Two Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee on Thursday said they remained undecided about voting to confirm Todd Blanche for U.S. attorney general, endangering President Donald Trump‘s nominee to be the nation’s top law enforcement official.

“I am still considering it,” Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, told MS NOW when asked where he stood on Blanche a day after he and other Judiciary panel members questioned the nominee at the first day of his confirmation hearing about a controversial and now-defunct $1.8 billion Department of Justice fund.

“Yeah,” Cornyn said when asked if he was undecided. “Like, I’ve said that several times.”

Cornyn is one of 11 Republicans on the Judiciary Committee, which also includes 10 Democrats. Republicans lost a member when Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., died unexpectedly last weekend. Cornyn is set to leave the Senate in early January, having lost his state’s Republican Senate primary in May.

Another Republican on the committee, Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina, said during the second day of hearings on Thursday that he wants Blanche to meet with victims of the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein before voting on his confirmation.

Blanche later showed up at Capitol Hill and is set to meet with Epstein victims at around 4:30 p.m. ET, MS NOW reported.

It’s another instance of Republicans who are leaving office erecting a road block in Trump’s agenda while raising concerns about some of the president’s actions. Blanche is a former criminal defense lawyer for the president.

Blanche has faced criticism from victims for not meeting with them and for the DOJ — while Blanche was in the No. 2 leadership position — releasing files about Epstein that included identifying information about them.

“I have not made a final decision, but Mr. Blanche said very quickly yesterday that he would meet with the Epstein victims today if it could be arranged,” Tillis said at the hearing, which Blanche didn’t attend.

“I understand the restriction that counsel has to be present. I expect that meeting to occur before I’m willing to vote out of this committee,” Tillis said. “This is a very important part of getting to yes.”

Tillis also said that, like Cornyn, he has concerns about the DOJ fund.

“There are very specific, measurable work products — not a wink and a nod and a handshake — but definable, ratified, executed agreements that will make me feel comfortable that this turkey of an idea is dead,” Tillis said.

If Cornyn or Tillis were to vote against forwarding Blanche’s nomination, along with every Democrat — as is expected — while the…

U.S. investors are getting a new way to buy into the memory boom.

SK Hynix, the second most valuable company in South Korea, behind only Samsung, is slated to begin trading on the Nasdaq on Friday. The market debut, coinciding with the company’s hefty expansion plans for the U.S., comes after a more than sevenfold increase in its stock price over the past year, a rally that’s lifted SK Hynix’s market cap to about $1 trillion.

Many Americans don’t know the name SK Hynix, but they’ve likely had plenty of exposure to the company’s products. Along with Micron and Samsung, SK Hynix is one of three primary makers of computer memory used in laptops and phones sold by companies such as Apple and Dell.

Memory has long occupied a sleepy corner of the semiconductor market. That’s changed dramatically over the last couple years as surging demand for artificial intelligence has upended the industry, creating severe shortages for the chips and sending prices to all-time highs.

SK Hynix is the leader in the high-performance memory that’s used in AI chips from Nvidia, the world’s most valuable company. While memory components are typically relatively simple chips, often called RAM, that every computer needs to store data, high-bandwidth memory (HBM) is more complicated, as it stacks many layers of traditional memory together. SK Hynix was the first to do it, and analysts project the company will capture more than half the market this year.

In June, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang visited SK Hynix on a trip to Seoul, as the two companies announced a multiyear partnership. Nvidia is the biggest HBM buyer.

“That advantage has positioned SK Hynix as one of the biggest beneficiaries of the rapid growth in AI infra,” said TrendForce analyst Ellie Wang.

SK Hynix will trade on the Nasdaq under ticker symbol SKHY (initially SKHYV.) The company plans to raise around $29 billion by issuing American depositary receipts (ADRs) in order to fund new factories and equipment, according to a regulatory filing.

Some of that buildout is taking place in the U.S. SK Hynix is constructing its first production facility in the country, scheduled for completion in 2028. The $4 billion plant in West Lafayette, Indiana, will be used for what’s known as advanced packaging, an essential part of the process for producing HBM that involves connecting and stacking individual chips into larger systems that can be used in a computer.

SK Hynix expects to receive up to $458 million in funding from the U.S. CHIPS and Science Act, passed in 2022 as the centerpiece of a plan to build up the domestic chip industry. The company could also receive up to $570 million of loans from the U.S. Commerce Department.

It’s not just HBM that’s boosting SK Hynix. The whole memory industry is experiencing soaring prices due to the AI crunch, which means…

President Donald Trump is set to meet with fellow NATO leaders on Wednesday, as the alliance confronts mounting challenges from both external threats and internal divisions.

Trump has repeatedly publicized his discontent with NATO since returning to the White House last year, pushing member states to commit to greater defense spending, and more recently lambasting NATO allies for refusing to join America’s military action in Iran. At the NATO summit on Tuesday, Trump reignited inter-alliance tensions when he resurfaced his desire to take control of Greenland, a territory of NATO member Denmark.

Speaking to reporters in Ankara, Turkey, NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte touted greater cohesion between member states, higher defense spending and a series of military deals being inked at the event as signs of “NATO 3.0” emerging.

Despite Trump’s fresh push for the U.S. to acquire Greenland, Rutte insisted that Washington remained committed to the NATO alliance.  

“There is complete commitment of the United States to NATO … the commitment is there, no doubt,” Rutte told journalists as he arrived at the NATO summit on Wednesday morning. “Also, NATO is there in the U.S. interest to prevent, for example, nuclear submarines of Russia ending up on the shores of the United States. The U.S., to stay safe, needs a secure Atlantic, Europe, and Arctic, so there is complete commitment to NATO.”

Rutte added that the alliance’s commitment to spend 5% of members’ national gross domestic product on defense, agreed last year, was a “big win” for all its members — and a loss for Russian President Vladimir Putin.

“I expect again today to acknowledge collectively that Russia is the long-term threat to NATO territory,” he said, ahead of meetings between allies.

When asked if he had a message for Putin, Rutte replied: “Don’t fool with us.”

“My message is that this alliance of 1 billion people living in Europe, living in Canada, living in the United States, that this alliance will defend every inch of our territory,” he said. “You cannot win [against] NATO. We are defensive. We will never attack anyone. We will only defend our way of life, our democracies, our territory. So don’t fool with us, don’t play with us.”

NATO has been heavily involved in providing military assistance to Ukraine since Russia launched its full-scale war in the country in early 2022. Parts of the alliance’s eastern flank — Poland, Slovakia, Hungary and Romania — share borders with Ukraine.

Moscow strongly opposes Ukraine joining NATO, and has claimed the military alliance’s expansion in Eastern Europe was a reason for the launch of its so-called “special military operation” in Ukraine.

Treasury yields were mixed on Thursday as investors digested the conclusion of Kevin Warsh’s first meeting as chair of the Federal Reserve.

The yield on the 10-year U.S. Treasury note — the key benchmark for U.S. government borrowing — was down more than 2 basis points at 4.441%.

The 2-year Treasury note yield, which more closely tracks short-term Federal Reserve interest rate policy, rose 2 basis points to 4.183%. The longer-dated 30-year Treasury bond yield fell more than 6 basis points to 4.864%.

One basis point is equal to 0.01%, and yields and prices move in opposite directions.

Yields took a slight leg lower after another batch of economic data was released.

Initial jobless claims for the week ended June 13 came in just above expectations at 226,000. That was a 4,000 increase from the previous week and above the 225,000 economists polled by Dow Jones were expecting. Additionally, the Philadelphia Fed manufacturing index jumped to 10.3 in June, rising from -0.4 in May and better than the consensus estimate of 9.8.

“The labor market is seeing some slight stress with jobless benefits being applied for at an elevated rate since the start of the Iran bombing on February 28,” said Chris Rupkey, FWDBONDS chief economist.

“Now that the peace deal has been signed we expect the uncertainty factor will diminish and that companies will hold onto the workers they have,” he added. “The economy is facing no material downside risks at present so Fed policymakers can hold rates steady and do nothing.”

Kevin Warsh‘s first meeting as Federal Reserve chairman concluded Wednesday with no change in interest rates and a nod to possible hikes ahead. The meeting also saw the removal of key language indicating a bias toward future cuts within a dramatically shorter policy statement.

The Fed kept the benchmark federal funds rate unchanged and anchored at 3.5%-3.75%. 

Complicating the picture was Warsh’s decision to abstain from submitting a rate forecast. He confirmed at a news conference following the decision that he had declined to share a forecast and is forming task forces to overhaul major Fed operations.

“I did not submit a dot for me,” Warsh said. “It’s not helpful in the conduct of policy.”

Nevertheless, market commentators felt Warsh’s first address ran smoothly.

“What was interesting from Warsh’s first FOMC outcome is a clear message to markets that the Federal Reserve sees inflation as an issue to be solved, and if they do identify an inflation problem, they are prepared to act,” ING’s rates analysts wrote in a note published Thursday. 

“Not exactly what was expected when President Trump gave the job to Warsh. But it does add a proper layer of credibility to Warsh’s FOMC.”  

Byron Anderson, head of fixed income at Laffer Tengler Investments,…

Senior Anthropic staffers are meeting with Trump administration officials in Washington, D.C., on Monday to try to resolve the artificial intelligence company’s latest high-profile dispute with the U.S. government, according to a source close to the company.

Anthropic received an export control directive on Friday that cited “national security authorities” and ordered the company to suspend access to its latest AI models, Fable 5 and Mythos 5, “by any foreign national, whether inside or outside the United States,” according to a statement.

The AI startup disabled access to the models for all of its customers in order to ensure compliance with the directive.

The unexpected action marks the latest wrinkle in Anthropic’s relationship with the government, which has been strained after a clash with the Department of Defense escalated earlier this year. The DOD labeled Anthropic a supply chain risk in March, which banned defense contractors from using the company’s technology because it purportedly threatens U.S. national security. 

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth addressed the government’s latest directive in a post on X on Saturday, writing that “every passing day” proves why blacklisting Anthropic was “the right move.”

Anthropic sued the Trump administration in an effort to reverse the supply chain risk designation, and that litigation is ongoing.

Anthropic unveiled Fable 5 and Mythos 5 on Tuesday, just days before it received the export control directive from the government. The company worked with government agencies to test the models ahead of the release and received approval to deploy them, according to a person familiar with the discussions who asked not to be named in order to discuss confidential matters.

The government called Anthropic at 1:00 p.m. ET on Friday and instructed the company to disable Fable 5 and Mythos 5 because of an unspecified national security threat, the person said. Anthropic received a formal letter around 5:30 p.m. ET that required the company to suspend the models.

Before the directive landed on Friday, Anthropic received no communication about a national security threat, the person said.

Fable 5 and Mythos 5 build on Anthropic’s Claude Mythos Preview, a powerful model that excels at identifying security vulnerabilities within software. Anthropic limited the rollout to a select group of companies as part of a cybersecurity initiative called Project Glasswing, and its approach appeared to earn it some goodwill from the Trump administration, which held several meetings with the company about the model’s capabilities.

Anthropic touted Fable 5 and Mythos 5 as state-of-the-art models that top many industry benchmarks. Mythos 5 is still limited to a select group of users, but Anthropic made Fable 5 available to its enterprise customers and paid subscribers. The company said the broad release was possible because of new safeguards that block responses in specific high-risk areas, including cybersecurity and biology.

In its…

President Donald Trump on Thursday said he would be “honored” to meet Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei.

The U.S. president said he would meet the Iranian leader if a deal is reached to end the U.S.-Iran war, which has dragged on into its fourth month. Trump was taking questions from reporters in the Oval Office after making an announcement about coal.

“If we make a deal, it’s possible that I would meet,” he said. “I’d be okay with that.”

Khamenei was named the supreme leader in Iran after his father, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, was killed on the first day of fighting.

Trump said that despite U.S.-Israeli strikes killing his father and other members of his family, he expects that Khamenei would be a “professional.”

“In some circles, he has a very good reputation, actually,” Trump said.

Mixed messages have emerged recently out of negotiations to end the war, which has upset global markets and caused oil and gasoline prices to spike. Iran has largely held the Strait of Hormuz, a critical channel that carries about a fifth of the world’s oil, shut since the beginning of the war.

Gas prices were roughly $4.24 per gallon on average nationwide on Thursday, according to AAA.

The conflict has been in a tenuous ceasefire for weeks.

The U.S. is demanding that Iran agree to never acquire a nuclear weapon and immediately open the strait. The Iranians are demanding an immediate end to hostilities on multiple fronts and for the U.S. to end its naval blockade of Iranian ports.

Iranian state media on Monday said Iran’s negotiators would halt negotiations and shut the strait. Then, on Wednesday, Trump said that Iran had agreed not to have a nuclear weapon.

Ahead of a meeting of finance ministers from the Group of Seven developed economies in Paris on Monday, a senior European official says the situation in the Middle East has highlighted how exposed the interconnected global economy is to external shocks.

“Opening the Strait of Hormuz and bringing the conflict to a lasting end are of the utmost importance in mitigating the impact on the economy,” Eurogroup President Kyriakos Pierrakakis said in a statement.

The Eurogroup is a body that brings together ministers from the euro area and is being represented at the G7 meeting by Pierrakakis, who is also the Greek finance minister. The G7’s core members are the U.S., U.K., Canada, France, Germany, Italy and Japan.

“The European economy has proven resilient in the face of this energy crisis. Yet, the global economy will feel the pressure – even if the conflict is resolved swiftly,” Pierrakakis said.

Long-term borrowing costs in several G7 economies have surged in recent weeks, as investors worry about rising inflation caused by tight energy supplies while the Iran war chokes off oil and gas supplies through the crucial Strait of Hormuz.

U.S. Treasury yields spiked on Friday following a week of messy inflation data and as traders looked to price interest rate policy under new Federal Reserve Chair Kevin Warsh.

The yield on the 30-year bond jumped nearly 11 basis points to yield 5.121%, the highest since May 22, 2025, and nearing the highest since October 2023.

In the U.K., the yield on 30-year government bonds, known as gilts, are trading at their highest since the late 1990s due to a mix of political instability and concerns over rising inflation.

Japan, which is particularly sensitive to inflationary pressure linked to the Iran war, given its status as a major energy importer, has also seen bond yields rise drastically in recent days.

Bond yields and prices move in opposite directions, with traders often commanding higher yields on debt investments when confidence in the government issuing the bonds is shaken.

Meanwhile, oil prices remain elevated.

International benchmark Brent crude futures for July gained more than 3% to close at $109.26 a barrel on Friday. U.S. West Texas Intermediate futures for June advanced more than 4% to settle at $105.42 per barrel.

Brent crude prices are up 74 percent year-to-date, but below a high of $118 a barrel reached in late April.

Global oil inventories are falling at a record pace to compensate for the big supply disruption in the Middle East and they will approach critical levels if the Strait of Hormuz does not reopen.

Higher prices for oil and fuel are likely ahead of peak demand this summer as a consequence, the International Energy Agency warned…

Russian President Vladimir Putin will meet his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping in Beijing from May 19-20th, Moscow and Beijing said on Saturday.

The meeting will take place less than a week after U.S. President Donald Trump’s meeting with Xi in Beijing, the second time the leaders of the two largest economies have met in less than a year.

“The Russian President’s visit is timed to coincide with the 25^th anniversary of the Treaty of Good-Neighbourliness and Friendly Cooperation, which serves as the basis for interstate relations,” Putin’s office said in a statement.

The two leaders “will discuss current bilateral matters, ways to further strengthen the comprehensive partnership and strategic cooperation between the Russian Federation and the People’s Republic of China, and exchange views on key international and regional matters,” the Kremlin said.

China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs confirmed the upcoming meeting in a one-line post on X.

Russia is one of the world’s biggest oil producers, while China is among the largest buyers of fossil fuels.

As the world watches U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping’s historic summit, analysts suggest it could mark a reset in ties between the world’s top two economies.

The two leaders are expected to discuss a slew of thorny issues, including Chinese purchases of American agricultural and industrial goods, tariffs, Taiwan, and rare earths, with the backdrop of the war in Iran. 

After nine turbulent years, the summit could mark a “defining test” for the world’s G2 power dynamic, said Justin Feng, Asia economist at HSBC, pointing out that the U.S., China, and European Union now account for 60% of global GDP.

The summit builds on Trump and Xi’s meeting late last year in South Korea that led to a thaw in the trade war between the two countries, with Trump referring them as G2, sparking hopes of an extended truce. “It makes no sense for the two countries to engage in trade wars or tit for tat,” said James Zimmerman, AmCham China chairman. 

The Trump administration indicated ahead of the trip that it planned to press for greater Chinese purchases of American soybeans, Boeing aircraft, and other goods, while Beijing made it clear that the Taiwan issue would be front and center on its agenda for the meeting. 

“The big word will be stabilization. The truce that the two parties negotiated … will, I suspect, become a formal agreement,” Graham Allison, Harvard professor and former assistant secretary of defense, said on CNBC’s “The China Connection” on Thursday. 

Referring to the idea that tensions between a rising and ruling power have often resulted in a war, Xi asked if the U.S. and China could transcend the “Thucydides Trap” – a phrase popularized by Allison, also the author of “Destined for War: Can America and China Escape Thucydides’s Trap?”

Trump’s entourage of a dozen-odd executives from some of the biggest U.S. companies has raised expectations for a more friendly business environment. Tesla’s Elon Musk, Apple’s Tim Cook, BlackRock’s Larry Fink, and Boeing CEO Kelly Ortberg are among those accompanying Trump on the visit. 

“I would not be surprised if — as President Trump loves big headline announcements — that he might announce that China is going to buy an additional $1 trillion of American goods,” said Allison, including “a big buy” of Boeing aircraft, soybeans, beef, as well as the more advanced semiconductors that Beijing is interested in. 

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang also joined the China trip in what appears to be a last-minute addition, thrusting artificial intelligence and the technology sector into the spotlight.

Washington on Thursday cleared around 10 Chinese firms to buy Nvidia’s second-most powerful AI chips, the H200, Reuters reported, although the company’s most advanced chips…

BEIJING — The U.S. and China are rallying their East Asia ties ahead of a highly anticipated presidential summit in Beijing later this week.

Trade negotiators from both countries are slated to meet in Seoul, South Korea, ahead of U.S. President Donald Trump’s meeting with China’s Xi Jinping, scheduled for Thursday and Friday.

The packed itinerary reflects the regional dynamic at play in U.S.-China relations, with the summit being closely watched by leaders globally.

Here’s the full agenda:

U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent arrived in Japan Monday, where he will meet Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi, public broadcaster NHK reported.

Japan is one of the countries most affected by the Iran war as the Asian nation relies on the Middle East for about 75% of its oil imports.

Bessent’s visit comes at a time when relations between Beijing and Tokyo have frayed, following Takaichi’s comments in November that indicated Tokyo would support Taiwan if threatened by Beijing’s military, drawing a sharp response from Beijing. She has not softened her statement, despite Beijing’s requests.

During her visit to U.S. in March, Trump and Takaichi “committed to peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait,” according to the White House.

Japan will closely watch the official wording on Taiwan following the Trump-Xi meeting, with the U.S. president on Monday saying that arms sales to Taipei were on the summit’s agenda.

Vice Premier He Lifeng will lead a delegation to South Korea from Tuesday to Wednesday for trade talks with the U.S, according to China’s Commerce Ministry. The readout didn’t mention other meetings, but referenced the Trump-Xi summit in Busan, South Korea, in October last year.

While it’s not clear whether Bessent accounted for U.S. time zone differences, his announcement only noted that on Wednesday, he will “stop in Seoul for a discussion with Vice Premier He Lifeng of China.”

It’s a sign of the tight planning schedule — and consequently deliverables — for this week’s summit in Beijing. China didn’t officially confirm the meeting until Monday.

“In our view, the summit will be more about avoiding an unnecessary escalation of tensions and managing risks than building up structural mechanisms and forging deep friendships,” Nomura’s Chief China Economist Ting Lu said in a note Monday.

“The most pressing agenda Item is the Iran-Hormuz crisis,” he said.

Trump is due to arrive in Beijing on Wednesday evening, according to the White House.

The following morning, he will participate in a welcome ceremony and hold a bilateral meeting with Xi, before they tour the historic Temple of Heaven — a 15th-century landmark in central Beijing. The evening is set to close with a state banquet.

The…