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Europe
The Guardian

Half of Americans struggle to afford groceries and gas, exclusive poll finds

A driver refuels a vehicle with regular gasoline at a Chevron gas station in San Francisco, California, on 2 July. Photograph: David Paul Morris/Bloomberg via Getty ImagesView image in fullscreenA driver refuels a vehicle with regular gasoline at a Chevron gas station in San Francisco, California, on 2 July. Photograph: David Paul Morris/Bloomberg via Getty ImagesUS economyHalf of Americans struggle to afford groceries and gas, exclusive poll findsAbout 57% of polled Americans also believe economy is worsening in grim portrait of cost of living crisis, according to Harris survey for the Guardian Ninety-five per cent of Americans believe the US is suffering an affordability crisis, as many report trouble with the rising cost of groceries and gas, according to an exclusive new poll conducted for the Guardian. The survey, conducted by Harris Poll, paints a bleak picture of how people feel about the US economy amid the war in Iran and ahead of the key midterm elections this fall. Despite stable employment and record-high stock markets, more Americans believe the overall economy is getting worse (57%) than in February (46%), when the poll was last conducted and before the war in the Middle East sent gas prices soaring. Fewer people today also believe the economy is getting better (16%, compared with 28% in February) and more say their financial security has gotten worse. The affordability struggle crosses party lines: about half of all Democrats, Republicans and independents say they are having trouble affording everyday necessities like gas and groceries. Two-thirds of Americans – including 49% of Republicans – said they have little faith that the federal government will improve the cost-of-living crisis they face. Though Republicans have been far more optimistic about the economy than Democrats and independents under Donald Trump’s second term, the war in Iran seems to have soured those in the president’s base. While 49% of Republicans said the economy was getting better in February, just 27% said the same in the new poll. Meanwhile, 38% of Republicans say the economy is now getting worse compared with 22% who said the same in February. Even rural Americans, a strong base for Republicans, are feeling more pessimistic: 64% say the economy is getting worse, compared with 46% who said the same in February. Rural Americans were also the most likely to say that good job opportunities have disappeared over the past year and that tariffs have negatively affected American manufacturing jobs in the past year. Cratering economic sentiment may cause problems for the Republican party, which is trying to maintain a narrow control of Congress in the upcoming midterm elections. Even as his party has tried to appeal to working-class voters, Trump has offered up a whiplash reaction to the affordability issue, simultaneously denying that it exists while also trying to exert his power to bring down prices. Though Brent crude, the global benchmark for oil prices, has fallen sharply since the US and Iran signed a peace deal in June, US gas prices at the pump have been slow to go down to prewar levels. After dismissing high gas prices, Trump and his treasury secretary demanded that oil and gas companies lower their prices ahead of the 250th anniversary of America’s Independence. He also recently derailed a bipartisan housing bill aimed at tackling the US’s affordable housing shortage as a “minor importance” compared with other priorities, including unproven claims of voter fraud.

Half of Americans struggle to afford groceries and gas, exclusive poll finds
Asia
The Hindu BusinessLine

Trump offered over phone to help Putin find deal with Ukraine, Kremlin aide says

US President Donald Trump, ​speaking to Russian leader Vladimir Putin by ‌telephone for nearly 90 minutes, offered to ​help find a solution to ⁠the Ukraine war, Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov said in comments made public early on Sunday. Ushakov said ‌Trump made the offer in the context of his participation next ‌week at the NATO summit in ‌Turkey. "The ⁠American president once again confirmed ⁠his readiness to work towards a rapid end to the fighting and find solutions to overcome the ​crisis," Ushakov said. He ‌said Russia sought "a political-diplomatic resolution of the conflict, with due account of Russia's fundamental approach". Ushakov accused Kyiv and its ‌European allies of "counting on extending and ​even escalating the conflict, and on terrorism against civilians." He was ⁠referring to Ukraine's long-range strikes on Russian targets, mainly linked to the oil industry. He ‌quoted Trump as saying that Washington's envoys, Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, would keep trying to broker a settlement and were prepared to make another visit to Moscow. Ushakov said Putin "depicted the real ‌situation on the battlefield where the Russian armed ​forces are confidently advancing, liberating one locality after another". Russian commanders told Putin ⁠on Friday that Moscow's troops had captured ⁠the strategically important city of Kostiantynivka in eastern Ukraine. On Saturday, President Volodymyr ‌Zelenskiy and Ukraine's General Staff rejected that claim, saying Kyiv's forces still ​controlled the city. Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments. We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of TheHindu Businessline and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.

Trump offered over phone to help Putin find deal with Ukraine, Kremlin aide says
North America
CNBC Finance

Toyota to invest $3.6 billion to move Tacoma pickup truck production from Mexico to Texas

Toyota Motor on Monday announced that it is investing $3.6 billion to move production of the Tacoma midsize pickup truck from a plant in Mexico to its San Antonio, Texas, manufacturing campus. The investment is expected to create 2,000 U.S. jobs at the facility, add a second vehicle assembly line and roughly double the size of the 2.7-million-square-foot plant by 2030, the automaker said. It will expand the plant's annual capacity from roughly 200,000 to 350,000 units, Toyota said. The announcement is part of Toyota's stated plans to invest up to $10 billion more than previously expected domestically in the U.S. through 2030. It comes less than a week after the Trump administration confirmed it would not extend its trilateral trade pact with Canada and Mexico, instead opting to conduct annual reviews. A Toyota spokeswoman said the company is "maintaining its operations in Mexico" as Tacoma production transfers from Tijuana to Texas over the next four years, but she declined to share additional details. The company plans to continue to produce Tacoma pickups at another Mexican plant in Guanajuato, she said. "This investment expands Toyota's manufacturing capacity and complements our broader North American production network," she said in an email to CNBC. The move comes more than six years after Toyota confirmed it would shift Tacoma production from the Texas plant to the Toyota Motor Manufacturing de Guanajuato plant in Mexico. The Texas plant currently produces the Toyota Tundra full-size pickup truck, including a hybrid variant, and the Toyota Sequoia SUV hybrid. Toyota previously announced it was investing $531 million in a 500-million-square-foot rear axle plant on the campus that is slated to begin production in the fall. Potential plans to expand the San Antonio plant, codenamed Project Orca, were first reported in May by Automotive News. "Toyota's continued investment in North America is a testament to our confidence in the region's workforce, innovation and long-term growth potential," Toyota Motor North America CEO Ted Ogawa said in a release. "By expanding our San Antonio plant, we are deepening our commitment to American manufacturing, creating meaningful and sustainable jobs, while advancing our mission to deliver high-quality vehicles that meet the changing needs of customers today and into the future." Toyota, which employs 48,000 people in the U.S., says it has invested $8.3 billion in the San Antonio plant since its groundbreaking in 2003. The increased investment and production capacity could assist Toyota — the world's largest automaker — in becoming the No. 1 carmaker in U.S. sales. Toyota is forecast to narrow the gap in U.S. sales with America's largest automaker, General Motors, this year as hybrids get more popular and all-electric vehicles sputter, according to Cox Automotive.

Toyota to invest $3.6 billion to move Tacoma pickup truck production from Mexico to Texas
Europe
BBC Business

High-spending online gamblers to face financial risk checks

Image source, Getty ImagesByEmma SimpsonBusiness correspondentPublished12 minutes agoGamblers who spend more than £1,000 online in a 24-hour window will have to undergo a financial risk assessment, the industry regulator has announced. The Gambling Commission said this would also apply to anyone spending over £3,000 in a rolling 90-day period. Under-25s will have lower thresholds. The assessments will be based on data held by credit reference agencies, but the commission has insisted they are not "affordability checks". Operators will use the information to help them identify gamblers at risk of financial harm or in financial difficulty. The commission has not set a timeline for the changes saying they will be introduced in a "very careful, staged way". The checks will start with over-25s who gamble more than £5,000 in a rolling 24-hour period. The watchdog says this will affect less than 0.5% of customers. It will begin following engagement companies and other stakeholders over the summer. In 2023, a white paper on gambling recommended enhanced checks on customers experiencing very high losses. On Tuesday, the commission said high-spending gamblers were between two and four times more likely to have a debt management plan, and between two and five times more likely to have a default in the previous 12 months than consumers in the wider population. The commission has been looking into whether gambling companies can use credit reference data to spot customers at risk of financial harm. The acting chief executive of the Gambling Commission, Sarah Gardner, said the vast majority of customers would "never, ever" require an assessment. Those who do would have a frictionless, document-free assessment provided by credit reference agencies, with no impact on their credit score. The commission has insisted that the assessments are not the same as affordability checks, which Gardner said were "deeply unpopular" with gamblers.

High-spending online gamblers to face financial risk checks
North America
Yahoo Finance

Nasdaq, S&P 500, Dow Futures Rise After Fourth Of July Break As Investors Await Fed Minutes: SLS, ONDS, HOOD, MARA, HUT In Focus

U.S. stock futures climbed higher in the overnight session late Sunday, extending the previous week’s rally as investors await the Federal Reserve’s June minutes due on Wednesday. Nasdaq 100 futures jumped 1.33%, S&P 500 futures climbed 0.53%, while Dow futures were up 0.15% at 8:11 PM EDT. The iShares 20+ Year Treasury Bond ETF (TLT) was trading down 0.09% amid ‘bearish’ sentiment. The benchmark indexes closed mixed on Thursday last week. U.S. stock and bond markets were closed on Friday, July 3, in observance of Independence Day. The Dow Jones Industrial Average jumped to record highs, adding nearly 600 points to close up 1.14%. The S&P 500 was flat at the end of the trading session, white the Nasdaq lost more than 200 points to close down 0.8%. However, all three indexes closed in the green for the week, climbing about 2% each. U.S. stock markets are poised to start off the week strong, extending last week’s rally as markets gear up for the second-quarter (Q2) earnings season. PepsiCo. (PEP) quarterly results are expected on Thursday, while Delta Air Lines (DAL) will follow suit on Friday. The broader Q2 earnings season will begin full throttle next week as major U.S. banks start reporting from July 14. However, the highlight of the week will be the minutes from the Federal Reserve’s June meeting, set to be released on Wednesday. This was Kevin Warsh’s first meeting as Fed Chair. The central bank held the key interest rates steady at 3.5% to 3.75%. Meanwhile, a softer-than-expected jobs report and Warsh’s unwillingness to provide cues about the central bank's policy path going forward at the ECB Forum in Sintra, Portugal, have lowered market expectations for a July rate hike. According to data from the CME FedWatch tool, the possibility of the Fed holding rates steady is at 78.1%, while odds of a rate hike are at 21.9%. U.S. payrolls released last week rose by 57,000 in June, missing Wall Street expectations. Meanwhile, Warsh did not provide any clear signals about the central bank’s policy decisions in the meeting later this month, although he highlighted “high” inflation and added that policymakers will have a "good debate" when they meet in four weeks. "I think it's going to be interesting to see how the discussion went around the table, how incrementally hawkish are they leaning," said Matthew Miskin, co-chief investment strategist at Manulife John Hancock Investments, reportedly told Reuters.

Nasdaq, S&P 500, Dow Futures Rise After Fourth Of July Break As Investors Await Fed Minutes: SLS, ONDS, HOOD, MARA, HUT In Focus
Europe
BBC Business

Samsung profits jump 1,800% as AI chip sales soar

South Korean technology giant Samsung Electronics says it expects to post a 19-fold jump in its profits, driven by global demand for artificial intelligence (AI) memory chips. The company forecast that it made 89.4tn won (£43.6bn; $58.4bn) between the start of April and the end of June, marking its third record quarterly operating profits in a row. Major South Korean firms like Samsung release forecasts of their earnings ahead of official detailed reports to help guide investors. Samsung's latest forecast, released on Tuesday ahead of its full results due later in July, comes as demand for semiconductors continues to outstrip supplies - which has pushed up prices. Samsung said in the preview, known as earnings guidance, that it brought in around 171tn won of sales during the quarter, more than double the amount for the same period last year. The company's projected earnings mark one of "the best quarterly performances ever", which was close to the tech sector record set by Nvidia earlier this year, said industry analyst Marc Einstein from Counterpoint Research. "This has everything to do with the AI boom as memory companies continue to ride a tidal wave driven by limited supply and unprecedented demand," he added. Research firm IDC said demand for semiconductors for data centres and other AI infrastructure has been "different from anything the memory industry has navigated", impacting the supply of chips for everyday electronics. "We do expect supplies to be tight through next year given the unabated demand from AI data centres," said tech devices researcher Bryan Ma from IDC. Samsung is one of the world's biggest semiconductor manufacturers, making chips for firms like Nvidia and Google along with its range of electronic devices. The shares major tech firms have soared in recent months due to surging demand for chips. Samsung's shares fell by more than 8% in Seoul on Tuesday morning as some investors had expected its profits to have been even higher. Its stock market value has more than doubled since the start of this year, while South Korean rival SK Hynix has jumped by more than 200%.

Samsung profits jump 1,800% as AI chip sales soar
North America
CNBC Finance

Klarna seeks U.S. bank charter in latest push beyond buy now, pay later

Klarna, the Swedish fintech firm best known for its buy now, pay later offerings, said Monday it applied to federal and state regulators to establish a U.S. bank subsidiary. The firm said that, if approved, Klarna Bank USA would be a Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.-backed institution chartered in Utah. The proposed bank would be led by Gary Harding, former CEO of Milestone Bank and Prime Alliance Bank, according to Klarna. "We've seen firsthand the appetite for a fairer, more transparent approach in the U.S., and our own banking license is the natural next step," said Sebastian Siemiatkowski, co-founder and CEO of Klarna. The move will give "customers tools to borrow responsibly and build financial confidence, while bringing greater competition, innovation, and choice" to the market, he said. Klarna's application is the latest sign that fintech firms, which mostly partner with U.S. banks to offer services, now see owning their own charters as a key advantage. In April, fintech provider Mercury said it won conditional approval to establish its own bank, joining a wave of fintech and crypto firms seeking entry to the traditional banking system. Klarna said that its charter, if approved, would let it bring its banking operations in-house and strengthen reliability across payments, credit and merchant services. The application marks Klarna's latest step toward becoming a broader consumer bank rather than just a buy now, pay later provider. Last month, Klarna introduced high-yield savings accounts to U.S. customers, though its partner WebBank holds those accounts. By owning a bank, fintech firms can fund loans with their own customer deposits instead of more expensive wholesale financing, directly offer checking accounts and credit cards and rely less on third-party banking partners. Klarna, which went public last September, is trading for about half of its initial public offering price of $40. Get this delivered to your inbox, and more info about our products and services. Data is a real-time snapshot *Data is delayed at least 15 minutes. Global Business and Financial News, Stock Quotes, and Market Data and Analysis.

Klarna seeks U.S. bank charter in latest push beyond buy now, pay later
Asia
The Hindu BusinessLine

Delayed monsoon cuts Marathwada sowing area by nearly 18 lakh hectares

The sowing area across eight districts of Maharashtra’s Marathwada region has declined by 17.87 lakh hectares compared with the same period last year due to the delayed onset of the monsoon. | Photo Credit: PTI The sowing area across eight districts of the Marathwada region in Maharashtra shrank by 17.87 lakh hectares compared to the corresponding period last year due to the delayed onset of monsoon, officials said on Tuesday. The overall sowing percentage in the region comprising Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar, Jalna, Beed, Parbhani, Nanded, Hingoli, Dharashiv and Latur districts is around 58 per cent. The average land under cultivation in the last five years was 49.72 lakh hectares. In 2025, sowing took place on 42.42 lakh hectares. However, the area under cultivation shrank to 24.55 lakh hectares as of now, according to a report from the agriculture department. Due to the delayed monsoon, Maharashtra’s agriculture department had initially appealed to agriculturists not to sow unless there is satisfactory rainfall. Unlike Konkan and western Maharashtra, the Marathwada region is yet to receive the average quota of rainfall this year,” the official said. While the average expected rainfall in Marathwada from June onwards is 176 mm, the current deficit is 13 per cent at 153.7 mm. Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar and Jalna have received rainfall above the expected figures of 100.4 mm and 112.5 mm, respectively. At 66 and 66.3 per cent of the average, respectively, Latur and Parbhani districts have received the lowest rainfall in the region. Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments. We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of TheHindu Businessline and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.

Delayed monsoon cuts Marathwada sowing area by nearly 18 lakh hectares
Europe
BBC Business

Phone contract comparisons 'amounted to mis-selling' student loans, MPs say

Image source, Getty ImagesByHayley ClarkeEducation reporterPublished4 hours agoComparing student loan repayments to phone contracts or cinema tickets "amounted to mis-selling" by government, a group of MPs has said. In a new report, the Treasury Committee also said students were not told clearly enough loan terms could change retrospectively, and called for a U-turn on the decision to freeze the income threshold at which some graduates start repaying their loans. Last year, Chancellor Rachel Reeves said the repayment threshold for students with Plan 2 loans would be frozen at £29,385 between 2027 and 2030, instead of rising with inflation. Both the government and Student Loans Company said the committee had made "an important contribution" to the student finance debate. A spokesperson for the Student Loans Company said they "recognise the importance of ensuring that students and borrowers across all repayment plans have access to clear, accurate and timely information about student finance". A government spokesperson said ministers were "already taking decisive action" and would "continue to look for ways to make the system fairer for students, graduates and taxpayers in a financially sustainable way". Plan 2 loans were taken out by students in England between September 2012 and July 2023, and are still issued in Wales. Graduates automatically pay back what they earn above the repayment threshold at a rate of 9%. Freezing that threshold means graduates start repaying their loans sooner, or pay more as their salaries increase with inflation while the threshold remains the same. The committee's report referenced a BBC investigation which found the government compared student loan repayments to £30-a-month phone contracts in promotional presentations to teenagers a decade ago. As this was "inaccurate for higher earners", that "amounted to mis-selling", the report said. The committee noted that while the government's student loan policies were exempt from consumer protection laws, it expected the government "to comply with not only the law, but basic fairness and common decency". Oliver Gardner, founder of campaign group Rethink Repayment, said the inquiry had concluded "what we have known for years".

Phone contract comparisons 'amounted to mis-selling' student loans, MPs say