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New Zealand to stick to current economic plans despite US tariff concerns

New Zealand will not revise its economic and fiscal plans despite the turmoil in the global financial markets triggered by U.S. President Donald Trump's tariff plans, Finance Minister Nicola Willis said on Tuesday. A global trade war touched off by Trump's sweeping tariffs escalated further on Monday, as he threatened to increase duties on China and the European Union proposed its own counter-tariffs, wiping out trillions of dollars in stock market value.

Fed's Goolsbee says there's a lot of anxiety over tariffs

"The anxiety is if these tariffs are as big as what are threatened on the U.S. side, and if there's massive retaliation, and then if there's counter-retaliation again, it might send us back to the kind of conditions that we saw in '21 and '22 when inflation was raging out of control," Goolsbee said in an interview with CNN. However, he also acknowledged the uncertainty around the outcomes and the possibility that negotiations could lead to new trade agreements and avoid tariffs of more than 100%, referring to U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent's pledge of a "golden age of trade". Global stocks have plummeted since Trump announced a set of sweeping tariffs last week, triggering an escalating trade war.

Brent futures, options volumes surpass pandemic record as oil market reels

Brent crude futures and options contracts traded on the Intercontinental Exchange (ICE) hit record volumes on Friday, surpassing levels seen during the COVID-19 pandemic as investors braced for a global trade war and OPEC+ oil output hikes. Heavy selling drove oil prices to four-year lows at the end of last week, marking the largest weekly decline in a year and a half. Market participants traded 4.067 million ICE Brent futures and options contracts, surpassing the previous daily record set in 2020, according to ICE, when the global pandemic shocked energy markets and sent traders scrambling as oil demand shrank.