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Businesses in Germany and Britain produced less this month amid worries about US President Donald Trump’s near-universal tariffs, in another sign that the global damage from his import levies is adding up.

The tobacco giant raised profit guidance for the year, betting on the booming sales of the nicotine pouches.

The billionaire entrepreneur sees Trump’s hard-line trade policies as reflecting the views of a “fairly small elite [group] of people around” him.

Investors are expecting top U.S. refiners to report quarterly losses, even as their margins improve, as they brace for the ripple effect from U.S. President Donald Trump's sweeping tariffs, energy analysts said. Fuelmakers have seen earnings tumble from record levels in 2022, when a recovery in demand following the COVID-19 pandemic and Russia's invasion of Ukraine drove up refined products prices. In the first quarter of 2025, margins increased from last year's multi-year lows, but seasonal turnarounds and unplanned outages limited refiners' ability to capture revenues.

NEW YORK (Reuters) -Goldman Sachs shareholders voted to approve pay packages, including hefty retention bonuses, for top executives CEO David Solomon and president John Waldron. They also voted in favor of other management proposals including the election of the firm's board of directors, according to a preliminary voting count announced during a virtual shareholder meeting in Dallas. Proxy adviser Glass Lewis had earlier recommended investors cast vote against the compensation plans, citing the bank's "continued inability to align pay with performance," including excessive retention awards of a combined $160 million given to Solomon and Waldron in January.

LONDON (Reuters) -Several OPEC+ members will suggest the group accelerates oil output hikes in June for a second consecutive month, three sources familiar with OPEC+ talks told Reuters, as a dispute worsens between members over compliance with production quotas. Oil prices hit a four-year low in April, dragged down by a U.S.-China trade war and an unexpected decision by OPEC+ to increase output by 411,000 barrels per day of oil in May - which was three times more than the group originally planned. Eight OPEC+ countries will meet on May 5 to decide the June output plan.

HOUSTON (Reuters) -The U.S. upstream oil and gas M&A market is bracing for the most challenging conditions since the COVID-19 pandemic as oil prices slump and prime acreage dries up, analytics firm Enverus said on Wednesday, even though dealmaking jumped last quarter to the second-best start to the year since 2018. The expected downturn in mergers and acquisitions follows a series of blockbuster takeovers by oil and gas majors in recent years, which culminated in a record $192 billion worth of deals done in 2023. There were $17 billion worth of deals disclosed in the quarter ended March 31, but activity was disproportionately driven by Diamondback Energy, which accounted for almost half of total value, said Enverus Intelligence Research principal analyst, Andrew Dittmar.