China's July exports top forecasts amid rush to meet Trump tariff deadline
Outbound shipments from the world's second-largest economy rose 7.2% year-on-year in July, customs data showed on Thursday, beating a forecast 5.4% increase in a Reuters poll and June's 4.8% growth.
Imports grew 4.1%, following a 1.1% rise in June. Economists had predicted a 1.0% fall.
China is facing an August 12 deadline to reach a durable tariff agreement with the U.S. administration, after Beijing and Washington reached framework agreements in May and June to reduce non-tariff barriers such as rare earth minerals and technology to avoid further escalating their trade war.
Without a deal, global supply chains could face renewed turmoil from U.S. duties snapping back to triple-digit levels that would amount to a bilateral trade embargo.
Trump said on Tuesday the U.S. was close to a trade deal with China and that he would meet his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping before the end of the year if the world's two largest economies could come to an agreement.
China's July trade surplus narrowed to $98.24 billion from $114.77 billion in June. Separate data from the U.S. Commerce Department's Bureau of Economic Analysis on Tuesday showed the U.S. trade gap with China shrank to its lowest in more than 21 years in June.
Chinese government advisers are stepping up calls to make the household sector's contribution to broader economic growth a top priority at Beijing's upcoming five-year policy plan, as trade tensions and deflation threaten the outlook.
And top leaders have vowed to step up regulation of aggressive price-cutting by Chinese companies that is pushing prices ever lower.
But economists warn that reversing the current deflationary slump will be far more difficult than during the last round of supply-side reforms a decade ago, as the downturn now poses a broader threat to employment, which Chinese leaders have emphasised is a core component of social stability.
Reaching an agreement with the United States — and with the European Union, which has accused China of producing and selling goods too cheaply — would give Chinese officials more room to advance their reform agenda.
However, analysts expect little relief from Western trade pressures. Export growth is projected to slow sharply in the second half of the year, hurt by persistently high tariffs, President Trump's renewed crackdown on the rerouting of Chinese shipments and deteriorating relations with the EU.
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The Independent
21 minutes ago
- The Independent
MTG cashed in on ICE contractor's big win but Trump goes after ‘disgusting degenerate' Nancy Pelosi over stocks
Donald Trump's decision to wade into the debate over a congressional stock-trading ban could end up making things awkward for some of his closest allies in the House and Senate. While stock trades by members of Congress and their families have long been controversial, the sustained push for new restrictions on lawmakers is new. Supported by members of both parties, the effort to push back against an image of corruption and decadence in the chamber is growing in popularity particularly among younger members. But the prospect of making it to the president's desk with legislation that would ban congressional stock trading has now caused Trump to weigh in. The issue was glaring as he went on a late-night rant on Truth Social Saturday night against Democratic former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi — after reports about one of his own MAGA faithful, Marjorie Taylor Greene cashing in on a stock deal tied to an ICE contractor. 'Crooked Nancy Pelosi, and her very 'interesting' husband, beat every Hedge Fund in 2024. In other words, these two very average 'minds' beat ALL of the Super Geniuses on Wall Street, thousands of them. It's all INSIDE iNFORMATION! Is anybody looking into this??? She is a disgusting degenerate, who Impeached me twice, on NO GROUNDS, and LOST! How are you feeling now, Nancy???' he raged in his posting. Pelosi's office hadn't responded publicly as of Sunday morning. Taylor Greene has drawn criticism after she purchased stock in Peter Thiel-owned Palantir in April, three days before the company won an ICE contract. The company's stock has since surged. That's not even the first time this year Greene, who maintains that all of her trades are managed without her input by a financial adviser, has been called out by stock-trading watchdogs for highly-lucrative trading activity. 'After many successful years of running my own business, I ran for Congress to bring that mindset to Washington. Now that I'm proudly serving the people of Northwest Georgia, I have signed a fiduciary agreement to allow my financial advisor to control my investments,' Greene told the fact-checker site Snopes in May. 'All of my investments are reported with full transparency. I refuse to hide my stock trades in a blind trust like many others do,' she added. 'I learned about my Palantir trades when I saw it in the media.' The California Democrat Pelosi, once her party's leader in the House of Representatives, is one of a few senior members of the chamber who has come out publicly against restrictions on congressional stock trading. 'We're a free market economy,' Pelosi said in 2021. 'They should be able to participate in that.' But her stance shifted over time and earlier in 2025 she came out in favor of legislation that would restrict such activity. The HONEST Act, a bill sponsored by Republican Sen. Josh Hawley, advanced through a Senate committee in late July. 'While I appreciate the creativity of my Republican colleagues in drafting legislative acronyms, I welcome any serious effort to raise ethical standards in public service. The HONEST Act, as amended, rightly applies its stock trading ban not only to Members of Congress, but now to the President and Vice President as well. I strongly support this legislation and look forward to voting for it on the Floor of the House.' Pelosi supports the bill, despite it previously bearing her name: Hawley originally dubbed it the the 'PELOSI Act', a reference to the trading activity primarily conducted by Pelosi's husband Paul. She is one of the wealthier members of Congress; her family controls more than $127m in publicly-traded assets watched by stock-trading analysts. Its advancement drew opposition from Trump, which Hawley characterized in a rare public shot at his own colleagues as the result of Republican senators supposedly having called up the president and lied to him about what was in the bill. 'I wonder why Hawley would pass a Bill that Nancy Pelosi is in absolute love with — He is playing right into the dirty hands of the Democrats,' Trump wrote on Truth Social in late July. Hawley responded, telling reporters: 'He said, senators, I don't know who, had called and told him yesterday afternoon that the bill had been changed at the last minute and would force him to sell all of his assets, sell Mar-a-Lago, sell his properties. So, I said, 'Well, that's just false. I mean, it explicitly exempts you and all your assets.'' The senator's response referred to a provision stuck in aimed explicitly at winning Trump over. The ban affects future presidents and vice presidents, but not Trump or his no. 2, JD Vance. It's unclear whether Hawley will succeed in winning over the president, but the ban at least has the potential to make it through both chambers of Congress with bipartisan support. Members of Congress on key committees are often scrutinized for their trading activity as in some cases lawmakers are privy to information that is not yet public or widely known, but could still affect markets. Some members of Congress were caught up in a scandal over such activity in 2020, at the onset of the Covid pandemic, when they triggered selloffs of their own stock shares ahead of a market collapse. One former North Carolina senator, a Republican, sold more than $1 million in stock one week before the market crashed.
Daily Mail
21 minutes ago
- Daily Mail
The most suspect stock trades by politicians revealed including the Republican who can't STOP flipping shares
Members of Congress aren't technically allowed to use insider knowledge to trade stocks while in office, but a couple of well-timed trades have raised eyebrows among eagle-eyed critics. Momentum to ban members of Congress from trading stocks is swelling even as lawmakers make major profits from the turbulent stock market. Right now, existing law allows legislators sitting on military committees buy defense stocks while financial regulators can snap up crypto and bank shares. Though trading on inside information is forbidden, there's little enforcement - and the practice appears rampant on Capitol Hill. Senate proposals would bar even the president and vice president from trading, but wealthy lawmakers claim restrictions would strip incentives and force unfair divestment of their holdings. Others complain they can't survive on their $174,000 salaries alone, fueling a trading bonanza that's generating handsome profits just as ban proposals gain steam. Here the Daily Mail highlights the top most suspect stock trades of the year: Rep. Rob Bresnahan, R-Pa., a 34-year-old freshman legislator has been one of the most scrutinized traders. He was the former CEO of Kuharchik Construction, Bresnahan's family company, where he is credited with expanding the family business. The Pennsylvania Republican campaigned on banning members from trading, but he has reported more transactions than practically every other lawmaker. 'Bresnahan has filed more stock trades than almost any other member of Congress since entering office this year,' Quiver Quantitative's co-founder Christopher Kardatzke told the Daily Mail. Since being sworn in this January and August 8, the Republican has made at least 617 trades, according to federal disclosures data compiled by Quiver Quantitative. The Republican has repeatedly claimed his financial advisors manager his trades, but when pressed recently by a local radio station on why he doesn't instruct them to halt the transactions he deflected. 'And then do what with it?' the lawmaker told WVIA. 'Just leave it all in the accounts and just leave it there and lose money and go broke?' Bresnahan introduced a bill earlier this year to ban members and their spouses from stock trading, even as he's continued to make transactions. According to federal data retrieved by Quiver Quantitative, Bresnahan has traded a total volume of over $7 million since January. He has sold $4 million in stock and purchased $3 million in the past eight months Right before Trump's signature domestic agenda the 'One Big, Beautiful Bill' passed Congress, Bresnahan reported sale in Centene, a healthcare company that later lost over half of its share price because of Medicaid cuts contained within the legislation. Democratic attack ads have shredded him for voting for the cuts. 'Honestly I found out about it in real time but the key takeaway is I follow the STOCK Act and I follow the rules,' Bresnahan said when pressed on the stock sale by WNEP. Bresnahan has been widely criticized for being hypocritical about his stock trading. He's claimed his advisors are forbidden from trading in companies held by foreign adversaries, however his disclosures show that he has bought and sold shares in Alibaba, a Chinese e-commerce company. Bresnahan has also indicated he will put his money in a blind trust, where it is managed by someone else and he has no clue about the individual transactions. But setting up such an account takes time, he has claimed. 'The whole process has been excruciating,' he told the Washington Examiner recently. Nearly 170 of the Pennsylvanian's trades occurred just after Trump's early April tariff announcement, dubbed 'Liberation Day' by the White House. In one instance in February, the lawmaker even disclosed a day trade, showing the purchase and sale of Palantir stock on the same day. 'Even if the portfolio is managed by a financial advisor, as Bresnahan has claimed, we're left to wonder why an advisor is day-trading Palantir stock in a U.S. Congressman's account,' Kardatzke said. Firebrand Marjorie Taylor Greene has also gained attention for trading the same stock around the same time - a transaction that has netted her thousands. The Georgia Republican made a flurry of stock purchases around the exact time that Trump instructed the nation that it was 'a great time to get rich, richer than ever before,' on Truth Social. After the market dipped around Liberation Day, Green heeded the president's warning and loaded up on discounted stocks. She purchased tech stock Impinj on April 4, which has since rocketed up over 100 percent in the last few months. And after buying Palantir on April 8, the Georgia Republican has doubled her investment, locking in a return over 115 percent. The tech company provides AI solutions and software to the federal government, including the Pentagon and more recently the Department of Homeland Security. Greene currently sits on the House Homeland Security Committee, the congressional panel that approves funding for DHS and ICE. She also claims her portfolio is managed by a financial advisor. 'Prior to this year, we had only seen one member of Congress ever buy Palantir stock. In the first two months of 2025, we saw six different members buy in,' Kardatzke noted. 'Maybe they all share the same financial advisor. The stock is up 148 percent so far this year.' Legislation to ban trading among members has even received backing from former Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., who has become notorious for scoring winning trades during her decades in Congress. When she led Congress in 2021 she famously brushed off questions about implementing a stock trading ban for members, citing 'a free market economy.' Though her disclosures show that these trades are done by her husband, Paul Pelosi, it does raise questions as to how he can so frequently beat the market, and by such massive margins. 'Speaker Pelosi does not own any stocks and has no knowledge or subsequent involvement in any transactions,' her spokesperson told the Daily Mail. Between 2023 and early July 2025, over 70 percent of Pelosi's trades were profitable, according to Capitol Trades. The Bay Area couple has also reported call options on AI-focused companies like Nvidia, Alphabet and others. 'I think it's a little bit sketchy just because of how high-risk high-reward option contracts are,' Christopher Josephs, co-founder of Autopilot, a congressional investing app, told the Daily Mail. 'No average everyday person trading does that.' The 85-year-old Democrat got defensive recently when asked by CNN's Jake Tapper to respond to Trump's attacks on her trading practices. 'Why do you have to read that?' Pelosi interrupted when Tapper began asking about members' trading.
Daily Mail
21 minutes ago
- Daily Mail
Inside the glamorous world of the media executive who stole more than $270,000 to fund her lavish life but will not face jail time
A glamorous media executive stole over $270,000 from her former employer to fund a lifestyle of expensive clothing, private gyms, and exclusive vacations. Shannon Muldoon, 38, managed to swindle bosses at Food52 out of the eyewatering sum while flaunting her extravagant lifestyle to colleagues on her Instagram page. Muldoon had been the head of Studio 52 for the company, a recipe and lifestyle website, and handled production for brand partnership deals. Over the course of two years, from 2021 and 2023, she racked up bills as high as $126,000 for luxury clothing on website Net-a-Porter, $17,000 on airline tickets and classes at LIV Method - a private training gym. All of that was paid for on her company credit card, according to court documents seen by The Cut - which also indicated the amount could be greater. Muldoon was indicted last August for one count of grand larceny in the second degree and accepted a plea deal for five years probation this year, the outlet said. The outlet reported that she has paid $15,000 in restitution but could face penalties up to $262,000 and is to be sentenced in September. Previous colleagues of her have shone a light on how after being promoted to head the studio they quickly noticed a change in her appearance. Muldoon was hired at the company in early 2020 after being previously employed at Bon Appetit and The New York Times. That fall she was hired to take over Studio 52 and given a corporate card to hand business expenses. Shortly after that, one ex colleague told The Cut that 'her clothes started getting better, her nail art was crazy, she got a lot of Botox'. The anonymous former staffer added: 'You could just tell she was going through a transformation.' According to the staffer she would often call in to work remotely, despite being solely studio based. They recalled her joining a Zoom call from a beach bungalow with a Chanel clip in her hair, and Muldoon sending her links to a Gucci jacket asking if she should buy it. 'Shannon was very brazen with her purchases, just showing them off to the world', they added. Muldoon is said to have continued this type of behavior on social media, displaying trips to Copenhagen, Malibu and a tropical wellness retreat, they added. Another colleague told the outlet: 'I would sometimes ask where she got a bag or a pair of shoes, and the amount of times she would answer "The Row" shocked me.' The Row is a luxury fashion label founded by Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen and is known for its high-quality materials, characterized by an equally as high price point. They added: 'I mean, we work in media. What the f***', while saying her use of the company card was becoming increasingly obvious. Colleagues recalled her buying them holiday gifts and taking them all out for elaborate dinners. One staffer, who worked remotely, was told by Muldoon to come to New York, despite it not being in their contract, and told them to put their hotel and rentals on her card. It wasn't just the excessive spending that was being noticed, former colleagues recalled her being obsessed with social status. They said she had claimed to be a Rockette but failed to back that up with proof, she told people she grew up in Manhattan while telling others she was from New Jersey. The theft went unnoticed for some time, according to internal accounting seen by the outlet she spent nearly $20,000 in a single month. Food52 started to slump during the pandemic and shut down Studio52 as part of restructuring. Muldoon repositioned herself as overseeing talent booking and management and was subsequently moved team but the spending continued. A former staffer said: 'She kind of goes off the brand-partnerships team, but her credit card is still going and still attached to all of our production. 'We were like, 'Why are our videos so expensive? Can we get a report?' We were trying to see it on a higher level, but didn't have access to her personal credit-card statements — that was just her boss and the finance department.' According to the outlet the company used a program named Expensify to track expenses and each campaign had a different job code. If the team was coming in at budget and everything was given the correct job code the expense reports would pass through. Muldoon is said to have exploited the code system to make sure her fraudulent expenses passed, making them appear like they were related to campaigns. 'She was smart about categorizing her expenses per client, and that was a way of not getting flagged. It definitely required some intention and work on her end', a worker said. In 2023, she seemed to drop off the radar at work with colleagues saying they started hearing less from her. In March that year she went on medical leave for a month, telling colleagues she was suffering from migraines and said doctors told her it could be multiple sclerosis. Her absence forced colleagues to file her expenses for her, when they started noticing irregularities. The first unusual charge was for sneaker reseller site StockX, a $1,589.05 that had already been refunded alongside another $196 charge from the site. While workers raised concerns, Muldoon is said to have reached out to them via workplace communication platform Slack saying she had flagged it with accounting. This only exacerbated suspicions, one worker said: 'The second that happened, we're like, Okay, something is up.' The finance team then started pouring over her expenses and noted anything they couldn't account for. They soon realized they were hundreds of thousands in the red due to her spending spree. It was at this same time that Muldoon told a colleague she had requested more time off, seemingly sensing that the jig was up. The company denied that request and fired her for misuse of company funds shortly after. Three months later she flew to Mexico on a flight paid for using the card. 'She basically walked away with all of the clothes. And the memories', one worker said. Despite her illness, she also went on to run the New York City Marathon in 2023 before relocating to Los Angeles. In a statement of facts, the Manhattan DA's office said: 'The $270,000 in unauthorized purchases is a very conservative estimate as to Ms. Muldoon's theft. 'Our investigation showed additional unauthorized purchases from other luxury clothing brands, furniture companies, and other travel related charges.'
