*By Alisha Haridasani*
President Trump on Wednesday said the U.S. will work towards barriers-free trade with the EU, seemingly deescalating tensions that had been weighing on lawmakers, investors, and consumers for weeks.
"We agreed today, first of all, to work together towards zero tariffs, zero non-tariff barriers, and zero subsidies," said Trump, after meeting with the European Commission President Jean-Claude Junker at the White House.
The deal would apply to non-auto industrial goods, services, chemicals, pharmaceuticals, medical products, and agriculture.
The EU will buy more soy beans, an agricultural product that has been hit hard by the tit-for-tat trade spat, as well as increase the amount of liquefied natural gas it imports from the U.S.
The U.S. in return will "resolve" the steel and aluminium tariffs it imposed on the EU in May.
"I had the intention to make a deal today, and we made a deal today," said Junker in the joint press conference. "As long as we are negotiating...we hold off on further tariffs."
The news came on the same day tensions with the EU seemed to reach a boiling point, as the bloc threatened to tax more American goods if the Trump administration were to go forward with a proposed 20 percent tax on European cars.
On Tuesday, Trump signed off on a $12 billion bailout package for American farmers affected by tariffs, suggesting he doesn't expect anyone to pull back.
The emergency relief package is “a firm statement that other nations cannot bully our agricultural producers to force the United States to cave in,” said Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue on Tuesday.
In response to all the back and forth on trade, several manufacturing companies have tempered their yearly outlooks as tariffs start to pinch profits and raise production costs.
General Motors, which posted earnings before the start of trading on Wednesday, lowered its earnings forecast for the year by $1 billion, citing unfavorable exchange rates, but also the rising costs of steel and aluminium. Trump imposed tariffs on foreign metals in May, causing local producers to increase prices.
Shares of the company were down by more than 6 percent on the news.
Whirlpool also took a hit from the rising metals prices. The appliance company on Monday slashed its expectations for the year, lowering its free cash flow outlook from over $1 billion to roughly [$850 million](http://investors.whirlpoolcorp.com/news-releases/news-release-details/whirlpool-corporation-reports-second-quarter-2018-results?mod=article_inline).
“The global steel costs have risen substantially, and in particular, in the U.S., they have reached unexplainable levels,” CEO Marc Blitzer told [analysts](https://money.cnn.com/2018/07/24/news/companies/whirlpool-washing-machines-trump-tariffs/index.html).
The news sent Whirlpool’s shares down 14 percent on Tuesday, the stock's worst performance in over three decades.
A Michigan judge is putting sponges in the hands of shoplifters and ordering them to wash cars in a Walmart parking lot when spring weather arrives. Genesee County Judge Jeffrey Clothier hopes the unusual form of community service discourages people from stealing from Walmart. The judge also wants to reward shoppers with free car washes. Clothier says he began ordering “Walmart wash” sentences this week for shoplifting at the store in Grand Blanc Township. He believes 75 to 100 people eventually will be ordered to wash cars this spring. Clothier says he will be washing cars alongside them when the time comes.
The State Department had been in talks with Elon Musk’s Tesla company to buy armored electric vehicles, but the plans have been put on hold by the Trump administration after reports emerged about a potential $400 million purchase. A State Department spokesperson said the electric car company owned by Musk was the only one that expressed interest back in May 2024. The deal with Tesla was only in its planning phases but it was forecast to be the largest contract of the year. It shows how some of his wealth has come and was still expected to come from taxpayers.
At 100 years old, the Goodyear Blimp is an ageless star in the sky. The 246-foot-long airship will be in the background of the Daytona 500 — flying roughly 1,500 feet above Daytona International Speedway, actually — to celebrate its greatest anniversary tour. Even though remote camera technologies are improving regularly and changing the landscape of aerial footage, the blimp continues to carve out a niche. At Daytona, with the usual 40-car field racing around a 2½-mile superspeedway, views from the blimp aptly provide the scope of the event.
You'll just have to wait for interest rates (and prices) to go down. Plus, this deal's a steel, the big carmaker wedding is off, and bribery is back, baby!
It’s a chicken-and-egg problem: Restaurants are struggling with record-high U.S. egg prices, but their omelets, scrambles and huevos rancheros may be part of the problem. Breakfast is booming at U.S. eateries. First Watch, a restaurant chain that serves breakfast, brunch and lunch, nearly quadrupled its locations over the past decade to 570. Fast-food chains like Starbucks and Wendy's added more egg-filled breakfast items. In normal times, egg producers could meet the demand. But a bird flu outbreak that has forced them to slaughter their flocks is making supplies scarcer and pushing up prices. Some restaurants like Waffle House have added a surcharge to offset their costs.
William Falcon, CEO and Founder of Lightning AI, discusses the ongoing feud between Elon Musk and Sam Altman, and how everyday people can use AI in their lives.
U.S. tariffs on steel and aluminum “will not go unanswered,” European Union chief Ursula von der Leyen vowed on Tuesday, adding that they will trigger toug
