President Trump further expanded tariff breaks on Brazilian goods, part of moves to lower costs on some everyday goods as consumers grapple with price struggles. The move came a week after he signed a similar order more broadly reducing tariffs on goods including beef, tomatoes, coffee, and bananas.

The push to reduce food prices comes after electoral wins for Democrats across a number of key state and local races where candidates stressed affordability concerns. Trump has also in recent weeks floated the possibility of a tariff "dividend" for many Americans in the form of a $2,000 check. Trump said he was eyeing the rebate checks "probably in the middle of next year, a little bit later than that," though officials have said Congress would need to approve them.

Rebate checks could detract from Trump administration pledges to use much of revenue from tariffs toward reducing US deficits. The Congressional Budget Office revised its estimate of tariffs' impact on that front, saying it would shrink deficits by $3 trillion by 2035 instead of the $4 trillion it had projected in August.

Trump recently acknowledged that US consumers are "paying something" for his tariffs, the bulk of which face a looming verdict from the Supreme Court.

In a closely watched case, a majority of the justices — both the court's three liberal-leaning justices, as well as three more conservative ones — offered skeptical questions regarding the president's authority to impose his most sweeping duties. If the Supreme Court does not side with Trump, it's widely expected that the administration will seek out alternative methods to carry out the US trade agenda.

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

The US and Switzerland have agreed to a deal to lower tariffs on Swiss imports to 15%, from a 39% level that had shocked the country over the summer. Switzerland will invest $200 billion in the US, the White House said.

The US and China reached a trade truce that will see China suspend additional export controls on rare earth metals and end investigations into US chip companies. As part of the deal, the US will pause some of Trump’s "reciprocal tariffs" on China for another year. (Read more: What are rare earth minerals, and why are they important?)

Trump said that "at some point," he would reduce the tariff rate on Indian goods, and that the US was getting "close" to a trade deal with New Delhi.

As the dust settles on Nvidia's (NVDA) solid earnings beat and guidance raise, my colleague Laura Bratton notes that China remains a sore spot for the AI chipmaker.

The US effectively banned Nvidia from selling its H20 chips to China in April, only lifted in August when President Trump agreed to grant export licenses for a share of those revenues. By then, Beijing had forbidden its own tech firms from buying the chips.

Laura reports:

Nvidia's China business faltered in the AI chipmaker’s third quarter as a trade war with the US rolled on.

Nvidia recorded just $50 million in sales of its H20 chips — less powerful versions of its Hopper GPUs designed for the China market to comply with tightening US export controls — during the three months through Oct. 26.

“Sizable purchase orders never materialized in the quarter due to geopolitical issues and the increasingly competitive market in China,” said Nvidia CFO Colette Kress during a call with analysts following the release of the company’s quarterly earnings results.

Overall, Nvidia’s revenue from China was $2.8 billion, or 5% of its overall sales for the quarter — far lower than the $8.4 billion projected by Wall Street analysts, according to Bloomberg data. Meanwhile, the AI giant saw $39.2 billion in revenue from the US and $13.8 billion from Taiwan.

In Nvidia’s previous fiscal year, the company’s China business accounted for 13% of its overall revenue.

“While we were disappointed in the current state that prevents us from shipping more competitive data center compute products to China, we are committed to continued engagement with the US and China governments, and will continue to advocate for America's ability to compete around the world,” Kress said.

Read more here.

The AP reports:

Japan’s global exports rose 3.7% in October from a year earlier while imports from the world edged up 0.6%, according to government data released Friday.

Exports to the U.S. dipped 3.1%, marking the seventh straight month of year-on-year declines mainly due to higher U.S. tariffs, Finance Ministry data showed.

President Donald Trump announced a trade framework with Japan in July, placing a 15% tax on goods imported from that nation. That’s lower than the 25% rate Trump initially said would kick in starting in August. Previously, tariffs on most goods stood at 2.5%.

It's a heavy burden for an export dependent nation that is a major U.S. ally, but shipments to the rest of Asia are helping to offset those lost sales.

Japan's soybean imports from around the world surged 37.3% from a year earlier, while imporyts of iron and steel products dipped 17.1%.

Read more here.

President Trump's tariff increases on imports from foreign countries will reduce US deficits by $1 trillion less than previously estimated, according to data from the non-‌partisan Congressional Budget Office. The CBO said on Thursday that the deficit will be reduced by $3 trillion if these measures are maintained through 2035, instead of the $4 trillion the agency projected in August.

The CBO based its latest estimate on tariffs imposed by Trump between January 6 and November 15. The agency said primary deficits would be reduced by $2.5 trillion over 11 years, with government borrowing costs expected to fall $500 billion as a result.

Reuters reports:

The revision was mainly based ‌on new data, with the remainder stemming from the Trump administration's recent changes to its tariff policies.

Some federal courts have ruled that the administration overstepped its authority in imposing the tariffs, as the U.S.⁠ Constitution grants Congress powers over ​trade policy. The U.S. ​Supreme Court is reviewing those decisions.

Read more here.

President Trump may struggle to find many supporters for his $2,000 tariff dividend, which would allow his administration to distribute checks to the American people in an effort to ease the cost-of-living crisis. Trump has previously stated that tariffs will bring in billions of dollars in revenue.

However, economists have suggested that Trump's proposal will, in fact, cost hundreds of billions of dollars more than what tariffs will bring in annually.

Yahoo Finance's Washington Correspondent Ben Werschkul looks at why Trump's dividend talk should be taken seriously.

And GOP lawmakers are treading carefully after Republicans passed the budget-busting One Big Beautiful Bill earlier this year, with many wary of adding another wave of red ink.

But even as the hurdles are high, Trump's record of getting his pet ideas enacted is leading few to dismiss the talk entirely.

After all, it was Trump who signed the first COVID-era stimulus checks into law (and reveled in the fact that they had his name affixed to them). More recently, his 2024 campaign trail ideas, like no taxes on tips and overtime, were seen as fantastical at the time but are now the law of the land.

Another factor suggesting that a real push could be in the offing is Trump and his party's ongoing challenges around affordability issues, with the president often mentioning checks as an effort that he is undertaking in part to improve Americans' views of his economy.

Terry Haines, the founder of Pangaea Policy, even called rebate checks \\"very likely\\" this week in a note to clients. He pointed out that the idea could be included in an upcoming reconciliation bill on Capitol Hill, which can be passed with only Republican votes.

Read more here.

Smaller selections and higher prices await shoppers looking for the perfect wine for their holiday dinners, CNN reports.

Bottled wine prices have risen nearly 20% over the past 25 years and 8% over the past decade, according to the latest government data. Several reasons are to blame, including climate change, inflation and rising production costs.

Tariffs are affecting the bottom line even more for importers of wine. Elenteny Imports, a logistics and distribution company that works with 9,000 retailers and restaurants, said wine sales are down 13% year over year.

Wine volume consumed in the United States declined 3% between 2019 and 2024, and it’s expected to fall another 4% from 2024 to 2029, according to IWSR, an alcohol data insights firm.

“For casual drinking occasions, wine has often been the choice for drinkers who prefer not to drink beer. But wine can be expensive and only comes in larger bottles,” said Marten Lodewijks, president of IWSR.

Read more here.

From Bloomberg:

An executive order Trump signed on Thursday would exempt dozens of popular food items from a 40% levy he imposed on goods from Brazil earlier this year. Last week, the president knocked a separate 10% duty off those items, but did not originally include the higher rate, which was intended to punish the country over its prosecution of former President Jair Bolsonaro.

The changes are effective retroactive to Nov. 13. A spokesperson for the Brazilian government said it’s analyzing the order.

The decision could help bring down prices of coffee, orange juice and beef in particular, providing a salve for Americans who have struggled under the strain of high grocery bills and given Trump increasingly poor marks over his handling of the economy. Brazil is the world’s largest exporter of coffee and beef. Prior to the implementation of tariffs, it was the largest supplier of coffee to the US. Shipments of Brazilian beef to the US had also been increasing before the levies, due to a cattle shortage that had affected the North American industry.

Tariffs on those items from Brazil, a major South American agricultural power, have exacerbated ongoing shortages in both markets that pushed consumer prices to records. The pullback is a major victory for Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, whose government has long sought to persuade Trump to drop the duties.

Read more here.

Reuters reports:

The United States and Switzerland are working towards implementing ​a reduction in U.S. tariffs ‌on Switzerland to 15% from 39% in the ‌coming days, the Swiss government said after it sealed an initial deal last week.

On Friday, the Swiss government and the United States reached ⁠a preliminary agreement ‌to cut the tariffs to 15% more than three months after U.‍S. President Donald Trump hit Switzerland with the highest import duties in Europe.

Swiss Economy Minister Guy Parmelin told ​Tuesday's edition of the Aargauer Zeitung ‌newspaper that the government expected it would take 10 to 12 working days for the lower tariffs to enter the system, but declined to give a precise date.

Read more here.

A report on the US trade deficit, which was delayed by the government shutdown, was released today, showing that the trade deficit narrowed more than expected as imports declined.

The report, originally scheduled for release on Oct. 7, implied that trade could still weigh on economic growth in the third quarter.

Reuters reports:

The trade gap contracted 23.8% to $59.6 billion, ‌the Commerce Department's Bureau of Economic Analysis and Census Bureau said on Wednesday. Economists polled by Reuters had forecast the trade deficit would ease to $61.0 billion.

Imports decreased 5.1% to $340.4 ⁠billion, while exports ‌edged up 0.1% to $280.8 billion.

... Trade sliced off a record ⁠4.68 percentage points from gross domestic ​product in the first quarter before adding ​all that back to GDP in the April-June quarter. Estimates for third-quarter GDP growth are well ‍above a 3.0%⁠ annualized rate.

The third-quarter GDP report was due in late October but delayed by the government shutdown. The economy ⁠grew at a 3.8% pace in the second quarter, with a ‌smaller trade deficit being the key driver.

Read more here.

Bloomberg News reports:

Former US Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo said President Donald Trump’s tariffs are likely to outlive his administration, sustained by political fears that removing protectionist barriers will alienate workers who fear losing their jobs to off-shoring and AI.

Speaking at the Bloomberg New Economy Forum in Singapore, Raimondo argued that the political cost of unwinding tariffs is too high for any future administration, regardless of party.

“Tariffs, once they’re put on, are hard to take off,” Raimondo said Wednesday. “No one wants to be the American president accused of letting down the American worker. Tariffs protect the American worker. And I think AI makes it more so of a political reality.”

Former President Joe Biden maintained duties from the first Trump term to avoid the perception of abandoning domestic labor despite her urging to reduce some levies, she said on a panel alongside Goldman Sachs Group Inc. President John Waldron.

Read more here.

President Trump met with operators, suppliers, and owners of McDonald's (MCD) fast food franchises and told them that his administration is making progress in combating inflation.

Yahoo Finance's Washington correspondent Ben Werschkul delves into Trump's affordability push and how the president is trying to counteract the growing unease among Americans due to rising prices.

The venue on Monday evening, which is expected to be the first of at least a few stops in the weeks ahead, was a summit for the fast food giant McDonald’s (MCD).

Before an audience of franchisees and suppliers, the president attempted to reverse some recent losses he and his party have suffered around the issue of affordability.

\\"We're looking at affordability,” he promised at the event at the Westin in downtown Washington as he argued that persistent inflation is “almost at the sweet spot.”

He added of his party: “Affordable should be our word, not theirs.”

The president’s push comes as the cost of living has come to the political fore. Voter anger over rising prices pushed outsized Democratic wins in recent elections, and polls show that many Americans place much of the blame on the president.

One average of approval ratings on inflation from RealClearPolitics shows Trump with a cellar-dwelling 35.6% approval rating for his handling of the issue.

The erosion of his poll number is “leading Trump to start taking on affordability himself as a policy priority,” Eurasia Group founder Ian Bremmer pointed out in a recent note to clients.

He added a warning that it’s likely to be a persistent issue, saying “these pressures are likely to expand going forward, both as midterm elections near and as retailers come under pressure to raise prices after selling through their pre-positioned stockpiles of goods to avoid tariff increases.”

Read more here.

China's exports of rare-earth materials edged lower in October compared to the previous month, as Beijing and Washington attempt to finalize the details of supply arrangements under the trade truce agreed upon between President Trump and China's leader, Xi Jinping.

Bloomberg News reports:

Outbound shipments of the materials used in electric vehicles, weapons and high-tech manufacturing dropped to 6,173 tons, the lowest level since June, according to customs data released on Tuesday. This category is typically dominated by rare-earth magnets, the industrial components that played a pivotal role for China in facing down America’s trade offensive.

The US and China are still fleshing out details of a trade truce clinched by Presidents Xi Jinping and Donald Trump in Seoul in late October. The two sides have given their negotiators until end-November to agree on supply terms for US-bound rare earths, according to people familiar with the matter.

Beijing slapped export controls on a clutch of rare earths on April 4 that triggered months of supply disruptions — particularly for magnets — and left global industries at risk of production disruptions. Under the trade truce, Beijing agreed a one-year pause on even tighter rare-earth restrictions, while pledging to offer “general licenses” for materials already under export controls, the White House has said.

Read more here.

China has resumed its purchase of US soybeans, a sign that a temporary pause has ended and may show Beijing's commitment to the trade truce agreed in October.

Fresh data from the US Department of Agriculture released Friday had cast some doubts over whether China would actually buy millions of American soybeans. However, State-owned agriculture trader Cofco Group booked nearly 20 cargoes of the American oilseed on Monday for delivery in December and January, according to people familiar.

Bloomberg News reports:

The shipments were from Pacific northwest ports and Gulf coast terminals in the US, they said.

The purchases have reignited market optimism around the soybean trade between the two agricultural powerhouses, which was worth more than $12 billion last year and will underpin any trade agreement.

Chicago soybeans rallied as much as 3.2% on Monday after the news, reported earlier by brokerage AgResource Co, though prices pared gains during Asian hours on Tuesday.

Cofco did not immediately reply to a request for comment.

Beijing’s latest purchases still leave plenty to be done in the coming months, however, at a time when stockpiles are plentiful. Washington has said Beijing pledged to buy 12 million tons of US soybeans by end of this year, followed by 25 million tons annually over the next three years.

Read more here.

New Zealand officials said Sunday the country welcomes the announcement from President Donald Trump that the US will roll back some of its \\"Liberation Day\\" tariffs on agricultural products, including beef and kiwi fruit. The products represent around 25% of New Zealand's ‍exports to the US, Reuters reported, and are worth roughly NZ$2.21 billion ($1.25 billion) annually.

“​The U.S. remains an important trade partner for ‌New Zealand and the decision to lift these tariffs is a step in the right direction and will be welcomed by exporters who have faced months of uncertainty and higher costs,” New Zealand's trade minister, Todd McClay, said in a ⁠statement released late on Sunday.

He said ​it was only a partial rollback and ​the broader reciprocal tariff framework continues to create cost and uncertainty for the country's exporters. McClay said ‍he would continue ⁠to make the case that New Zealand's trading relationship with the U.S. is balanced and that the ⁠additional reciprocal tariffs on other New Zealand exports should also be removed.

Read more here.

According to a study by risk consultancy Verisk Maplecroft, some of the bigger emerging economies, such as China, Brazil, and India, should be able to cope with tariffs without any real issues.

The study examined the resilience levels of 20 of the largest emerging markets, using debt levels and export revenue to assess their capacity to manage trade volatility.

Reuters reports:

\\"Most manufacturing hubs globally are in a better position in their current baseline than you would think or give them credit for to weather this tariff storm specifically coming out of the U.S., even if it comes to full capacity,\\" ⁠said Reema Bhattacharya, head of ‌Asia research who co-authored the report.

Mexico and Vietnam are among the most exposed to U.S. trade dependence, the paper showed,‍ but progressive economic policies, improving infrastructure and political stability meant they were among the more resilient economies.

Brazil and South Africa, it said, are effectively building links with other trade partners that could shield them in coming years.​

\\"Almost every emerging market or global market understands that we need to do business with the U.‌S. and China, but we can't over-rely on either. So we need a third market,\\" Bhattacharya said, adding that trade between members of the BRICS group of developing nations was rising.

The Maplecroft paper did not examine BRICS member Russia.

Read more here.

Fresh data from the US Agriculture Department has cast doubts over whether China will, in fact, purchase millions of bushels of US soybeans like the Trump administration said last month after a high-stakes meeting between President Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping.

AP reports:

The USDA report released after the government reopened showed only two Chinese purchases of American soybeans since the summit in South Korea that totaled 332,000 metric tons. That's well short of the 12 million metric tons that Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins said China agreed to purchase by January and nowhere near the 25 million metric tons she said they would buy in each of the next three years.

American farmers were hopeful that their biggest customer would resume buying their crops. But CoBank's Tanner Ehmke, who is its lead economist for grains and oilseed, said there isn't much incentive for China to buy from America right now because they have plenty of soybeans on hand that they have bought from Brazil and other South American countries this year, and the remaining tariffs ensure that U.S. soybeans remain more expensive than Brazilian beans.

“We are still not even close to what has been advertised from the U.S. in terms of what the agreement would have been,” Ehmke said.

Beijing has yet to confirm any detailed soybean purchase agreement but only that the two sides have reached “consensus” on expanding trade in farm products. Ehmke said that even if China did promise to buy American soybeans it may have only agreed to buy them if the price was attractive.

Read more here.

Bloomberg reports on some emerging friction in the EU-US trade agreement:

European Union officials are concerned a US push to expand the list of EU products subject to higher steel and aluminum tariffs may run afoul of the spirit of the trade agreement they signed this summer.

The EU’s trade chief, Maros Sefcovic, as well as trade ministers from the bloc’s 27 member states, will raise the issue with US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick when they meet in Brussels Nov. 24, according to people familiar with the matter. EU ambassadors prepared for the intervention last week.

The trade deal, agreed between European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and US President Donald Trump in August, was to remove many of the bloc’s tariffs on American goods while putting a 15% tariff ceiling on most European products going into the US.

The EU still faces a 50% duty on steel and aluminum exports as well as on many other derivative products that contain the metals. Washington revises the list of derivative products that are subject to the higher tariff rate several times a year.

The EU is particularly concerned that the breadth of goods hit by the 50% metals rate — currently surpassing 400 items — as well as potential new, higher levies on different industries will dilute the EU-US trade deal and the agreed 15% tariff ceiling, said the people who spoke on the condition of anonymity.

Read more here.

Japan's economic growth slowed to a 1.8% annual contraction in July to September due to President Trump's tariffs, which hit exports and caused private residential investments to plunge.

AP reports:

Data released by the government Monday showed that on a quarter-by-quarter basis, Japan’s gross domestic product, the sum value of its goods and services, slipped 0.4%, the first contraction in six quarters.

The annualized rate shows what the economy would have done if the same rate were to continue for a year.

In the April-June quarter, the Japanese economy grew 0.6% on quarter, while in the January-March period, it grew 0.2%..

Exports fell 4.5% in annual terms in the three months through September.

Read more here.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has said that President Trump's proposal to send $2,000 \\"dividend\\" payments from tariffs to US citizens would need support from Congress.

“We will see,” Bessent said Sunday on Fox News. “We need legislation for that.”

Trump, who has previously boasted of the billions being raised from tariff revenue, told reporters on Friday that the checks will go out sometime next year to “everybody but the rich.”

The latest comments from Trump and Bessent come as public frustration rises over the increasing prices of everyday food items, such as beef, bananas, and coffee. On Friday, Trump signed an executive order to reduce tariffs on goods including beef, tomatoes, coffee, and bananas.

Bloomberg News reports:

“It’s a lot of money,” he said. “But we’ve taken in a lot of money from tariffs. The tariffs allow us to give a dividend.” He added that “we’re also going to be reducing debt.”

The plan could cost the US government double what it’s projected to take in for 2025, according to one estimate. The Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, a centrist watchdog group, estimated a preliminary $600 billion cost for the proposal, if the dividends were designed along the lines of government stimulus payments during the Covid pandemic.

Read more here.

Vice President Geraldo Alckmin of Brazil said Saturday that despite President Trump's reversal of some of his \\"Liberation Day\\" tariffs, the prices on goods the country exports to the US, including coffee and beef, remain subject to a 40% levy, the Associated Press reports.

In July, Trump imposed a further 40% tariff, citing — among other reasons — the trial of his ally, former President Jair Bolsonaro, which he called a “witch hunt.” Proceedings went ahead regardless and in September Bolsonaro was sentenced to 27 years and three months in prison for attempting a coup.

Alckmin said some products, such as orange juice, would now have a zero tariff as they were not targeted by the additional 40%. But that extra tariff remains in place on products including coffee, beef and tropical fruits, such as mangos and pineapples.

While Brazil’s vice president welcomed Trump’s latest decision, which he called “positive” and a “step in the right direction,” he said there remained a “distortion that needs to be corrected.”

“Everyone got 10% less, but in Brazil’s case, which had 50%, we ended up with 40%, which is very high,” Alckmin told journalists in the capital Brasilia.

Read more here.

Japanese automaker Toyota (TM) announced on Thursday a $10 billion investment in the US over the next five years, just a few weeks after President Trump visited Japan.

The FT reports:

The announcement on Thursday coincided with Toyota’s opening of a battery plant in North Carolina, which it said marked an investment of “nearly $14bn and the creation of up to 5,100 new jobs”.

Toyota’s pledge follows Trump’s trip in late October when he and Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi spoke of bringing the security alliance between the two countries into a “new golden age”.

In July, Washington agreed to a deal to impose 15 per cent tariffs on goods imported into America from Japan, the world’s fourth-largest economy.

Read more here.