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Bechtel wins $242M contract modification for chemical weapons destruction

Reston-based National has been awarded a $242.28 million modification from the to address past contract overruns associated with the Pueblo Chemical Agent-Destruction Pilot Plant in Colorado.

The plant is a destruction facility that destroyed the chemical weapons stockpile previously stored at the U.S. Army Pueblo Chemical Depot in Pueblo, Colorado. The Bechtel Pueblo Team, which includes Bechtel as well as Amentum and Battelle Memorial Institute, was awarded a contract in 2002 to design, build, test and operate the plant.

Bechtel led the team that destroyed the chemical weapons stockpile. The company reports that between March 2015 and June 2023, the team destroyed more than 780,000 munitions containing 2,613 U.S. tons of chemical agents.

In June 2022, Bechtel was awarded a $759 million contract modification to close the facility. Work was to be performed in Pueblo and was initially expected to be completed on March 30, 2026. The plant’s closure will involve decontamination, rendering equipment safe for removal and demolition and transferring government personal property for reuse, sale, recycling or disposal. It will also involve the demolition of facilities not required for future use and closing environmental permits, contracts and interagency agreements and archiving records.

The $242 million contract modification announced on Thursday says that Bechdel will perform work in Pueblo with an estimated completion date of April 3, 2026. The Army Contracting Command of Rock Island Arsenal, Illinois obligated the money from the Army’s fiscal 2015 research, development, test and evaluation funds.

Headquartered in , Bechtel is a global , and project management company. Engineering News-Record in 2024 ranked Bechtel as the nation’s third largest construction company. Since its founding in 1898, the company has completed more than 25,000 projects in 160 countries.

The Latest: Stocks plummet as global markets feel the impact of Trump’s tariffs

U.S. stocks careened after President Donald  threatened to crank his tariffs higher on Monday.

The was down 0.8% in late trading, but only after a day of heart-racing reversals as battered financial markets try to figure out what Trump’s ultimate goal is for his  war. If it’s to get other countries to agree to trade deals, he could lower his tariffs and avoid a possible recession. But if it’s to remake the and stick with tariffs for the long haul, stock prices may need to fall further.

The Jones Industrial Average was down 563 points, or 1.5%, with a little less than an hour remaining in trading, while the Nasdaq composite was 0.6% lower.

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Here’s the latest:

US stocks end modestly lower after markets were reeling from tariff fight

Stocks ended another tumultuous day lower as markets reel from President Trump’s latest threats to escalate his tariff fight.

The S&P 500 sank 0.2% Monday. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 349 points, or 0.9%, and the Nasdaq composite rose 0.1%. The Dow was earlier down as many as 1,700 points following even worse losses on worries that Trump’s tariffs could torpedo the global economy.

It then surged to a gain after a rumor circulated that Trump may pause his tariffs. But the White House quickly called that fake news, and Trump then threatened to raise tariffs further on .

Sell, baby, sell

President’s Trump promise to “drill, baby, drill”,” was expected to usher in happy days for fossil fuel companies. But it hasn’t worked out that way so far.

Oil and gas companies have been among the biggest decliners over the past few days as an escalating trade war raises fears of an economic downturn and a drop in demand for energy products.

Over the past three trading sessions, Devon Energy, Diamondback Energy and Halliburton have all declined by more than 20%. APA Corp., which operates in the U.S., Egypt and the U.K., has dropped more than 30%. The price of oil has declined from around $71 in the middle of last week to $61 Monday.

Trump says he won’t pause tariff plan

Despite hopes that he’ll back off his trade policies, the president said he’s not going to pause plans for tariffs.

“We’re not looking at that,” he said in the Oval Office. However, he also said foreign leaders were looking to cut new trade deals with the U.S.

“We have many, many countries that are coming to negotiate with us,” he said.

Trump said there was no contradiction between implementing tariffs and holding talks.

“They can both be true,” he said.

Trump has lost more than a billion dollars in stock value

Trump’s stake in his social media company that runs Truth Social has fallen to $2.4 billion, a 40% plunge from when the stock market began tumbling on tariff fears on February 19. The drop in percentage terms is twice that of the S&P 500.

The president’s heavy exposure to stocks through his Trump Media & Technology stake contrasts sharply from when he was last president and boasted regularly about stock market records.

Back then, before he took his social media public, he had just 0.1% of his wealth in stocks.

Just how much a backlash from Trump’s tariffs will hurt his overseas golf club and hotel and residential tower businesses is unclear because they are privately held. Before Trump’s “Liberation Day” tariff announcement, Forbes valued his holdings, including his Trump Media stake, at about $5 billion.

Experts worry of a possible bear market

Wall Street could soon be in the claws of another bear market as the Trump administration’s tariff blitz fuels fears that the added taxes on imported goods from around the world will sink the global economy.

A bear market is a term used by Wall Street when an index such as the S&P 500 or the Dow Jones Industrial Average has fallen 20% or more from a recent high for a sustained period of time.

The last bear market happened from Jan. 3 to Oct. 12 in 2022. But this decline feels more like the sudden, turbulent bear market of 2020, when the benchmark S&P 500 index tumbled 34% in a one-month period, the shortest bear market ever.

The S&P 500, Wall Street’s main barometer of health, was down 1.2% in Monday afternoon trading. It’s now 18.4% below the all-time high it set on Feb. 19.

The Dow industrials fell 1.8%, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq composite, which already was in a bear market, dropped 0.9%.

UK and Singapore prime ministers agree to strengthen collaboration amid US tariffs

U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer discussed U.S. tariffs with his Singapore counterpart and they agreed there can be no winners in a trade war, his office said.

Starmer updated Singapore Prime Minister Lawrence Wong on his calls with other leaders over the weekend and both agreed to work to maintain global economic stability, according to a readout of the call.

The two agreed to strengthen collaboration through bilateral agreements and trading blocs such as the Comprehensive and Progressive Trans-Pacific Partnership.

“On the wider bilateral relationship, the leaders committed to further collaboration on areas including technology, security and defense in the 60th year of bilateral relations,” Starmer’s office said.

Apple, Starbucks, Caterpillar among declining stocks

Apple tumbled again on Monday after President Donald Trump threatened more tariffs against China.

China is the iPhone maker’s second-biggest market and home to the vast majority of its production and assembly.

In afternoon trading, Apple fell 3.2%, to $182.34 per share. That follows a combined decline of more than 16% on Thursday and Friday. Its shares are down more than 25% this year.

Other notable decliners Monday included Starbucks (-2.8%); Tesla (-1.6%); Levi Strauss (-1.7%); and Caterpillar (-2.4%).

Much like the major stock indexes, many companies whipsawed back-and-forth between gains and losses.

Nvidia was down as much as 7% early before rebounding to a 5% gain in the afternoon, for instance.

US Secretary of State speaks with Pakistan’s deputy PM about economic cooperation

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio has spoken to Pakistan’s deputy Prime Minister Ishaq Dar, days after the U.S. President Donald Trump imposed 29% tariffs on exports to his country from Pakistan.

In a statement, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said on Monday that the two sides “discussed bilateral relations, regional security, and economic cooperation”.

The statement quoted Rubio as saying that the cooperation in economy and trade would be the hallmark of future relations between the two countries.

The latest development came hours after the Pakistan fell rapidly, with Islamabad facing 29% tariffs from the U.S.

Beijing cites President Reagan to blast Trump’s tariffs and protectionism

Beijing has issued several strongly-worded rebukes to Trump’s tariffs, including one entirely in the words of late-President Ronald Reagan.

“High tariffs inevitably lead to retaliation by foreign countries and the triggering of fierce trade wars,” the Republican president said in a video clip dated 1987, as posted on the X social media site Monday by the Chinese Embassy in the U.S. The embassy wrote that the decades-old speech “finds new relevance in 2025.”

“The result is more and more tariffs, higher and higher trader barriers, and less and less competition,” Reagan said in the speech, in which he warned of the worst from tariff wars: markets should collapse, businesses shut down, and millions of people lose jobs.

Experts don’t think China will back down in the face of Trump’s latest tariff threat

Experts say Beijing is unlikely to back down, after President Trump threatened to raise tariffs on China if Beijing does not withdraw its retaliatory tariffs.

“At this point, it is extremely unlikely for China to back down,” said Yun Sun, director of the China program at the Washington-based think tank Stimson Center, adding any leadership summit between Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping “doesn’t appear likely in the near future.”

“China is increasingly convinced that the tariff is not negotiable because Trump’s eventual goal is to bring manufacturing jobs back to the U.S.,” Sun said.

Craig Singleton, senior China fellow at another Washington-based think tank Foundation for Defense of Democracies, called Trump’s threat from today “a blunt ultimatum to Beijing that sharply raises the takes in the U.S.-China tariff war.” He said Beijing’s rigid system and fear of looking weak prevent Xi from opening back channels with the Trump administration that could offer relief.

“This is not a contest of endurance so much as a collision course, where neither side intends to swerve,” Singleton said. “In other words, Trump and Xi are locked into escalation-as-strategy, and the risk now is a slow-motion spiral with no clear ceiling.”

Think twice before bailing out of the stock market, financial advisers say

The huge swings rocking Wall Street and the global economy may feel far from normal. But, for investing at least, drops of this size have happened throughout history.

Any kind of uncertainty around the economy will give Wall Street pause, but the trade war is making it more difficult for companies, households and others to feel confident enough to invest, spend and make long-term plans.

Anytime an investor sees they’re losing money, it feels bad. This recent run feels particularly unnerving because of how incredibly calm the market had previously been. The S&P 500 is coming off a second straight year where it shot up by more than 20%.

Selling may offer some feeling of relief. But it also locks in losses and prevents the chance of making the money back over time. Historically, the S&P 500 has come back from every one of its downturns to eventually make investors whole again. That includes after the Great Depression, the dot-com bust and the 2020 COVID crash.

Markets in Europe sink for a third day

European markets continued their recent descent Monday, logging a third straight day of major losses.

Germany’s DAX index, which briefly fell more than 10% at the open on the Frankfurt exchange, recovered some ground and closed down 4.1%. In Paris, the CAC 40 shed 4.8%, while Britain’s FTSE 100 tumbled 4.4%.

Prior to last week, most indexes in Europe had enjoyed a resurgence after underperforming U.S. markets last year.

The EUs executive commission — which handles trade issues for the 27-country bloc — is set to impose tariffs on jeans, whiskey and motorcycles Wednesday in response to Trump’s increase in steel and aluminum tariffs.

EU commissioners haven’t cemented a response to Trump’s “reciprocal” tariff of 20% on European goods and a 25% tariff imposed on autos.

Betting on a Fed rate cut

Wall Street is increasingly betting that the Federal Reserve will cut its main interest rate at least four times this year.

That expectation has increased since the White House unleashed its sweeping tariffs on imported goods.

As of Monday, traders are betting on a 61.6% chance that the Fed will leave its rate unchanged at its next meeting of policymakers in May, according to data from CME Group. That’d down from 63.1% a month ago.

However, traders’ odds of rate cut announcements at Fed meetings in June, July, September and December are all up versus a month ago.

The Fed has been holding interest rates steady this year, after cutting them sharply through the end of last year.

Copper prices fall further

The price of copper fell nearly 4% Monday following sharp drops late last week. Copper prices were up as much as 30% for the year as of late March and nearly all of those gains have been erased.

Copper prices had hit record levels because of growing demand amid developments for artificial intelligence technology and a global shift to cleaner energy. A prolonged trade war threatens economies around the world. That makes investments in technology and energy infrastructure more difficult.

Much of the world’s technology wouldn’t work without copper. It goes into cords for electrical devices, transmission lines, batteries, LED lights and other electronics.

Gas price increase is likely short-lived

The average price for a gallon of gas is up for the third straight week in the U.S., but that’s likely to reverse course soon with oil prices in rapid retreat.

The average price for a gallon of gas hit $3.21 this week, up more than 10 cents, according to GasBuddy. That’s still more than 35 cents lower that last year at this time.

Oil prices on Monday briefly dipped below $60 for the first time since 2021 as a global trade war escalates.

Patrick De Haan, head of petroleum analysis at GasBuddy, said that if tariffs aren’t scaled back soon, the national average could fall below $3 per gallon in the coming weeks.

Heavy weights lead market shifts

Wall Street’s big swings are being led by the technology sector, which has an outsized impact on the broader market.

The sector is full of companies with pricey stock valuations, such as Nvidia, which tend to push and pull the market with greater force than less valuable stocks. Their heft means a big shift either way for a just handful of companies can sink or lift the S&P 500.

Technology companies, including chipmakers, have seen their values skyrocket over hopes for artificial intelligence advancements. Higher costs for chips and other technologies pose a risk to that development and the earnings growth prospects for companies like Nvidia, Apple and Microsoft.

British prime minister says tariffs are a challenge for the UK

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer on Monday said President Trump’s tariffs were a “huge challenge” for the U.K. and could have “profound” consequences for the global economy.

“But this moment has also made something very clear — that this is not a passing phase,” he said. “And just as we’ve seen with our national security, particularly over recent months in relation to the war in Ukraine, now with our commerce and trade, this is … a completely new world, an era where old assumptions, which we’ve long taken for granted, simply don’t apply any longer.”

Speaking to workers at a plant in the West Midlands that makes Jaguar and Land Rover vehicles for the export market, Starmer said his government would continue to try to negotiate a trade deal with the United States while championing free trade around the world.

Jaguar Land Rover on Saturday announced that it was pausing shipments to the U.S. for the month of April as it works out how to respond to the 25% tax on imported cars that took effect last week.

Starmer announced some help for the British car industry, providing additional flexibility in meeting the government’s 2030 deadline for phasing out gasoline- and diesel-power cars, extending the deadline for hybrids to 2035 and offering tax breaks for buyers of electric vehicles.

Slide in oil prices deepens

Oil prices are falling Monday, extending their slide from last week, as investors anticipate that a trade war will chill global economic growth.

The price of benchmark U.S. crude oil is down 1.1% to $61.32 a barrel. Earlier in the day, it briefly dipped below $60 a barrel for the first time since 2021.

U.S. crude is down 14.2% so far this month.

Brent crude, the international standard, is down 1% to $64.88 a barrel.

Bitcoin and other cryptos see large price drops

After holding relatively stable during last week’s global market turmoil, cryptocurrencies have joined the sell-off.

Bitcoin, the world’s most popular cryptocurrency dipped below $75,000 Monday morning before seeing a slight rebound.

Bitcoin’s prices haven’t been this low since just after President Donald Trump’s Election Day victory last year launched a bull run in crypto prices.

Bitcoin’s backers say it is a type of digital gold that can act as a hedge against volatility. But Garrick Hileman, an independent cryptocurrency analyst, said bitcoin’s price slide shows that thesis still hasn’t proven to be true.

“It’s just not there today,” he said. “(Bitcoin) trades like a risky tech stock.”

Other major digital assets, like ether, XRP and solana, saw even bigger one-day percentage drops on Monday morning.

Bond yields are mixed after brief rally

Treasury yields are mixed in Monday morning trading on the bond market after briefly rallying in the early going.

The yield on the 10-year Treasury rose to 4.09% from 4.01% late Friday. It had fallen as low as 3.88% overnight.

The yield, which influences interest rates on mortgages and other consumer loans, was nearing 4.8% in mid-January.

The two-year yield, which closely tracks expectations for action by the Federal Reserve, was steady at 3.68%.

A White House account on X says it was ‘fake news’ that Trump was considering a tariff pause

The account, @RapidResponse47, weighed in shortly after the market spiked, then dropped again.

Stock market spikes, reacting to White House report that president may pause tariffs

The stock market briefly spiked on a report that Kevin Hassett, a top White House economic adviser, said the president was considering a 90-day pause on tariffs.

The supposed remark from Hassett circulated on social media, but no one could pinpoint where it came from even as the market flashed from red to green.

Hassett had spoken to Fox News earlier in the morning, when he was asked about a potential pause. However, he was noncommittal.

“I think the president is going to decide what the president is going to decide,” he said.

The episode showed that traders were operating on a hair trigger and eager for any sign of encouraging news for the market.

Stocks are sharply swinging down, up, then down again on Wall Street

The Dow Jones Industrial Average briefly erased a morning loss of 1,700 points, shot up more than 800 points, then went back to a loss of 629 points.

The S&P 500 likewise made sudden up-and-down lurching movements and was down 0.7% in the first hour of trading. The Nasdaq composite was up 0.2% That followed sharp drops around the world as worries rise about whether Trump’s trade war will torpedo the global economy.

A big Tesla bull slams Musk, slashes stock price target

Wedbush analyst Dan Ives says Elon Musk’s association with President Trump and his tariffs will turn off potential Tesla buyers in China, the company’s second largest market. Ives writes that Musk’s embrace of right-wing politics is destroying demand for his electric vehicles in the U.S. and Europe, too.

“This could be a brutal year ahead if Musk does not exit stage left or take a step back on DOGE in the coming month,” Ives writes, referring to the Tesla CEO’s leadership of the government cost-cutting group. “With major protests erupting globally at Tesla dealerships, Tesla cars being keyed, and a full brand crisis tornado turning into a life of its own, this has cast a dark black cloud over Tesla’s stock.”

Even before Trump’s tariffs, Tesla stock had plunged more than 40% from its mid-December high.

Ives’ new price target of $315 still assumes big gains. Tesla was trading Monday morning at $229, down more than 4%.

Japan’s prime minister told Trump he is concerned the tariffs will discourage investment from Japan

Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba said he spoke on the telephone with Trump on Monday night and told him he is “strongly concerned” that U.S. tariffs would discourage investment from Japan, which has been the world’s biggest investor in the United States in the past five years.

Ishiba said he urged Trump to seek a more mutually beneficial bilateral cooperation, and that Japan will keep negotiating to get the U.S. government reconsider the measures.

The two leaders reaffirmed their efforts to resolve the issue, and agreed to appoint a team of representatives on each side for further negotiations.

Ishiba said his government will hold a first ministerial taskforce meeting to tackle what he called “a national crisis.”

The prime minister told a parliamentary session earlier Monday that he doesn’t think the problem can be resolved unless Japan makes a counter proposal and that Japan needs to propose how the two countries can make a new relationship as a package. Ishiba, however, said he is not considering a retaliatory measure because it only makes things worse.

Ishiba said the government will do everything it can to help the industries affected, especially small and medium sized business owners.

Wall Street opens sharply lower

Wall Street is sinking again, following other global markets, as worries deepen about whether Trump’s trade war will torpedo the global economy.

The S&P 500 fell 3.8% in early trading Monday, coming off its worst week since COVID began crashing the global economy in March 2020.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 1,200 points, and the Nasdaq composite was 4% lower.

European markets saw losses of 4% or more. In Asia, stocks in Hong Kong plunged 13.2% for their worst day since 1997. Japan’s index tumbled nearly 8%.

European Union will focus on global trade outside the US

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen says the European Union is looking to do more business elsewhere in the world as President Trump’s tariffs hit international trade.

She said Monday that the EU is also is setting up a taskforce to monitor any dumping on its markets that might happen as trade patterns change.

“We will focus like a laser beam on the 83% of global trade that is beyond the United States. Vast opportunities,” von der Leyen said. After deals already done with Mexico and Switzerland, she said, “we’re working on India, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia and many others.”

Von der Leyen says the taskforce will help to monitor any unexpected surges in imports and “protect ourselves against indirect effects through trade diversion.”

The European Commission negotiates trade deals and disputes on behalf of the 27 EU member countries.

Von der Leyen insists the EU still wants a deal with the Trump administration, but that “we are preparing a potential list for retaliation, and other measures for retaliation, if this is necessary.”

JPMorgan CEO says tariffs will slow economy

JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon says the Trump administration’s trade policies will likely result in higher prices for both imported and domestic goods and services, weighing on an already slowing U.S. economy.

In his annual letter to shareholders, released Monday, Dimon said the U.S. economy already faced a number of challenges: sticky inflation, geopolitical tensions, Federal Reserve policy including still-high interest rates and high fiscal deficits. Dimon also said that many stocks in the market have been priced too high.

The outspoken and influential CEO often comments on both domestic and international issues.

“Whether or not the menu of tariffs causes a recession remains in question, but it will slow down growth,” Dimon wrote, while also saying “I still have an abiding faith in America.”

Goldman Sachs says tariff announcement may have caused irreversible damage

The financial firm said a recession has become more likely even if Trump retreats from his trade policies.

Goldman Sachs also reduced its expectations for economic growth “following a sharp tightening in financial conditions, foreign consumer boycotts, and a continued spike in policy uncertainty that is likely to depress capital spending by more than we had previously assumed.”

But even meeting those expectations “would now require a large reduction in the tariffs scheduled to take effect on April 9.”

Finger pointing as markets plunge

The dispute over tariffs has caused some fracturing within Trump’s political coalition.

Hedge fund manager Bill Ackman said the president was “launching a global economic war against the whole world at once” and urged him to “call a time out.”

“We are heading for a self-induced, economic nuclear winter,” he wrote on X on Sunday.

Top White House economic adviser Kevin Hassett told Fox News on Monday morning that Ackman should “ease off the rhetoric a little bit.”

Hassett said critics were exaggerating the impact of trade disputes and talk of an “economic nuclear winter” was “completely irresponsible rhetoric.”

Hong Kong stock market slumps but official warns against drastic action

Hong Kong Financial Secretary Paul Chan says the current volatility in the market does not warrant any drastic measures to be taken, vowing the city will remain a free port.

After the city’s stock market slumped 13.2% on Monday, Chan told reporters that it was functioning in an orderly manner, with substantial selling and buying interests. But the U.S. tariffs will inevitably cause market fluctuations and retaliatory measures and interest rate policy from other countries will trigger more volatile capital flows.

He blasted the latest U.S. tariffs as “bullying and unreasonable,” saying they have disrupted global supply chains and severely impacted the global economic recovery process.

Hong Kong, a former British colony which returned to China in 1997, enjoys semiautonomy that allows its policies and economic system to be different from mainland China’s.

German exports to the US grew in February as firms anticipated tariffs

Germany has reported a large increase in exports to the United States in February, ahead of U.S. President Donald Trump’s announcement of sweeping tariffs.

Germany has Europe’s biggest economy and is a leading exporter. Last year, the United States was its biggest single trading partner for the first time in nearly a decade, displacing China.

The Federal Statistical Office said Monday that Germany’s exports to the U.S. were up 8.5% in February compared with the previous month, at 14.2 billion euros ($15.6 billion). German exports to the entire world, including other EU nations, were up 1.8% in the same period at 131.6 billion euros.

The head of Germany’s exporters association, the BGA, said the February increase “must not deceive us” as the rise in exports to the U.S. was due to “anticipatory effects.”

Dirk Jandura said in a statement that “U.S. firms bunkered and German firms moved deliveries forward.”

He added that “Germany and the EU must quickly find their role in the new world order” and “approach the global South with pragmatic offers.”

Jandura argued that “the sweeping U.S. blow offers a unique opportunity to position Europe as a reliable and trustworthy partner.”

German economy minister calls US tariffs ‘nonsense’

Germany’s economy minister says the premise of U.S. President Donald Trump’s wide-ranging tariffs is “nonsense,” and he is arguing that Europe is in a strong position.

Robert Habeck, who is also vice chancellor in Germany’s outgoing government, said as he arrived at a meeting of European Union trade ministers in Luxembourg Monday that he and his colleagues must act “calmly, prudently but also clearly and with determination.”

He said that means “being clear that we are in a strong position — America is in a position of weakness.” He argued that “we don’t have time pressure now,” but the U.S. does.

Habeck said it’s important for the EU to stick together, arguing that attempts by individual countries to win exemptions haven’t worked in the past. He stressed the importance of trade agreements and contacts with other regions of the world, such as South America, Asia and the Pacific.

The German minister said of Trump’s tariffs that “even the basis of the calculation is nonsense: The assumption that a trade budget surplus or deficit is a problem in itself is a wrong estimation.”

Indonesia says it won’t retaliate against Trump’s tariffs

Indonesia says it won’t retaliate against Trump’s 32% tariff but will pursue diplomacy and negotiations to seek mutually beneficial solutions.

Indonesia, which had an $18 billion trade surplus with the U.S. last year, will gather input from business leaders to create a strategy for addressing the tariffs and find ways to reduce the deficit, Coordinating Economic Affairs Minister Airlangga Hartarto said Monday.

“We will increase the volume of purchases so that the $18 billion trade deficit can be reduced,” Hartarto said.

China accuses US of unilateralism, protectionism and economic bullying

China on Monday accused the United States of unilateralism, protectionism and economic bullying with tariffs.

“Putting ‘America First’ over international rules is a typical act of unilateralism, protectionism and economic bullying,” Foreign Affairs spokesperson Lin Jian told reporters.

Last week, Trump put an additional 34% tariff on Chinese goods, on top of two rounds of 10% tariffs already declared in February and March, which Trump said was due to Beijing’s role in the fentanyl crisis. China and other governments retaliated quickly. China announced its own 34% tariff rate on U.S. goods.

Lin said the new tariffs harmed the stability of global production and supply chains and seriously impacted the world’s economic recovery.

“Pressure and threats are not the way to deal with China. China will firmly safeguard its legitimate rights and interests,” Lin added.

European shares plunge in early trading

European shares dropped in early trading, with Germany’s DAX falling 6.5% to 19,311.29. In Paris, the CAC 40 shed 5.7% to 6,861.27, while Britain’s FTSE 100 lost 4.5% to 7,694.00.

‘s top trade negotiator will visit Washington

South Korea’s top trade negotiator will visit Washington this week to express Seoul’s concerns over the Trump administration’s increased tariffs and discuss ways to mitigate their negative impact on South Korean businesses.

South Korea’s Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy said Monday that its minister of trade, Inkyo Cheong, plans to meet with various U.S. officials, including U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer.

The ministry says Cheong aims to gather detailed information on the Trump administration’s trade policies and engage in discussions to reduce the 25% tariffs placed on South Korean products.

 UPDATES: with new headline and top paragraphs and item

In conservative Alabama, Republicans are cheering for Trump – with some quiet concerns and caveats

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (AP) — On a day when stock markets around the world dropped precipitously, Party Chairman John Wahl led a celebration of the president whose global tariffs sparked the selloff.

With no mention of the Wall Street rollercoaster and global economic uncertainty, Wahl declared his state ‘s “ Victory Dinner” — and the broader national moment — a triumph. And for anyone who rejects President Donald Trump, his agenda and the “America First” army that backs it all, Wahl had an offer: “The Alabama Republican Party will buy them a plane ticket to any country in the world they want to go to.”

Wahl’s audience — an assembly of lobbyists and donors, state lawmakers, local party officials and grassroots activists — laughed, applauded and sometimes roared throughout last week’s gala in downtown Birmingham, the rare Democratic stronghold in one of the nation’s most Republican states. The president’s son Donald Trump Jr. elicited perhaps the most enthusiasm with an unapologetically partisan pitch, even repeating the lie that his father won the 2020 election over Democrat Joe Biden.

Yet beyond the cheerleading, there were signs of a more cautious optimism and some worried whispers over Trump’s sweeping , the particulars of his deportation policy and the aggressive slashing of his Department of Government Efficiency.

That doesn’t mean Trump or Republicans are in danger of losing their grip in Alabama, where the GOP holds all statewide offices, dominates the Legislature and has won every presidential electoral vote since 1980. But it’s a notable wrinkle in a place where there has long been tension between relying on the federal government for funding and jobs, and an embrace of the kind of anti-Washington, anti-establishment populism that has twice propelled Trump to the Oval Office. And any cracks for Trump in Alabama — where he got 65% of the vote in 2024 — could portend trouble elsewhere, as the effects of a seismic shift in U.S. policy reach across the and society.

“There are some concerns, some conversations,” said John Merrill, a former secretary of state, over just what Trump’s agenda will mean on the ground. Alabama, he acknowledged, has “been a net recipient” of the very federal government and economic model Trump is upending, meaning it receives more money back from Washington than its taxpayers send the federal government.

“It’s a big risk,” said Merrill, who sported a Trump 45-47 pin on his lapel, a nod to the president’s two terms.

Federal funding is a lifeblood in Alabama

Blocks to the south of the complex where Republicans convened sits the multibillion-dollar University of Alabama at Birmingham health system, a regional gem where research depends on grants from the National Institutes of Health.

Republican Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall, listed as a “Silver Sponsor” of the gala, did not join the Democratic attorneys general suing the Trump administration to stop the cancellation of certain research funding streams Congress already has approved.

Most of the medical services provided at UAB and many other hospitals throughout the state are covered by Medicare and Medicaid, two of the largest federal outlays. Alabama, because its per capita income ranks among the lower tier among states, has one of the most generous federal match rates for Medicaid funding.

A short drive west toward Tuscaloosa sits a gargantuan Mercedes-Benz complex, one of the earliest examples of foreign auto manufacturers coming to the American South, where state laws are hostile to organized labor. The plants have provided jobs at wages higher than the local norms but in some cases lower than in union shops of the Great Lakes region around Detroit. Many suppliers have followed in the South, but not so many that the assembly plants don’t still import many parts that now will be subject to Trump’s tariffs.

Terry Martin, a county GOP committeeman in Tallapoosa County, said he supports the tariffs as leverage. Trump has “something to bargain with,” Martin said. But, “the parts that are coming from overseas … it’s going to pop it up” in price, he said, at least in the short term.

Agriculture, meanwhile, is still a dominant Alabama industry. Meat processing plants in the North and row crop farms in the South depend on migrant labor that Merrill, the former secretary of state, said involves both workers who are in the United States legally and those who are not. Alabama, he recalled, passed its own strict immigration bill during Barack Obama’s presidency only to roll it back after industry leaders complained of a depleted workforce.

Wahl, in an interview after the gala, took a more nuanced approach than he did at the podium.

“It is possible to secure our border and still take into account migrants who deserve to be here,” he said. “This has to be a two-pronged approach.”

Interstate project and Medicaid funds could be at risk

Back in Birmingham, Interstate 65 splits the city. The aging, increasingly congested artery is a local priority for widening. The proposal has support from Alabama’s two Republican senators, Tommy Tuberville and Katie Britt. U.S. interstate projects, though, are typically a 90-10 split, meaning 90% of the money comes from Washington, 10% from the state.

That funding — along with money for schools, Medicaid and other areas — could be at risk with Trump adviser Elon Musk and DOGE carrying Trump’s blessing to slash spending. GOP lawmakers who control Congress have supported Trump’s agenda, which also includes dismantling the Education Department.

Tallapoosa County GOP chair Denise Bates said “absolutely” there is a possibility that DOGE could go too far. “I hope there are guardrails,” she said, noting she was once a local school board member.

“Am I 100% for getting rid of the Department of Education? I can’t say that I am,” she said, adding a phrase similar to Merrill’s description of the state as a whole. “You know, we’re a net receiver.”

Yet for all the caveats offered in one-on-one conversations, the GOP crowd cheered when Tuberville, the former football coach turned Trump acolyte on Capitol Hill, offered a plainspoken of Musk and his pop-up agency, telling the crowd, “We’re dead broke.” And they roared as he addressed tariffs.

“It’s past time we level the playing field and tell the rest of the world to get off their ass and start paying their fair share,” Tuberville said.

Trump remains popular

Bates argued that Alabama’s embrace of Trump’s “America First” push is not simply loyalty to the president. She said it reflects generations of voters watching the steel industry decline in Birmingham and, after the North America Free Agreement was enacted in 1994, the textile industry leaving for Mexico and, eventually, southeast Asia.

“We just want jobs,” she said.

Still, state Sen. Jabo Waggoner, the longest-serving member of the Alabama Legislature, made clear Trump’s visceral appeal, declaring him “the most popular president here since Ronald Reagan, hands down.”

Wahl recalled Trump’s first massive outdoor rally as a presidential candidate: 30,000 people at Ladd-Peebles Stadium in Mobile, Alabama, in August 2015.

Wahl, who owns a butterfly farm outside Huntsville, said perhaps the best way to understand Trump and Alabama and this moment of uncertainty is to see a president who, at least to his supporters in the state, has earned the benefit of the doubt.

“He’s going to let everybody know he’s serious,” the chairman said. Trump is “going to bring people to the bargaining table. We’re actually going to see the negotiator conduct business.”

As markets implode, US trading partners puzzle over whether there’s room for negotiations

BRUSSELS (AP) — America’s trading partners wrestled with responses to U.S. ‘s blast of tariff hikes and some planned to send negotiators to Washington, while the head of the European Union’s executive commission offered mutual reduction of – while warning that retaliation was an option too.

“We stand ready to negotiate with the United States,” said commission President Ursula von der Leyen. “Indeed, we have offered zero for zero tariffs for industrial goods, as we have successfully done with many other trading partners. Because Europe is always ready for a good deal.”

But she warned that “we are also prepared to respond through countermeasures and defend our interests.”

has already hit back against the U.S. with retaliatory tariffs and similar actions from Europe and elsewhere remain a significant possibility.

The U.S. and the EU had a zero-for-zero deal on wine and spirits from 1997 to 2018, and reducing many tariffs to zero was a goal of complex negotiations for a US-Europe free- deal before negotiations stalled in 2016.

Yet there was little indication Trump is ready to deal. The EU trade commissioner, Maros Sefcovic, spoke for two hours with administration Friday and would say only that “we stay in touch.”

And White House trade adviser Peter Navarro told CNBC on Monday that an offer by Vietnam to eliminate tariffs on U.S. imports would not lead to a pullback on the the newly announced 46% levy on its imports to the U.S.

“Let’s take Vietnam. When they come to us and say ‘we’ll go to zero tariffs,’ that means nothing to us because it’s the non-tariff cheating that matters,” Navarro said on CNBC

Major trade partner China was taking a tougher line and accused the U.S. of “bullying” after imposing a 34% tariff on Friday on all US goods, the exact same rate Trump slapped China with in his latest round of new import taxes.

Several other countries said they were sending trade officials to Washington to try to talk through the crisis, which has cast uncertainty over the global economic outlook, hammered markets and left U.S. allies wondering about the value of their ties with the world’s largest .

European Union trade ministers were closeted Monday in Luxembourg to weigh possible steps that could include taxes on U.S. tech companies like Google, Apple and Amazon. The European Union’s executive commission – which handles trade issues for the 27-country bloc – is set to impose tariffs on Jeans, whiskey and motorcycles on Wednesday in response to Trumps increase in steel and aluminum tariffs.

But it hasn’t decided a response yet to Trump’s “reciprocal” tariff of 20% on European goods announced Wednesday and a 25% tariff imposed on autos from everywhere. French officials have raised imposing tariffs on services like internet commerce or financial services, where the U.S. sells more than it buys from Europe and is in theory more vulnerable than in goods trade.

Germany’s economy minister, Robert Habeck, was defiant as he arrived, saying the premise of the wide-ranging tariffs was “nonsense” and that attempts by individual countries to win exemptions haven’t worked in the past.

It’s important for the EU to stick together, he said. That “means being clear that we are in a strong position — America is in a position of weakness.”

So far the European approach has been to selectively target politically sensitive goods rather than impose sweeping retaliation since like most economists officials they view tariff wars as a lose-lose game.

China, which hit back Friday at Washington with 34% tariffs on U.S. products and other retaliatory moves, sharply accused the U.S. of failing to play fair. “Putting ‘America First’ over international rules is a typical act of unilateralism, protectionism and economic bullying,” Foreign Affairs spokesperson Lin Jian told reporters.

The ruling Communist Party struck a note of confidence even as markets in Hong Kong and Shanghai crumpled. “The sky won’t fall,” declared The People’s Daily, the party’s official mouthpiece. “Faced with the indiscriminate punches of U.S. taxes, we know what we are doing and we have tools at our disposal.”

China’s Commerce Ministry said officials met with representatives of 20 American businesses including Tesla and GE Healthcare over the weekend and urged them to take “concrete actions” to address the tariffs issue.

During the meeting, Ling Ji, a vice minister of commerce, promised that China will remain open to foreign investment, according to the readout by the ministry.

Other Asian nations seek negotiations

‘s Trade Ministry said its top negotiator, Inkyo Cheong, will visit Washington this week to express Seoul’s concerns over the 25% tariffs on Korean goods and discuss ways to mitigate the damage to South Korean businesses, which include major automakers and steel makers. Asian countries are among the most exposed to Trump’s tariffs ranging from a baseline 10% to 50% since their export-oriented economies send a lot of goods to the U.S.

Pakistan also planned to send a delegation to Washington this month to try negotiate over the 29% tariffs on its exports to the U.S., officials said. The prime minister ordered Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb to assess the tariff’s potential impact on Pakistan’s fragile economy and draw up recommendations.

The U.S. imports around $5 billion worth of textiles and other products each year from Pakistan, which heavily relies on loans from the International Monetary Fund and other lenders.

In Southeast Asia, Malaysia’s Trade Minister Zafrul Abdul Aziz said his country will seek to forge a united response from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations to Trump’s sweeping tariffs.

As chair of the 10-nation body this year, Malaysia will lead a meeting Thursday in its capital Kuala Lumpur to discuss broader implications of the on regional trade and investment, Zafrul told reporters.

“We are looking at the investment flows, macroeconomic stability and ASEAN’s coordinated response to this tariff issue,” Zafrul said.

He said that he had met with the U.S. ambassador to Malaysia to try to clarify how the U.S. came up with its 24% tariff.

Indonesia plans to increase imports from US

Indonesia, one of the region’s biggest economies, said it would work with businesses to increase its imports of U.S. wheat, cotton, oil and gas to help reduce its trade surplus, which was $18 billion in 2024.

Coordinating Economic Affairs Minister Airlangga Hartarto told a news conference that Indonesia will not retaliate against the new 32% tariff on Indonesian exports, but would use diplomacy to seek mutually beneficial solutions.

Some Southeast Asian neighbors, including Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos and Myanmar, face tariffs of over 40%, giving Indonesia a slight advantage, he noted.

“For Indonesia, it is also another opportunity as its market is huge in America,” Hartoto said. He said Indonesia would buy U.S.-made components for several national strategic projects, including refineries.

___

Associated Press journalists from around the world contributed to this report.

Panic Monday: World stock markets plunge again as Trump doubles down on tariffs

FRANKFURT, Germany (AP) — Global stock markets extended a severe plunge Monday, fueled by fears that U.S. tariffs would lead to a global economic slowdown. European and Asian shares saw dramatic losses, the leading U.S. index flirted with bear market territory in pre-market trading, and oil prices sagged.

The massive sell-off in riskier assets at the start of the trading week follows ‘s announcement of sharply higher U.S. import taxes and retaliation from China that saw markets fall sharply Thursday and Friday.

Tokyo’s 225 index lost nearly 8% shortly after the market opened and futures trading for the benchmark was briefly suspended. It closed down 7.8% at 31,136.58.

European shares followed Asian markets lower, led by Germany’s DAX index, which briefly fell more than 10% at the open on the Frankfurt exchange, but recovered some ground to move down 5.8% in morning trading. In Paris, the CAC 40 shed 5.8%, while Britain’s FTSE 100 lost 4.9% in the European morning.

U.S. futures signaled further weakness ahead. For the , they lost 3.4%, while for the Dow Jones Industrial Average, they shed 3.1%. Futures for the Nasdaq lost 5.3%. If the pre-market futures losses materialize when the U.S. market opens, the S&P 500 will enter bear market territory — defined as a fall of more than 20% from the peak. The index was off 17.4% as of the end of last week.

On Friday, the worst market crisis since the COVID-19 pandemic shifted into a higher gear as the S&P 500 plummeted 6% and the Dow plunged 5.5%. The Nasdaq composite dropped 3.8%.

“There’s no sign yet that markets are finding a bottom and beginning to stabilize,” wrote Deutsche Bank analysts in a research note.

Late Sunday,  reiterated his resolve on his decision to introduce of 10% to 50% on goods imported into the U.S., a move seen as massively disrupting world and supply chains across borders. Speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One, he said he didn’t want global markets to fall, but also that he wasn’t concerned about the massive sell-offs, adding, “sometimes you have to take medicine to fix something.”

Heavy selling kicked in after on Friday matched Trump’s tariff, upping the stakes in a that many fear could end in a global recession. Even a better-than-expected report on the U.S. job market, usually the economic highlight of each month, wasn’t enough to stop the slide.

“The idea that there’s so much uncertainty going forward about how these tariffs are going to play out, that’s what’s really driving this plummet in the stock prices,” said Rintaro Nishimura, an associate at the Asia Group.

Chinese markets often don’t follow global trends, but they also tumbled. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng dropped 13.2% to 19,828.30, while the Shanghai Composite index lost 7.3% to 3,096.58. In Taiwan, the Taiex plummeted 9.7%.

‘s Kospi lost 5.6% to 2,328.20, while Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 lost 4.2% to 7,343.30, recovering from a loss of more than 6%.

Asian economies are heavily exposed to Trump’s tariffs since they are dependent on exports, and a large share go to the United States.

“Beyond the market meltdown, the bigger concern is the impact and potential crises for small and trade-dependent economies, so it’s crucial to see whether Trump will reach deals with most countries soon, at least partially,” said Gary Ng of Nataxis.

Oil prices also sank further, with U.S. benchmark crude down $2.30 to $59.69 per barrel. Brent crude, the international standard, gave up $2.33 to $63.25 a barrel. As with the larger sell-off, the drop was fueled by fears that the tariffs would slow economic growth. That would hit demand for fuel, and the drop comes after moves to increase production by the OPEC+ producers’ alliance.

Exchange rates also gyrated. The U.S. dollar fell to 146.24 Japanese yen from 146.94 yen. The yen is often viewed as a safe haven in times of turmoil. The euro rose 0.3% to $1.0992.

Nathan Thooft, chief investment officer and senior portfolio manager at Manulife Investment Management, said more countries are likely to respond to the U.S. with retaliatory tariffs. Given the large number of countries involved, “it will take a considerable amount of time in our view to work through the various negotiations that are likely to happen.”

“Ultimately, our take is market uncertainly and volatility are likely to persist for some time,” he said.

The Federal Reserve could cushion the blow of tariffs on the U.S. by cutting interest rates. That can encourage companies and households to borrow and spend. But Fed Chair Jerome Powell said Friday that the higher tariffs could drive up expectations for inflation and lower rates could fuel still more price increases.

Much will depend on how long Trump’s tariffs stick and how other countries react. Some investors are holding onto hope he will lower the tariffs after negotiating “wins” from other countries.

Stuart Kaiser, head of U.S. equity strategy at Citi, wrote in a note to clients that earnings estimates and stock values still don’t reflect the full potential impact of the trade war. “There is ample space to the downside despite the large pullback,” he said.

5 Virginia companies among 27 firms targeted by China for further trade constraints

BANGKOK (AP) — announced Friday that it will impose a 34% tariff on imports of all U.S. products beginning April 10, part of a flurry of retaliatory measures following U.S. President Donald ‘s “Liberation Day” slate of double-digit .

The new tariff matches the rate of the U.S. “reciprocal” tariff of 34% on Chinese exports that Trump ordered this week.

Additionally, the Chinese government said it had added 27 firms to lists of companies subject to sanctions or export controls. Five companies listed are federal contractors in .

One, RapidFlight, is a designer and manufacturer of unmanned aircraft based in Manassas. Mike Smith, a spokesman for the company and PR counsel from Falls Church’s GreenSmith Public Relations firm, said Friday the company considers its naming to the Chinese list “a badge of honor.”

He added that RapidFlight, which won a $10 million Air Force to develop 3D-printed autonomous drones in June 2024, has among its clients a Taiwanese drone company, Thunder Tiger Group, which it signed a memorandum of understanding with in July 2024 to investigate 3D printing of drones for Taiwan’s national .

RapidFlight also has connections to , and Smith said he suspects the ties to both South Korea and Taiwan, with which China has historical conflicts, landed the company on the list of 27 businesses with additional sanctions. Nonetheless, Smith says the company doesn’t expect to suffer financially from China’s action.

The other Virginia companies listed are: Act1 Federal, an aerospace business in Arlington County; Synexxus, an electronics design, manufacturing and services company in Arlington; DTC, an Ashburn-based communications business owned by Australian electronics conglomerate Codan; and TextOre, a Fairfax company that specializes in open-source intelligence (OSINT) solutions.

In addition to the other sanctions against the U.S., the Commerce Ministry in Beijing said in a notice that it will impose more export controls on rare earths, which are materials used in high-tech products such as computer chips and electric vehicle batteries.

Included in the list of minerals subject to controls was samarium and its compounds, which are used in aerospace manufacturing and the defense sector. Another element called gadolinium is used in MRI scans.

China’s customs administration said it had suspended imports of chicken from some U.S. suppliers after detected furazolidone, a drug banned in China, in shipments from those companies.

Separately, it said had found high levels of mold in the sorghum and salmonella in poultry meat from some of the companies. The announcements affect one company exporting sorghum, C&D Inc., and four poultry companies.

Beijing also announced it filed a lawsuit with the World Trade Organization over the tariffs issue.

“The United States’ imposition of so-called ‘reciprocal tariffs’ seriously violates WTO rules, seriously damages the legitimate rights and interests of WTO members, and seriously undermines the rules-based multilateral trading system and international economic and trade order,” the Commerce Ministry said.

“It is a typical unilateral bullying practice that endangers the stability of the global economic and trade order. China firmly opposes this,” it said.

Other actions include the launch of an anti-monopoly investigation into DuPont China Group Co., a subsidiary of the multinational chemical giant, and an anti-dumping probe into X-ray tube and CT tubes for CT scanners imported from the U.S. and India.

In February, China announced a 15% tariff on imports of coal and liquefied natural gas products from the U.S. It separately added a 10% tariff on crude oil, agricultural machinery and large-engine cars.

Dozens of U.S. companies are subject to controls on trade and investment, while many more Chinese companies face similar limits on dealings with U.S. firms.

The latest tariffs apply to all products made in the U.S., according to a statement from the Ministry of Finance’s State Council Tariff Commission.

While friction on the trade front has been heating up, overall relations are somewhat less fractious.

U.S. and Chinese military officials met this week for the first time Trump took office in January to shared concerns about military safety on the seas. The talks held Wednesday and Thursday in Shanghai were aimed at minimizing the risk of trouble, both sides said.

Virginia Business Deputy Editor Kate Andrews contributed to this article.

Average US rate on a 30-year mortgage dips to 6.64% for the second drop in 2 weeks

The average rate on a 30-year in the U.S. edged lower for the second week in a row, a modest but welcome boost for prospective home shoppers in the midst of the spring homebuying season.

The rate fell to 6.64% from 6.65% last week, mortgage buyer said Thursday. A year ago, the rate averaged 6.82%.

The average rate has mostly trended lower since reaching just over 7% in mid-January. When decline, they boost homebuyers’ purchasing power.

Borrowing costs on 15-year fixed-rate mortgages, popular with homeowners refinancing their home loans, also fell this week, pulling the average rate down to 5.82% from 5.89% last week. A year ago, it averaged 6.06%, Freddie Mac said. Mortgage rates are influenced by factors including bond market investors’ expectations for future inflation, global demand for U.S. Treasurys and the Federal Reserve’s interest rate policy decisions.

The overall decline this year in the average rate on a 30-year mortgage loosely follows moves in the 10-year Treasury yield, which lenders use as a guide to pricing home loans.

The yield, which was nearing 4.8% in mid-January, has mostly fallen since then, amid signs that the is slowing and worries that imposed by the administration on goods imported from around the globe could hurt economic growth and fuel inflation.

The yield slid to 4.06% Thursday as a sharp sell-off on Wall Street following the White House’s latest and most severe volley of tariffs fueled expectations among bond investors that the Fed may have to cut its main interest rate if the economy sours.
“The 10-year Treasury has dipped even further this morning as investors are exiting the , so it’s likely that mortgage rates will continue to come down in the coming months as a result,” said Joel Berner, senior economist at Realtor.com. “This shock to the system will be felt in the housing market for the rest of the year.”

Recent forecasts by housing economists generally called for the average rate on a 30-year mortgage to remain around 6.5% this year.

Lower mortgage rates can help spur by make homeownership more affordable. At the same time, many Americans may put off buying a home if they’re worried about losing their job or taking a hit on their stock portfolio during an economic downturn.

“It remains to be seen whether relief from mortgage rates will spur buyers to make a move in 2025, or if the broader economic conditions will slow things down,” Berner said.

The U.S. housing market has been in a sales slump since 2022, when mortgage rates began to climb from pandemic-era lows. Sales of previously occupied U.S. homes fell last year to their lowest level in nearly 30 years.

Easing mortgage rates and more homes on the market nationally helped drive sales higher in February from the previous month, though they were down year-over-year.

Even with mortgage rates easing this year, rising home prices are helping to drive up the cost of homeownership. The typical monthly payment made by U.S. homebuyers climbed to a record-high $2,802 in the four weeks that ended March 20, according to Redfin.

Chevron ordered to pay more than $740 million to restore Louisiana coast in landmark trial

POINTE À LA HACHE, La. (AP) — Oil company Chevron must pay more than $740 million to restore damage it caused to southeast Louisiana’s coastal wetlands, a jury ruled on Friday following a landmark trial more than a decade in the making.

The case was the first of dozens of pending lawsuits to reach trial in Louisiana against the world’s leading oil companies for their role in accelerating land loss along the state’s rapidly disappearing coast. The verdict – which Chevron says it will appeal – could set a precedent leaving other oil and gas firms on the hook for billions of dollars in damages tied to land loss and environmental degradation.

What did Chevron do wrong?

Jurors found that energy giant Texaco, acquired by Chevron in 2001, had for decades violated Louisiana regulations governing coastal resources by failing to restore wetlands impacted by dredging canals, drilling wells and billions of gallons of wastewater dumped into the marsh.

“No company is big enough to ignore the law, no company is big enough to walk away scot-free,” the plaintiff’s lead attorney John Carmouche told jurors during closing arguments.

A 1978 Louisiana coastal management law mandated that sites used by oil companies “be cleared, revegetated, detoxified, and otherwise restored as near as practicable to their original condition” after operations ended. Older operations sites that continued to be used were not exempt and companies were expected to apply for proper permits.

But the oil company did not obtain proper permits and failed to clean up its mess, leading to contamination from wastewater stored unsafely or dumped directly into the marsh, the lawsuit said.

The company also failed to follow known best practices for decades since it began operating in the area in the 1940s, expert witnesses for the plaintiff’s testified. The company “chose profits over the marsh” and allowed the environmental degradation caused by its operations to fester and spread, Carmouche said.

The jury awarded $575 million to compensate for land loss, $161 million to compensate for contamination and $8.6 million for abandoned equipment — a total of $744.6 million. The amount earmarked for restoration exceeds $1.1 billion when including interest, according to attorneys for Talbot, Carmouche & Marcello, the firm behind the lawsuit.

Plaquemines Parish, the southeast Louisiana district which brought the lawsuit, had asked for $2.6 billion in damages.

Chevron’s lead trial attorney Mike Phillips said in a statement following the verdict that “Chevron is not the cause of the land loss occurring” in Plaquemines Parish and that the law does not apply to “conduct that occurred decades before the law was enacted.”

Phillips called the ruling “unjust” and said there were “numerous legal errors.”

How are oil companies contributing to Louisiana’s land loss?

The lawsuit against Chevron was filed in 2013 by Plaquemines Parish, a rural district in Louisiana straddling the final leg of the Mississippi River heading into the Gulf of Mexico, also referred to as the Gulf of America as declared by .

Louisiana’s coastal parishes have lost more than 2,000 square miles (5,180 square kilometers) of land over the past century, according to the U.S. Geological Survey, which has also identified oil and gas infrastructure as a significant cause. The state could lose another 3,000 square miles (7,770 square kilometers) in the coming decades, its coastal protection agency has warned.

Thousands of miles of canals cut through the wetlands by oil companies weakens them and exacerbates the impacts of sea level rise. Industrial wastewater from oil production degrades the surrounding soil and vegetation. The torn up wetlands leave South Louisiana – home to some of the nation’s biggest ports and key energy sector infrastructure — more vulnerable to flooding and destruction from extreme weather events like hurricanes.

Phillips, Chevron’s attorney, said the company had operated lawfully and blamed land loss in Louisiana on other factors, namely the extensive levee system that blocks the Mississippi River from depositing land regenerating sediment — a widely acknowledged cause of coastal erosion.

The way to solve the land loss problem is “not suing oil companies, it’s reconnecting the Mississippi River with the delta,” Phillips said during closing arguments.

Yet the lawsuit held the company responsible for exacerbating and accelerating land loss in Louisiana, rather than being its sole cause.

Chevron also challenged the costly wetlands restoration project proposed by the parish, which involved removing large amounts of contaminated soil and filling in the swaths fragmented wetlands eroded over the past century. The company said the plan was impractical and designed to inflate the damages rather than lead to real world implementation.

Attorney Jimmy Faircloth, Jr., who represented the state of Louisiana, which has backed Plaquemines and other local governments in their lawsuits against oil companies, told jurors from the parish that Chevron was telling them their community was not worth preserving.

“Our communities are built on coast, our families raised on coast, our children go to school on coast,” Faircloth said. “The state of Louisiana will not surrender the coast, it’s for the good of the state that the coast be maintained.”

What does this mean for future litigation against oil companies?

Carmouche, a well-connected attorney, and his firm have been responsible for bringing many of the lawsuits against oil companies in the state. Industry groups have accused the firm of seeking big paydays, not coastal restoration.

Louisiana’s has long been heavily dependent on the oil and gas industry and the industry holds significant political power. Even so, Louisiana’s staunchly pro-industry Gov. Jeff Landry has supported the lawsuits, including bringing the state on board during his tenure as Attorney General.

Oil companies have fought tooth and nail to quash the litigation, including unsuccessfully lobbying Louisiana’s Legislature to pass a law to invalidate the claims. Chevron and other firms also repeatedly tried to move the lawsuits into federal court where they believed they would find a more sympathetic audience.

But the heavy price Chevron is set to pay could hasten other firms to seek settlements in the dozens of other lawsuits across Louisiana. Plaquemines alone has 20 other cases pending against oil companies.

The state is running out of money to support its ambitious coastal restoration plans, which have been fueled by soon-expiring settlement funds from the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, and supporters of the litigation say payouts could provide a much-needed injection of funds.

Tommy Faucheux, president of the Louisiana Mid-Continent Oil & Gas Association, said the verdict against Chevron “undermines Louisiana’s position as an energy leader” and “threatens our country’s trajectory to America-first energy dominance across the globe.” He warned that “businesses here are at risk of being sued retroactively tomorrow for following the laws of today.”

Attorneys for the parish said they hope that big payout will prompt more oil companies to come to the table to negotiate and channel more funding towards coastal restoration.

“We continue to fight to restore the coast,” said Don Carmouche, an attorney with the firm representing the parish and other local governments which have filed suit. “All the parishes want is for the companies to come together for reasonable restoration of the coast.”

Trump says he’s giving TikTok another 75 days to find a US buyer

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) — President Donald on Friday said he is signing an executive order to keep TikTok running in the U.S. for another 75 days to give his administration more time to broker a deal to bring the social media platform under American ownership.

Congress had mandated that the platform be divested from by Jan. 19 or barred in the U.S. on national security grounds, but Trump moved unilaterally to extend the deadline to this weekend, as he sought to negotiate an agreement to keep it running. Trump has recently entertained an array of offers from U.S. businesses seeking to buy a share of the popular social media site, but China’s ByteDance, which owns TikTok and its closely-held algorithm, has insisted the platform is not for sale.

“My Administration has been working very hard on a Deal to SAVE TIKTOK, and we have made tremendous progress,” Trump posted on his social media platform. “The Deal requires more work to ensure all necessary approvals are signed, which is why I am signing an Executive Order to keep TikTok up and running for an additional 75 days.”

Trump added: “We look forward to working with TikTok and China to close the Deal.”

TikTok, which has headquarters in Singapore and Los Angeles, has said it prioritizes user safety, and China’s Foreign Ministry has said China’s government has never and will not ask companies to “collect or provide data, information or intelligence” held in foreign countries.

Trump’s delay of the ban marks the second time that he has temporarily blocked the 2024 law that banned the popular social video app after the deadline passed for ByteDance to divest. That law that was passed with bipartisan support in Congress and upheld unanimously by the Supreme Court, which said the ban was necessary for national security.

If the extension keeps control of TikTok’s algorithm under ByteDance’s authority, those national security concerns persist.

Chris Pierson, CEO of the cybersecurity and privacy protection platform BlackCloak, said that if the algorithm is still controlled by ByteDance, then it is still “controlled by a company that is in a foreign, adversarial nation state that actually could use that data for other means.”

“The main reason for all this is the control of data and the control of the algorithm,” said Pierson, who served on the Department of Homeland Security’s Privacy Committee and Cybersecurity Subcommittee for more than a decade. “If neither of those two things change, then it has not changed the underlying purpose, and it has not changed the underlying risks that are presented.”

The president’s executive orders have spurred more than 130 lawsuits in the little more than two months he has been in office, but his order delaying a ban on TikTok has barely generated a peep. None of those suits challenges his temporary block of the law banning TikTok.

The law allows for one 90-day reprieve, but only if there’s a deal on the table and a formal notification to Congress. Trump’s actions so far violate the law, said Alan Rozenshtein, an associate law professor at the University of Minnesota.

Rozenshtein pushed back on Trump’s claim that delaying the ban is an “extension.”“He’s not extending anything. This continues to simply be a unilateral non enforcement declaration,” he said. “All he’s doing is saying that he will not enforce the law for 75 more days. The law is still in effect. The companies are still violating it by providing services to Tiktok.

“The national security risks posed by TikTok persist under this extension, he said.

The extension comes at a time when Americans are even more closely divided on what to do about TikTok than they were two years ago.

A recent Pew Research Center survey found that about one-third of Americans said they supported a TikTok ban, down from 50% in March 2023. Roughly one-third said they would oppose a ban, and a similar percentage said they weren’t sure.

Among those who said they supported banning the social media platform, about 8 in 10 cited concerns over users’ data security being at risk as a major factor in their decision, according to the report.

Daniel Ryave, in Washington, D.C., runs the TikTok account @SATPrepTutor with about 175,000 followers. It offers testing advice and helps Ryave find tutoring students. He has Instagram and YouTube accounts, but TikTok is better for reaching people, he said.

“Almost all of my new students come through TikTok,” he said. “A big chunk of my revenue is from one-on-one tutoring, and that’s a great way to source clients.”

When he heard about the extension, he was “relieved,” he said.

“This extension will allow students to continue accessing high quality short form educational content that they aren’t seeking out elsewhere,” he said.

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AP Business Writer Mae Anderson in New York contributed to this story.

Sell-off worsens worldwide and Dow drops 1,700 after China retaliates against Trump tariffs

NEW YORK (AP) — Stock markets are careening even lower Friday after  matched ‘s big raise in in an escalating war. Not even a better-than-expected report on the U.S. job market, which is usually the economic highlight of each month, was enough to stop the slide.

The was down 4.8% in afternoon trading, after earlier dropping more than 5%, following its worst day since COVID wrecked the global in 2020. The Jones Industrial Average was down 1,719 points, or 4.3%, as of 1:08 p.m. Eastern time, and the Nasdaq composite was 4.9% lower.

So far there are few, if any, winners in financial markets from the . European stocks saw some of the day’s biggest losses, with indexes sinking more than 4%. The price of crude oil tumbled to its lowest level since 2021. Other basic building blocks for economic growth, such as copper, also saw prices slide on worries the trade war will weaken the global economy.

China’s response to U.S. tariffs caused an immediate acceleration of losses in markets worldwide. The Commerce Ministry in Beijing said it would respond to the 34% tariffs imposed by the U.S. on imports from China by imposing a 34% tariff on imports of all U.S. products beginning April 10. The United States and China are the world’s two largest economies.

Markets briefly recovered some of their losses after the release of Friday morning’s U.S. jobs report, which said employers accelerated their hiring by more last month than economists expected. It’s the latest signal that the U.S. job market has remained relatively solid through the start of 2025, and it’s been a linchpin keeping the U.S. economy out of a recession.

But that jobs data was backward looking, and the fear hitting financial markets is about what’s to come.

“The world has changed, and the economic conditions have changed,” said Rick Rieder, chief investment officer of global fixed income at BlackRock.

The central question is: Will the trade war cause a global recession? If it does, stock prices will likely need to come down even more than they have already. The S&P 500 is down roughly 16% from its record set in February.

Trump seems unfazed. He woke up on Friday morning at Mar-a-Lago, his private club in Palm Beach, and headed to his golf course a few miles away after writing on social media that “THIS IS A GREAT TIME TO GET RICH.”

Much will depend on how long Trump’s tariffs stick and what kind of retaliations other countries deliver. Some of Wall Street is holding onto hope that Trump will lower the tariffs after prying out some “wins” from other countries following negotiations. Otherwise, many say a recession looks likely.

Trump has said Americans may feel “some pain” because of tariffs, but he has also said the long-term goals, including getting more manufacturing jobs back to the United States, are worth it. On Thursday, he likened the situation to a medical operation, where the U.S. economy is the patient.

“For investors looking at their portfolios, it could have felt like an operation performed without anesthesia,” said Brian Jacobsen, chief economist at Annex Wealth Management.

But Jacobsen also said the next surprise for investors could be how quickly tariffs get negotiated down. “The speed of recovery will depend on how, and how quickly, officials negotiate,” he said.

Vietnam said its deputy prime minister would visit the U.S. for talks on trade, while the head of the European Commission has vowed to fight back. Others have said they were hoping to negotiate with the Trump administration for relief.

Trump criticized China’s retaliation on Friday, saying on his Truth Social platform that “CHINA PLAYED IT WRONG, THEY PANICKED – THE ONE THING THEY CANNOT AFFORD TO DO!”

On Wall Street, stocks of companies that do lots of business in China fell to some of the sharpest losses.

DuPont dropped 11.2% after China said its regulators are launching an anti-trust investigation into DuPont China group, a subsidiary of the chemical giant. It’s one of several measures targeting American companies and in retaliation for the U.S. tariffs.

GE Healthcare got 12.3% of its revenue last year from the China region, and it fell 12.7%.

In the bond market, Treasury yields continued their sharp drop as worries rise about the strength of the U.S. economy. The yield on the 10-year Treasury tumbled to 3.95% from 4.06% late Thursday and from roughly 4.80% early this year. That’s a major move for the bond market.

The Federal Reserve could cut its main interest rate to relax the pressure on the economy, as it was doing late last year before pausing in 2025. But it may have less freedom to move than it would like.

Fed Chair Jerome Powell said in written remarks being delivered in Arlington, Virginia that tariffs could also drive up expectations for inflation. That could be even more damaging than high inflation itself, because it can drive behavior that begins a vicious cycle that only worsens inflation. U.S. households have already said they’re bracing for sharp increases to their bills.

“Our obligation is to keep longer-term inflation expectations well anchored and to make certain that a one-time increase in the price level does not become an ongoing inflation problem,” Powell said.

That could indicate a hesitance to cut rates because lower rates can give inflation more fuel.

In stock markets abroad, Germany’s DAX lost 5%, France’s CAC 40 dropped 4.3% and Japan’s 225 fell 2.8%.

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AP Writers Jiang Junzhe, Huizhong Wu and Matt Ott contributed.