Crypto News: Prompt retaliation

Canada announced new 25% tariffs on about C$30 billion ($20.8 billion) of US-made items after Donald Trump followed through on his threat of levies on imports of steel and aluminum in a bid to resuscitate America's steel industry. The retaliatory measures from Ottawa will target US steel and aluminum products as well as consumer items such as computers and sporting goods. Canada is matching the Republican president's tariffs "dollar for dollar." But, Canada has left Trump some room to avoid the looming damage to the US economy by delaying implementation until midnight.

In total, the Canadian retaliation will affect C$12.6 billion of steel products, C$3 billion of aluminum and C$14.2 billion on other items. The European Union also has announced retaliation against Trump's metal tariffs, imposing its own duties on up to €26 billion ($28.3 billion) worth of American goods. America still has a friend though in Britain, which reaffirmed its commitment to US trade talks despite British exports becoming collateral damage in Trump's now-global trade war.—Natasha Solo-Lyons

What You Need to Know Today

On the domestic front, this week is looking better for Trump than the last three, according to data published by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, part of the Department of Labor. US consumer prices rose at the slowest pace in four months in February, the agency said, increasing 0.2% after a sharp 0.5% advance in January. Excluding often volatile food and energy categories, the so-called core measure rose 0.2% as well, the BLS said.

But the respite—driven in part by a drop in prices for cars and gas—may be short-lived. Economists anticipate that Trump's escalating trade war will drive up prices on a variety of goods from food to clothing in the coming months, testing the resilience of consumers and the broader economy. And the potential reluctance of Democrats to go along with a Republican spending bill may lead to a government shutdown, which is unlikely to help matters for the administration.

Not all is pleasant on the inflation front, either. US egg prices once again surged amid a shortage caused by bird flu. Egg prices jumped 10.4% in February from the previous month, bucking an overall trend of slowing food inflation. However, prices have declined steeply in recent weeks as weakening demand gives supplies a chance to catch up, according to the US Department of Agriculture.

Cooler-than-forecast February inflation also stopped the sharp slide in stocks over the past several sessions. Equities managed to advance after a selloff that put the S&P 500 on the verge of a technical correction, driven by uncertainty over Trump's economic policies and recession risks. The bounce was led by tech megacaps, which were crunched during the recent market meltdown. Here's your markets wrap.

Goldman Sachs Chief Executive Officer David Solomon said headwinds from Trump's tariffs are hampering dealmaking activity, and business chiefs are eager for more clarity on where any White House strategy may be headed. Despite the uncertainty, Solomon said he expects mergers and capital-markets activity to pick up through the year, adding that promised cuts to US regulations are also likely to create tailwinds. In addition to tariffs, tax and energy policy are key areas for business leaders, he said.

David Solomon Photographer: Brent Lewin/Bloomberg

This afternoon, those business leaders got their deregulation wish in a big way, as former Long Island congressman-turned Environmental Protection Agency chief Lee Zeldin announced the potential evisceration of environmental and climate protections implemented by the previous administration. The proposals match the blueprint of the Heritage Foundation's far-right Project 2025 plan and came amid a series of EPA rollbacks likely to kneecap government efforts to slow global warming. A key target on Zeldin's list is one of exceptional importance to Big Oil: a government finding (echoing widely accepted science) that the greenhouse gases behind climate change are bad for humans.

US Budget Gap Hits Record $1.1 Trillion for Fiscal Year So Far

The US budget deficit continued to swell in February, pushing the shortfall to $1.15 trillion over the first five months of the fiscal year.

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The gutting of federal agencies continued overnight as Trump's Education Department, run by controversial former wrestling promoter Linda McMahon, seeks to fire half of its more than 4,000 employees. Trump has pledged to dismantle the agency. Separately, staff at USAID were ordered to destroy classified documents and personnel records, according to a memo from a top official and potentially in violation of federal laws, prompting fresh legal challenges as well as alarm from the union that represents foreign service officers.

It's never been easier for everyday Americans to trade stocks. And, for the past two years, they've largely made money doing it. On platforms from Fidelity to Robinhood, almost everything seemed to come up green in 2023 and 2024 as the S&P 500 gained more than 20% in both years and favorites of retail investors, like Nvidia (+819%), Tesla (+228%) and even Bitcoin (+467%) surged along with any number of ultra-leveraged funds. But now that may be all over, and for those who came of age over the past two years, the notion that stocks only go up shattered.

The $5 Trillion Stock Wipeout Is Rattling America's Big Spenders

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Shares of Tesla have been in freefall for the last few months, for all the reasons we've explored here over the past week or two. But shares in his private companies aren't. Secondary market investors have sent the collective valuation of four of Musk's private entities up 45% since the US election, according to a new analysis from trading platform Caplight, exclusively shared with Bloomberg. Caplight aggregated secondary transaction data along with other signals, such as buyer interest, to estimate a daily share price for Musk's SpaceX, Neuralink, the Boring Company and xAI. Musk's artificial intelligence lab has driven most of the gains in this portfolio, according to Caplight. The firm's data shows the xAI share price increased 110% since Nov. 5.

Elon Musk Photographer: Samuel Corum/Sipa

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For Your Commute

The 23 new apartments in the Maybourne Saint-Germain, an ultra-luxury hotel in Paris coming from the acclaimed group behind Claridge's, could be among the most expensive homes in the city, with apartments starting at around €6 million ($6.54 million). It'll be located in the historic Îlot Saint-Germain building, which was home to a convent in the 17th century, then a literary salon visited by Benjamin Franklin and Voltaire, and later the Ministry of Defense, where figures from Napoleon to Charles de Gaulle roamed the halls. The project is expected to be completed in 2027, with sales launching in April of this year. Click here for a closer look.