Weekly recap: a major law, a minor agreement, and new records

The vote on Donald Trump's tax reform, the trade agreement with Vietnam, record highs on Wall Street… all eyes were once again on the United States this week. However, London was not to be outdone, with political drama causing renewed stress on long-term interest rates.

🎯 The 5 economic news stories of the week

Wall Street superstar ⭐️
US indices ended the half-year on a high note. The S&P 500 reached a new record high of 6,279 points, driven by a buying frenzy. Whatever the macroeconomic outlook, people are buying. Europe has been keeping pace since January 1, but the US rally has erased its initial outperformance.

Big Beautiful Bill 💰
Trump's budget has been passed by the House. It's an explosive cocktail: massive tax cuts, healthcare cuts, an additional $3.4 trillion in debt... and all passed just before July 4, as Trump demanded. These are very generous measures for the wealthiest, and pose a risk to long-term debt. With less than a year and a half to go before the mid-term elections, we will also need to monitor the electoral impact of this tax reform.

Drama in Westminster 🔥
British gilts faltered after doubts about the future of Finance Minister Rachel Reeves. Keir Starmer had to urgently reassure the market to calm things down. With long-term rates already under pressure, the government is trying to maintain a certain degree of fiscal discipline. The precedent set by Liz Truss still haunts London.

Robinhood tokenizes Wall Street 📲
Robinhood is shifting into high gear: +11% on the stock market after announcing a share tokenization service (even for pre-IPOs such as OpenAI and SpaceX!). Traditional finance is colliding with Web3. In Europe, the app is becoming a tokenized investment hub. A Nasdaq on blockchain?

Trade negotiationsmove forward🔒
A new US-Vietnam trade agreement introduces 20% tariffs on Vietnamese products... and 40% on those in transit, notably to block Chinese circumvention. Investors hope that further agreements will be reached by July 9. But most countries may simply be notified of the tariff rates that will apply to them. Donald Trump has announced that he will begin sending letters in groups of ten countries, starting this Friday.

Best of the rest

While Wall Street regained the lead after a strong rebound since mid-April, Europe nevertheless had a good first half of the year. We have taken stock of the performance of European markets at the mid-year point.

While Wall Street is in great shape, 2025 marks the big comeback of emerging markets. After several years of underperformance, the stars seem to be aligned once again.

Donald Trump continues to pressure Jerome Powell to lower interest rates. The latest episode: the letter the US president sent to the Fed chairman. But isn't Donald Trump's aggressive strategy counterproductive?

 

Stocks of the week

CoreWeave, the AI hyperscaler challenging the cloud giants

WH Smith closes the book on two centuries of city center presence

Tokyo Stock Exchange operator still undervalued compared to its peers

Advent reduces its stake in InPost ahead of a new round of acquisitions

When the sun shines for Sainsbury's

AstraZeneca CEO reportedly considering US listing

How did Novo Nordisk let the US market slip away?

Centene: Health insurance in its darkest hour

TripAdvisor: what does Starboard Value's arrival in the capital mean?

Intel wants to review its strategy... yet again

Watches of Switzerland sends mixed signals