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China’s economy expanded at a 5.4% annual pace in January-March, the government said Wednesday, supported by strong exports ahead of U.S. President Donald Trump’s rapid increases in tariffs on Chinese products.With the trade war clouding the outlook, analysts are forecasting that the world’s second largest economy will slow significantly in coming months, however, as tariffs as high as 145% on U.S. imports from China take effect. Beijing has hit back at the U.S. with 125% tariffs on American exports, while also stressing its determination to keep its own markets open to trade and investment.Chinese leader Xi Jinping is visiting several other Asian countries this week as he makes a case for free trade, presenting China as a source of “stability and certainty” in uncertain times.Xi was visiting Vietnam, Malaysia, and Cambodia, while the U.S. announced that a senior State Department official, Sean O’Neill, would be traveling this week to Vietnam’s capital Hanoi and to Ho Chi Minh City, to Cambodia’s Siem Reap, and to Tokyo.China also has been highlighting its focus on trade with countries other than the United States at various trade fairs that are showcasing its vast market and competitiveness as a manufacturing giant.At China’s Canton trade fair, in the southern city of Guangzhou, exporters were emphatic about the need to look beyond selling to Americans.“We need to diversify our market. When the West is dark, the East is bright. The global market is huge,” said Wallace Huang, the export business director of Guangdong Weking Group, which makes rice cookers. “In recent years, our exports to the U.S. have slowly been declining.” The trade factor Exports helped China’s economy expand at a 5% annual rate in 2024 and this year’s official target is about 5%.In the near term, the tariffs will put pressure on China’s economy, but they won’t derail long-run growth, Sheng Laiyun, a spokesperson for the National Bureau of Statistics, told reporters. He noted that China’s exports to the United States have fallen to less than 15% of total exports from more than 19% five years ago.“China’s economic foundation is stable, resilient and has great potential. We have the confidence, ability and confidence to cope with external challenges and achieve our established development goals,” Sheng said.In quarterly terms the economy grew 1.2% in January-March, slowing from 1.6% in the last quarter of 2024.Chinese exports surged more than 12% from a year earlier in March and nearly 6% in U.S. dollar terms in the first quarter, as companies rushed to beat Trump’s tariffs. That has supported robust manufacturing activity in the past several months.China’s industrial production rose 6.5% from a year earlier in the last quarter, led by a nearly 11% increase in output of equipment manufacturing.The strongest growth was in advanced technologies, such as production of battery electric and hybrid vehicles, which jumped 45.4% year-on-year. Output of 3D printers soared almost 45% and of industrial robots surged 26%. Weaker property investment and consumer prices Despite relatively fast growth by global standards, the Chinese economy has struggled to regain momentum since the COVID-19 pandemic as downturn in the property market has pushed unemployment higher, leaving families wary about spending.Consumer prices fell 0.1% in the first quarter, suggesting that demand is not keeping up with supply for many industries. Investment in real estate also remained weak, falling nearly 10% from a year earlier despite government efforts to spur more lending for housing purchases.The tariffs crisis looms as another massive blow at a time when Beijing is striving to get businesses to invest and hire more workers and to persuade Chinese consumers to spend more. The outlook Both private and public sector economists have remained cautious about what to expect, given how Trump has kept switching his stance on the details of his trade war.“Given the events over the past two weeks, it is extremely difficult to predict how the U.S. and China tariffs on each other might evolve,” Tao Wang and other UBS economists said in a report.The International Monetary Fund and Asian Development Bank have stuck with more optimistic forecasts of about 4.6% growth this year.After taking office, Trump first ordered a 10% increase in tariffs on imports from China. He later raised that to 20%. Now, China is facing 145% tariffs on most of its exports to the United States.UBS estimates that the tariffs, if they remain roughly as they are, could cause China’s exports to the United States to fall by two-thirds in coming months and that its global exports could fall by 10% in dollar value. It cut its forecast for economic growth this year to 3.4% from an earlier 4%. It expects growth to slow to 3% in 2026.China has stepped up efforts to spur more consumer spending and private sector investment over the past seven months, doubling down on subsidies for auto and appliance trade-ins and channeling more funding for housing and other cash strapped industries. AP researchers Yu Bing and Shihuan Chen contributed. Elaine Kurtenbach, AP Business Writer
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Snagging an internship can help future employees enhance their skills and knowledge and, overall, make them more desirable employees. But when it comes to actually working as an intern, not every company is a desirable place to be. Fortunately, Glassdoor, a company that analyzes workplace trends, explored thousands of intern reviews to put together its thorough list of the Best Internships of 2025. This year’s list includes 13 technology companies and six finance companies, with various other industries represented. The top companies offered not just competitive pay, but also roles that had a real impactthat is, the internships helped employees land jobs in their desired industries. Glassdoor also combined review ratings and workplace-factor ratings to rank the companies. Danny Cao, who heads Glassdoors internship program, said in the report that it’s no longer just students seeking intern roles, meaning competition is heating up. While the majority of our internship applicants are current students, I’ve noticed a slight increase this year in recent graduates applying for summer internships,” Cao explained. “This could potentially be a growing trend that showcases how internships are evolving into a stepping stone for not only students but also early-career professionals navigating a challenging job market.” Here are the top 10 best companies to intern with this year: 1. EY-Parthenon Median Base Monthly Salary: $7,500 Overall Rating: 4.4 2. Capital One Median Base Monthly Salary: $8,833 Overall Rating: 4.2 3. Nvidia Median Base Monthly Salary: $8,333 Overall Rating: 4.2 4. AMD Median Base Monthly Salary: $7,916 Overall Rating: 4.2 5. Uber Median Base Monthly Salary: $7,750 Overall Rating: 4.1 6. Genentech Median Base Monthly Salary: $7,500 Overall Rating: 4.1 7. McKinsey & Company Median Base Monthly Salary: $8,333 Overall Rating: 4.1 8. Microsoft Median Base Monthly Salary: $7,875 Overall Rating: 4.1 9. Synchrony Median Base Monthly Salary: $ 5,166 Overall Rating: 4.1 10. LinkedIn Median Base Monthly Salary: $8,333 Overall Rating: 4.1 With competition increasing in multiple industries, including data science and software engineering, the time to apply is now. According to the report, February through March is when many internship listings are posted, though listings for certain fields peak in the fall.Regardless of when you apply, workers say, overwhelmingly, that an internship is extremely important. According to the report, 63% of Glassdoor users said their internship led to a full-time role. But even when it didn’t, 54% said it helped prepare them for their future in other valuable ways. Check out the full list of the best internships of 2025 here.
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E-Commerce
Shares in Nvidia Corporation and other chip technology companies are down in premarket trading this morning after Nvidia confirmed that it would take a significant financial hit to cover costs associated with a newly required export license so it can ship some of its latest chips outside of the United States. Heres what you need to know about the new requirement and its effect on tech stocks. Whats happened? Yesterday, AI chipmaking giant Nvidia revealed that it will record a $5.5 billion charge this year related to its H20 chips, sending the stock down in premarket trading this morning. Nvidia made the revelation about a week after the Trump administration added new export license requirements to the H20. Nvidia initially revealed that information in a Form 8-K filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) dated April 9. In that filing, Nvidia revealed that the U.S. government now requires Nvidia to obtain an export license to export its H20 chips to China and select other countries. Due to this, Nvidia expects to incur about $5.5 billion in costs related to inventory, purchase commitments, and related reserves of the H20. The H20 chip is a chip Nvidia designed especially for the Chinese marketplace in order to comply with U.S. export restrictions, notes CNBC. In 2024, Nvidia made between $12 billion and $15 billion selling the H20. But now the associated $5.5 billion charge will take a significant chunk out of those revenues. The Trump administration’s new export controls are also a sign that Nvidia could face an increasingly challenging environment when exporting its chips to countries that the U.S. believes could use them in ways that could disadvantage America. In Nvidias 8-K filing, the company said that the new export license requirement covers the Companys H20 integrated circuits and any other circuits achieving the H20s memory bandwidth, interconnect bandwidth, or combination thereof and that the United States government indicated that the license requirement addresses the risk that the covered products may be used in, or diverted to, a supercomputer in China. But China (including Hong Kong and Macau), isnt the only country that the new export license requirement applies to. The license is also required for other so-called D:5 countries. According to a March 2024 publication by the United States Department of Commerces Bureau of Industry and Security, D:5 countries comprise over two dozen nations, including Afghanistan, Cambodia, Iran, Libya, Nicaragua, Russia, and Venezuela. On April 14, the United States government said the license requirement would be in effect for the indefinite future, according to Nvidia’s filing. Chip stocks fall The expected $5.5 billion charge related to Nvidias H20 chips has sent the stock tumbling nearly 6% in premarket trading this morning as of the time of this writing. Nvidia shares (Nasdaq: NVDA) are currently down around $6.45 to $105.75. However, its not just Nvidia shares that are down. The stock prices of chipmakers often move in unisonsuggesting that most investors believe that what is good or bad for one company could be good or bad for the chip industry as a whole. The new export license requirement on Nvidia is a sign to many that U.S. chipmakers may see rougher waters ahead when it comes to exporting their products across the globe. Rougher export waters could lead to higher costs, reduced profits, or both. Other chipmakers this morning are currently seeing their stock price down, too, including: Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company Limited (NYSE: TSM): down 3% Intel Corporation (Nasdaq: INTC): down 2.7% Broadcom Inc. (Nasdaq: AVGO): down 4% Micron Technology, Inc. (Nasdaq: MU): down 3.8% Arm Holdings plc (Nasdaq: ARM): down 4.8% QUALCOMM Incorporated (Nasdaq: QCOM): down 2.2% Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. (Nasdaq: AMD): down 7% ASML warns about weaker orders However, the Nvidia news may not be the only thing dragging down these other chip companies. Currently, shares in the Dutch company ASML Holding N.V. (Nasdaq: ASML) are also down 4.7% in premarket trading as of the time of this writing. ASML isnt a chip maker itself. It manufactures the critical machines that chipmakers need to produce their chips. As noted by the Wall Street Journal, ASML has now reported that orders for its machines that help make semiconductors totaled $4.45 billion in its first quarter. That was well below the $5.5 billion that analysts were expecting, suggesting a massive slowdown in once-expected production by chipmakers. ASML warned that President Trumps policies were creating uncertainty for the semiconductor industry. Not including todays premarket falls, companies operating in the semiconductor space have had a rough 2025 so farnot helped by Trumps recent tariff policies and now, tightening export rules. As of market close yesterday, since the beginning of the year, NVDA shares were down 16.4%, TSM shares were down 21.4%, AVGO shares were down 22.8%, MU shares were down 15.5%, AMD shares were down 21.1%, and ARM shares were down 17.5%. Before todays premarket drop, ASML shares were down 1.8% for the year.
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