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The U.S. could require bonds of up to $15,000 for some tourist and business visas under a pilot program launching in two weeks, a government notice said on Monday, an effort that aims to crack down on visitors who overstay their visas. The program gives U.S. consular officers the discretion to impose bonds on visitors from countries with high rates of visa overstays, according to a Federal Register notice. Bonds could also be applied to people coming from countries where screening and vetting information is deemed insufficient, the notice said. President Donald Trump has made cracking down on illegal immigration a focus of his presidency, boosting resources to secure the border and arresting people in the U.S. illegally. He issued a travel ban in June that fully or partially blocks citizens of 19 nations from entering the U.S. on national security grounds. Trump’s immigration policies have led some visitors to skip travel to the United States. Transatlantic airfares dropped to rates last seen before the COVID-19 pandemic in May and travel from Canada and Mexico to the U.S. fell by 20% year-over-year. Effective August 20, the new visa program will last for approximately a year, the government notice said. Consular officers will have three options for visa applicants subjected to the bonds: $5,000, $10,000 or $15,000, but will generally be expected to require at least $10,000, it said. A similar pilot program was launched in November 2020 during the last months of Trump’s first term in office, but it was not fully implemented due to the drop in global travel associated with the pandemic, the notice said. The State Department was unable to estimate the number of visa applicants who could be affected by the change. Many of the countries targeted by Trump’s travel ban also have high rates of visa overstays, including Chad, Eritrea, Haiti, Myanmar and Yemen. Numerous countries in Africa, including Burundi, Djibouti and Togo also had high overstay rates, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection data from fiscal year 2023. Ted Hesson, Reuters
Category:
E-Commerce
U.S. stocks are rallying and recovering much of their sharp losses from last week, when worries about how President Donald Trumps tariffs may be punishing the economy sent a shudder through Wall Street. The S&P 500 jumped 1.4% in afternoon trading to claw back more than two thirds of Fridays drop. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 558 points, or 1.3%, as of 1:11 p.m. Eastern time, and the Nasdaq composite was 1.8% higher. Idexx Laboratories helped lead the way and soared 26.2% after the seller of veterinary instruments and other health care products reported a stronger profit for the spring than analysts expected. It also raised its forecast for profit over the full year. Tyson Foods likewise delivered a bigger-than-expected profit for the latest quarter, and the company behind the Jimmy Dean and Hillshire Farms brands climbed 4.3%. They helped offset a 3% drop for Berkshire Hathaway after Warren Buffetts company reported a drop in profit for its second quarter from a year earlier. The weakening was due in part to the falling value of its investment in Kraft Heinz. The pressure is on U.S. companies to deliver bigger profits after their stock prices shot to record after record recently. The jump in stock prices from a low point in April raised criticism that the broad market had become too expensive. Stocks just sank to their worst week since May, not so much on that criticism but on worries that Trumps tariffs may be hitting the U.S. economy following a longer wait than some economists had expected. Job growth slowed sharply last month, and the unemployment rate worsened to 4.2%. Trump reacted to the disappointing jobs numbers by firing the person in charge of compiling them. He also continued his criticism of the Federal Reserve, which could lower interest rates in order to shoot adrenaline into the economy. The Fed has instead been keeping rates on pause this year, in part because lower rates can send inflation higher, and Trumps tariffs may be set to increase prices for U.S. households. Fridays stunningly weak jobs report did raise expectations on Wall Street that the Fed will cut interest rates at its next meeting in September. That caused Treasury yields to slump in the bond market, and they were mixed on Monday. The yield on the 10-year Treasury eased a bit to 4.20% from 4.23% late Friday. The two-year yield, which moves more closely with expectations for Fed action, rose to 3.70% from 3.69% late Friday. In our view, if the Fed starts to cut rates at its September meeting, we believe this would be supportive for markets, according to David Lefkowitz, head of US equities at UBS Global Wealth Management. Such hopes, combined with profit reports from big U.S. companies that have largely come in better than expected, could help steady a U.S. stock market that may have been due for some turbulence. Before Friday, the S&P had gone more than a month without a daily swing of 1%, either up or down. This upcoming week may feature fewer fireworks on Wall Street following last weeks jobs report and profit updates from some of the U.S. stock markets most influential companies. This week’s highlights will likely include earnings reports from The Walt Disney Co., McDonalds and Caterpillar, along with updates on U.S. business activity. On Wall Street, Wayfair jumped 11% after the retailer of furniture and home decor said accelerating growth helped it make more in profit and revenue during the spring than analysts expected. Tesla rose 1.6% after awarding CEO Elon Musk 96 million shares of restricted stock valued at approximately $29 billion. The move, coming six months after a judge ordered the company to revoke his massive pay package, could remove potential worries that Musk may leave the company. CommScope soared 90% after reporting a stronger-than-expected quarterly profit and saying that it will sell its connectivity and cable business to Amphenol for $10.5 billion in cash. Amphenol rose 3.1% They helped offset a drop of 11.6% for On Semiconductor, which only matched analysts expectations for profit in the latest quarter. The company, which sells to the auto and industrial industries, said its beginning to see signs of stabilization across its customers. Boeing was mostly unchanged after workers who build fighter jets for the troubled aerospace giant went on strike overnight. In stock markets abroad, indexes rose across much of Europe and Asia. South Koreas Kospi rose 0.9%, and Frances CAC 40 climbed 1.1%, while Japans Nikkei 225 was an outlier with a drop of 1.2%. ___ This version has been corrected to say that the U.S. stock market had its worst week last week since May, not April. Stan Choe, AP business writer AP Business Writers Matt Ott and Elaine Kurtenbach contributed.
Category:
E-Commerce
Furniture maker Steelcase is being acquired by HNI Corporation in a $2.2 billion deal that shows the upside to office furniture at a time when return-to-office remains on the rise. HNI Corporation, which manufactures workplace furnishings and residential building products like fireplaces, announced the acquisition with Steelcase Monday. The companies cited their complementary geographic footprints, dealer networks, and skillsets as the deal’s benefits and said they estimate an annual revenue of about $5.8 billion should shareholders agree and the transaction close by the end of 2025. “This is a historic moment for Steelcase as we embark on the first step of a transformative combination that will unlock new possibilities for our customers, dealers, and employees alike,” Steelcase president and CEO Sara Armbruster wrote in a letter to employees obtained by Fast Company. “Together, we will be positioned to redefine what’s possible in the world of work, workers, and workplaces.” Armbruster said Steelcase would maintain its Grand Rapids, Michigan, headquarters and continue to operate as Steelcase with its brand and business strategy following the close of the deal, but that HNI chairman, president, and CEO Jeffrey Lorenger would lead the combined company. RTO growth Steelcase has rebounded from pandemic lockdowns with 12 consecutive quarters of year-over-year gross margin growth, including 7.11% year-over-year growth in the most recent quarter for a reported $779 million in quarterly revenue, according to PitchBook data. As firms instituted return-to-office (RTO) policies in the years since lockdowns, Steelcase’s office chairs, work stations, lockers, and phone booths have been in high demand. As recently as last year, RTO was still picking up steam, and fast. The percentage of employees who work “mostly in person” rose from 34% to 68% between 2023 to 2024, while the share of employees who work “mostly remote” has dropped from 44% to 17% in the same time period, according to McKinsey & Company. Steelcase, which did not respond to a request for comment, reported strong order growth from financial services companies and large technology companies on its most recent earnings call. Armbruster noted on the call healthcare was an area of growth and said Steelcase’s work in the education space was “well-positioned” but threatened by federal policy targeting education.
Category:
E-Commerce
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