Business

By Michael Martina

WASHINGTON, June 10 (Reuters) – U.S. access to critical minerals from China remains difficult due to export controls and licensing delays, a U.S. business lobby said on Wednesday, with Beijing’s restrictions driving three-quarters of impacted companies to search for new supplies. 

Introduced in April 2025 in retaliation for U.S. President Donald Trump’s tariffs, Beijing’s controls tightly restrict exports of certain rare earths crucial for advanced manufacturing. 

That’s despite Trump’s deal with China’s Xi Jinping in October in which the White House said China committed to “effectively eliminate” all ​current and proposed critical mineral export controls.

The U.S.-China Business Council said in a report that some rare earth elements remain “nearly unobtainable.”

“Despite some progress, confidence in longer term access remains low,” USCBC said based on results of its annual member survey conducted in February and March.

According to its survey, of 38 impacted companies, 29% said they were actively shifting to non-Chinese suppliers of critical minerals while 47% said they were searching for but had not yet found viable alternatives to China.

“China is forcing this diversification away from China and creating a strong interest on the part of the corporate sector to find alternatives,” USCBC President Sean Stein told Reuters.

China’s dominance over critical minerals has brought the rival countries to at least a temporary trade war truce, but the Trump administration has made a concerted push to revive mineral supply chains from the U.S. and partner countries.

Stein said it would be difficult for the U.S., despite those efforts, to eliminate supply issues over the next three years. 

Samarium cobalt magnets, important for high-temperature aerospace and defense applications, and yttrium and cadmium were among minerals that were still very difficult for U.S. companies to access, Stein said.  

Kyle Sullivan, USCBC vice president, said securing finished rare earth magnets – not just the minerals themselves – was a challenge due to China’s hold over both mining and processing. 

“That’s the perfect case for congressional involvement, because it can’t be solved by the Trump administration alone,” Stein said.

Uncertainty in U.S.-China relations is suppressing companies’ investments in China, Stein added, with the report noting that “just half” (49%) of 134 companies plan to invest in China this year.

“China’s business environment for foreign companies is not improving. The country’s support for domestic companies, including through industrial policy and preferential treatment in government procurement, is eroding the gains from formal market access openings,” the USCBC report said.

(Reporting by Michael Martina; Editing by Mark Porter)

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By Alex Lawler

LONDON, June 10 (Reuters) – OPEC oil output in May hit its lowest in more than two decades, a Reuters survey found, as a U.S. naval blockade cut Iran’s exports and Iran’s effective closure of the Strait of Hormuz slashed exports by other Gulf producers. 

Output by the 11-member Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries fell by 1.06 million barrels per day month-on-month to 16.13 million bpd, the survey found.

That was the lowest monthly figure since at least 2000, according to Reuters surveys, and well below the levels seen during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 when demand collapsed.  

The figures exclude the United Arab Emirates which quit OPEC as of May 1.

Iran experienced the biggest drop, reflecting the impact of the U.S. blockade which started on April 13, the survey found.

Iran’s exports of crude oil and condensate fell to their lowest in at least six years.

Saudi Arabia had a further decline, although Iraq was able to increase supply due to increased domestic use, sources in the survey said.

Venezuela and Nigeria also pumped more.

Eight members of the OPEC+ producer group, which includes OPEC plus allies including Russia, had agreed to raise production in May, but the Iran war and U.S. blockade made that impossible.The Reuters survey is based on flow data from financial group LSEG, information from other companies that track flows, such as Kpler, and information provided by sources at oil companies, OPEC and consultants.

(Reporting by Alex Lawler; additional reporting by Ahmad Ghaddar, editing by Jason Neely)

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By Ankur Banerjee

SINGAPORE, June 10 (Reuters) – Asian stocks fell on Wednesday while oil prices surged as escalating tensions in the Middle East unsettled markets, dimming hopes for an end to the months-long war that has pushed commodities higher and stoked inflation worries.

The United States launched strikes against Iran after President Donald Trump said Tehran had shot down a U.S. Apache helicopter in the Strait of Hormuz, leaving investors on edge over a fragile ceasefire between all sides.

MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan dropped 0.6%. Japan’s Nikkei fell 0.9% while the tech-heavy South Korean KOSPI slumped 2% in a volatile week where AI stocks have come under pressure.

Oil prices climbed about 1% in early trade, moving away from a seven-week low touched in the previous session in the wake of the fresh U.S. attacks. Brent futures rose 0.9% to $92.29 a barrel, while U.S. West Texas Intermediate WTI crude climbed 0.8% to $88.97. [O/R]

“Geopolitics is being treated as a headline risk, not a macro shock for now,” said Charu Chanana, chief investment strategist at Saxo in Singapore.

“Oil holding around $90 despite fresh Iran headlines suggests markets are not pricing a sustained supply disruption. That leaves room for a bigger repricing if energy infrastructure, shipping routes or U.S. involvement escalate.”

U.S. stocks overnight slid as a tech rebound fizzled, with AI valuation worries, Middle East tensions and rising rate bets driving investors from risk.

INFLATION TEST AWAITS

Investor focus will be on the U.S. inflation data later on Wednesday to gauge the impact of the war, with a Reuters survey of economists predicting that inflation likely increased 4.2% in the 12 months through May in what would be the largest annual rise in the CPI since April 2023.

A stronger-than-expected jobs report on Friday increased bets that the Federal Reserve will hike interest rates this year. Traders have now fully priced in a 25-basis-point hike in December versus expectations of two rate cuts before the war.

“If CPI today is hot, it will be much harder for the Fed to sound relaxed next week,” said Saxo’s Chanana. “The Fed probably cannot hike aggressively into a pure supply shock, but it also cannot ignore inflation expectations if oil keeps rising.”

The euro was at $1.1537 while sterling fetched $1.337 as the U.S. dollar held firm. The yen changed hands at 160.38 per dollar, near the 160 level widely seen as a line in the sand for potential official intervention.

Japan’s wholesale inflation accelerated in May at the fastest pace in three years as price pressures from the war broadened, data showed on Wednesday, adding to the case for further interest rate hikes by the Bank of Japan.

A rate hike from the BOJ at the June 16 policy meeting is now almost fully priced in, with analysts saying persistent weakness in the yen and a hawkish shift from the Fed could compel the BOJ to accelerate its own rate hikes.

“The market can usually absorb geopolitical noise rather well when energy prices stay contained,” said Anthony Saglimbene, chief market strategist at Ameriprise.

“It has less room for comfort when oil prices, inflation data, and Fed policy all lean in a direction that becomes less supportive of stocks over the near term. This is the risk we see building in the market right now.”

That risk is being felt in emerging markets where Bank Indonesia on Wednesday increased interest rates in a surprise off-cycle meeting to prop up the fragile rupiah just weeks after BI surprised markets with a jumbo hike.

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(Reporting by Ankur Banerjee in SingaporeEditing by Shri Navaratnam)

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By Dan Catchpole

June 9 (Reuters) – The U.S. Air Force is confident a fix has been found for long-running troubles with a key system on Boeing’s KC-46 aerial refueling tanker, Air Force Secretary Troy Meink told a Senate subcommittee on Tuesday.

Boeing and the Air Force have been trying for several years to fix problems with the tanker’s remote vision system, which is critical for midair refueling with the plane’s boom, a rigid pipe used to transfer fuel. 

“I think the good news is that we believe we’ve fixed and have tested the new 2.0 vision system and that we should start rolling that into the production line in ’28,” Meink said during Tuesday’s defense appropriations subcommittee hearing.

That is five years later than initially planned. 

The company has delivered more than 100 of the 188 tankers ordered by the Air Force, which is considering the purchase of another 75 for a total of 263.

Boeing has lost more than $7 billion on the fixed-price contract for the 767 commercial model derivative that leaves it on the hook for cost overruns.

Air Force officials have said they will only order more tankers if Boeing fixes lingering problems.   

The U.S. planemaker announced on June 4 that it had completed initial flight testing of the Remote Vision System 2.0 upgrade.

Retrofitting existing aircraft with the new system will take seven years, the Air Force announced in May.

The KC-46 has also had problems with its boom and leaks in its fuel system. 

“Obviously, this has been a bad contract for the last decade, this existing contract,” Boeing CEO Kelly Ortberg told investors in January. 

Boeing did not respond immediately to a request for comment.

(Reporting by Dan Catchpole in Seattle; Editing by Jamie Freed)

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By Satoshi Sugiyama

TOKYO, June 10 (Reuters) – The dollar held steady against major peers on Wednesday after the United States launched strikes against Iran, while investors awaited key U.S. inflation data for clues on the Federal Reserve’s policy path.

The U.S. military on Tuesday launched strikes against Iran after President Donald Trump said Tehran had shot down a U.S. Apache helicopter in the Strait of Hormuz, throwing a wrench into prospects of peace between the two countries and further straining a fragile ceasefire. Trump, though, downplayed the helicopter incident, telling The Wall Street Journal it “wasn’t a big deal” and stressed that “the pilot is fine.”

Despite such events and the lapse in the ceasefire over the weekend, “we continue to assess the war to be on a de-escalatory path,” said Harry Ottley, economist at Commonwealth Bank of Australia, in a note.

The dollar index, which measures the greenback against a basket of currencies including the yen and the euro, edged up 0.01% to 100.02

The euro was down 0.05% at $1.1537 while sterling lost 0.04% to $1.337.

The U.S. economy is seen as relatively insulated from energy shocks compared with its peers, a factor that has supported safe-haven demand for the dollar during the Iran war, while weighing on the euro and Japanese yen.

Meanwhile, a Bank of Japan rate hike at the June 16 policy meeting is now almost fully priced in, meaning it is unlikely on its own to trigger a significant reversal in yen weakness if delivered.

“It’s going to take some hawkish commentary from Governor (Kazuo) Ueda that signals the BOJ could bring forward its next hike from December to September – with the possibility of a third hike before year-end,” said Tony Sycamore, market analyst at IG, in a note. “Without that or something similar, the Ministry of Finance will likely need to pull out its cheque book again to defend the currency.”

The Japanese yen drifted 0.03% lower against the greenback to 160.38 per dollar, continuing to hover around the 160 level widely seen as a line in the sand for potential official intervention.

Data on Wednesday showed Japan’s wholesale prices surged 6.3% in the year to May, exceeding expectations and highlighting mounting price pressures from the Middle East conflict.

US INFLATION DATA IN SPOTLIGHT

Later in the day, the U.S. will release consumer price index data for May, seen as crucial in gauging whether the Fed may lean toward rate hikes later this year following last week’s stronger-than-expected job data.  

“Markets will be watching whether the impact of persistently high oil prices spills over into services and other sectors. If rising inflationary pressure comes into sharper focus, the dollar is likely to attract further buying,” said Akihiko Yokoo, senior analyst at Mitsubishi UFJ Bank, in a note.   

Solid growth and persistent inflation are likely to keep expectations tilted toward further U.S. rate hikes, even as any potential U.S.-Iran deal could offer some relief.

Markets will also be watching the European Central Bank’s upcoming policy meeting due on Thursday, where a 25-basis-point rate hike is widely expected.

The risk-sensitive Australian dollar edged 0.1% lower versus the greenback to $0.7021. The kiwi lost 0.17% versus the greenback to $0.5812.

(Reporting by Satoshi Sugiyama; Editing by Jacqueline Wong)

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By Arathy Somasekhar

June 10 (Reuters) – Oil prices climbed about 1% on Wednesday, moving away from a seven-week low touched in the previous session, after the U.S. military launched new strikes against Iran and as market data showed another large draw in U.S. crude stocks. 

The U.S. military’s strikes on Iranian targets followed after President Donald Trump vowed on Tuesday to respond to the downing of a U.S. Apache attack helicopter overnight, in a fresh escalation that threatens to unravel a fragile ceasefire between Washington and Tehran.

Brent futures rose 83 cents, or 0.9% to $92.29 a barrel, while U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude climbed 68 cents, or 0.8%, to $88.97.

Brent had settled at its lowest on Tuesday since April 17, while WTI had closed down at its weakest since May 29 after Israel and Iran halted direct attacks on each other after Trump urged them to stop. 

Tehran said it would resume hostilities if Israel continued to attack the Hezbollah militia in Lebanon. Israel’s refusal to end its campaign against Iran-backed Hezbollah has hindered Trump’s efforts to extend a tenuous ceasefire in the wider U.S.-Israeli war with Iran into a durable settlement.

At the same time, Tehran has continued to block most shipping through the Strait of Hormuz, which normally carries a fifth of the world’s crude oil and liquefied natural gas. Washington has imposed its own blockade of Iranian ports.

U.S. Energy Secretary Chris Wright said on Tuesday that ship traffic in the Gulf and oil exports through the Strait of Hormuz are rising even as Washington and Tehran struggle to reach a deal on ending their more than three-month-old war.

On the supply side, U.S. crude oil inventories fell last week for an eighth consecutive week, according to market sources citing data from the American Petroleum Institute released on Tuesday, while gasoline stocks also declined.

Crude stocks fell by 9.12 million barrels in the week ended June 5, the sources said on condition of anonymity, while gasoline inventories fell by 1.19 million barrels. 

The United States has acted as a marginal supplier of crude and products during the war and ramped up exports to Asia and Europe. Lower U.S. inventories could hurt exports and push up prices. 

(Reporting by Arathy SomasekharEditing by Shri Navaratnam)

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CAMBRIDGE, Mass. (AP) — Humanoid robots struggling with tasks like grasping a cup have a new teacher — a person wearing an ultrasound wristband that captures the movement of muscles, tendons and ligaments beneath the skin.

Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology developed the tool to collect data of human hand motion that could eventually help robots achieve the dexterity that has been difficult for machines to master.

“Imagine people doing housework,” said Xuanhe Zhao, an MIT professor of mechanical engineering. “We can use the data obtained by our system to train a robot to do exactly (that) housework with this dexterous hand motion.”

As much of the tech world is still captivated with artificial intelligence assistants that are taking on computer-based tasks, Zhao is among the scientists trying to imbue AI with more sensory data from the physical world.

Beyond housework, the technology could help with other tasks that require flexing fingers and hands, such as surgery.

The wristband uses high-frequency sound waves to “see” through its wearer’s skin. It relays images of the muscle and tendon movements to a computer that uses AI to enable a nearby robotic hand to mimic the gestures.

An AI algorithm is trained to decode images generated by the device into what engineers call degrees of freedom – specific ways a joint can bend or rotate. The human hand has 22 of them.

In earlier systems, tracking even a fraction of those movements was a significant challenge.

In laboratory demonstrations with eight volunteers, developers showed the wristband could precisely mirror hand gestures – including all 26 letters in American Sign Language – within 120 milliseconds.

The wristband can operate wirelessly, meaning the controlling person and the receiving robot need not be in the same room.

Beyond remote control, the team sees a path toward using the wristband to build huge datasets of human motion that could eventually enable humanoids to learn dexterous tasks without human guidance.

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AP Technology Writer Matt O’Brien contributed to this report.

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NEW YORK (AP) — The Marguerite Casey Foundation plans to donate at least $500 million over the next decade, increasing its annual payout as leaders try to spur more urgent grantmaking throughout philanthropy — especially given what it calls the sector’s “suffering” under President Donald Trump’s policies.

The White House’s cuts to federal funding, attacks on civil society and dismantling of diversity programs have amounted to what the National Council of Nonprofits calls an “existential crisis.” But funders’ responses have been lacking in the view of many nonprofit executives. Where, some ask, are the sorts of emergency funds launched when the coronavirus pandemic tested nonprofits?

Most private foundations pay out about 5% of their assets annually, the minimum required by the Internal Revenue Service. Debates rage over whether that contribution limit should be increased. Any higher, the philanthropic consensus goes, and foundations would risk shortening their life spans.

The Marguerite Casey Foundation did significantly increase donations in 2025, taking the rare step of dipping into its endowment to give $130 million. That experience confirmed what Carmen Rojas, its president and CEO, believed: Her duty to ensure the foundation’s perpetuity is not at odds with her obligation to adequately bankroll the communities they support.

“A very practical lesson is that we could give out more money and exist for a long time,” she told The Associated Press.

The Seattle-based foundation, created in 2001 with funds from United Parcel Service founder Jim Casey, has an uncommon model. Invite-only grants cover one quarter of their beneficiaries’ budgets for five years.

They broadly fund “community-based organizations” that organize to make sure “government works for everybody,” according to Rojas. That includes groups focused on issues of economic well-being such as housing and quality jobs as well as news outlets such as the advocacy journalism nonprofit More Perfect Union and the National Trust for Local News.

Another portfolio supports city- and state-level experiments aiming to make governments more responsive to local needs. The foundation recently contributed $3 million to New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s private fund for his universal free child care proposal.

Rojas expects to provide the same unsolicited support for existing grantees and said they will likely identify new recipients as the payout increases. The new annual baseline of $50 million marks a 50% increase over the previous decade’s average, according to the foundation. Public tax filings show annual donations ranged between $23 million and $57 million since 2019.

It’s part of Rojas’ bid for a more “offensive” approach to philanthropy. She said the charitable sector often takes a “defensive posture” that focuses on responding to threats. Gifts — such as their support for NYC’s Mayor’s Fund — intend to show the public “our government can be delivering more for you.”

“We have to be able to deliver for people, in meaningful ways, the things that they need to live a good life,” Rojas said.

Foundation leaders are also making a rhetorical point.

Many charities decline to donate more than the 5% minimum required by law, treating it as a ceiling rather than a floor. Trustees, acting on obligations to ensure the foundation exists forever to support its charitable purpose, avoid drawing from their endowments.

Activist Abigail Disney and other philanthropists have lobbied recently to increase the legally required minimum by a percentage point or so. Foundations, they argue, aren’t merely financial institutions. They are tax-exempt social welfare groups with duties to their missions — which some say aren’t served by existing philanthropic practices.

The Marguerite Casey Foundation wants to be a case study. Its endowment started around $870 million last year, according to Daniel Gould, its vice president of investments and operations. Within a year, he said, they’d made back the endowment funds spent on last year’s grantmaking push. As of April 2026, he said, the endowment size stood at about $825 million.

In years with strong financial markets — defined by Gould as at least 10% investment returns, the historical average for the U.S. stock market — they will give even more.

“Endowments are resilient,” Gould said. “That resilience should be translated into increased grantmaking.”

They’ve achieved that resilience while simultaneously adjusting their investment strategy. Over half the endowment is managed by members of underrepresented racial groups, according to Gould. They’ve also divested from private prisons, predatory lenders, weapons manufacturers, data center developers and other companies they believe harm the communities served by their nonprofit grantees.

Philanthropies should use the full weight of their resources to advance their missions, according to Rojas.

“If it is our job to be charitable organizations, then we should act charitably, right?” she said, adding that “either we are charitable organizations, or we are investment firms that do 5% charity work.”

The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation also offered rapid response grants last year as the Trump administration reduced federal research funding. In North Carolina, the Kate B. Reynolds Charitable Trust granted about $10 million more than usual.

The MacArthur Foundation pledged in 2025 to increase its giving for two years, similarly citing the “crisis” created by the Trump administration’s policies. President John Palfrey said last year’s cuts are having their worst effects now. The foundation plans to continue with its higher rate of spending — which fell around 7% last year, or $190 million more than anticipated.

Still, a February survey of 380 nonprofits found that most respondents consider it harder to secure foundation grants. The Trump administration’s discontinuation of federal grant programs has left nonprofits scrambling for more money from a smaller funding pool. At the same time, many nonprofits are seeing heightened demand for their services after sweeping changes to Medicaid and food assistance programs.

Some funders are moving more cautiously after the White House’s crackdown on “left-wing terrorism,” threats to revoke universities’ tax-exempt status and desire to install staff at a criminal justice nonprofit that received funds appropriated by Congress.

It’s not hyperbolic to say nonprofits are “under attack,” according to Center for Effective Philanthropy President Phil Buchanan, whose group led the “State of Nonprofits 2026” report. Increased spending is “perfectly reasonable” at a time of great need, he said, emphasizing that the resources exist. U.S. foundation assets have more than doubled over the last quarter century after adjusting for inflation, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis.

“You can’t step up for everybody,” Buchanan said. “But figure out who you can step up for.”

Palfrey sees recent federal actions as attacks on “the freedom to give.” He cites the Department of Justice indictment against the Southern Poverty Law Center, a civil rights nonprofit whose work tracking extremist groups has prompted a Republican-led congressional inquiry into allegations of fraud. Major investment firms dropped SPLC from their lists of nonprofits that receive donations from charitable accounts.

The precedent could financially ruin “good” nonprofits with the “mere whiff of an investigation,” according to Palfrey.

“These are powerful and negative chilling effects on the charitable nonprofit sector,” the MacArthur Foundation president told AP in May. “And they are ones that we ought to resist with every fiber of our being.”

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Associated Press coverage of philanthropy and nonprofits receives support through the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content. For all of AP’s philanthropy coverage, visit https://apnews.com/hub/philanthropy.

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SAO JOSE DOS CAMPOS, Brazil, June 9 (Reuters) – Brazilian planemaker Embraer expects electric aircraft subsidiary Eve to contribute $1 billion to $1.5 billion of revenue per year after its production ramp-up, Chief Executive Francisco Gomes Neto said on Tuesday.

• Estimate would depend on market performance in the segment, Gomes Neto told reporters.

• Eve’s electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) vehicle is currently expected to be certified and enter into service in 2028.

• Embraer forecasts group revenue at between $8.2 billion and $8.5 billion this ‌year, aims to achieve double-digit billions of dollars by 2030 “or even earlier,” Gomes Neto said.

• Embraer confident it will meet its 2026 full-year guidance.

(Reporting by Gabriel Araujo, Editing by Louise Heavens)

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By Joanna Plucinska

BERLIN, June 9 (Reuters) – Emirates will roll out incentives aimed at winning back customers worried about the protracted Iran war, focusing on safety and reliable travel connections rather than lower fares, the Gulf airline’s President Tim Clark told Reuters on Tuesday.

    The state-backed airline will stick to its strategy of maintaining flight schedules despite rising costs, Clark said in his first interview with a global news agency since the conflict began in late February, hitting Middle Eastern airlines.

Instead, it will offer “all sorts of incentives other than price” to encourage passengers to return, Clark said, even as talks to end the conflict drag on and attacks around the Gulf have flared in recent days.

INTELLIGENCE-SHARING

“That could be new means of ensuring their safety of operation, for instance,” he said on the sidelines of an industry summit in Berlin, adding the airline would also address concerns about cancelled flights and people getting stranded.

“We’ll take care of all of that, including flying them on other carriers if necessary to bring them home or get the kids into school.”

Clark also said Emirates was in talks with governments and regulators to ease restrictions on Middle East airspace, which has been constrained by the U.S.-Israeli war against Iran.

The European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) has issued conflict-zone warnings advising airlines against flying over parts of the Gulf and Middle East.

“We are talking to them,” Clark said, referring to governments in the region, while acknowledging regulators’ duty to protect passengers. “We rely on governments to be a little less restrictive in the warnings they issue about travelling across the Middle East.”

He added Emirates was in close contact with regional governments and said intelligence-sharing with airlines was extensive to ensure safe operations.

Clark said the airline could not drop ticket prices for now to attract travellers back to its key hub in Dubai. “The ticket price is very much conditional on what the oil price starts, and at the moment the oil price fluctuates,” he said. 

He added Emirates still hoped for a good summer season, despite the conflict leaving first-class cabins about half full, and predicted oil prices would eventually fall from about $90 a barrel to around $70.

“And then we’ll be back,” he said. “But it’s a question of how long it takes.”

(Reporting by Joanna Pluciska. Writing by Thomas Seythal. Editing by Adam Jourdan and Mark Potter)

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