Wall Street rises on growth stocks ahead of Fed minutes

May 25 (Reuters) – U.S. stock indexes shook off early weakness to trade higher on Wednesday as growth stocks rallied, with investors awaiting minutes from the Federal Reserve’s May meeting for clues on the path of its policy tightening.

The central bank had at its May 3-4 meeting increased interest rates by half a percentage point, the biggest jump in 22 years. Minutes of that session, due to be released at 2 p.m. EDT (1800 GMT), could start shaping the debate over what happens when they meet in June and July to fight surging prices.

“You will see a little more of a hawkish tone (today) and a bit more pivot from full employment to making sure that inflation is being fought,” said Mike Mullaney, director of global markets research at Boston Partners.

“If the Fed continues on the path they’ve suggested, you’ll see a greater probability of a recession in 2023.”

Fed Chair Jerome Powell has promised to keep pushing on rate hikes until there is clear and convincing evidence that inflation is dropping. That has prompted money markets to price in 50 basis point hikes in June and July..

The aggressive outlook for policy tightening along with uncertainty stemming from Russia-Ukraine crisis and more recently dismal forecasts from retailers have pushed down the S&P 500 and Nasdaq by 16.8% and 27.4% this year, respectively.

“If we do force a recession, there’s still more downside risk for the S&P 500. You could see a 5% to 6% rally at any point, but it basically becomes a dead cat bounce,” Mullaney added.

On Wednesday, five of the 11 major S&P sectors advanced in morning trade, with consumer discretionary up 2.4%.

At 10:48 a.m. ET, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 122.42 points, or 0.38%, at 32,051.04, the S&P 500 was up 21.59 points, or 0.55%, at 3,963.07, and the Nasdaq Composite was up 93.95 points, or 0.83%, at 11,358.39.

Amazon.com AMZN.O and Tesla Inc. (TSLA) underpinned the gains on the Nasdaq with advances of 1% and 2.1%, respectively, while Nvidia Corp NVDA.O rose 2.5% ahead of its first-quarter results after market close.

Nordstrom Inc. (JWN) gained 10.3% after the upscale retailer raised its annual profit and revenue forecasts, counting on demand from affluent consumers to help it overcome price pressures.

Wendy’s Co. (WEN) jumped 9.9% after a regulatory filing showed the burger chain’s largest shareholder Nelson Peltz was considering a potential takeover bid for the company.

The CBOE volatility index, also known as Wall Street’s fear gauge, rose for the second straight day and was last up at 29.80 points.

Advancing issues outnumbered decliners by a 3.19-to-1 ratio on the NYSE and a 2.36-to-1 ratio on the Nasdaq.

The S&P index recorded 3 new 52-week highs and 31 new lows, while the Nasdaq recorded 14 new highs and 169 new lows.

(Reporting by Anisha Sircar and Devik Jain in Bengaluru; Editing by Shounak Dasgupta and Aditya Soni)

Philippines Congress proclaims Marcos as next president

MANILA, May 25 (Reuters) – A joint session of Philippines Congress on Wednesday declared Ferdinand Marcos Jr, the son and namesake of the notorious late dictator, the winner of this month’s election and confirmed he would become the country’s next president.

The proclamation formalizes the once unimaginable return to power of the country’s most famous political dynasty, after a 1986 “people power” revolt drove the Marcos family into exile in Hawaii.

Marcos, 64, better known as “Bongbong”, takes over on June 30 from Rodrigo Duterte and will serve until 2028, with the incumbent president’s daughter, Sara Duterte-Carpio, as his vice president.

“I ask you all, pray for me, wish me well,” Marcos, dressed in the traditional white Filipino barong shirt and trousers, said after the proclamation. “I want to do well for this country.”

Marcos won 31.6 million or 58.77% of ballots cast, with an 82% turnout.

He won by a margin not seen since before his father’s autocratic, 1965-1986 rule, an era characterized by corruption, martial law and unashamed extravagance of the first family, a narrative his campaign sought to upend.

Marcos’s wife and three sons were also present in Congress, where their family has won a seat in almost every election since its return from exile in the 1990s. Also attending was 92-year-old matriarch Imelda, the influential power-broker, who received loud applause from the house as she posed for pictures.

He is almost certain to command a legislative supermajority, with sister Imee a senator, son Ferdinand a congressman and cousin Martin Romualdez, the house majority leader expected to be named speaker, demonstrating the extent of the power the family will wield. nL3N2XA06U

He has said his focus areas will be energy prices, jobs, infrastructure and education. nL2N2X30WM

Marcos is still assembling his cabinet, which will need to navigate high inflation, government debt and a tricky foreign policy balance with ally the United States and an increasingly influential China.

Despite the margin of victory, Marcos’ rule will be divisive, with widespread anger among opponents and victims of persecution over what they see as historical revisionism to clear the family’s name.

Imee Marcos on Wednesday said the family was “very, very grateful for a second chance” in power.

(Reporting by Neil Jerome Morales; Editing by Martin Petty and Kanupriya Kapoor)

Oil prices climb on prospects for tighter supply as demand rises

HOUSTON, May 25 (Reuters) – Oil prices rose in early trade on Wednesday, boosted by tight supplies and the prospect of rising demand from the upcoming start of the US summer driving season.

Brent crude futures for July rose 46 cents, or 0.4%, to USD 114.02 a barrel by 0020 GMT. US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures for July delivery was up 58 cents, or 0.5%, to USD 110.35 a barrel.

Brent had gained 0.1% on Tuesday while WTI settled down 52 cents.

France’s new foreign minister said on Tuesday she was optimistic that those still opposed to a new European Union sanctions package that would phase out Russian oil imports to the bloc could be convinced, and that the bloc would strike a deal that would have the effect of tightening global supply.

Meanwhile a Biden administration official headed to India on Tuesday to talk with officials and private industry executives about US sanctions on Russia over its invasion of Ukraine, the Treasury Department said, as Washington seeks to keep India’s purchases of Russian oil from rising. Moscow calls its actions in Ukraine “a special military operation”.

Supply could tighten just as US Memorial Day weekend travel is expected to be the busiest in two years, as more American drivers hit the road and shake off coronavirus pandemic restrictions despite high fuel prices.

While US crude stocks rose by 567,000 barrels last week, according to market sources citing American Petroleum Institute figures, gasoline inventories fell by 4.2 million barrels. Distillate stocks also dropped by 949,000 barrels.

Data from the US government on stockpiles were expected on Wednesday. Analysts, in a Reuters poll, expected US crude oil and gasoline inventories to fall last week, while distillate stockpiles were seen up.

In China, Beijing stepped up quarantine efforts to end its month-old COVID outbreak, while in Shanghai, authorities plan to keep most restrictions in place this month, before a more complete lifting of the two-month-old lockdown from June 1.

(Reporting by Arathy Somasekhar in Houston; Editing by Kenneth Maxwell)

S&P 500, Nasdaq slide as weak economic data, dire outlooks stoke recession fears

NEW YORK, May 24 (Reuters) – The S&P 500 and the Nasdaq finished in the red on Tuesday as worries that aggressive moves to curb decades-high inflation might tip the US economy into recession dampened investors’ risk appetite.

All three major US stock indexes pared their losses in afternoon trading, with the blue-chip Dow turning positive. Even so, the S&P 500 ended just 2.2 percentage points above confirming it has been in a bear market since reaching its all-time high on Jan. 3.

“As we step back and acknowledge the primary market catalysts, it’s really been about the Fed pivot and the change in interest rates, which have influenced prices across the capital markets,” said Bill Northey, senior investment director at US Bank Wealth Management in Helena, Montana.

“In the last two weeks, we’ve seen some degree of macroeconomic deterioration starting to be manifested in corporate earnings and economic releases.”

Much of the sell-off was driven by a profit warning from Snap Inc. (SNAP), which sent the company’s shares plummeting 43.1%, sparking contagion throughout the social media segment.

Meta Platforms Inc. (FB), Alphabet Inc. (GOOGL), Twitter Inc. (TWTR) and Pinterest Inc. (PINS) were down between 5% and 24%, and the broader S&P 500 Communications Services sector slid 3.7%.

Global supply chain disruptions have been exacerbated by Russia’s war with Ukraine and restrictive measures in China to control its latest COVID-19 outbreak, sending inflation to multi-decade highs.

The US Federal Reserve has vowed to aggressively tackle persistent price growth by hiking the cost of borrowing, and minutes from its most recent monetary policy meeting, expected on Wednesday, will be parsed by market participants for clues regarding the speed and extent of those actions.

Investors currently expect a series of 50-basis-point rate hikes over the next several months, fueling fears that the central bank could push the economy into recession, a scenario that is increasingly being baked into analyst projections.

“Tomorrow we look to the FOMC minutes for any signs that the approach to monetary policy may lean further hawkish or dovish than was laid out at the last meeting,” US Bank Wealth Management’s Northey said.

Data released on Tuesday painted a picture of waning economic momentum, with new home sales plunging and business activity decelerating.

Fed Chair Jerome Powell’s counterpart in Frankfurt, European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde, said she expects the ECB deposit rate to be raised at least 50 basis points by the end of September.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 48.38 points, or 0.15%, to 31,928.62; the S&P 500 lost 32.27 points, or 0.81%, to 3,941.48; and the Nasdaq Composite dropped 270.83 points, or 2.35%, to 11,264.45.

Six of the 11 major sectors of the S&P 500 ended the session in negative territory, with communication services and consumer discretionary suffering the biggest percentage losses.

Apparel retailer Abercrombie & Fitch Co. (ANF) tumbled 28.6% after posting a surprise quarterly loss and cutting its annual sales and margins outlook.

Work-from-home darling Zoom Video Communications Inc. (ZM) jumped 5.6% following its full-year profit hike due to solid enterprise demand.

Declining issues outnumbered advancing ones on the NYSE by a 1.28-to-1 ratio; on Nasdaq, a 2.37-to-1 ratio favored decliners.

The S&P 500 posted three new 52-week highs and 40 new lows; the Nasdaq Composite recorded 17 new highs and 443 new lows.

Volume on US exchanges was 11.78 billion shares, compared with the 13.33 billion average over the last 20 trading days.

(Reporting by Stephen Culp; additional reporting by Devik Jain and Anisha Sircar in Bengaluru; editing by Jonathan Oatis)

Powell sworn in to second four-year term as US Fed chief

May 23 (Reuters) – Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell was formally sworn in on Monday to begin his second four-year term as head of the US central bank as it aims to tame the highest inflation in four decades without tipping the economy into recession.

Also sworn in on Monday were Lael Brainard as the Fed’s new vice chair, and the two newest members of the Fed’s Board of Governors, Philip Jefferson and Lisa Cook, who are both Black economists, the Fed said in a statement.

Powell was nominated for his first term as Fed chief by former President Donald Trump, then was chosen by President Joe Biden last November to serve another four years. The former private equity lawyer survived severe criticism from Trump during his first term at the helm of the central bank.

The US Senate voted on May 12 to confirm Powell to the post with bipartisan backing. Powell has served on the Fed’s Board of Governors since 2012.

Cook is the first Black woman ever to serve on the Fed’s board. This is also the first time the Fed will have had more than one Black policymaker at the same time.

The swearing in means six of the seven seats on the Fed’s board are filled just weeks before the central bank’s June 14-15 policy meeting, at which it is expected to raise its benchmark overnight lending rate by half a percentage point as it battles inflation.

Jefferson was most recently dean of faculty at Davidson College, and has written extensively about poverty. Cook was an economics professor at Michigan State University where her research focused on the economic impact of gender and racial inequality.

Neither is expected to have an immediate impact on the Fed’s monetary policy trajectory, decided at regular meetings throughout the year by the Fed Board and the presidents of the 12 regional Fed banks.

Powell has promised to keep pushing on rate hikes until there is clear and convincing evidence that inflation is dropping.

Traders of futures tied to the Fed’s policy rate are betting that means that the overnight lending rate between banks – currently in the 0.75%-1% range – will rise to 2.75%-3% by the end of the year, high enough to start putting the brakes on economic growth.

Biden’s pick to fill the Fed’s seventh seat, former senior Treasury Department official Michael Barr, is likely to win Senate confirmation as the central bank’s vice chair for supervision, Republican US Senator Pat Toomey told Reuters on Monday. That post would see Barr take on a sweeping portfolio overseeing the nation’s largest banks.

(Reporting by Ann Saphir; Editing by Will Dunham; Editing by Paul Simao and Will Dunham)

Wall Street rallies on back of big tech, banks

NEW YORK, May 23 (Reuters) – US stocks ended higher on Monday as gains from banks and a rebound in market-leading tech shares supported a broad-based rally following Wall Street’s longest streak of weekly declines since the dotcom bust more than 20 years ago.

All three major US stock indexes advanced between 1.6% and 2.0%, with the heftiest boost coming from rebounding megacap tech stocks Apple Inc. (AAPL) and Microsoft Corp. (MSFT).

Interest rate-sensitive banks jumped 5.1% after the largest US lender, JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM) raised its current year interest income outlook.

JPMorgan Chase’s stock surged 6.2%.

“It feels like a relief rally more than a fundamental change in investor sentiments,” said Oliver Pursche, senior vice president at Wealthspire Advisors, in New York. “Investors as a whole feel like there’s another shoe to drop and they’re probably right in the short term.”

On Friday, the S&P 500 closed 18.7% below its record closing high reached on Jan. 3. If the benchmark index closes 20% or more below that record, it will confirm it has been in a bear market since then.

Markets have been roiled in recent weeks by worries about persistently high inflation and aggressive attempts by the Federal Reserve to rein it in while the global economy copes with fallout from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

“Today it would appear the market is less fearful over the inflation factor and the Fed being able to orchestrate a soft landing so to speak,” said Chuck Carlson, chief executive officer at Horizon Investment Services in Hammond, Indiana.

But “the bias is still to the downside,” Carlson added.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 618.34 points, or 1.98%, to 31,880.24, the S&P 500 gained 72.39 points, or 1.86%, to 3,973.75 and the Nasdaq Composite added 180.66 points, or 1.59%, to 11,535.28.

The Fed will give investors a hint of its state of mind on Wednesday, when it releases minutes from its latest policy meeting.

Economic indicators this week might lend further support to the notion that inflation peaked in March, and show whether high prices have hurt consumer spending power.

All 11 major sectors of the S&P 500 ended the session green, with financials enjoying the largest percentage gain, advancing 3.2%

First-quarter reporting season is nearly a wrap, with 474 of companies in the S&P 500 having posted results. Of those, 78% beat expectations, according to Refinitiv.

Looking ahead, current quarter pre-announcements are generally pessimistic, with 59 negative projections and 32 positive, compared with the year-ago quarter’s 37 negative and 52 positive, per Refinitiv.

Shares of VMWare Inc. (VMW) surged 24.8% following reports over the weekend that chipmaker Broadcom Inc. (AVGO) was in talks to acquire the cloud service provider. Broadcom dropped 3.1%.

US-listed shares of Chinese ride-hailing app Didi Global (DIDI) dropped 4.0% after shareholders voted in favor of de-listing from the New York Stock Exchange.

Advancing issues outnumbered declining ones on the NYSE by a 2.43-to-1 ratio; on Nasdaq, a 1.44-to-1 ratio favored advancers.

The S&P 500 posted one new 52-week high and 31 new lows; the Nasdaq Composite recorded 27 new highs and 142 new lows.

Volume on US exchanges was 10.93 billion shares, compared with the 13.36 billion average over the last 20 trading days.

(Reporting by Stephen Culp; additional reporting by Devik Jain and Anisha Sircar in Bengaluru; Editing by David Gregorio)

Beaten-down US retail stocks may still be too pricy for investors

NEW YORK, May 23 (Reuters) – Shares of US retailers and consumer-oriented stocks took a beating last week, but may not yet be low enough to tempt long-term investors who remain worried about whether surging inflation will continue to hurt corporate bottom-lines and cause shoppers to cut back.

Last week, consumer staples dived 8.6% and consumer discretionary tumbled 7.4%, the biggest declines of any S&P 500 sectors, with inflation hammering corporate results. Shares of some companies fared far worse, with Walmart (WMT) swooning 19.5% for the week and Target (TGT) plunging 29% after disappointing results.

Investors worry more declines could be in store if consumers cut spending in the face of higher prices. Among earnings reports due this week are Best Buy (BBY) on Tuesday and Dollar General (DG) and Costco Wholesale (COST) on Thursday.

“I think it has been a wake-up call to investors that the consumer is being impacted by higher inflation … sooner than what I think the Street was anticipating,” said Robert Pavlik, senior portfolio manager at Dakota Wealth Management. “We are only at the beginning of people trading down and changing their spending patterns.”

The latest consumer price index jumped 8.3% on an annual basis. Prices for gasoline stand more than 50% higher than a year ago, according to AAA.

The Fed has promised to keep raising U.S. interest rates until inflation is squashed, a key factor hitting risk appetite for investors and putting the S&P 500 on the cusp of a bear market, defined as a 20% decline from its record high.

Kim Forrest, chief investment officer at Bokeh Capital Partners, believes surging oil and gasoline prices will keep undermining consumer spending.

“I’d be very cautious of discretionary retail at this point,” she said. “So many people are affected by high gas prices and high fuel prices.”

A survey by Morgan Stanley found that more than half of consumers plan to cut spending over the next six months due to inflation. The bank said most cuts were expected to come from categories such as dining out and footwear and apparel.

To be sure, the slump in share prices has made valuations more tempting. The forward price-to-earnings ratio for the S&P 500 retailing index , for which Amazon (AMZN) makes up half the weight, has come down to 25.4 times from 33.9 times at the end of 2021, according to Refinitiv Datastream.

Peter Tuz, president of Chase Investment Counsel, said he would likely take a closer look in coming days at whether Target shares warrant buying after sliding 25% the day of its earnings report.

“A stock like Target, when it falls 25%, you ought to look at it,” Tuz said. “You may decide not to buy it, but it’s one of America’s premier retailers.”

Mona Mahajan, senior investment strategist at Edward Jones, said that while the “risk/reward is certainly getting more interesting” in retail, she wants to see evidence of ebbing inflation.

“While we’re seeing interesting opportunities forming, we’d like to have some confirmation of the inflation story before we really step in,” Mahajan said.

(Reporting by Lewis Krauskopf and Sinead Carew; Editing by Ira Iosebashvili and David Gregorio)

S&P 500, Dow rise as banks, Apple offer support

May 23 (Reuters) – The S&P 500 and the Dow rose on Monday, led by gains in banks and Apple after a sharp selloff last week, while a slide in Tesla and chipmakers weighed on the tech-heavy Nasdaq.

Eight of the 11 major S&P sectors advanced in early trading, with financials and energy up more than 1% each.

Banks gained 2.9%, led by a 3.5% jump in shares of JPMorgan Chase & Co (JPM) after the biggest US lender by assets lifted its 2022 outlook for net interest income.

Battered growth stocks Apple Inc. (AAPL) and Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) rose 1.6% and 1.5%, respectively, providing the biggest boost to the S&P 500.

US stock indexes deepened year-to-date losses last week as dismal forecasts from Walmart Inc. (WMT) and other retailers added to worries about surging inflation and its impact on consumers and economic growth.

The benchmark S&P 500 fell over 20% from its Jan. 3 record closing high at one point on Friday, pushing it to the brink of confirming a bear market. The index is now down 17.9% from its all-time closing high.

“It doesn’t surprise me and that’s what you will start to see when you are bouncing along the bottom, it is an indication that equities are becoming more attractive,” said Christopher Grisanti, chief equity strategist at MAI Capital Management.

“The more folks think there is going to be a recession, the less they are going to worry about inflation. If the economy is slowing down … the Federal Reserve won’t have to raise interest rates quite as high as before.”

Readings on the second estimate of first-quarter US GDP, PCE price index and durable goods data for April are due this week, likely providing clues on how the world’s largest economy is faring amid decades-high inflation.

The Federal Reserve’s May meeting minutes, due on Wednesday, will be closely parsed for signs on how aggressively the US central bank is planning to raise interest rates. Money markets are pricing in 50-basis point rate hikes by the Fed in June and July.

At 10:04 a.m. ET, the Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI was up 271.16 points, or 0.87%, at 31,533.06 and the S&P 500 was up 13.44 points, or 0.34%, at 3,914.80.

The Nasdaq Composite was down 37.56 points, or 0.33%, at 11,317.06, dragged down by Tesla Inc. (TSLA), Nvidia Corp. (NVDA) and Amazon.com (AMZN).

Cloud service provider VMWare Inc VMW.N surged 16.9% after reports over the weekend said chipmaker Broadcom Inc. (AVGO) was in talks to acquire the company. Broadcom fell 4.9%.

US-listed shares of Didi Global (DIDI) added 3.5% after a majority of the Chinese ride-hailing giant’s shareholders voted in favor of its plan to delist from the New York Stock Exchange.

Advancing issues outnumbered decliners by a 1.46-to-1 ratio on the NYSE. Declining issues outnumbered advancers for a 1.00-to-1 ratio on the Nasdaq.

The S&P index recorded one new 52-week high and 31 new lows, while the Nasdaq recorded 15 new highs and 63 new lows.

(Reporting by Devik Jain and Anisha Sircar in Bengaluru; Editing by Saumyadeb Chakrabarty, Shounak Dasgupta and Maju Samuel)

Anti-trust chief to lead Philippines’ economic planning agency

MANILA, May 23 (Reuters) – The Philippines’ anti-trust agency chief Arsenio Balisacan said on Monday he has accepted an offer from incoming president Ferdinand Marcos Jr. to be his economic planning chief.

Balisacan, the first confirmed member of the new administration’s economics team, previously served in the same role under President Benigno Aquino from 2012 to 2016.

“I will join the new cabinet, mindful of the immense work needed to accelerate economic recovery and post-recovery development,” Balisacan said in a statement.

Marcos, who won the presidency earlier this month with nearly 60% of the vote, has said political affiliation was not a factor in selecting people to work in his government.

Balisacan, an economist by training, said he looked forward to working with the incoming government and the private sector to help sustain the country’s economic recovery from the pandemic.

Marcos’s economic team will face challenges like the pandemic, elevated inflation and massive government debt.

Marcos, who will be sworn into office on June 30, has yet to fill all cabinet positions. He has nominated his running mate, vice president-elect Sara Duterte-Carpio, to head the education ministry, and named his spokesperson, Vic Rodriguez, as his executive secretary.

(Reporting by Neil Jerome Morales; Editing by Martin Petty and Kanupriya Kapoor)

Biden’s Asian economic talks include 13 countries, and no China

TOKYO, May 23 (Reuters) – President Joe Biden launches his plan for US economic engagement in Asia on Monday, leaving it to the 13 founding countries to work out how to enforce their agreements and if China could ever join.

Biden is unveiling the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework for Prosperity (IPEF) in Tokyo on his first trip in office to Asia.

The White House says the deal offers no tariff relief or market access to the countries that join but provides a way to sort through key issues from climate change to supply chain resilience and digital trade.

And it is critical to Biden’s approach to counter what he sees as Washington’s greatest competitor abroad, China. Washington has lacked an economic pillar to its Indo-Pacific engagement since former President Donald Trump quit a multinational trans-Pacific trade agreement, leaving the field open to China to expand its influence.

“The launch,” said US Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo, “marks an important turning point in restoring US economic leadership in the region, and presenting Indo-Pacific countries an alternative to China’s approach to these critical issues.”

Biden wants the deal to raise environmental, labor and other standards across Asia. But the actual terms of any agreement will have to be negotiated by the initial countries joining talks: Australia, Brunei, India, Indonesia, Japan, South Korea, Malaysia, New Zealand, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam and the United States.

Those countries will work together to negotiate what standards they wish to abide by, how they will be enforced, whether their domestic legislatures will need to ratify them and how to consider potential future members, including China, which is not taking part, officials told reporters.

Also left out of the initial talks is Taiwan, which wanted to join.

US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan told reporters on Air Force One that Taiwan would not be a part of the IPEF launch but that Washington is still looking to deepen its economic relationship with the self-governing island, which China claims.

In a later briefing, Sullivan said the process to include new members “will be part of those initial discussions” in coming weeks.

“On China, broadly speaking, what I just said would apply to that case.”

The IPEF is an attempt to salvage some part of the benefits of participation in a broader trade agreement like the one Trump quit, which is now known as the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership and then known as TPP but without the US domestic political opposition to a deal that some fear would cost jobs.

“TPP, as it was envisioned, ultimately was something that was quite fragile,” said US Trade Representative Katherine Tai. “The biggest problem with it was that we did not have the support at home to get it through.”

Beijing appeared to take a dim view of the planned IPEF.

China welcomes initiatives conducive to strengthening regional cooperation but “opposes attempts to create division and confrontation,” Foreign Minister Wang Yi said in a statement. “The Asia-Pacific should become a high ground for peaceful development, not a geopolitical gladiatorial arena.”

(Reporting by Trevor Hunnicutt and Elaine Lies; Editing by Lisa Shumaker)

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