Latest news with #trans-Atlantic
Yahoo
21 hours ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Why Kratos (KTOS) Stock Is Trading Up Today
What Happened? Shares of aerospace and defense company Kratos (NASDAQ:KTOS) jumped 4.8% in the afternoon session after the company announced a partnership with Airbus to develop a European variant of its XQ-58A Valkyrie drone. The collaboration aimed to deliver a combat-ready version of the uncrewed combat aircraft for the German Air Force by 2029. The Valkyrie is a low-observable drone designed for long-range missions, capable of operating independently or in tandem with manned aircraft. Under the agreement, the flight-proven Valkyrie will be equipped with a mission system made by Airbus. The partnership was seen as a significant step for Kratos, positioning it to meet the urgent demand from European customers for advanced, uncrewed combat systems. The joint project also reinforced trans-Atlantic cooperation within NATO. After the initial pop the shares cooled down to $57.03, up 2.9% from previous close. Is now the time to buy Kratos? Access our full analysis report here, it's free. What Is The Market Telling Us Kratos's shares are very volatile and have had 28 moves greater than 5% over the last year. In that context, today's move indicates the market considers this news meaningful but not something that would fundamentally change its perception of the business. The previous big move we wrote about was 5 days ago when the stock gained 3.1% on the news that the investment firm Cantor Fitzgerald reiterated its "Overweight" rating and $60 price target on the company. The firm's positive stance was based on the belief that the market was underestimating the growth potential of Kratos, especially concerning its X-58 drone program. Cantor Fitzgerald noted that while the drone market is competitive, the X-58 was well-positioned as military strategies shifted towards valuing attrition-lethality frameworks, which refers to the ability to sustain combat effectiveness despite losses. This analyst action followed other recent positive news for the defense technology company, including the U.S. Marine Corps' decision to move the XQ-58 Valkyrie drone into a Program of Record, which transitions it into production. Additionally, Noble Capital recently raised its price target on Kratos to $60, citing growth opportunities in both defense and commercial markets. Kratos is up 116% since the beginning of the year, and at $57.03 per share, it is trading close to its 52-week high of $59.12 from July 2025. Investors who bought $1,000 worth of Kratos's shares 5 years ago would now be looking at an investment worth $3,202. Unless you've been living under a rock, it should be obvious by now that generative AI is going to have a huge impact on how large corporations do business. While Nvidia and AMD are trading close to all-time highs, we prefer a lesser-known (but still profitable) semiconductor stock benefiting from the rise of AI. Click here to access our free report on our favorite semiconductor growth story.
DW
a day ago
- Politics
- DW
Germany updates: AfD keeps 'suspected extremist' label – DW – 07/23/2025
A court has upheld the classification of the AfD party as "suspected right-wing extremist" by domestic intelligence. An appeal against its listing as "confirmed extremist" is still running. DW has this story and more. A top German court has rejected a final complaint by the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) over its assessment by the domestic intelligence agency as a suspected right-wing extremist group. The classification means that the party can be monitored by the BfV domestic intelligence agency, including by recruiting undercover informants from its ranks. An upgraded assessment of the party as "confirmed" right-wing extremist by the BfV from May is still suspended pending a ruling after another legal challenge by the AfD. Meanwhile, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz is to meet with French President Emmanuel Macron in Berlin as their countries boost their partnership amid troubled trans-Atlantic ties. The DW newsroom in Bonn wishes all our readers on Wednesday, July 23! We will be reporting on a meeting between German Chancellor Friedrich Merz and French President Emmanuel Macron as the two leaders seek to bolster their countries' partnership at the heart of the European Union amid a myriad of challenges. The evening will also see another momentous European encounter as Spain plays Germany in the Women's European Championship semifinals in Zurich days after the German team snatched a dramatic win over France. DW will bring you reports, analyses and explainers on these and other stories to keep you up to date with all the topics currently in focus in Germany.
Boston Globe
3 days ago
- Business
- Boston Globe
How Trump is bringing Europe together again
Advertisement The bloc still has very real problems. Its population is aging and economic growth remains slow. Populist detractors who criticize it loudly have been gaining momentum, and it is grasping for ways to revitalize competitiveness. Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the European Commission, the EU's executive arm, has come under fierce criticism as she tries to overhaul the bloc's budget. But even in member states like Denmark, which has long been skeptical of the EU's budget and border policies, feelings toward the bloc have turned decidedly more positive. 'Support toward the EU has never been higher,' Marie Bjerre, Denmark's minister for European Affairs, said in an interview. About 74 percent of Danes said that they trusted the European Union in a recent public opinion survey conducted for the European Commission, up from 63 percent five years ago. That shift is far from isolated — across member states. Citizens are feeling more trusting toward the EU, continuing a trend that outside polls have found. Advertisement The turnaround is not solely because of Trump. The bloc's work in organizing a response to the coronavirus pandemic, including securing vaccines, helped to bolster its popularity. Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022 illustrated to many European governments and citizens that their own national security could come under threat. Yet America's recent tone toward its longtime allies has also clearly helped to contribute to what Jörn Fleck, a senior director of the Atlantic Council, calls a 'rally around the European Union flag.' 'We have always had a very strong relationship with the US,' Bjerre explained. 'Now, we are met with unjustified tariffs, and we are even accused of not being a good ally. And of course that resonates, and that is why we're turning a lot to the EU.' Since taking office in January, Trump has threatened to invade Greenland, a semiautonomous territory of Denmark. His administration has called Europeans 'pathetic' in leaked exchanges on Signal, the messaging app. Trump has said the bloc was formed to 'screw' America. The president has slapped higher tariffs on European goods, and this month, he threatened to impose a new 30 percent across-the-board levy that European officials warned would hobble trans-Atlantic trade. Trump has also demanded that Europe do more to pay for its defense, and has suggested that the United States would not come to the aid of countries that he felt were not contributing enough to their security. Advertisement All of that has pushed Europe further from America — and closer together. 'There's a creeping awareness that all of the European countries are small at the end of the day,' Fleck said. 'That Europe needs to stick together and pool resources.' He noted that the rehabilitation of Europe's image has taken time, and was down to many factors. In the face of Russia's increased aggression and America's insistence that European governments do more on defense, EU member states are trying to rapidly step up their military spending. But as countries have struggled to find room in their strapped national budgets to ramp up drone and howitzer purchases, the European Union has stepped in. The shared interest in increasing Europe's defenses is not the only issue that is bolstering Brussels' brand. When it comes to Trump's trade threats, the European Union is playing an even more pivotal role. The European Commission negotiates trade deals for all 27 member states. By acting together as the world's third-largest economy, the bloc has more power than any of its individual countries would have on their own. While there were initially questions about whether some European states might try to cut side deals with the United States — and Trump administration officials have bemoaned that they cannot talk directly with Germany or other individual governments — European officials have mainly stuck together. Von der Leyen has also been pitching the benefits of Europe to outside partners, working to sign a flurry of new or improved trade agreements with countries including Mexico, South Korea, and Indonesia. 'In Southeast Asia, especially Indonesia, we really consider Europe to be very, very important in providing global stability,' President Prabowo Subianto of Indonesia said last week at a news conference in Brussels, at which he appeared alongside von der Leyen. Advertisement 'Maybe not many of us would like to admit it openly, but I am here,' he added, in a seeming nod to Europe's bad run in recent years. 'I admit openly we would like to see a stronger Europe.' This article originally appeared in
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Business Standard
3 days ago
- Business
- Business Standard
China stood up to Trump, and it's not giving Europe an inch, either
Having forced the Trump administration into a trade truce through economic pressure and strategic defiance, China now appears to be playing the same kind of hardball with Europe. It has retaliated against trade curbs, accused Europe of protectionism, slowed exports of critical minerals and further embraced Russia, with China's top leader himself pledging support for Moscow just days before a summit of European Union leaders that China is scheduled to host this week. The moves are part of a tough posture that Beijing is taking in its trade and geopolitical disputes with Brussels. China wants Europe to lift heavy tariffs that it has imposed on Chinese electric vehicles and refrain from further restrictions on trade. EU leaders see Beijing as effectively supporting Russia in its war with Ukraine, and are also concerned that China is dumping artificially cheap products that could undermine local industries. Beijing has learned that it has leverage it can use against outside pressure. It stood up to the Trump administration's punishing trade war by demonstrating how dependent global industry was on China for its supply of critical minerals. And Beijing likely assesses that it is in a stronger position because Western unity is fracturing, analysts say, with President Trump's 'America First' foreign policy weakening the historical bonds between Europe and the United States. 'Beijing perceives that the global order is in flux,' said Simona Grano, a China expert at the University of Zurich. 'From its perspective, the United States is overstretched and preoccupied with multiple conflicts around the world and domestic polarization.' 'And with signs of division or fatigue within the trans-Atlantic alliance, the Chinese leadership sees more room to assert its interests, not least in trade, tech and security,' Grano said. That calculation has been evident in China's approach to the summit talks on Thursday, which will include its top leader, Xi Jinping, and Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the European Commission, as well as other senior European leaders. The two sides will be commemorating 50 years of diplomatic ties — the type of anniversary that ordinarily would be a chance for Beijing to showcase its partnerships. Yet each detail of the meeting appears to underscore China's view of the power dynamic. The summit is being held in Beijing even though it was Brussels's turn to host the rotating event. The meeting will only last one day, according to the European Union, despite having been billed earlier as a two-day affair. Expectations for any concrete results from the summit are low. The 27-nation European bloc is caught between wanting to cut a trade deal with the United States, which is putting pressure on the region to commit to taking a harder line on China, and the need to maintain stable ties with China. But Brussels has grown more confrontational with Beijing in recent years about a massive trade imbalance that amounted to over $350 billion last year, as well as Beijing's alignment with Russia. In a speech this month in the European Parliament, von der Leyen accused China of 'flooding global markets with cheap, subsidized goods, to wipe out competitors,' and of discriminating against European companies doing business in China. She also warned that China's support for Moscow in its war with Ukraine was creating instability in Europe. She said she planned to raise these concerns with Chinese officials at the meeting in Beijing. China is unlikely to be accommodating of such criticisms at the summit, if its recent muscle flexing is any indication. Mao Ning, a spokeswoman for China's foreign ministry, fired back at von der Leyen, saying it was the European Union's 'mind-set' that needed 'rebalancing,' not China's trade relationship with Europe. Earlier this year, China slowed exports of rare earth minerals to Europe, sounding alarms at high-tech firms across Europe and triggering a temporary shutdown of production lines at European auto parts manufacturers. And this month, China hit back at European Union curbs on government purchases of Chinese medical devices by imposing similar government procurement restrictions on European medical equipment. Despite its combative stance, Beijing cannot afford to push Europe too far. China needs European markets to absorb the glut of electric vehicles, batteries and solar panels its factories are making. Domestically, huge price wars have shrunk profits, prompting even Xi and other leaders to warn companies against engaging in 'disorderly and low-price competition.' And Europe's importance has only grown as the Trump administration tries to close off other markets to China. 'Europe remains an indispensable economic partner for China. But if Beijing overplays its hand, it could find itself more isolated,' Grano said. Still, China has remained defiant when it comes to its close relationship with Russia — which Beijing considers an invaluable partner in counterbalancing the West. Europe has long complained that Beijing's purchases of Russian oil and its supplying of dual-use technologies has enabled the Kremlin to prolong its war in Ukraine. China claims neutrality over the conflict, a position that has been met with deep skepticism in the West, in part because of the closeness of China and Russia. Xi called for Beijing and Moscow to 'deepen' their ties and 'safeguard' their 'security interests' when he met Russia's foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, in Beijing last week. And earlier this month, China's top diplomat, Wang Yi, privately told European Union officials in Brussels that it was not in Beijing's interests for the war to end because it might shift U.S. attention toward Asia, according to a European official briefed on the talks, who spoke to The New York Times on condition of anonymity to share details of remarks made in a closed-door meeting. Wang's remarks were first reported by the South China Morning Post. China has not commented on what Wang reportedly said. But Victor Gao, a former Chinese diplomat and vice president of the Center for China and Globalization, a Beijing-based think tank, argued that the assertion attributed to Wang did not make sense because China believes the United States is able to project its influence in both Asia and over the fate of Ukraine at the same time. Gao was dismissive of European criticisms of China's relationship with Russia, saying that the region should essentially mind its own business and focus on improving the lives of its people. 'From the Chinese perspective, they are not qualified as a geopolitical rival,' he said. 'They think too much of themselves.' China's strategy toward Europe is essentially to divide and conquer. It saw the European Union as hawkish and sought to minimize the impact of its policies while courting Europe's leading businesses, namely from Germany and France, Gao said. Hopes that Beijing will ever help Europe pressure the Kremlin to end its war have 'faded away,' said Philippe Le Corre, a senior fellow at the Asia Society Policy Institute's Center for China Analysis, who is no more optimistic that Brussels and Beijing will compromise on trade. 'There is no trust between the two sides,' he said.
Sydney Morning Herald
7 days ago
- Automotive
- Sydney Morning Herald
Booze and Boeings: Europe sharpens tariff hit list, ramping up trade war with Trump
Trump has shifted ground on his deadlines in the past and may do so again on the tariff rate and timing, prompting disagreement among EU members about the scale of their retaliation. Loading Sefcovic said he would not walk away from a genuine effort to reach a deal, but he signalled a 'second strand' in the negotiations about new EU tariffs if necessary. 'As I have said before, it takes two hands to clap,' he said this week. 'We must prepare for all outcomes – including, if necessary, well-considered, proportionate measures to restore balance in our trans-Atlantic relationship.' The EU drafted a list of American products four weeks ago to consider tariffs on annual US exports worth €95 billion, about $170 billion. This was cut down to a revised list worth €72 billion, or about $128 billion. The list includes aircraft and aeronautical components, a major threat for Boeing in its competition with European giant Airbus. It also targets bourbon whiskey from states such as Kentucky, where 64.5 per cent of voters chose Trump at the presidential election. Other products on the list include cars, food, wine, beer and medical devices. Sefcovic shared the revised list with EU member countries this week, giving them a chance to negotiate changes, but also said he was prepared to do more. 'This does not exhaust our toolbox, and every instrument remains on the table,' he said. Export powerhouses such as Germany are concerned that retaliatory tariffs would only trigger a reprisal from Trump, who might pile even greater penalties on EU products. In the auto sector, for instance, the EU has more at stake with its exports than with any penalty it could apply on American products. While the EU shipped 749,170 new cars to the US last year, the US only sent 164,857 cars in the opposite direction. In the farm sector, France is concerned that retaliation would trigger White House reprisals against French wine and other high-value exports. The German Association of the Automotive Industry (VDA) said the situation meant an earlier 27.5 per cent tariff on European cars was still in force until a deal was struck. 'The costs for our companies are already in the billions – and the sum is growing every day,' VDA chief Hildegard Muller said in a comment to this masthead. 'With regard to any countermeasures, it must be ensured that they do not damage our own industry.' Muller said that two-thirds of the cars shipped from the US to the EU came from German companies – a key fact after German brands invested in American factories. The peak group for Italian wine exporters, the Unione Italiana Vini (UIV), called the Trump tariff plan the 'darkest page' in relations between Italy and the US. UIV president Lamberto Frescobaldi said the 30 per cent tariff on wine would push up prices so much that it was 'virtually an embargo' of 80 per cent of the Italian wine exports, costing hundreds of thousands of jobs. The retaliation is being described in Brussels as a final option if Trump does not give ground on his 30 per cent tariff, but it depends on EU member states holding their nerve. If some countries fear reprisals from Trump, they may push for carve-outs from the retaliation plan in the hope it would spare their biggest industries from even greater US trade penalties.
