Week Ending 17th April 2025 The S&P 500 ticked higher in choppy trading on Thursday, but finished the holiday-shortened trading week lower as tariffs continued to worry investors. The broad index advanced 0.13% to close at 5,282.70 after swinging between gains and losses earlier in the session. The Nasdaq Composite inched down 0.13% to end […]

The US central bank has slashed its expectations for economic growth this year as it eyes challenges on several fronts amid Donald Trump’s escalating trade war. The Federal Reserve announced, as was widely expected, that it would keep its main interest rate at its current target range level of 4.25%-4.5% following the latest meeting of […]

The US president has promised to target countries which charge tax on US imports by matching them with a reciprocal tariff. Donald Trump has ordered his team to start calculating duties by early April – increasing fears of a global trade war that could also accelerate US inflation. “On trade, I have decided for purposes […]

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has warned against the prospects of a renewed US-led trade war, just days before Donald Trump prepares to begin his second term in the White House. The world’s lender of last resort used the latest update to its World Economic Outlook (WEO) to lay out a series of consequences for […]

Britain is set to have the fastest growth among major European economies this year, according to the International Monetary Fund, a boost to finance minister Rachel Reeves who is under pressure over a slowdown since her party came to power in July. The IMF on Friday raised its forecast for British growth for 2025 by […]

The Bank of England has forecast Rachel Reeves’s first budget as chancellor will increase inflation by up to half a percentage point over the next two years, contributing to a slower decline in interest rates than previously thought. Announcing a widely anticipated 0.25 percentage point cut in the base rate to 4.75%, the Bank’s Monetary […]

A stronger performance for job creation in the United States appears to have eased financial market fears of a US recession. Closely-watched employment data showed that 142,000 net new jobs were created in the world’s largest economy last month. While that was below forecasts of 160,000, it represented a significant recovery on a downwardly revised […]

The annual pace of price rises in the world’s largest economy fell from 3% in June to 2.9% in July, according to official figures. It comes as financial markets expect the Federal Reserve to cut interest rates next month for the first time since March 2020. Analysts have widely forecast that easing inflation in the […]

US interest rates are to be cut just once this year, according to updated forecasts from its central bank. The cost of US borrowing was kept at a more than 20-year high despite news on Wednesday that inflation, the rate of price rises, fell to the lowest level in more than three years at 3.4%The […]

The Bank of England has edged closer to a cut in interest rates, with another member of its nine-person Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) voting for lower borrowing costs this month. While the MPC voted 7-2 to leave UK interest rates on hold at 5.25%, the change in the vote will be seen as a further […]