Chips & Drug Probes, Tariffs Double Prices, Harvard Funding Freeze

Your morning briefing, the business news you need in just 15 minutes. On today's podcast: (1) “The president has been very clear that he’s willing to talk to his counterpart,” US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer tells Fox News about Donald Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping. (2) President Donald Trump’s administration pressed forward with plans to impose tariffs on semiconductor and pharmaceutical imports by initiating trade probes led by the Commerce Department. (3) Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent played down the recent selloff in the bond market, rejecting speculation that foreign nations were dumping their holdings of US Treasuries, while flagging that his department has tools to address dislocation if needed. (4) European Commissioner for Trade and Economic Security Maros Sefcovic met with US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and Trade Representative Jamieson Greer today in DC, “seizing the 90-day window for a mutual solution to unjustified tariffs,” he says in a post on X. (5) UK households increased their spending in March as consumer demand defied an imminent rise in household bills, according to reports from the British Retail Consortium and Barclays. (6) The Trump administration followed through on its threat to pull federal funding from Harvard University hours after the oldest and richest US college refused to agree to a list of government demands. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.