Donald Trump says he has ‘pretty much’ reached a trade deal with South Korea

US President Donald Trump has said that he has “pretty much finalised” a trade deal with South Korea, ahead of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Forum in Gyeongju, South Korea.

The deal would give South Korea a lower tariff rate of 15% in exchange for $350 billion of investment in the US.

Trump and South Korean President Lee Jae Myung had hoped to finalise a deal that would dispel uncertainty for the Trade-Reliant economy. In the absence of a deal, South Korean makers of cars and steel must pay US tariffs of 25% rather than the 15% agreed in July, putting them at a disadvantage to Japanese competitors who pay 15% after Tokyo’s deal with the United States.

China confirmed that President Xi Jinping will meet US President Donald Trump in South Korea on Thursday, setting up a widely anticipated encounter that traders and investors on both sides of the Pacific hope will ease months of trade tensions. In the run-up to the meeting, trade representatives from both countries said they had hashed out a framework agreement involving lower US tariffs on Chinese imports and China's delaying curbs on exports of rare earth minerals.

After arriving in South Korea on Wednesday, Trump said he expected that a “lot of problems” would be solved during the talks.

Reference Sources

1. nikkei - South Korea's APEC live: Trump arrives for high-stakes diplomacy
2. ft - Donald Trump says he has ‘pretty much’ reached a trade deal with South Korea
3. newyorkpost - President Trump says trade deal has been reached with South Korea
4. usnews - China Confirms Xi, Trump Will Meet in South Korea on Thursday
5. dwen - What to expect as Trump and Xi meet in South Korea

Federal Reserve votes for another quarter-percentage point cut

The US Federal Reserve has cut interest rates for the second time in as many months, citing a slowdown in hiring and a moderate pace of economic expansion.

The Federal Open Market Committee reduced its benchmark by 25 basis points, to 3.75% -4.0%.

The central bank is also expected to decrease rates again when it next meets in December. Yields on short-dated assets, like money market funds and Treasury bills, are expected to follow.

The decision brings the Fed’s key rate down to about 3.9%, from about 4.1%.

The central bank had cranked its rate to roughly 5.3% in 2023 and 2024 to combat the biggest inflation spike in four decades.

The Fed’s decision to call time on its three-year quantitative tightening (QT) programme comes in the wake of concerns that QT has disrupted short-term lending markets and threatened to push up banks ’ funding costs.

Reference Sources

1. cnbc - How to generate income into year-end with Fed lowering rates
2. latimes - Federal Reserve cuts key rate as government shutdown clouds economic outlook
3. washingtontimes - Federal Reserve votes for another quarter-percentage point cut
4. ft - Fed signals it will halt QT as it cuts rates by a quarter point
5. cnbc - Treasury yields little changed as investors await Fed's rate decision

Microsoft deploys a fix to Azure cloud service that’s hit with outage

Microsoft Azure, the cloud computing service provided by the company, experienced a significant outage on Wednesday.

The problems started around noon ET, and Microsoft has acknowledged the issue on the service’s status page.

According to Microsoft, “ we suspect that an inadvertent configuration change triggered this Issue.” The company has not indicated when service will be restored. Multiple Microsoft services have gone offline as part of this outage, including Microsoft 365, Xbox, and Minecraft.

Websites from other businesses, such as COSTCO and Starbucks, are also inaccessible.

This outage takes place just hours before Microsoft is scheduled to announce its earnings results this afternoon.

It also follows a recent outage experienced by Amazon AWS a week ago.

The incident affected various Websites, banks, and certain government services, including Heathrow Airport. Voting has been suspended at the Scottish Parliament following a “significant Microsoft outage”.

Reference Sources

1. techcrunch - Microsoft Azure is down, affecting 365, Xbox, Minecraft, and others
2. standard - Scottish Parliament suspends voting over Microsoft outage
3. apnews - Microsoft deploys a fix to Azure cloud service that’s hit with outage
4. upi - Microsoft Azure outage impacts 365 subscribers, Xbox gamers
5. standard - Internet outages at NatWest, BT and Minecraft reported amid Microsoft disruption

The CommonWealth English daily news digest is a service curated by CommonWealth English team with the help of AI tools. 

Have you read?

• Trump Meets Japan’s First Female PM Takaichi in Tokyo
• Trump–Xi Summit to Seal Trade Framework
• Trump, Xi to Meet in South Korea After APEC Summit

Uploaded by Ian Huang