News Recap • Week 28 2025

Check the news below and make sure to visit my latest Market Recap as well.

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Trade talks

• Mon President Trump announced a new set of tariff rates on 14 countries, most notably Japan and South Korea. Both countries will now face 25% tariffs on exports to the US. The new tariffs are only set to take effect on August 1 though, leaving some room for the trade partners to negotiate some better deals. The South Korean stock market rallied on the news. (CNBC)
• Mon Trump threatened an additional 10% tariff on countries that align themselves with “anti-American” BRICS policies. His statement came as the BRICS bloc of developing countries, who were meeting in Rio de Janeiro, issued a joint statement against Trump’s tariff policies. (CNBC)
• Tue On Tuesday, Trump threatened to impose up to 200% tariff on pharmaceuticals. However, he also said that they wouldn’t take effect until a year, year and a half from now. Perhaps the timeline eased investors mind and prevented a larger selloff in pharma companies. (CNBC)
• Wed Trump sent another batch of letters dictating new tariff rates and trade conditions, this time targeting at least seven countries including the Philippines, Moldova, Iraq, Sri Lanka, and Brunei. (CNBC)
• Wed President Donald Trump confirmed that the 50% tariff on copper imports announced earlier in the week will take effect on August 1. Copper prices rallied more than 10% to a new record high in US dollar terms this week. (CNBC)
• Wed Brazil’s President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said the country will respond to Trump’s newly announced 50% tariff with “reciprocity”. Investors didn’t like the escalation of the trade conflict and sent the Brazilian Bovespa index down by 3.59% this week. (CNBC)
• Thu President Trump announced a 35% tariff on Canadian goods while keeping many of the current exemptions in place, for instance on oil and certain sector-specific duties. Trump cited fentanyl and Ottawa’s retaliatory duties as key reasons. The market reaction was muted. (Yahoo Finance)
• Sat The EU and Mexico got hit with 30% tariffs on exports to the US, also planned to take effect on August 1. Ursula von der Leyen said that the 30% tariff “would disrupt essential transatlantic supply chains, to the detriment of businesses, consumers and patients on both sides of the Atlantic” and added that the EU remains ready to continue working towards an agreement before August 1. (CNBC)

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Macro

• Tue China’s producer prices plunged 3.6% in June from a year earlier, even worse than the 3.2% decline expected. It was the biggest fall since July 2023, highlighting that China is still struggling to kickstart its weakening economy. Consumer prices provided a slightly more positive reading though, inching 0.1% higher in June and beating estimates for a flat reading. Core CPI rose 0.7% from a year ago, the biggest increase in 14 months. (CNBC)
• Wed Minutes from the Federal Reserve’s June meeting showed continued rate cut expectations this year but varying opinions on the amount. Most committee members still think it’s appropriate to reduce rates this year but some want to await further clarity on Trump’s trade policy and its impact on the economy, while others were ready to cut rates already at the upcoming July meeting. However, the interest rate market currently sees just a 5% chance of a cut in July while the likelihood of a cut in September has dropped from near certainty to just 57%. (CNBC)
• Wed The Bank of Korea kept interest rates unchanged at 2.5%. Economists expect a rate cut at the next meeting, however. (CNBC)
• Thu German inflation came in at 2.0% in June, confirming preliminary data from June 30. (Reuters)
• Thu The inflation rate in Denmark picked up from 1.6% in May to 1.9% in June, almost hitting the 2% target. The rise was mainly caused by a jump in food prices. (Euroinvestor)
• Fri The UK’s GDP contracted 0.1% month-on-month in May. Economists had expected it to expand by 0.1%. The weakness came from production output and construction in particular, down 0.9% and 0.6% respectively. An economic slowdown in the UK would be extra challenging due to inflation picking back up, coming in above 3% in the most recent readings. Despite that, the Bank of England seems set for a rate cut in August. The FTSE 100 declined 0.38% on Friday but still closed at a new weekly record high. (CNBC)

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Other

• Mon Meta continues its hiring spree, now recruiting Apple’s Head of AI Models, Ruoming Pang. (TechCrunch)
• Mon CoreWeave is set to buy crypto miner Core Scientific in an all-stock deal valued at about $9 billion. The acquisition helps CoreWeave secure the energy and data center capacity it needs. (Reuters)
• Tue Elon Musk’s SpaceX is in talks to raise new funding at a $400 billion valuation. SpaceX is already the most valuable private US company in history based on its tender offer which valued the company at $350 billion in December last year. The close second is OpenAI which raised $40 billion at a $300 billion valuation in March. (TechCrunch)
• Tue French AI startup Mistral is reportedly in talks to raise up to $1 billion in equity from investors including Abu Dhabi’s MGX fund. (TechCrunch)
• Tue Chinese fast-fashion giant Shein has filed confidentially to go public on the Hong Kong stock exchange. This comes 18 months after its filing with the London Stock Exchange, an IPO that has been delayed by UK regulators. Shein was last valued at around $66 billion in 2023. (Axios)
• Wed Italian family-owned Ferrero is expanding its US operations by acquiring cereal giant WK Kellogg for $3.1 billion. Shares of WK Kellogg surged more than 30% on the news. (CNBC)
• Wed Nvidia became the first company in history to surpass a market cap of $4 trillion. It closed the week with a valuation of $4.022 trillion, ahead of Microsoft and Apple at $3.740 and $3.153 trillion. (Reuters)
• Wed Starbucks China has reportedly attracted bids valuing it at up to $10 billion. Starbucks wants to maintain a meaningful stake in its China division and will only commit to a deal that makes sense for the main business and its partners. (CNBC)
• Wed Linda Yaccarino stepped down as CEO of X. She was hired shortly after Elon Musk acquired the company in May 2023. (CNBC)
• Wed UK FinTech giant Revolut is reportedly seeking to raise $1 billion at a $65 billion valuation. Investment firm Greenoaks is in talks to lead the round. (Reuters)
• Fri Google has hired CEO Varun Mohan and other key employees from AI coding startup Windsurf while also buying a non-exclusive license to certain Windsurf technology. The deal is reportedly worth $2.4 billion and likely jeopardizes OpenAI’s $3 billion acquisition offer reported in April. (CNBC)
• Sat Another one of Elon Musk’s startups, xAI, is reportedly preparing to raise more money from investors in a deal that could value the company between $170 and $200 billion. (Reuters)
• Sun For now, xAI will get a $2 billion investment from another one of Elon Musk's companies, SpaceX. The investment comes as part of a $5 billion equity round announced in June and values xAI at $113 billion. (Reuters)

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Earnings

• Mon Samsung forecast a 56% plunge in Q2 profits, coming in at 4.6 trillion won compared to estimates for 6.26 trillion won ($4.57 billion). The stock didn’t really react to the news though. (CNBC)
• Thu Taiwan Semiconductor (TSMC) reported revenue of $31.9 billion and annual sales growth of 38.6%, beating expectations. The stock reaction was muted, likely due to the fact that TSMC won’t report full Q2 earnings until July 17. (Reuters)
• Thu Levi Strauss reported adjusted earnings of 22 cents per share, well above the 13 cent estimate. Revenue also came in above forecast at $1.45 billion. Shares rallied more than 11% on Friday after the report and are now up almost 27% for the year. (CNBC)
• Fri Danish insurance company Tryg reported earnings of DKK 1.53 billion, beating estimates for DKK 1.46 billion. However, earnings were still down from last year’s DKK 1.64 billion. The stock closed Friday with a modest 0.68% gain after having been up as much as 3.3% in early trade after the report. (Euroinvestor)