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Bullied and buffeted by President Donald Trumps tariffs for the past year, Americas longstanding allies are desperately seeking ways to shield themselves from the presidents impulsive wrath. U.S. trade partners are cutting deals among themselves sometimes discarding old differences to do so in a push to diversify their economies away from a newly protectionist United States. Some European governments and institutions are reducing their use of U.S. digital services such as Zoom and Teams. Central banks and global investors are dumping dollars and buying gold. Together, their actions could diminish U.S. influence and mean higher interest rates and prices for Americans already angry about the high cost of living. Last summer and fall, Trump used the threat of punishing taxes on imports to strong-arm the European Union, Japan, South Korea, and other trading partners into accepting lopsided trade deals and promising to make massive investments in the United States. But a deal with Trump, theyve discovered, is no deal at all. The mercurial president repeatedly finds reasons to conjure new tariffs to impose on trading partners that thought they had already made enough concessions to satisfy him. Just months after reaching his agreement with the EU, Trump threatened new tariffs on eight European countries for opposing his attempts to seize control of Greenland from Denmarkthough he quickly backed down. And last month, he said hed slap 100% tariffs on Canada for breaking with the United States by agreeing to reduce Canadian tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles. Our trading partners are discovering that the largely one-sided deals they concluded with the U.S. provide little protection, said former U.S. trade negotiator Wendy Cutler, senior vice president at the Asia Society Policy Institute. As a result, trade diversification efforts by our partners are on turbo charge, looking to reduce dependence on the U.S.” Trump supporters such as Paul Winfree, who was deputy director of the White House Domestic Policy Council during Trumps first term, are wary of the relative decline in U.S. Treasury note holdings by foreign central banks and view the national debt as a vulnerability rivals would like to exploit. Winfree, CEO of the Economic Policy Innovation Institute, a think tank, said that some of Trump’s advisers do not feel America has fully benefited from the dollar’s status as the world’s dominant currency. But the fact remains that every other country is jealous of our status, and many of our adversaries would love to challenge the U.S. dollar and Treasuries, he said. White House spokesman Kush Desai insists America’s standing on the global stage has not been diminished. President Trump remains committed to the strength and power of the U.S. Dollar as the worlds reserve currency,” he said. India and the EU clinch a long-awaited deal The most eye-opening deal so far has been the pact announced last week between the 27-country EU and India, the worlds fastest growing major economy. Negotiators had been at it for nearly two decades before they closed the agreement. Likewise, an EU trade deal announced two weeks ago with the Mercosur nations of South America took a quarter century of negotiation. It will create a free-trade market of more than 700 million people. Some of these deals have been in the works for quite some time, said Maurice Obstfeld, a senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics and former chief economist at the International Monetary Fund. The pressure from Trump made them more eager to accelerate the process and reach agreement. EU exporters were jubilant over the India deal. VDMA, a group of European machinery and plant engineering companies, welcomed lower Indian tariffs on machinery. The free trade agreement between India and the EU brings much needed oxygen to a world increasingly dominated by trade conflicts, VDMAs executive director, Thilo Brodtmann, said in a statement. With this agreement, Europe is sending a clear signal in favor of rules-based trade and against the law of the jungle. ‘We have all the cards On Monday, Trump went on social media to announce his own deal with India. The U.S., he posted, would reduce tariffs on Indian imports after India agreed to stop buying oil from Russia, which has used the sales to fund its four year war in Ukraine. The president said that India would reduce its tariffs on American products to zero and buy $500 billion worth of American products. Trade lawyer Ryan Majerus, a partner at the King & Spalding and a trade official in the Biden administration and during Trump’s first term, said that businesses and legal analysts were awaiting official White House documents spelling out details of the deal. Trump is banking on there being limits to other countries ability to pull away from the United States. America has the worlds biggest economy and consumer market. We have all the cards, Trump told Fox Business this month. Countries like South Korea, dependent on Americas market and military protection, cant afford to ignore Trumps threats. On Monday, for example, the president said he was increasing tariffs on South Korea goods because the countrys legislature has been slow to approve the trade framework announced last year. On Tuesday, the countrys Finance Ministry responded by saying its chief, Koo Yun-cheol, would push lawmakers to quickly approve a bill to invest $350 billion as promised in the agreement. “The U.S was trying to identify a counterpart that would find it difficult to refuse U.S. demands outright, given the depth of its economic and security ties, said Cha Du Hyeogn, an analyst at South Koreas Asan Institute for Policy Studies. Or consider Canada, which sends 75% of its exports to its southern neighbor. Canada and U.S. will always be tightly linked through international trade, said Obstfeld, a professor at the University of California, Berkeley. Were talking about adjustments more or less on the margin. But the worlds growing rejection of Trumps policies is already having an impact, driving down the value of the dollar, long the currency of choice for global commerce, to its lowest level since 2022 last week versus several competing currencies. Syracuse University political scientist Daniel McDowell, author of the book Bucking the Buck: U.S. Financial Sanctions and the International Backlash against the Dollar, sees a vibe shift under Trump: Foreign countries and investors want to reduce their exposure to the United States, which has moved from a source of security and stability to a driver of instability and unpredictability under Trump. Trump has shown that he is willing to use foreign countries economic dependence on the U.S. as leverage against them in negotiations, McDowell said. As global perceptions of the US are changing, it is only natural that investors public and private alike are reconsidering their relationship with the dollar. Paul Wiseman, Josh Boak and Elaine Kurtenbach, Associated Press Associated Press videographer Yong Jun Chang and AP Business Writer Kelvin Chan contributed to this report.
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E-Commerce
Shares in the sports streaming service FuboTV Inc. (NYSE: FUBO) are currently plunging in Tuesday trading. The stock price drop comes after the streamer reported its Q1 2026 resultsand announced a relatively rare reverse stock split. Heres what you need to know. Whats happened? Today, FuboTV Inc. announced its first-quarter results for fiscal 2026, which ended on December 31. For the quarter, Fubo reported revenue of $1.543 billion, up 40% from the year-earlier quarter. However, despite the companys revenue growth, the streamer reported a net loss of approximately $19.1 million for the quarter. Its earnings per share for the period were negative 2 cents. About a year ago, the company made headlines after entering into an agreement with The Walt Disney Company, which announced it would acquire a 70% stake in the streamer and combine it with the companys existing Hulu + Live TV service. As part of that deal, Fubo would remain a public company. Yet despite this, Fubos stock has struggled, and today, FUBO shares have fallen off a cliff-edge. They are currently trading down 25% to around $1.71 per share as of the time of this writing. Fubo announces reverse stock split Investors clearly werent happy with Fubos quarterly results. No one likes to see a net loss. But Fubos loss wasnt the only thing the company announced. It also revealed that it plans to initiate a reverse stock splita relatively rare event that is the opposite of the more common stock split some companies choose to partake in. In a regular stock split, a company decides to divide its current number of shares by a certain amount. Stock splits can occur in any increment. For example, a 2-for-1 stock split would divide each share into two, meaning there would be twice as many shares after the split as before. These new shares would also be worth half the price of the pre-split shares. This lower per-share price often makes shares appear more accessible for retail investors, which can spur buying. But in a reverse split, a company decides to combine its existing shares. For example, a company may decide to merge two shares into one. The new single share would then be worth the value of two former ones. Why is Fubo reverse-splitting its shares? Fubo didnt get into too many specifics about why it was initiating a reverse stock split. The company said its board approved the reverse split and that it is intended to make the stock more accessible to a broader base of investors while also ensuring that the reduced number of shares is better aligned with the Companys size and scope. The thing is, reverse stock splits arent generally done by companies that are on a firm financial footing. Last year, electric vehicle maker Lucid Group (Nasdaq: LCID) initiated a 1-for-10 reverse stock split in order to boost its share price and keep it from being delisted from the Nasdaq, which will delist companies whose stock price falls below a certain amount$1 in the Nasdaqs casefor a certain period of time. In July, EV charging company ChargePoint Holdings (NYSE: CHPT) issued a 1 for 20 reverse split in an effort to boost its share price and not get booted from the New York Stock Exchange, which also requires that a company cannot have its stock price go below the $1 mark for more than $30 consecutive days. If it does, delisting procedures can begin. Other companies including Nikola (Nasdaq: NKLA) and Virgin Galactic Holdings (NYSE: SPCE) have also reverse-split their shares to avoid delisting. While Fubos stock price hasnt fallen below $1, over the past year it has dropped as low as $1.57. If the stock were to lose about 40% of its current value, it would fall under the $1 mark, which would leave it vulnerable to delisting. Fast Company has reached out to Fubo for comment. How much are Fubo shares reverse-splitting by? Fubo did not announce which ratio its shares would reverse split by, but the company said it would be between 1-for-8 and 1-for-12. The exact reverse split ratio will be determined by its board of directors. At the companys current stock price of around $1.71 per share, a 1-for-8 to 1-for-12 reverse split would give FUBO a share price of between $13.68 and $20.52well above the $1 threshold the stock needs to maintain to continue to be listed on the NYSE. When will Fubos shares begin trading at their reverse split price? Fubo said its shares will begin trading at their new reverse split price later this quarter. Fubos current Q2 ends at the end of March.
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E-Commerce
If you have gifting to loved ones on your mind, here are some considerations related to taxes and logistics. Gifting logistics Unless you’re writing a check from your bank account, the logistics of gifting funds can get a bit complicated.If you want to gift from your IRA, your only option is to sell a chunk of it, then pay any taxes due, then write a check. That’s not terrible, so long as you understand the tax implications. IRA withdrawals are typically subject to ordinary income tax, along with penalties if you’re not yet 59. You could also trigger some knock-on tax effects like the income-related monthly adjustment amount. In other words, gifting from your IRA isn’t as seamless as making a qualified charitable distribution from your IRA or naming someone as a beneficiary of your IRA.Things can also get tricky if you want your financial gift to go toward an investment account for someone else. It’s straightforward if you’re giving a gift to an adult with an eye toward setting them on an investing path: The recipient will have to set up the account, whether an IRA or a taxable brokerage account, and you can then write a check or transfer funds directly to the financial institution.If you’re giving an investment gift to a child, you have options. 529: Best if you know the money will be for college. It will compound tax-free and skirt taxes upon withdrawal for qualified higher-education expenses. Plus you’ll typically get a state tax break on a contribution to your home state’s plan. UGMA/UTMA (Uniform Gifts/Transfers to Minors Act): This is an open-ended way to save for minor children. There are no strictures on how the money is ultimately used, and the assets can be invested in almost anything. Note that UGMA/UTMA assets may reduce a student’s eligibility for financial aid. IRA (if the child has earned income): Funding an IRA can ensure that a young adult fully benefits from compounding for retirement, and the IRA wrapper offers tax benefits. But the young person needs to have earned enough compensation (from work) in a given year to cover the amount of the IRA contribution you’re making on their behalf, though the contribution doesn’t have to come directly from the young adult’s own coffers. Gift tax: a nonissue for most If you give $19,000 or less to any one individual in a single year, there are no reporting or tax requirements. Married couples can give twice that amount with no tax or reporting requirements.Even if you give more than $19,000 to an individual in a single year, it’s not automatically subject to gift tax. Rather, anyone exceeding the gift-tax threshold in a single year must file the gift tax return form, and that excess amount counts against their lifetime exclusion amount. Only when those excess amounts (combined with the value of the individual’s estate) exceed the lifetime exclusion amountcurrently nearly $14 milliondoes anyone actually owe taxes on those gifts. So that’s not a barrier for most people. Tax benefits are limited Because the lifetime gift/estate tax exclusion amount is currently so high, avoiding estate tax shouldn’t be a major motivation for most people to gift assets to individuals during their lifetimesat least for now. The estate tax exclusion has been much lower in the past and could go lower again: It was $2 million as recently as 2008, for example. Moreover, some states levy their own estate taxes, and in most cases, they’re lower than the federal threshold.In contrast with making gifts to qualified charities, you won’t be able to earn a tax deduction on your gift to an individual. The exception is a contribution to a 529 college savings plan; you may be eligible for a state tax deduction or credit.In a similar vein, gifting appreciated assets is unlikely to remove the taxes due on the gains, though it will shift the tax burden to the recipient. This article was provided to The Associated Press by Morningstar. For more personal finance content, go to https://www.morningstar.com/personal-finance.Christine Benz is director of personal finance and retirement planning for Morningstar.
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E-Commerce
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