Morning Bid: Trump punches at Powell, dollar recoils
Just as investor sentiment was recovering from the latest geopolitical jolt, buoyed by the Israel-Iran ceasefire, President Donald Trump rattled markets again with an attack on the Fed chair that revived worries over the central bank's independence.
The result has been another bout of dollar selling, which pushed the euro to its strongest level since November 2021 and the Swiss franc to its highest in a decade.
A report from the Wall Street Journal said Trump has toyed with the idea of naming Fed Chair Jerome Powell's replacement as early as September, which could undermine Powell's authority for the remainder of his term to next May.
Trump has repeatedly chastised Powell for not cutting interest rates and said he was "terrible" in the latest attack on Wednesday, eroding investor faith in the U.S. central bank's independence in setting policy.
Earlier this month, Trump openly contemplated firing Powell and even mused about making himself the Fed chair, although he subsequently backed off.
"I know within three or four people who I'm going to pick," Trump told reporters on Wednesday, when asked if he is interviewing candidates to replace Powell.
All that uncertainty, along with Trump's chaotic trade policies and their potential threat to economic growth, have taken a toll on the U.S. dollar as investors look to move their money elsewhere.
The dollar index , which measures the currency against six other units, is down 10% this year and on course for a sixth straight month in the red. The last time it had a run like this was in 2017.
While the "sell America" theme has faded somewhat in the past few weeks, as evidenced by U.S. stocks hitting record highs, investors remain worried about the dollar and how Trump's tariff policies could affect it.
Trump's tariffs are coming back onto the markets' radar as the clock ticks down to his July 9 deadline for trade deals.
In Thursday's Asia trade, futures indicated a muted open for European stock markets. Investors will keep an eye on defence stocks after NATO leaders backed the big increase in defence spending that Trump had demanded.
The big news in the corporate world was Shell (SHEL.L), opens new tab denying it was in talks to buy British rival BP (BP.L), opens new tab, after the Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday that the oil majors were in early discussions about a takeover.
Key developments that could influence markets on Thursday:
Economic events: Germany Gfk consumer sentiment for July
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The Guardian
13 minutes ago
- The Guardian
The real winners from Trump's ‘AI action plan'? Tech companies
Donald Trump's AI summit in Washington this week was a fanfare-filled event catered to the tech elite. The president took the stage on Wednesday evening, as the song God Bless the USA piped over the loudspeakers, and then he decreed: 'America must once again be a country where innovators are rewarded with a green light, not strangled with red tape, so they can't move, so they can't breathe.' The message was clear – the tech regulatory environment that was once the focus of federal lawmakers is no longer. 'I've been watching for many years,' Trump continued. 'I've watched regulation. I've been a victim of regulation.' As Trump spoke to the crowd, he addressed them as 'the group of smart ones … the brain power'. In front of him were tech leaders, venture capitalists and billionaires, including Nvidia's CEO Jensen Huang and Palantir's chief technology officer Shyam Sankar. The Hill and Valley Forum, an influential tech industry interest group, co-hosted the confab, along with the Silicon Valley All-in Podcast, which is hosted by White House AI and crypto czar David Sacks. Dubbed 'Winning the AI Race', the forum was an opportunity for the president to deliver what he called the 'AI action plan', which aims to loosen restrictions on the development and deployment of artificial intelligence. The cornerstone of that plan are three executive orders that Trump said will turn the US into an 'AI export powerhouse' and roll back some of the rules put in place by the Biden administration, which included guardrails around safe and secure AI development. 'Winning the AI race will demand a new spirit of patriotism and national loyalty in Silicon Valley – and long beyond Silicon Valley,' Trump said. One executive order targets what the White House calls 'woke' AI and requires any company receiving federal funding to maintain AI models free from 'ideological dogmas such as DEI'. But the other two focus on deregulation, a major demand of American tech leaders who have taken an increasingly bullish stand on government oversight. One of those promotes the export of 'American AI' to other countries and the other eases environmental rules and expedites federal permitting for power-hungry data centers. To get to this moment, tech companies have been forging a friendly relationship with Trump. The CEOs of Alphabet, Meta, Amazon and Apple donated to the president's inauguration fund and met with him at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida. Sam Altman, the CEO of OpenAI, which makes ChatGPT, has become a close ally of Trump, and Nvidia's Huang has also cozied up with the president with promises of investing $500bn in AI infrastructure in the US over the next four years. 'The reality is that big tech companies are still spending tens of millions of dollars to curry favor with lawmakers and shape tech legislation,' said Alix Fraser, the vice-president of advocacy for the nonprofit Issue One. In a report released on Tuesday, Issue One looked at lobbying spending in 2025 and found that the tech industry has spent record-breaking sums. Eight of the largest tech companies spent a combined $36m – that's an average of about $320,000 per day when Congress is in session, according to Issue One. Meta spent the most, $13.8m, and has hired 86 lobbyists this year, according to the report. And Nvidia and OpenAI saw the biggest increases, with Nvidia spending 388% more than the same time last year, and OpenAI spending 44% more. In the lead-up to Trump's unveiling of his AI plan, more than 100 prominent labor, environmental, civil rights and academic groups countered the president and signed a 'People's AI action plan'. In a statement, the groups stressed the need for 'relief from the tech monopolies' that they say 'sacrifice the interests of everyday people for their own profits'. 'We can't let big tech and big oil lobbyists write the rules for AI and our economy at the expense of our freedom and equality, workers and families' wellbeing, even the air we breathe and the water we drink – all of which are affected by the unrestrained and unaccountable rollout of AI,' the groups wrote. Meanwhile, tech companies and industry groups celebrated the executive orders. Microsoft, IBM, Dell, Meta, Palantir, Nvidia, Anthropic, xAI and others praised the plan. James Czerniawski, the head of emerging technology policy at the Consumer Choice Center, a pro-business lobbying group, heralded Trump's AI plan as a 'bold vision'. 'This is a world of difference from the hostile regulatory approach of the Biden administration,' Czerniawski concluded.
The Guardian
13 minutes ago
- The Guardian
Trump is fighting to kill off DEI – and the corporate cowardice over Gaza shows he's winning
I have been working in diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) for more than six years. This year, more than ever, I have started to question what the purpose of it really is. Though I've been celebrating companies that took a stand against Donald Trump's anti-DEI executive orders, under the radar I have noticed an insidious censorship rearing its head. Since 2023 we have been witness to one of the worst atrocities of our lifetimes. Livestreamed to our phones, we have seen the slaughter of at least 58,000 Palestinians, more than 17,000 of them children, and many of them in hospitals, schools, refugee camps and food queues. We have seen the denial of water, electricity and medical supplies, the obliteration of communities, mass manmade starvation, and continued calls by Israeli ministers for the permanent expulsion or eradication of Palestinians in Gaza. Israel's plans for a so-called humanitarian city to be built on the ruins of Rafah has been described by the former Israeli prime minister Ehud Olmert as a 'concentration camp'. Yet, although more than 200 companies released statements after the Hamas attack on 7 October 2023 – wholeheartedly condemning it and donating money to relief funds – since then, there has been a relative silence in the face of the ongoing destruction in Gaza. One senior manager I spoke to said he had received an email telling him to remind staff they weren't allowed to wear 'political' badges during the Gaza conflict. Another company leader firmly stated, 'We're an apolitical company. Our staff need to remember that.' Last year, 50 employees were fired by Google after protesting against its and Amazon's $1.2bn (£900m) Project Nimbus cloud infrastructure contract with the Israeli government. And just last weekend we saw an official at the Royal Opera House attempt to snatch the Palestinian flag from a cast member who unfurled it on stage after a performance. All these organisations have DEI agendas. They say they are committed to inclusion and equal opportunity, and to enhancing business growth through diversity. Yet it seems this commitment is conditional on people's silence. You can belong, as long as you don't make us uncomfortable. We value your identity, as long as it's not political. Yet the companies themselves are not devoid of politics. A recent report by the UN special rapporteur for Palestinian territories, Francesca Albanese, backed by a number of high-profile economists, exposes the vast number of businesses who have been enabling or profiting from the Israeli military operation in Gaza. 'The report shows why the genocide carried out by Israel continues … because it is lucrative for many,' it says, highlighting not just arms manufacturers but also the complicity of big tech, household brands and even educational institutions. and Airbnb have been listing properties in illegal Israeli settlements, enabling profit from stolen land. And, in the most stark cases of corporate hypocrisy, companies such as BAE Systems, which is directly tied to the Israeli military machine and dehumanisation of Palestinians, proudly brand themselves as champions of dignity and respect. For the first time, I have found myself questioning not just how we do DEI work, but whether it means anything at all. If DEI is about rewiring unjust systems, how can companies silence staff who speak out or, worse, actively profit from a brutal war machine, and still claim to be inclusive? What is the role of DEI, if not to embed values and basic humanity within the company? What is even more frustrating is that we have a direct blueprint of how business leaders can approach this. Since the invasion of Ukraine, more than 1,000 companies have voluntarily curtailed operations in Russia as a recognition that they don't stand for war crimes, the murder of civilians or the ensuing humanitarian crisis. They hung Ukrainian flags on their buildings, donated tens of millions to humanitarian organisations, offered housing and created fast-track hiring schemes for Ukrainian refugees. The Royal Opera House itself published a statement in support of Ukraine, lit up its building in the Ukrainian flag colours, and for a period of time played the Ukrainian national anthem before every performance. For many staff, this contrast makes the corporate silence on Gaza feel even more pointed. It's not 'apolitical', it's a choice. And it is a failure of DEI, which at its core is about challenging systems that breed inequality. It is rooted in values of fairness, dignity and respect for all. This isn't simply about respecting racial or religious difference on an interpersonal level, it's about who you invest in (or divest from), what you choose to speak out on, how you balance profit with purpose. To stay silent in the face of mass violence sends a clear message: some lives don't matter. What gives me hope is the people-powered movements within companies. Staff are holding their leaders to account. Be that employees at the Boston Consulting Group who shared a letter to the company's top management demanding an end to its involvement in the development of the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, staff at the Berlin-based retail company Zalando protesting against the dismissal of an Arab employee who criticised its support of Israel, or the more than 100 BBC staff who spoke out against censorship in its reporting of Israel/Palestine. These ordinary workers are taking up the mantle where DEI is failing. We need to move away from this current sanitised, apolitical version of DEI towards one with meaning. Core values of dignity, humanity and fairness need to be integral to business decisions, not just corporate buzzwords. If you stand for nothing, you will fall for anything. And that's not a DEI I want to be part of. Jinan Younis is the founder of diversity, equity and inclusion agency WeCalibrate and former assistant politics editor at gal-dem magazine
Sky News
36 minutes ago
- Sky News
Trump hopes to escape Epstein controversy, but story risks following him to Scotland
I knew Donald Trump when he was nothing. Nothing like he is today, to be precise. It was the 18 April 2006, and he had landed by helicopter at St Andrew's, on his way to survey a stretch of Aberdeenshire coastline he was going to turn into a golf course. He duly delivered and "Trump International" is a stunning addition to Scotland's golfing real estate, alongside his other course at Turnberry. 1:30 Back in 2006, Trump was big time and big news. He was the brand built on property and showbiz and, upon arrival, the star of TV's The Apprentice breezed his way through our interview, obliging us by pointing down the barrel of the camera and delivering his trademark "you're fired". We talked investment, Scottish roots and some local objections to the golf course. I said it was all a bit like the film Local Hero, which likened him to the rich guy played by Burt Lancaster and he seemed happy enough. Innocent times. Fast forward 20 years to President Trump and we are braced for his latest return 'home'. For this son of Scotland (his mother is from the Isle of Lewis), it's a homecoming from hell. Hellish on security logistics, at least. You might think a trip to the old country would carry an element of triumph, wrapped in a nation's pride. He's the prodigal who made president, after all - think Biden, Ireland, and the rock star welcome rolled out there for one of their own. Not so for President Trump. The dynamic's different with the Donald - the heartland he'll visit isn't loved up, it's locked down. Same as it ever was, whenever he lands in Scotland. Hundreds of extra police officers have been drafted from around the country to hermetically seal his golf courses in Turnberry and Aberdeenshire. A private trip in two very public settings demands a huge security operation, complicated by an army of protestors mobilising for what they're calling a "carnival of resistance". Demonstrations are planned over a range of causes - organisers cite "threats" to democracy, climate, the global economy and more. There is no cause untouched by a president of the US and none forgotten by this weekend's protests. Scotland leans left of Donald Trump, and critics will lean into an effort to let him know. It's an awkward setting for a charm offensive by Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer and Scotland's First Minister John Swinney. As the biggest show in politics rolls into town, they will polish the script on trade negotiations, wary of a president distracted, unpredictable and prone to changing the plot. His distraction, of course, is the political drama back home. Trump will welcome a weekend under the radar as an opportunity to escape the Jeffrey Epstein controversy, but there's every chance the story will travel with him. Daily efforts to steer the media away from the scandal haven't stemmed the flow of persistent enquiry and revelations that cement Trump's relationship with Epstein in the public consciousness, and so further raise questions of cover-up.
