(The opinions expressed here are those of the author, a

columnist for Reuters)

By Mike Dolan

LONDON, July 11 (Reuters) - What matters in U.S. and

global markets today

By Mike Dolan, Editor-At-Large, Finance and Markets

Although markets are trying to shrug off the week's U.S.

tariff threats as yet another negotiation tactic, there's

growing unease at the daily barrage, the latest being

a 35% tariff on Canadian goods

and higher levies on other countries.

It's Friday, so today I'll provide a quick overview of

what's happening in global markets and then offer you some

weekend reading suggestions away from the headlines.

Today's Market Minute

* U.S. President Donald Trump ramped up his tariff assault on

Canada on Thursday, saying the U.S. would impose a 35% tariff on

imports next month and planned to impose blanket tariffs of 15%

or 20% on most other trading partners.

* The 50% tariff that the Trump administration has slapped on

Brazilian imports has rattled the global coffee market and could

make the price of a cup of coffee in the U.S. jump beyond recent

highs, and will likely raise prices for beef used in American

hamburgers

* Bitcoin rallied to an all-time high on Friday, powered by

demand from institutional investors and crypto-friendly policies

from Trump's administration.

* U.S. corn exports and export sales are still on fire despite

the imminent ramp-up of Brazil's corn shipping season, meaning

the U.S. government might need to up its export target yet

again. Read the latest from ROI agriculture columnist Karen

Braun.

* Utilities across the European Union cranked output from

natural gas and coal-fired power plants during the opening half

of 2025, boosting power sector emissions and reversing recent

energy transition momentum, says ROI columnist Gavin Maguire.

Canada back in tariff crosshairs

President Donald Trump said the U.S. would impose the 35% tariff

next month on Canadian imports not covered by the United

States-Canada-Mexico pact and planned to impose blanket tariffs

of 15% or 20% on most other trading partners.

That comes on top of 50% tariff pledges on copper and Brazilian

imports, which are set to lift the U.S. price of the metal and

coffee, among other goods.

It also adds to the planned 25% tariffs on Japan and South

Korea, and doused optimism of a more favorable deal with the

European Union as investors awaited word on what levies Trump

would assign the EU later on Friday.

After Wall Street stock indexes hit record closing highs on

Thursday, S&P 500 and Nasdaq futures fell back ahead of today's

bell. European and Japanese shares were in the red and the

Canadian dollar slipped to two-week lows.

Somewhat weary of the seemingly endless back-and-forth on

tariffs and attempting to look beyond the short-term headlines,

investors are wary of overreacting as they brace for almost

three weeks of 'ifs' and 'buts' ahead of the new August 1

deadline.

The effect on economic activity and prices may take months to

materialize. In a thin week for data, the weekly jobless update

remained robust.

The inflation impact is perhaps most immediate, but

Thursday's long-bond auction matched decent demand for the

10-year note sale earlier in the week.

Federal Reserve easing expectations slipped back a touch,

however, and both ten- and thirty-year yields ticked higher.

Alongside gains against the Canadian dollar, the greenback's

index firmed more broadly.

Fed officials struck a relatively benign tone. Arch dove

Christopher Waller restated his preference for cutting rates

again later this month, while saying the Fed's balance sheet

run-off had some way to go. "We're just too tight and we could

consider cutting the policy rate in July," he said.

San Francisco Fed boss Mary Daly said she still sees two

rate cuts over the remainder of the year.

The White House, meanwhile, upped its attack on Fed Chair Jerome

Powell - this time over the Fed's accounts and spending on its

HQ renovations.

But tech and the artificial intelligence theme continued to

enthuse stock investors, with Taiwan chip giant TSMC beating

forecasts on its AI chip demand and Nvidia closing above a $4

trillion valuation for the first time on Thursday.

The second-quarter earnings season kicks into gear next week,

with Delta Air Lines ( DAL ) shares rallying 12% on Thursday

after the carrier forecast third-quarter and full-year profit

above Wall Street estimates. That lifted the broader airline

sector.

The other big market gainer was Bitcoin, which rallied to

an all-time high on Friday - powered by demand from

institutional investors and Trump's crypto-friendly policies.

The world's largest cryptocurrency rose to a peak of $116,781.10

in the Asian session, taking its gains for the year so far to

more than 24%. Gold was firmer too on the tariff jitters.

In China, a Shanghai regulator said it held a meeting this week

for local government officials to consider strategic responses

to stablecoins and digital currencies - a marked shift in tone

for China where crypto trading is banned.

Bracing for GDP updates next week, Chinese shares bucked the

downbeat global stock mood on Friday and pushed higher.

Elsewhere, sterling ebbed on a surprising monthly

contraction in UK GDP, with jitters about Britain's public

finances nudging gilt yields higher as finance minister Rachel

Reeves prepares for the set-piece Mansion House speech next

week.

In company news, BP's second-quarter results are expected

to be affected by lower prices received for gas and oil, while

its upstream output is set to be higher than previously

forecast, the company said in a trading update on Friday ahead

of results due on August 5.

In the euro zone, European Central Bank hawk Isabel Schnabel

said the hurdle for another ECB interest rate cut is "very high"

as the euro zone economy is holding up better than expected

despite uncertainty over trade.

Weekend reads

* RETURN TO ZERO: The prospect of the Federal Reserve once again

setting interest rates near zero in coming years remains real

despite today's relatively high short-term borrowing costs,

according to a paper published jointly between the New York and

San Francisco Feds this week. The paper, which counted New York

Fed chief John Williams as a co-author, extracted measures of

risk of hitting the so-called "zero lower bound" from financial

derivatives, and found a near one-in-ten chance of a return to

zero from seven years and beyond - similar to levels in 2018.

While expected rates are higher than back then, the level of

uncertainty around the outlook is also much higher, it said.

* 'OFFSHORING' MIGRANTS: The Trump administration's approach to

offshoring asylum seekers and migrants is unprecedented, but

there is a "sordid history" of extraterritorial detention

centers both in the United States and around the world, writes

Professor David Scott Fitzgerald in Foreign Affairs magazine.

Describing offshore immigration processing and detention as

"forms of disappearance", he said the major question globally is

how domestic and international law pushes back against a "race

to the bottom" after last month's U.S. Supreme Court ruling on

deportations to South Sudan. "Rich countries around the world

are watching one another for policy models."

* POLITICAL ECONOMY RETHINK: The phasing out of green investment

subsidies in Trump's successful fiscal bill challenges basic

theories of political economy as many Republican lawmakers voted

against their constituents' economic interests, writes Harvard

economist Dani Rodrik in Project Syndicate. "It was ideas about

what is important and how the world works, rather than economic

lobbies or vested interests, that prevailed," he wrote, adding

there's a broader lesson here about political economy.

Narratives can be as important as interest-group politics in

gaining traction for a party's agenda, he concludes, and

Democrats may have to learn this too.

* COMMUNICATING SCENARIOS: Threats to central bank independence

have mounted since the inflation spikes of recent years and amid

losses on expanded balance sheets, but the inflation-targeting

process should still best illustrate the benefits of keeping

political interference at arm's length. So concludes a piece on

CEPR's VoxEU site by Fed economist Michael Kiley and Columbia

University professor Frederic Mishkin. Regular public

communication is needed to explain the process and retain

political support, with greater use of scenario analysis likely

to be helpful in this regard.

* CHINA AUTO DEVELOPMENT SPEED: Over just one weekend, engineers

at Chinese automaker Chery planned an overhaul of the suspension

and steering on their Omoda 5 SUV for use on bumpier and more

winding European roads. In a Reuters Special Report, Nick Carey

and Norihiko Shirouzu show how this makeover exemplifies the

disruptive speed and flexibility of Chinese automakers, which

have seized control of their home market, the world's largest,

from once-dominant foreign competitors. Now, China's auto giants

are racing to expand globally, with Chery as the leading

exporter and China's largest automaker BYD posing an even bigger

long-term competitive threat, industry executives say.

Chart of the day

The 50% tariff that the Trump administration has slapped on

Brazilian goods has rattled the global coffee market and could

make the price of a cup of coffee in the U.S. jump beyond recent

highs. Brazil is the world's largest grower and exporter of

coffee, while the U.S. is its biggest client and the world's

largest drinker of the beverage, with nearly 200 million

Americans having a cup every day.

Today's events to watch

* U.S. June Federal Budget (1400 EDT)

* Canada June employment report (0830 EDT)

Opinions expressed are those of the author. They do not reflect

the views of Reuters News, which, under the Trust Principles, is

committed to integrity, independence, and freedom from bias.

Want to receive the Morning Bid in your inbox every weekday

morning? Sign up for the newsletter

here

.

Reuters website

LinkedIn

X.

(By Mike Dolan; editing by Rachna Uppal. )