnet export permit at a time. China holds a near-monopoly on rare earth magnets, a key component in electric vehicle motors, and it added them to an export control list in April as part of its trade war with the United States. Reuters' Laurie Chen and Lewis Jackson show how it falls to the Bureau of Industrial Security and Import and Export Control, part of China's Ministry of Commerce, to review export permits for the rare earth magnets, vital for car motors, wind turbines and even U.S. F-35 fighter jets. * FINANCE AND AI: Artificial intelligence advances in the financial sector offer enhanced data analysis, risk management and capital allocation, but there are problems too, according to a paper on CEPR's VoxEU website. As AI systems become more widespread, they introduce challenges for regulators tasked with balancing the benefits of innovation with the need for financial stability, market integrity, consumer protection and fair competition. * DRONE ATTACK: Ukraine's 'Operation Spider's Web' last weekend used smuggled drones to attack bomber aircraft deep inside Russia, and the 'remarkable event' could affect the future of conflict, argues Council on Foreign Relations fellow Michael Horowitz. The attack "clearly shows that even targets deep in a country's territory could now be at risk". * IMF EUROPE: The case for closer European economic integration has become more compelling as external challenges multiply, according to Alfred Kammer, director of the International Monetary Fund's European Department. Stressing the need for the completion of the single market, Kammer said capital markets integration has been too slow and that cross-border flows have been frustrated by persistent fragmentation. "If history is a guide, Europe can turn adversity to advantage." * ALPINE TRUSTS: Liechtenstein is examining tightening control of scores of Russian-linked trusts abandoned by their managers under pressure from Washington. Reuters' John O'Donnell and Oliver Hirt cite sources in reporting that the country, one of the world's smallest and richest, is home to thousands of low-tax trusts, hundreds with links to Russians. Chart of the day Supply chain stress ticked up in May, data from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York said on Thursday. The bank noted that its Global Supply Chain Pressure Index for May rose to 0.19 from -0.28 in April, only the second time it stood in positive territory this year and the highest reading since the 0.20 seen in August of last year. Although the index remains subdued compared to the post-pandemic surge, growing concerns about the impact of the tariff war - particularly the impact of China's restrictions on rare earth and minerals exports on the global auto industry - will ensure policymakers keep a close eye on these pressures for any signs of re-emerging inflation. Today's events to watch * U.S. May employment report (8:30 AM EDT), April consumer credit (3:00 PM EDT); Canada May employment report (8:30 AM EDT) Opinions expressed are those of the author. They do not reflect the views of Reuters News, which, under the Trust Principles, is committed to integrity, independence, and freedom from bias. (By Mike Dolan; Editing by Anna Szymanski)
Forbes
16 minutes ago
- Forbes
‘The Girls Are Fighting'— Trump Vs. Musk Feud Goes Viral
President Donald Trump and Elon Musk are in the midst of an extremely online feud. (Photo by) Getty Images President Donald Trump and Elon Musk's relationship has deteriorated into a bitter feud, lighting up Musk's social media platform X, the site formerly known as Twitter. Trump is no longer quite as online as he used to be (in his peak, the man was an extremely dedicated Twitter poster who regularly went viral), but Musk's timeline is as active as ever. Musk seemed to lay the groundwork for the feud by retweeting several old tweets from Trump in an attempt to portray the president as a hypocrite. From there, the feud only escalated, much to the delight of X's inhabitants. Musk recently left the White House, seemingly on good terms, but in exceptionally strange circumstances. Musk appeared on camera with a black eye and a 'Dogefather' t-shirt, before he was given a symbolic golden key to the White House, engraved with the Reddit logo. The world's richest man certainly succeeded in introducing stale meme culture to the highest office in the land, but the political alliance unraveled a few days later, as Musk began to criticize Trump's 'Big Beautiful Bill' for raising the debt ceiling. Trump responded, suggesting that Musk was beginning to suffer from 'Trump derangement syndrome' and claimed that this was a common ailment for those who left his inner circle. Trump also said that Musk was upset that the electric vehicle tax credit was removed, and that Musk was otherwise supportive of the bill. Musk's tone began to grow more aggressive on X, as he wrote: 'False, this bill was never shown to me even once and was passed in the dead of night so fast that almost no one in Congress could even read it!' Musk then claimed that Trump would have lost the election without his help, and accused Trump of showing 'ingratitude.' Trump began to respond on Truth Social, his own social media platform, writing that the easiest way to save money in the budget would be to 'terminate Elon's Governmental Subsidies and Contracts.' Trump continued, writing that Musk was 'wearing thin' at the White House and claiming that Musk 'just went CRAZY!' when the EV tax credit was removed from his bill. Musk responded on X, describing Trump's post as an 'obvious lie,' and then went nuclear, alleging that Trump was 'in the Epstein files.' Musk described his own post as the 'really big bomb' and even took the time to tag Trump's official X account. The site's users took great joy in watching the feud in real time, responding to the showdown between the president and the world's wealthiest man with jokes and memes. Several comparisons were made to the Kendrick vs. Drake feud. Others compared the feud to a divorce, and resurrected the weird J.D. Vance memes, framing the vice president as the troubled child of bickering parents. Kanye West tweeted as though he was that child, pleading with the two to stop fighting. Most viewed the Trump vs. Musk feud as one of the greatest days in Twitter history, cracking jokes about how difficult it was to stay on top of the flood of memes. Many X inhabitants mocked the users that migrated to rival platform, Bluesky, noting that the toxicity and melodrama was an integral part of the X experience. Spectators were so keen to catch Trump's response on Truth Social that they temporarily crashed the site. Not content with the president's silence, some passed the time by posting fake responses from Trump. Many joked that Tesla was now going to face hostility from all sides of the political spectrum. Some users claimed that they always knew the feud was coming—the burning Tesla CyberTruck outside of the Trump hotel that marked the beginning of this year was viewed as an omen. When Rep. Alexandria Ocasio Cortez (AOC) was asked her opinion of the feud, she responded with, 'The girls are fighting, aren't they?' AOC went on to describe the feud as 'a long time coming. We were saying that these two huge egos were not long for being together in this world as friends.' Azealia Banks, who first popularized the phrase 'the girls are fighting,' was shocked that AOC was familiar with her meme, writing 'in what world is AOC fluent in Azealia Banksism's?' For now, Trump and Musk appear to have put down their phones, marking something of a ceasefire. The internet awaits the next round with baited breath—the two powerful, mercurial men both surely want to have the last word.
Forbes
20 minutes ago
- Forbes
The U.S. Government Is Stuck With SpaceX. But Trump Can Still Hurt It.
Donald Trump and Elon Musk arrive for a test launch of SpaceX's Starship rocket on November 19, 2024, in Brownsville, Texas. In the barrage of attacks that President Donald Trump and Elon Musk fired at each other Thursday, one stood out: Trump's threat to cancel federal contracts with companies owned by the world's richest man. The primary target: SpaceX, which has received at least $21 billion in government contracts, with about $13 billion still outstanding. Musk probably doesn't have much to fear. Legally, the Trump administration would likely enmire itself in lengthy legal disputes if it appeared to cancel contracts out of spite. Moreover, as the world's No. 1 launch provider and maker of low-Earth orbit satellites, SpaceX may have made itself indispensable. 'The [U.S. government] is simply too locked in to cut them off over a social media meltdown,' said Kimberly Siversen Burke, director of government affairs at the consultancy Quilty Space. Nonetheless, there are some types of contracts that could be vulnerable for cancellation, and ways the government could lessen its dependence on SpaceX going forward. The 134 rockets SpaceX launched last year accounted for 83% of all satellites put into orbit worldwide. With its reliable, partially reusable Falcon 9, the company has come to dominate U.S. national security launches. Its chief competitor, United Launch Alliance, a joint venture of Boeing and Lockheed Martin, has struggled to keep up, with multiyear delays in developing its new Vulcan rocket. The U.S. government may have more options to carry its military satellites to space going forward. Vulcan is now operational and Blue Origin, the space company founded by Musk's billionaire rival Jeff Bezos, pulled off a successful first launch of its New Glenn rocket in January. In the latest round of contracts awarded by Space Force, SpaceX won 28 launches from 2027 through 2032, a little more than half, with ULA getting 19 and Blue Origin seven. But ULA and Blue Origin have their hands full scaling up, said Todd Harrison, a defense and space analyst with the American Enterprise Institute. 'There's no replacing SpaceX. You just do not have the capacity in our other launch options.' SpaceX has also become a major supplier of national security satellites. The National Reconnaissance Office is depending on SpaceX to build out a multibillion-dollar network of hundreds of spy satellites in low-Earth orbit based on the company's Starshield platform. For delivering cargo and astronauts to the International Space Station, NASA has also had to rely on SpaceX, as Boeing has struggled to fix defects in its Starliner spacecraft. But there are some relatively small-dollar SpaceX contracts that could be vulnerable, said Burke. The government could lower its exposure to SpaceX by looking for early phase development programs that don't have a contractor locked in yet. For example, SpaceX has won roughly $140 million in contracts on an Air Force program to test whether commercial satellite services can be integrated into tactical military communications, Burke said. Another way Trump could hurt Musk, as well as Ukraine, would be to cancel or reduce a $537 million contract to provide Starlink satellite communications services to the Ukrainian military. But rather than targeting existing contracts, where the administration could make a greater impact is by steering new business to others and reorienting its plans. The Commerce Department could backtrack on a revamp announced in March to a $42 billion program to expand rural broadband access that was expected to make Starlink eligible to compete for grants. Till now the program has only included telecom companies laying fiber-optic cables. Trump could also pull back from the support he promised in his inaugural address for Musk's ultimate ambition: to reach Mars. 'Where Trump can single handedly harm SpaceX in a significant way is redirecting the mission goals for NASA,' Harrison said. Given how mercurial Musk has proven to be, perhaps diversifying away from SpaceX isn't a bad idea. Burke worries, however, that the bad blood will undo years of work to convince the Pentagon and other national security agencies that they can rely on any commercial companies. 'Elon's antics are threatening to rewind the tape,' she said. MORE FROM FORBES
