CNA938 Rewind - Trump's big, beautiful bill signed: The tax and spending cuts explained
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Business Times
an hour ago
- Business Times
US dollar has best week since February on tariff inflation risks
[NEW YORK] The US dollar turned in its best weekly performance in more than four months as US President Donald Trump's latest tariff threats heightened concern that escalating trade tensions will stoke inflation and derail a rally in risk markets. The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index rose 0.7 per cent this week, the best showing – by a hair – since the week of Feb 28, after falling for two weeks before that. The yen and pound sterling were among the worst performers in the Group of 10 this week. Traders had grown increasingly bearish on the greenback in the last several months as concerns over deficits and fiscal spending curbed the appeal of the US currency. Now, as Trump unveils new tariff plans following a three-month pause – including a 35 per cent levy on some Canadian imports and blanket tariffs of up to 20 per cent on most trading partners – investors are focusing on the potential risks from the fallout, including inflation. 'The market setup is too sanguine on trade policy risks with short dollar and long risk positions,' said Aroop Chatterjee, a strategist at Wells Fargo. He also said that the market shows 'too much optimism that the Fed will be rising to the rescue with inflation uncertainty working against that narrative'. JPMorgan strategists led by Meera Chandan said they see that some indicators have turned less bearish on the dollar, 'which could signal consolidation in the near term, but we consider these less relevant over the medium term'. They expect the greenback to weaken further based on tariffs and policy uncertainty, while they are bullish on the euro, yen and Swiss franc. Meanwhile, speculative traders slightly increased their bearish dollar views according to the latest data, while remaining close to the most negative on the greenback since August 2023. A group of non-commercial traders, including asset managers and other speculators, raised their bets against the dollar in the week through Jul 8, according to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission's report. They now hold some US$18.6 billion worth of positions tied to the dollar weakening, up from about US$18.3 billion in a week prior. BLOOMBERG
AsiaOne
an hour ago
- AsiaOne
Trump visits Texas flood zone, defends government's disaster response, World News
KERRVILLE, Texas - President Donald Trump defended the state and federal response to deadly flash flooding in Texas on Friday (July 11) as he visited the stricken Hill Country region, where at least 120 people, including dozens of children, perished a week ago. During a roundtable discussion after touring Kerr County, the epicenter of the disaster, Trump praised both Texas Governor Greg Abbott and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem for their response, saying they both did an "incredible job." The Trump administration, as well as local and state officials, has faced mounting questions over whether more could have been done to protect and warn residents ahead of the flooding, which struck with astonishing speed in the pre-dawn hours on July 4, the US Independence Day holiday. Trump reacted with anger when a reporter said some families affected by the floods had expressed frustration that warnings did not go out sooner. "I think everyone did an incredible job under the circumstances," he said. "I don't know who you are, but only a very evil person would ask a question like that." Some critics have questioned whether the administration's spending cuts at the National Weather Service and the Federal Emergency Management Agency, which coordinates the US government's disaster response efforts, might have exacerbated the calamity. Trump officials have said that cuts had no impact on the NWS's ability to forecast the storms, despite some vacancies in local offices. But the president has largely sidestepped questions about his plans to shrink or abolish Fema and reassign many of its key functions to state and local governments. "I'll tell you some other time," Trump said on Tuesday, when asked by a reporter about Fema Before the most recent flooding, Kerr County declined to install an early-warning system after failing to secure state money to cover the cost. Lawrence Walker, 67, and a nearly three-decade veteran resident of Kerrville, said the county and state had not spent enough on disaster prevention, including an early-warning system. Asked about the quality of the government response, he said, "It's been fine since the water was at 8 feet." The Texas state legislature will convene in a special session later this month to investigate the flooding and provide disaster relief funding. Abbott has dismissed questions about whether anyone was to blame, calling that the "word choice of losers." Dozens still unaccounted for Search teams on Friday were still combing through muddy debris littering parts of the Hill Country in central Texas, looking for the dozens still listed as missing, but no survivors have been found since the day of the floods. Heavy rains sent a wall of water raging down the Guadalupe River early on July 4, causing the deadliest disaster of the Republican president's nearly six-month term in office.[[nid:719902]] As sun poked through dark clouds on Friday morning, search crews in hard hats painstakingly walked inch-by-inch along the ruined banks of the river, marking damage and looking through wreckage. After the president arrived in Kerr County in the early afternoon, Trump, first lady Melania Trump and Texas Governor Greg Abbott drove to an area near the river, where Trump received a briefing from first responders amid debris left in the wake of the flood. The county is located in what is known as "flash flood alley," a region that has seen some of the country's deadliest floods. More than a foot of rain fell in less than an hour on July 4. Flood gauges showed the river's height rose from about a foot to 34 feet (10.4 meters) in a matter of hours, cascading over its banks and sweeping away trees and structures in its path. Kerr County officials say more than 160 people remain unaccounted for, although experts say that the number of people reported missing in the wake of disasters is often inflated. The dead in the county include 67 adults and at least 36 children, many of whom were campers at the nearly century-old Camp Mystic, an all-girls Christian summer retreat on the banks of the river. Jon Moreno, 71, a longtime Kerrville resident whose property on high ground was spared, praised the government response - local and federal. He has heard the debate about what more could have been done - including sirens - but said he did not think it would have made much difference, given people's desire to build along the flood-prone riverbanks. "It's unavoidable," he said. "All those people along the river - I wouldn't want to live there ... It's too dangerous." At Stripes, a gas station in Kerrville, the building was tagged in large white letters, accusing "Trump's Big Beautiful Bill" of cutting "our emergency funding." The president's massive legislative package, which cut taxes and spending, won approval from the Republican-controlled Congress last week and was signed into law by Trump on the same day that the flooding hit Texas.
CNA
2 hours ago
- CNA
Google hires Windsurf execs in $2.4 billion deal to advance AI coding ambitions
Alphabet's Google has hired several key staff members from AI code generation startup Windsurf, the companies announced on Friday, in a surprise move following an attempt by its rival OpenAI to acquire the startup. Google is paying $2.4 billion in license fees as part of the deal to use some of Windsurf's technology under non-exclusive terms, according to a person familiar with the arrangement. Google will not take a stake or any controlling interest in Windsurf, the person added. Windsurf CEO Varun Mohan, co-founder Douglas Chen, and some members of the coding tool's research and development team will join Google's DeepMind AI division. The deal followed months of discussions Windsurf was having with OpenAI to sell itself in a deal that could value it at $3 billion, highlighting the interest in the code-generation space which has emerged as one of the fastest-growing AI applications, sources familiar with the matter told Reuters in June. OpenAI could not be immediately reached for a comment. The former Windsurf team will focus on agentic coding initiatives at Google DeepMind, primarily working on the Gemini project. "We're excited to welcome some top AI coding talent from Windsurf's team to Google DeepMind to advance our work in agentic coding," Google said in a statement. The unusual deal structure marks a win for backers for Windsurf, which has raised $243 million from investors including Kleiner Perkins, Greenoaks and General Catalyst, and was last valued at $1.25 billion one year ago, according to PitchBook. Windsurf investors will receive liquidity through the license fee and retain their stakes in the company, sources told Reuters. 'ACQUIHIRE' DEALS Google's surprise swoop mirrors its deal in August 2024 to hire key employees from chatbot startup Big Tech peers, including Microsoft, Amazon and Meta, have similarly taken to these so-called acquihire deals, which some have criticized as an attempt to evade regulatory scrutiny. Microsoft struck a $650 million deal with Inflection AI in March 2024, to use the AI startup's models and hire its staff, while Amazon hired AI firm Adept's co-founders and some of its team last June. Meta took a 49 per cent stake in Scale AI in June in the biggest test yet of this increasing form of business partnerships. Unlike acquisitions that would give the buyer a controlling stake, these deals do not require a review by U.S. antitrust regulators. However, they could probe the deal if they believe it was structured to avoid those requirements or harm competition. Many of the deals have since become the subject of regulatory probes. The development comes as tech giants, including Alphabet and Meta, aggressively chase high-profile acquisitions and offer multi-million-dollar pay packages to attract top talent in the race to lead the next wave of AI. Windsurf's head of business, Jeff Wang, has been appointed its interim CEO, and Graham Moreno, vice president of global sales, will be president, effective immediately. The majority of Windsurf's roughly 250 employees will remain with the company, which has announced plans to prioritize innovation for its enterprise clients.
