Bloomberg Evening Briefing Americas |
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The European Union has shared a revised trade proposal with the US as it aims to inject momentum in talks with President Donald Trump’s administration amid lingering skepticism that a transatlantic deal can be reached. The new offer is said to include proposals that take into account US interests, including international labor rights, environmental standards, economic security and gradually reducing tariffs to zero on both sides for non-sensitive agricultural products as well as industrial goods. The 27-nation bloc has put together plans to hit $108 billion of US exports with additional tariffs in response to Trump’s “reciprocal” levies and 25% tariffs on cars and some auto parts. The EU agreed earlier this month to delay for 90 days the implementation of a separate set of retaliatory tariffs against the US over 25% duties Trump imposed on the bloc’s steel and aluminum exports. That move came after Trump lowered his so-called reciprocal rate on most EU exports to 10% from 20% for the same amount of time. Trump’s legal ability to assess any tariffs under a US emergency finding is currently the subject of multiple lawsuits. And while Trump has retreated from his triple-digit levies against China and inked an accord of sorts with the UK, EU officials don’t see in either agreement a clear landing zone for future deals. —David E. Rovella | |
What You Need to Know Today | |
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With the thinnest of margins in their Congressional majorities, Republicans on Capitol Hill continue to push forward a landmark bill that one nonpartisan agency said would likely result in an almost $4 trillion expansion of the nearly $37 trillion US national debt. But first the party’s leadership must deal with demands from its extreme right to cut more health and food programs for the country’s poorest to pay for tax breaks, many for the richest Americans. Less conservative members from blue states want bigger state and local tax write-offs, which they used to have before their own party slashed them in 2017. But Wall Street and the broader world of bond vigilantes appear less concerned with the push-and-pull in Washington than with the likely end result: a bill aimed at simultaneously mollifying Trump, the GOP base and its wealthy financiers that will add a crushing new pile of debt to government finances already viewed by some as a ticking time bomb. Investor sentiment toward Treasuries, which took a big hit after Moody’s stripped the US of its top credit grade, deteriorated further on Wednesday following an auction of 20-year bonds that drew surprisingly tepid demand. Treasury yields surged, pushing benchmark 30-year rates back over 5% and to the highest since late 2023. The rout deepened a weeks-long selloff in bonds and underscored the growing disenchantment with Washington on the part of money managers who are bracing for even more Treasury issuance to fund the government’s spending shortfalls. “Make no mistake, the bond market will have its own vote on the terms of the budget bill,” said George Catrambone, head of fixed income and trading at DWS Americas. Stock markets, too, it would seem: Equities dropped Wednesday. Here’s your markets wrap. | |
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US government debt auctions are generally sleepy affairs, except when they’re not. Wednesday’s sale of $16 billion in 20-year bonds definitely qualified for the latter category, Robert Burgess writes in Bloomberg Opinion. And it’s unlikely to be the last. The offering was the government’s first auction of so-called coupon-bearing debt since Moody’s dropped the hammer, the last of the three big credit assessors to do so. The auction was considered subpar on at least two critical measures—and on both counts, the takeaway for America’s future was decidedly less than great. | |
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With Trump handing Vladimir Putin a de facto victory by backing away from ceasefire negotiations, the Kremlin has been maximalist in its demands to end the war on its neighbor. But it turns out the pace of Russia’s main advance in eastern Ukraine has been halved since the start of the year. Small territorial gains are undercutting Putin’s assertions that his army has gained the upper hand. | |
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A software company that handles sensitive data for nearly every US federal agency was the victim of a cyber breach earlier this year due to a “major lapse” in security measures, according to documents reviewed by Bloomberg News. Opexus, which is owned by the private equity firm Thoma Bravo and provides software services for processing US government records, was compromised in February by two employees who’d previously been convicted of hacking into the US State Department. The findings were detailed in separate reports by Opexus and an independent cybersecurity firm, which characterized the incident as an “insider threat attack.” | |
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What You’ll Need to Know Tomorrow | |
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