Stocks rise on Wall Street and hold on to weekly gains
Stocks rose in morning trading on Wall Street Friday, keeping the market on track for its third weekly gain in the last four.
The S&P 500 was up 0.6% and sitting just below its record. The benchmark index is on track to recover most of its losses from a slide last week.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 188 points, or 0.4%, as of 9:57 a.m. Eastern. The Nasdaq added 0.6% to the all-time high it set a day earlier.
Gilead Sciences jumped 8.4% for one of the biggest gains on the market. It reported financial results that easily beat analysts' forecasts, while also raising its earnings forecast for the year.
Expedia Group also notched one of the biggest gains, advancing 6.6% after also reporting encouraging financial results.
Technology companies, with their hefty stock values, were doing much of the heavy lifting for the market. Nvidia rose 0.8% and Microsoft rose 0.6%.
The main focus throughout the week has been on President Donald Trump's trade war and its potential impact on the U.S. economy, as well as the Federal Reserve's interest rate policy.
Trump began imposing higher import taxes on dozens of countries Thursday. The unknown path of the economy amid an unpredictable tariff policy has been the key reason for the Fed to hold its benchmark interest steady.
Treasury yields edged higher. The yield on the 10-year Treasury rose to 4.28% from 4.25% late Thursday. The yield on the two-year Treasury which more closely tracks expectations for Fed actions, rose to 3.76% from 3.73% late Thursday.
Asian markets closed mostly lower except in Tokyo, where the Nikkei rose 1.9%. European markets were mixed.
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MTV Lebanon
4 hours ago
- MTV Lebanon
US, China Extend Tariff Truce by 90 Days, Averting Surge in Duties
The United States and China have extended a tariff truce for another 90 days, staving off triple-digit duties on each other's goods as U.S. retailers get ready to ramp up inventories ahead of the critical end-of-year holiday season. U.S. President Donald Trump announced on his Truth Social platform on Monday that he had signed an executive order suspending the imposition of higher tariffs until 12:01 a.m. EST (0501 GMT) on November 10, with all other elements of the truce to remain in place. China's Commerce Ministry issued a parallel pause on extra tariffs early on Tuesday, also postponing for 90 days the addition of U.S. firms it had targeted in April to trade and investment restriction lists. "The United States continues to have discussions with the PRC to address the lack of trade reciprocity in our economic relationship and our resulting national and economic security concerns," Trump's executive order stated, using the acronym for the People's Republic of China. The tariff truce between Beijing and Washington had been due to expire on Tuesday at 12:01 a.m. EDT (0401 GMT). The extension until early November buys crucial time for the seasonal autumn surge of imports for the Christmas season, including electronics, apparel and toys at lower tariff rates. The new order prevents U.S. tariffs on Chinese goods from shooting up to 145%, while Chinese tariffs on U.S. goods were set to hit 125% - rates that would have resulted in a virtual trade embargo between the two countries. It locks in place - at least for now - a 30% tariff on Chinese imports, with Chinese duties on U.S. imports at 10%. There was relief on the streets of China's capital, where officials are grappling with the challenge Trump's trade policy poses to the economy's long-standing, export-oriented growth model. "I don't think either China or the United States wants to see their relationship continue to deteriorate," said Wang Mingyue, a 39-year-old professional working in robotics. "That's why both are taking the current approach, but the game and confrontation may not be over yet - so there's still risk." Markets showed optimism for a breakthrough between the two superpowers, with Asian stocks rising and currencies mostly steady, after treading water for weeks. Trump told CNBC last week that the U.S. and China were getting very close to a trade agreement and he would meet Xi before the end of the year if a deal was struck. The two sides announced a truce in their trade dispute in May after talks in Geneva, Switzerland, agreeing to a 90-day period to allow further talks. They met again in Stockholm, Sweden, in late July, and U.S. negotiators returned to Washington with a recommendation that Trump extend the deadline. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has said repeatedly that the triple-digit import duties both sides slapped on each other's goods in the spring were untenable and had essentially imposed a trade embargo between the world's two largest economies. "It wouldn't be a Trump-style negotiation if it didn't go right down to the wire," said Kelly Ann Shaw, a senior White House trade official during Trump's first term and now with law firm Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld. She said Trump had likely pressed China for further concessions before agreeing to the extension. Trump pushed for additional concessions on Sunday, urging China to quadruple its soybean purchases, although analysts questioned the feasibility of any such deal. Trump did not repeat the demand on Monday. "What is he going to offer in exchange?" said Xu Tianchen, senior economist at the Economist Intelligence Unit in Beijing. "China says: 'you should allow us to buy more high-tech goods,' but the U.S. is reluctant." Xu said Trump's refusal to ease his 20% tariff on Chinese goods over fentanyl flows suggested both sides believed they could continue to withstand the trade shock. "If (Trump) escalates, he will struggle to gain an upper hand over China, which has many cards to play," Xu said. China's exports to the U.S. fell an annual 21.7% last month, according to the country's latest trade data, while shipments to Southeast Asia rose 16.6% over the same period as manufacturers sought to pivot to new markets and capitalise on a separate reprieve that allowed trans-shipment to the U.S. Separate U.S. data released last week showed the trade deficit with China shrank to its lowest in more than 21 years in June. Still, analysts expect the world's two largest economies to reach an agreement before long, as their deep interdependence makes pursuing alternative markets unattractive over the long term. Ryan Majerus, a former U.S. trade official now with the King & Spalding law firm, said the news would give both sides more time to work through long-standing trade concerns. 'This will undoubtedly lower anxiety on both sides as talks continue, and as the U.S. and China work toward a framework deal in the fall," he said. Washington has also been pressing Beijing to stop buying Russian oil to pressure Moscow over its war in Ukraine, with Trump threatening to impose secondary tariffs on China.
Nahar Net
4 hours ago
- Nahar Net
Military aid to Ukraine: Europe gives more, widening gap with US
by Naharnet Newsdesk 12 August 2025, 20:00 Europe again increased its military aid to Ukraine in May and June, unlike the United States, and is depending increasingly on its defense industry rather than existing weapons stockpiles, the Kiel Institute for the World Economy said Tuesday. Europe, the United Kingdom included, sent or earmarked a total of 80.5 billion euros ($93.7 billion) in military aid between the start of the war in February 2022 and the end of June 2025 against 64.6 billion euros allocated by the United States. The Germany-based Institute's data shows that the overall European military aid had outstripped the United States in the spring for the first time since June 2022. "A significant proportion of the weapons provided no longer comes from stockpiles but is procured directly through the defense industry," the institute said. "This means that Europe now also leads the U.S. in terms of total volume of military aid provided through industry since the start of the war." Taro Nishikawa, a project lead at the research body's Ukraine Support Tracker, said it was "a clear indication of the expanding role of defense manufacturing in military assistance." In May and June, Europe earmarked 10.5 billion euros of military aid to Ukraine: Germany put up a package of five billion euros, followed by Norway with 1.5 billion euros and Belgium with 1.2 billion euros. The Netherlands, the United Kingdom and Denmark each earmarked between 500 and 600 million euros. At least 4.6 billion euros of the European military aid, or 44 percent of the overall amount in May and June, is set to be channeled through procurement contracts, mainly with Europe-based defense firms, notably based in Ukraine, the Kiel Institute said. Over the same period, Washington approved major exports of arms to Ukraine in May but not in the form of military aid under the Kiel Institute's definition because they have to be paid for by Ukraine itself. The United States was the main provider of aid to Ukraine before Donald Trump's return to the White House on January 20, 2025 when he broke with his Democrat predecessor Joe Biden's Ukraine support strategy. U.S. Vice President JD Vance told the conservative news channel Fox News, in an interview broadcast on Sunday, that he believed Washington had now ended its financial support for Ukraine. "But if the Europeans want to step up and actually buy the weapons from American producers, we are okay with that," he said. Trump and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin are scheduled to meet in Alaska on Friday to reach, according to the U.S. president, a possible agreement on exchanging territory to bring an end to the war in Ukraine sparked by the Russian invasion more than three years ago.
Nahar Net
6 hours ago
- Nahar Net
Lebanese craftsman keeps up tradition of tarboosh hat-making
by Naharnet Newsdesk 12 August 2025, 18:12 Nestled among shops in a bustling market in north Lebanon's Tripoli, Mohammed al-Shaar is at his workshop making traditional tarboosh hats, keeping up a family craft despite dwindling demand. With a thimble on one finger, Shaar, 38, cuts, sews and carefully assembles the pieces of the conical, flat-topped felt hat also known as a fez, attaching a tassel to the top. Reputedly the last tarboosh craftsman in Lebanon, the Tripoli native has been making the hats for 25 years in know-how passed on by his grandfather. "Our family has been carrying on this craft for 125 years," said Shaar, who also studied tarboosh making in Egypt. The brimless hats made with maroon, black or green felt, some bearing floral motifs or embroidered with Lebanon's national emblem, the cedar, sit on display in the small workshop. While the tarboosh has been around in Lebanon for several centuries, it became particularly common during the late Ottoman period. "The tarboosh used to have great value -- it was part of day-to-day dress, and the Lebanese were proud of it," Shaar said, noting the hat now is largely seen as a traditional item or appealing to tourists. "Nowadays, people barely wear the tarboosh, except for traditional events," he said. As well as a onetime symbol of prestige or social status, the hat was used for non-verbal communication, Shaar said. "When a man wanted to woo a beautiful young woman, he used to slightly tip his tarboosh to the left or right," he said, while knocking someone's tarboosh off was offensive. As successive crises have hit Lebanon, including a catastrophic 2020 port explosion in Beirut and a recent war between Israel and Hezbollah, tourism has diminished. Shaar said his "work has slowed, and demand for the tarboosh has dropped" as a result. Sales have plummeted to just four or five of his handmade hats a month compared to around 50 before the crisis, he said. Recent customers have mainly been music and dance troops, or religious figures who wear the tarboosh covered with a turban. Shaar said he used to employ three others but now works alone, selling his handmade hats for around $30. But he said he wasn't about to close up shop or abandon his passion for tarboosh making. "I feel like my soul is linked to this craft. I don't want to shut or to stop working," he said.
