President Trump on Friday said threatened high tariffs on Chinese goods were "not sustainable," easing fears of further trade escalation between the countries.

"But that’s what the number is," he said during an interview with Fox Business. "It’s probably not [sustainable] — you know, it could stand, but they forced me to do that."

Trump on Wednesday confirmed that trade tensions with China remain high, telling a reporter who asked whether the two countries are headed for a prolonged trade war, "Well, you're in one now."

The president's comments came despite Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent suggesting that an extension of the tariff pause between the US and China was possible. Trump on Friday confirmed that he will meet with Chinese leader Xi Jinping later this month.

"I think we're going to do fine with China," Trump said.

Over the past week, relations between the two countries have become increasingly strained, though both sides have sent mixed signals about just how serious the fallout could be.

China accused the US on Thursday of causing "panic" over Beijings export controls on rare earth materials, according to a report in China's state newspaper the Global Times.

Last Friday, Trump said the US would impose an additional 100% tariff on Chinese goods starting on Nov. 1 over Beijing's plan to impose new export controls on rare earth minerals.

Since then, however, China sanctioned US units of a South Korean shipping company, while Trump threatened to further curtail trade with the country in response to its halt of US soybean purchases.

Read more: What Trump's tariffs mean for the economy and your wallet

The US budget deficit declined for the 2025 fiscal year, due in part to a surge in tariff revenues. The deficit fell 2% for the fiscal year to $1.78 trillion, down from $1.82 trillion in 2024, according to figures released by the Treasury Department.

The White House is ready to ease tariffs on the US auto industry, delivering a major win for carmakers who have lobbied to reduce the fallout from higher import duties.The Commerce Department is set to announce a five-year extension that allows automakers to reduce what they pay in tariffs on imported car parts.

Americans are set to pay more than half of President Trump's tariffs as companies raise prices, according to Goldman Sachs.

Early next month, the US Supreme Court is set to hear a challenge to Trump's most sweeping tariffs — the "reciprocal" country-by-country duties that you can see in the graphic above. A ruling against the tariffs — which would be in line with lower-court decisions — could have significant ramifications for Trump's tariff strategy.

New duties on kitchen cabinets and vanities took effect Oct. 1.

Tariffs on timber and certain wood products (like furniture) took effect Oct. 14.

Bloomberg News reports:

The White House is poised to ease tariffs on the US auto industry, a move that would deliver a major win for carmakers that have aggressively lobbied to stem the fallout from record-level import duties.

The Commerce Department is slated to announce a five-year extension for an arrangement that allows automakers to reduce what they pay in tariffs on imported car parts, according to people familiar with the matter. Previously, that provision was scheduled to sunset after two years.

The announcement could come as soon as Friday, the people said, noting that similar tariff announcements have slipped. The policy is expected to be detailed in government documents that also formally implement tariffs on imported trucks.

The concession follows months of lobbying by carmakers, including Ford Motor Co. (F) and General Motors Co. (GM), to secure relief from President Donald Trump’s tariffs. US automakers face higher costs from the levies he has imposed on imported vehicles, parts and materials, such as steel and aluminum.

Read more here.

Tariffs have helped to trim the US deficit in the first drop seen since COVID. The US budget deficit declined for the 2025 fiscal year as tariff revenue hit a record high.

Reuters reports:

The US budget deficit shrank by $41 billion to $1.775 trillion in the 2025 fiscal year, despite a $118 billion increase in revenues from President Donald Trump's tariffs, the Treasury Department reported on Thursday.

The results for the year ended September 30, which include nearly nine months of Trump's second term in the White House, compared to a $1.817 trillion deficit in fiscal 2024. It was the first time the annual deficit had fallen since 2022, when the unwinding of COVID-19 relief programs brought spending down.

The smaller deficit was aided by a record $195 billion in net customs receipts for the fiscal year, an increase of $118 billion from the prior year as new Trump tariffs rolled in.

Customs receipts in September reached a new record high of $29.7 billion, but the pace of increase slowed from August, when $29.5 billion was collected.

Total receipts for fiscal 2025 were a record $5.235 trillion, up $317 billion, or 6%, from the $4.918 trillion in fiscal 2024.

Fiscal 2025 outlays also were a record at $7.01 trillion, up $275 billion, or 4%, from the $6.735 trillion in the prior fiscal year.

Read more here.

China has accused the US of causing \\"panic\\" over Beijing's restrictions on rare earth materials. According to the Chinese state newspaper, the Global Times, Ministry of Commerce spokesperson He Yongqian said that the US is exaggerating \\"China's measures\\" and \\"deliberately creating unnecessary misunderstanding and panic.\\"

These latest comments from China follow a week-long war of words between Washington and Beijing. It began with China restricting rare earth exports, followed by Beijing announcing it would investigate US chipmaker Qualcomm (QCOM) and placing restrictions on Nvidia (NVDA) chips. President Trump responded last week Friday and said he would put an additional 100% tariffs on China.

\\"The US has long exercised extraterritorial jurisdiction — it began decades ago,\\" she continued. \\"Since 2022, Washington has repeatedly imposed semiconductor export restrictions targeting China, abusing the 'foreign direct product rule' and zero-threshold content rules to pressure other countries into containing China,\\" Yongqian said.

\\"The accusations from the US reveal that the US is projecting its own behavior onto others. Safeguarding global supply chain security and stability requires joint efforts from all nations, including the US.\\"

China has indicated that they are open to talks, despite Trump confirming this week that the countries are \\"in\\" a trade war.

As part of a trade deal, the US and Canada are weighing the option of reviving a controversial oil pipeline, which could be used as a bargaining tool to ease some of the tariff tensions of President Trump's steel and aluminum duties.

The FT reports:

Dominic LeBlanc, who is responsible for Canada-US trade, has been in Washington this week for talks with senior US officials, following a meeting between Trump and Prime Minister Mark Carney in the White House last week.

Officials from both sides said that the prospect of restarting work on the Keystone XL oil pipeline — scrapped by former US president Joe Biden on environmental grounds — was on the table and had been discussed in recent meetings.

Ottawa was “open to exploring Keystone” if the US wanted to, Canada’s energy minister Tim Hodgson told the Financial Times.

He said Canada, the US’s biggest foreign supplier of oil by far, would link energy supply with progress on Trump’s tariffs.

“We are open to discussing the advancement of continental energy security, if we also address the irritants for steel and aluminium,” Hodgson said.

Read more here.

President Trump's \\"Liberation Day\\" tariffs alienated longtime allies and allowed China to build stronger relations with the world. However, since Beijing introduced export restrictions on rare earths, the tables might finally be turning in Trump's favor.

Bloomberg News reports:

China’s decision to unveil unprecedented export controls on the rare-earth supply chain dominated meetings at an annual huddle of global economic chiefs in Washington this week. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent hinted at an emerging coalition, saying US officials were “speaking with our European allies, with Australia, with Canada, with India and the Asian democracies,” to form a fulsome response.

Japan’s Finance Minister Katsunobu Kato called for Group of Seven countries to “unite and respond” to China’s moves, while his German counterpart touted a potential joint response of the bloc. Australia’s prime minister will head to Washington next week in the hope of negotiating a deal over critical mineral supply chains, as countries seek to diversify.

All that marks an abrupt U-turn from six months ago when President Xi Jinping was rallying countries to stand together against the highest American tariffs unleashed since World War II. While China justified its latest curbs as a response to an expansion of US controls, the measures demand even foreign exporters get permits to ship products anywhere in the world containing traces of certain Chinese minerals.

“The biggest risk is that the Chinese government overplays its hand,” said Christopher Beddor, deputy China research director at Gavekal Dragonomics. “Disrupting global rare-earth supply chains could create the impression Beijing is inflicting pain on a wide swathe of countries for no obvious reason.”

Read more here.

Bloomberg reports:

President Donald Trump announced a deal with Germany’s Merck KGaA to cut the price of some of its fertility medicines in exchange for relief from threatened tariffs, a step toward fulfilling his campaign promise of making IVF less expensive and more widely available in the US.

Read more here.

Ontario Premier Doug Ford said on Thursday that Canada could cut off the flow of critical minerals, uranium, and potash to the United States if President Trump continues to threaten the country's economy.

“We will not send a grain of critical minerals down there as long as we're under constant attack by President Trump,” Ford said, as reported by Yahoo Finance Canada's Jeff Lagerquist. “I'd love to send them down to our neighbours, but it's not going to happen.”

Ford emphasized the US's reliance on potash, which is used as a fertilizer, saying that US farmers would be \\"devastated\\" if Canada were to cut off the supply. He also spoke of the US's reliance on critical minerals and uranium to build data centers for the adoption of artificial intelligence.

“They're in desperate need of our energy,” Ford said. “Uranium gets shipped from Saskatchewan over to Port Hope in Ontario, gets refined here, and then gets enriched down in the U.S. They have 94 turbines that rely on Canadian uranium.”

Ford's comments came after Stellantis (STLA) announced it was moving Jeep production from Ontario to Illinois, which Canada's Prime Minister Mark Carney attributed to the tariffs the US imposed on

Read more here.

India's foreign ministry said on Thursday that it is unaware of any conversation between Prime Minister Modi and President Trump around New Delhi reducing its Russian oil buys and stepping up its purchase of US crude oil and natural gas.

Bloomberg News reports:

“To the best of our knowledge, I am not aware of any conversation between PM Modi and President Trump yesterday,” Randhir Jaiswal, a spokesman for the Ministry of External Affairs, told reporters at a briefing in New Delhi on Thursday.

US-India relations have been strained since Trump imposed a 50% tariff on goods from the South Asian nation, a move the president cast as a punishment for New Delhi’s purchases of Russian crude. On Wednesday, Trump signaled a possible resolution to the issue by telling reporters at the White House that Modi had committed to not buying oil from Russia.

In a statement earlier Thursday, Jaiswal didn’t confirm that India is complying with Trump’s demands, although said that New Delhi is working to deepen energy ties with the US.

Modi’s government has previously indicated the country would keep buying Russian oil if it is economically viable, and Jaiswal reiterated on Thursday that consumer interests remain a top priority in shaping India’s energy import policy.

Read more here.

Global CEOs, such as Apple's (AAPL) Tim Cook are expected to meet with Chinese negotiator He Lifeng in Beijing this week, according to people familiar with the matter. The sit down comes at a time when trade tensions between the US and China are rising, with Beijing restricting exports of rare earths and President Trump threatening China with an additional 100% tariffs.

Bloomberg News reports:

Beijing has justified its moves as defensive actions after the US introduced new restrictive measures targeting China after trade talks in Madrid in September.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Wednesday at a CNBC forum in Washington that President Donald Trump is still expected to meet with Chinese leader Xi Jinping later this month in South Korea. Bessent also said there’s a “very good chance” that he would travel to Asia before Trump to meet He.

Last year, Vice Premier Ding Xuexiang met the Tsinghua advisory board representatives and welcomed their suggestions on China’s economy. The board was founded in 2000 to bring together business executives, administrators and scholars to discuss economic issues and the management school’s development.

Cook, who chaired the advisory board last year, pledged on Wednesday in Beijing to boost investment in China during a meeting with Minister of Industry and Information Technology Li Lecheng. Cook also outlined a donation to Tsinghua University, the country’s most prestigious college and Xi’s alma mater.

Read more here.

President Trump said on Wednesday that India's Prime Minister Modi has agreed to step up purchases of US crude oil and natural gas and to stop Russian oil purchases.

The AP reports:

“There will be no oil. He’s not buying oil,” Trump said. The change won’t take immediately, he said, but “within a short period of time.”

India is the second biggest buyer of Russian oil after China. Trump cited its purchases from Moscow when he announced 50% tariffs on imports from India in August.

A statement Thursday by India's foreign ministry did not address Trump’s remarks directly. It said the government’s consistent priority was to safeguard the interests of Indian consumers in a volatile energy environment.

“Ensuring stable energy prices and secured supplies have been the twin goals of our energy policy. This includes broad basing our energy sourcing and diversifying as appropriate to meet market conditions,” said Randhir Jaiswal, a ministry spokesman.

Read more here.

Data from the Chicago Fed suggests that US retail sales, excluding auto sales, likely rose again in September, up 0.5%. Much of the growth is being driven by higher-income households, while middle and lower income consumers are feeling the squeeze due to rising prices and uncertainty.

Meanwhile, in its latest Beige Book report the Federal Reserve highlighted strains across businesses and households. Some have cited tariff-driven costs and policy uncertainty as the reason.

\\"Consumers are increasingly fatigued by high price levels and navigating an economy that feels less favorable,\\" said Will Auchincloss, Americas retail sector leader at EY-Parthenon. \\"We expect to see more intentional spending, with households prioritizing value and necessity over discretionary purchases.\\"

Yahoo Finance's Jennifer Schonberger reports:

Both Treasury Secretary Bessent and US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer slammed China in a joint press conference on Wednesday, saying the country has violated an earlier accord with the US by asserting export controls on rare earths.

Greer called China’s move a “supply chain power grab” and an “exercise on economic coercion on the global economy,” warning that the movement of everything from household appliances to cars could be affected around the world.

Bessent threatened decoupling from the world's second-largest economy if China continues this behavior, though he said that’s not what the US wants and that he would be speaking with allies about steps that can be taken.

Bessent also noted that he expects to fly to South Korea early ahead of the APEC summit later this month to meet with his counterpart and that, as of Tuesday night, President Trump is still expected to meet with Chinese President Xi at APEC in a few weeks.

It’s possible that the current 90-day pause on tariffs between the US and China could be extended, he added, but that it won’t be negotiated before leaders meet in South Korea.

Read more here.

Via Reuters:

U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent on Wednesday insisted that Washington did not want to escalate a trade conflict with China, stressing that President Donald Trump is ready to meet Chinese President Xi Jinping in South Korea later this month.

Bessent told a CNBC event that officials from both countries were in touch daily to set up the meeting, and Washington did not want to decouple from the second-largest economy in the world.

He said it was due to trust between Trump and Xi that the trade conflict between the two countries has not escalated further.

The two countries appeared poised to return to an all-out trade war late last week, after China on Thursday announced a major expansion of its rare earths export controls. Trump responded on Friday by threatening to raise tariffs on Chinese goods to triple-digit levels, sending financial markets and U.S.-China relations into a tailspin. Bessent and other officials have sought to get ties back on track in a series of interviews this week.

Read more here.

Chinese state broadcaster CCTV said that US-owned and operated cargo ships built in China would be exempt from new docking fees. The tit-for-tat dock fees took effect on Tuesday, marking a key front in the US-China trade war.

From FreightWaves:

The trade partners are charging vessels around $50 per net ton on each voyage calling the other’s ports, as relations have deteriorated over the past two weeks.

Matson (NYSE: MATX) and APL, a unit of France’s CMA CGM, operate China-built ships under the U.S. flag.

At the same time, Matson’s Manukai, an 11,149-ton container ship built in Philadelphia, became the first U.S.-flag vessel to be billed — a total of more than $600,000 when it called Ningbo on Tuesday, according to Xinde Marine News, citing industry sources.

China also exempted empty ships entering shipyards for repairs.

The Chinese charges also extend to vessel operators with 25% or more U.S. ownership. Bulker and tanker operators Norden, DHT, Star Bulk and 2020 Bulkers released statements clarifying their status below that threshold.

Read more here.

Dollar Tree's (DLTR) stock rose 8% before the bell on Wednesday after the retailer announced at its Investor Day that it expects earnings per share to gain as much as 10% annually over the next three years. The company said that despite higher traffic from consumers that can afford to spend more, tariffs still present a problem.

Bloomberg News reports:

The Chesapeake Virginia-based company also said earnings per share is expected to grow by a “high-teens percentage” in fiscal 2026 due to cost benefits.

Dollar Tree, which made this projection ahead of an investor presentation slated for later on Wednesday, is trying to sharpen its focus under Chief Executive Officer Mike Creedon after selling the struggling Family Dollar chain for about $1 billion. That was far less than the almost $9 billion it paid for the business ten years ago.

While more traffic from higher income consumers has helped the company, tariffs are expected to present a tougher hurdle in the second half. At the same time, competition has intensified as shoppers cut back on spending.

Read more here.

Reuters reports:

Pfizer (PFE) Chief Executive Albert Bourla said on Tuesday that the U.S. pharmaceutical industry needs to collaborate with China’s, where speedy processes have vaulted it to 30% of global drug development over the past decade.

\\"In biopharma, China's dramatic speed, cost and scale have triggered a shift in the global competitive landscape,\\" Bourla said, speaking at the National Committee on U.S.-China Relations Gala in New York.

He said the country currently has around 1,200 novel drug candidates, compared with 10 years ago when there was about 60.

The remarks come as U.S. President Donald Trump has targeted top economic rival China with a cascade of tariff orders on billions of dollars of imported goods that he says is aimed at narrowing a wide trade deficit, bringing back lost manufacturing and crippling the fentanyl trade.

Read more here.

IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva said on Tuesday that the lack of pushback from most countries to President Trump's tariffs is among the main factors helping to stimulate global economic growth.

Reuters reports:

\\"The world, so far, and I cannot stress enough, so far, has opted not to retaliate and to continue to trade pretty much on the rules that have existed,\\" Georgieva said during an event at the IMF and World Bank annual meetings in Washington, noting that this avoided debilitating tariff escalation.

Earlier on Tuesday, the fund had edged up its 2025 global GDP growth forecast in its World Economic Outlook to 3.2% from a 3.0% forecast in July, but warned that a renewed U.S.-China trade war threatened by Trump could slow output significantly.

Also supporting global growth is that the effective U.S. tariff rate has come down from prior estimates, Georgieva told the Bretton Woods Committee event. After calculating that Trump's tariffs announced in April would average 23%, the rate was reduced by U.S. trade deals with the European Union, Japan and other major partners to about 17.5%, she said.

Read more here.

Reuters reports:

China's sanctions against five U.S.-linked affiliates of South Korean shipbuilder Hanwha Ocean are seen as a warning gesture without immediate impact, and Beijing is unlikely to gain much by expanding them, analysts said on Wednesday.

The move, announced on Tuesday when the U.S. and China began charging additional port fees targeting each other's vessels, comes ahead of an expected meeting between U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping in late October to resolve the protracted trade war between the world's two largest economies.

China's commerce ministry banned transactions and cooperation with Hanwha Ocean's U.S.-linked affiliates, citing security risks stemming from their involvement in the U.S. government's \\"relevant investigative activities.\\" It did not elaborate on the suspected activities.

Hanwha, one of the world's largest shipbuilders, owns Philly Shipyard in the U.S. and has won contracts to repair and overhaul U.S. Navy ships. Its entities also will build a U.S.-flagged LNG carrier.

The sanctions do not have any direct impact as the Hanwha affiliates Beijing sanctioned have no business connection with China, said Korea Investment & Securities analyst Kang Kyung-tae.

Read more here.

Stellantis (STLA) has announced a $13 billion investment in the US and will create 5,000 new jobs over the next four years, in a bid to counteract the effects of President Trump's tariffs.

Yahoo Finance senior reporter Pras Subramanian discusses the latest news from the Big Three automaker.

The maker of Jeep, Dodge, and Ram pickups said the $13 billion spend, the largest in its 100-year history, would result in US production jumping by 50%, with five new vehicle launches and 5,000 new jobs over the next four years.

The investment comes after the White House’s extensive tariff actions made imports from regions like Mexico, Canada, and Europe, where Stellantis operates some facilities, too costly. President Trump has said that he wants more auto manufacturing in the US.

“This investment in the US — the single largest in the company’s history — will drive our growth, strengthen our manufacturing footprint and bring more American jobs to the states we call home,” said Antonio Filosa, Stellantis CEO and North America COO in a statement. “Accelerating growth in the US has been a top priority since my first day.”

Read more here.

Apple (AAPL) CEO Tim Cook said on Wednesday that he will boost investment and cooperation in China at a meeting with Beijing's Minister of Industry and Information Technology Li Lecheng.

Cook's latest comments come despite President Trump's threats to slap tariffs on the iPhone maker's foreign-made products. They also come at a time when Trump and China's President Xi Jinping are embroiled in a tug-of-war battle on trade, as the two sides seek to gain an advantage over the other.

Bloomberg News reports:

Li urged Apple to work closely with local suppliers, while Cook said Apple will boost cooperation with China. The country is Apple’s biggest market outside the US and remains a key manufacturing hub for the Cupertino, California-based company.

During his trip, Cook posted about meeting Labubu-creator Kasing Lung and visited an Apple store in Shanghai. He also outlined a donation to Tsinghua University, the country’s most prestigious college.

While Apple has been diversifying its supply chain away from China over the past few years, including increasing handset operations in India, it still makes the bulk of iPhones in the country with help from Foxconn Technology Group and Luxshare Precision Industry Co.

It’s committed to expanding its manufacturing presence in the US, while also adding production capacity elsewhere. The company is preparing to make new smart home devices in Vietnam to lessen its dependence on China.

But Apple has run into challenges with its diversification efforts. Earlier this year, Foxconn sent hundreds of Chinese engineers at its iPhone plants in India back home, dealing a blow to Apple’s manufacturing push in the South Asian country.

Read more here.