The transmission plant supports production of light-duty trucks made in Fort Wayne, Indiana, along with other facilities. Reuters first reported that GM would increase production at the Indiana assembly plant in early April after U.S. President Donald Trump announced 25% tariffs on auto imports.

A spokesperson for the automaker said the production shift in Toledo is not related to tariffs.

“General Motors will revise production plans at Toledo Propulsion to support additional capacity of ICE (internal combustion engine) propulsion units in alignment with current market demand and manufacturing resiliency,” the spokesperson said in a statement.

GM Announced $760 Million Investment

When GM announced a $760 million investment to transform the Toledo facility into a drive unit production hub, it became its first U.S. powertrain factory repurposed for EVs. The automaker hasn’t yet produced retail drive units there.

“To align with current market demand and manufacturing needs, leadership has made the decision to add capacity to support propulsion units currently built at Toledo for ICE (internal combustion engines) products,” Rob Morris, the Toledo plant director, said in a memo shared with workers.

The memo said that one of the drive unit production lines in the facility would be transformed into a transmission line, but said there were no updates regarding the second drive unit production line.

GM has made other adjustments to its EV plans including pushing back the start of EV truck production at its Orion Assembly plant in Michigan. It fell short on its EV production goal of producing and wholesaling 200,000 EVs in North America in 2024, instead ending up at 189,000 units wholesale.

Separately, Trump’s tariffs have prompted automakers to change or expedite investment plans. Some suppliers and automakers are looking for opportunities to expand investment in the U.S. to avoid the steep levies, while others are waiting to see if the duties stick.

An analysis by the Center for Automotive Research found that Trump’s 25% auto tariffs imposed in early April will increase costs by about $108 billion for automakers in the U.S. in 2025.

The industry is still facing levies on automotive part imports, which are scheduled to begin no later than May 3.

—

(Reporting by Kalea Hall and Nora Eckert in Detroit; Editing by Diane Craft)

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The Labor, Education and Commerce departments will focus on job needs in emerging industries including those enabled by artificial intelligence, with a goal to support more than 1 million apprenticeships per year, according to the summary.

The Republican president, who took office in January, shocked markets with a blitz of tariffs on imports, some of which are now paused pending negotiations with U.S. trading partners.

Trump has promoted levies on imports as a solution for a wide range of ills including a decades-long decline in U.S. factory jobs. Some of his economic advisers blame this trend on industries relocating factories abroad where workers earn lower wages, thus shrinking high-paying career opportunities for Americans without college degrees.

Tariffs Could Push More Demand for American-Made Goods

Tariffs could push more demand to American-made goods. But any hoped-for U.S. factory renaissance faces several obstacles, including a shortage of skilled workers. The U.S. has been training far fewer factory workers for decades now, while retirements and immigration crackdowns are draining the pool of labor available to manufacturers.

The new executive order is aimed at tilting U.S. agencies away from overwhelming support for the professional jobs that colleges and universities prepare workers for, and toward support for skilled trades, like electricians, machinists and nursing assistants.

“After years of shuffling Americans through an economically unproductive postsecondary system, President Trump will refocus young Americans on career preparation,” the summary said.

Reuters has not reviewed the text of the order, which is still subject to Trump’s final approval.

It was not clear how much funding would be allocated to the plan, but the goal was to “identify ways to maximize existing resources” and redirect “funds away from ineffective programs,” according to a person familiar with the plans.

Trump won 56% of voters without a college degree nationwide during the 2024 presidential election, exit polls then showed, 13 points ahead of Democrat Kamala Harris and 6 points higher than his showing in 2020.

The U.S. president has courted support among labor unions and working-class voters, long a cornerstone of Democratic support.

He has frequently blasted the country’s elite universities, threatening to strip their research funding and tax deductions, and accusing several of being gripped by antisemitic, anti-American, Marxist and “radical left” ideologies.

—

(Reporting by Trevor Hunnicutt and Timothy Aeppel in Washington; Editing by David Gregorio)

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Bill Owens, executive producer of television’s most popular and influential newsmagazine since 2019, said in a note to staff that it has “become clear that I would not be allowed to run the show as I have always run it, to make independent decisions based on what was right for ’60 Minutes,’ right for the audience.”

“The show is too important to the country,” he wrote. “It has to continue, just not with me as the executive producer.”

Dispute Over Editorial Independence

Trump sued “60 Minutes” for $20 billion last fall, claiming it deceptively edited an interview with his Democratic election opponent Kamala Harris. CBS denied it had done anything to give an advantage to Harris, and released the full transcript of its interview.

When Trump took office for his second term, his Federal Communications Commission chairman, Brendan Carr, announced CBS would be investigated for the same issue.

At the same time, CBS parent Paramount Global, run by Shari Redstone, is seeking approval for a merger with Skydance Media, founded by Larry Ellison. They are reportedly in mediation to settle the lawsuit with Trump, a prospect that has been bitterly opposed by Owens and others at “60 Minutes.”

Lawsuit and Merger Pressure Mount

With this backdrop, “60 Minutes” has run an extraordinary series of tough stories about the new administration since it took office. The president angrily denounced the show on social media after its April 13 episode featured critical stories about Ukraine and Greenland, saying CBS should “pay a big price” for going after him.

Owens was the third executive producer at the Sunday night newsmagazine, known for its ticking stopwatch. Only Don Hewitt, the show’s founder, and Jeff Fager preceded him. Owens did not immediately return a call seeking comment on Tuesday. Owens has worked at CBS News for 37 years, 25 of them at “60 Minutes.”

“Having defended this show — and what we stand for — from every angle, over time with everything I could, I am stepping aside so the show can move forward,” he said in the memo.

Broader Conflicts With the Press

CBS News’ top executive, Wendy McMahon, said in a statement that Owens “has led ’60 Minutes’ with unwavering integrity, curiosity and a deep commitment to the truth. He has championed the kind of journalism that informs, enlightens and often changes the national conversation.”

It was not immediately clear if any particular event triggered the decision, or if Owens was told he had to leave.

“60 Minutes” is famously insular, run as an independent fiefdom within CBS News, and Owens said that McMahon agrees that he should be replaced by a current producer there. His top deputy is Tanya Simon, daughter of the late “60 Minutes” correspondent Bob Simon.

Trump has battled the press on several levels since taking office again. The FCC is investigating several media companies, the administration is working to shut down Voice of America and other government-run outlets, and The Associated Press has sued the administration for reducing its access to events because it has not renamed the Gulf of Mexico in line with Trump’s executive order.

David Bauder writes about media for the AP. Follow him at http://x.com/dbauder and https://bsky.app/profile/dbauder.bsky.social

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The S&P 500 was 2.8% higher in afternoon trading. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 1,071 points, or 2.8%, as of 12:24 p.m. Eastern time, and the Nasdaq composite was 3.3% higher. Every major index has so far recovered from their sharp drop on Monday.

The value of the U.S. dollar also stabilized after sliding against the euro and other competitors, while Treasury yields held steadier. Sharp, unusual moves in those markets have recently raised worries that Trump’s policies are making investors more skeptical that U.S. investments still deserve their reputations as the world’s safest.

Related Story: Fed’s Powell: Economy Slowing in Q1, Can Wait for Greater Clarity

Economic Worries Persist Despite Rally

The only prediction many Wall Street strategists are willing to make is that financial markets will continue to jerk up and down as hopes rise and fall that Trump may negotiate deals with other countries to lower his tariffs. Otherwise, many investors expect the economy to fall into a recession.

The International Monetary Fund on Tuesday slashed its forecast for global economic growth this year to 2.8%, down from 3.3%. But Vice President JD Vance also said he made progress with India’s prime minister, Narendra Modi, on trade talks Monday.

Some signs of nervousness remain in financial markets. Gold continued to rise, for example, as it holds onto its reputation as a safer investment when fear is dominating markets.

Strong Corporate Earnings Boost Stocks

A suite of better-than-expected profit reports from big U.S. companies, meanwhile, drove U.S. stocks higher.

Equifax jumped 14.5% after reporting better profit for the first three months of 2025 than analysts expected. It also said it would send more cash to its shareholders by increasing its dividend and buying up to $3 billion of its stock over the next four years.

3M climbed 8.1% after the maker of Scotch tape and Command strips said it made more in profit from each $1 of revenue during the start of the year than it expected. The company also stood by its forecast for profit for the full year, though it said tariffs may drag down its earnings per share by up to 40 cents per share.

Homebuilder PulteGroup rose 8.2% after it likewise delivered a stronger profit for the start of 2025 than analysts expected.

It’s been benefiting from the sharp moves in the bond market. The unusual drops for Treasury yields recently are translating into lower rates for mortgages for potential customers. The drops for stock prices that are happening at the same time, though, are likely also scaring potential buyers.

CEO Ryan Marshall said buyers “remain caught between a strong desire for homeownership and the affordability challenges of high selling prices and monthly payments that are stretched.”

Related Story: Wall Street Tumbles, Nvidia Slumps After New US Chip Export Controls

Tariffs Impact Individual Company Performance

Tesla rose 6.5% ahead of its earnings report, which is scheduled to arrive after trading ends for the day. That trimmed its loss for the year so far roughly 40%.

Elon Musk’s electric car company has already reported its first-quarter car sales dropped by 13% from the year before. It’s been hurt by vandalism, widespread protests and calls for a consumer boycott amid a backlash to Musk’s high-profile role in the White House overseeing a cost-cutting purge of U.S. government agencies.

Stocks also showed how Trump’s tariffs could create winners and losers in a remade global economy.

First Solar jumped 12.6% after the U.S. Department of Commerce finalized harsher-than-expected solar tariffs on some southeast Asian communities.

Defense contractors had some of the market’s sharpest losses after RTX said U.S. tariffs on Mexican and Canadian imports, along with other products, could mean an $850 million hit to its profit this year. RTX, which builds airplane engines and military equipment, fell 8.7% even though it reported a stronger profit for the latest quarter.

Kimberly-Clark lost 1.8% even though the maker of Huggies and Kleenex likewise reported a better-than-expected profit.

CEO Mike Hsu said that “the current environment will now mean greater costs across our global supply chain” versus what it expected at the start of the year, and the company lowered its forecast for an underlying measure of profit this year.

In the bond market, the yield on the 10-year Treasury eased to 4.38% from 4.42% late Monday.

In stock markets abroad, indexes were mixed in modest moves across Europe and Asia.

AP Business Writers Yuri Kageyama and Matt Ott contributed.

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The $1.6 billion project called Ballymore, located about 160 miles southeast of New Orleans, is composed of three wells that is expected to produce up to 75,000 barrels of oil per day.

Chevron aims to grow oil and gas production from the Gulf to 300,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day in 2026, and at the same time, it is working to cut up to $3 billion in costs across the business. Instead of building a new production platform for Ballymore, the wells will transport oil and gas back to an existing platform, which the company said will allow it to increase production at less expense.

“Ballymore is interesting in that it’s a tie-back to an existing facility, which has allowed us to bring production to market more quickly,” said Bruce Niemeyer, president of Americas exploration and production, in an interview.

Chevron’s First Project in Norphlet

The project is also Chevron’s first in a geological formation of the Gulf called Norphlet, where the oil and gas industry has historically had fewer discoveries than in other parts of the ocean basin, he added.

Advancements in technology are key to expanding resource exploration, such as the use of ocean bottom nodes, which allow geophysicists to collect better data underneath the ocean floor, Niemeyer said.

Chevron is the operator of Ballymore with a 60% interest, while co-owner TotalEnergies has 40%. Ballymore holds an estimated 150 million barrels of oil equivalent in potentially recoverable resources.

The company owns 370 leases in the Gulf of Mexico and expects to participate in a lease sale this year by U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration, Niemeyer said.

The Ballymore start-up comes after Chevron announced first oil in August at Anchor, a Gulf of Mexico project that is a technological breakthrough with the ability to operate in deepwater pressures of up to 20,000 pounds per square inch.

(This story has been corrected to say that Ballymore will produce 75,000 barrels of oil per day, not barrels of oil equivalent, in paragraph 2)

—

(Reporting by Sheila Dang in Houston; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama)

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Greenblatt is the president and owner of Marlin Steel Wire Products in Baltimore, Maryland, which makes baskets and racks for medical device manufacturers, aerospace companies, food processing companies and others. It has 115 employees and makes its products in three locations in Maryland, Indiana and Michigan. The steel is sourced from Tennessee, Illinois and Michigan.

Currently, it’s hard to compete with baskets made overseas., Greenblatt says, because the countries he competes against have an “unfair advantage.” For example, due to European tariffs and taxes, it costs much more for a German consumer or company to buy Marlin wire baskets than it does for Americans to buy a German-made basket, creating an uneven playing field, Greenblatt said.

“It’s wildly unfair to the American worker,” he said. “And this has, by the way, been going on for decades.”

What Trump Is Doing

The Trump administration has called U.S. manufacturing an “economic and national security” priority. U.S. manufacturing has been declining for decades. In June 1979, the number of manufacturing workers peaked at 19.6 million. By January of 2025, employment was down 35% to 12.8 million, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Small manufacturers, which make up 99% of all American manufacturing, have been hit particularly hard.

The administration has implemented some tariffs against major U.S. trading partners, while putting a hold on other tariffs pending negotiations. The Trump administration says tariffs will force companies to have more products made in the U.S. to avoid steep price increases on their imports, which will mean “better-paying American jobs,” for people making cars, appliances and other goods.

Greenblatt agrees, saying he could double his staff if “parity” in tariffs becomes a reality.

Uncertainty for Businesses

While other small manufacturing businesses also support the tariffs, other owners have concerns. The Trump tariffs threaten to upend the existing economic order and possibly push the global economy into recession. And the uneven rollout of the policy has created uncertainty for businesses, financial markets and U.S. households.

For Corry Blanc, the injection of uncertainty around the economy outstrips any potential benefit.

He started his business, Blanc Creatives in Waynesboro, Virginia, in 2012. He makes handcrafted cookware such as skillets and other kitchenware and bakeware with American steel and wood and employs 12 staffers. He gets his steel from a plant in South Carolina and a distributor in Richmond. Wood comes from local regional sawmills near the company’s headquarters in Waynesboro, Virginia.

He said he’s been fielding worried calls from customers in Canada and overseas. And he says the infrastructure isn’t in place to increase production if more people do start buying American-made goods.

Blanc said he survived the pandemic and other tough times, but conditions now are the hardest they’ve ever been.

“There’s so much uncertainty and not a lot of direction,” he said.

Michael Lyons is the founder of Rogue Industries, a company that makes wallets and other leather goods in a workshop in Standish, Maine, with a staff of nine. He uses leather from Maine and the Midwest. About 80% of his products are made in Maine and 20% are imported.

He said the uncertainty around the tariffs is outweighing any potential long-term benefit. A long-time customer from Canada recently told Lyons that he would no longer be buying from Rogue Industries because of the friction between the two countries.

“Hopefully this will pass, and he’ll be able to come back,” he said. “But I did think that was kind of an interesting indicator for him to reach out.”

Lyons would like to expand his business, but says, “at the time being, it’s probably going to be, we hold with what we have.”

Hoping for More American-Made Products

American Giant CEO Bayard Winthrop takes a more positive view. He founded his clothing company in 2011 after watching the textile industry go offshore, and seeing a lack of quality, affordable American-made clothing. He started by selling one sweatshirt, and now sells a wider range of clothing, mostly direct-to-consumer, but he also has a contract with Walmart.

He sources cotton from Southeastern states like Georgia, Florida and North Carolina and has a factory in North Carolina and a joint partnership facility in Los Angeles.

“People forget that in about 1985 that all the clothing that Americans bought was made in America,” he said. “It is only in the last 40 years that that we really pursued as a country a very aggressive approach to globalization.”

In 1991, more than half of U.S. apparel, about 56%, was made in the U.S., according to statistics from the American Apparel and Footwear Association. By 2023 that number had shrunk to less than 4%.

Winthrop hopes the tariffs will bring about a return to more American-made products.

“The imbalances between our trading, in particularly with China, particularly the textiles, it’s just shocking, to be honest with you,” he said, adding that he hopes Trump’s policies “put domestic manufacturers on a bit more of a competitive footing.”

Winthrop understands people’s concerns but said it’s important to think longer term.

“Americans are worried about tariffs, and I think there’s a lot of justification for the worry because I think the administration can be volatile and unpredictable,” he said. But he added that people should put that aside.

“The idea that we’re going to be more protective of our domestic marketplace and have an industrial policy that includes manufacturing jobs is, an old idea. It’s not a new idea,” he said.

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On Thursday U.S. District Judge Leonie Brinkema found Google liable for “willfully acquiring and maintaining monopoly power” in markets for publisher ad servers and ad exchanges.

Publisher ad servers are platforms used by websites to store and manage their digital advertising inventory. Along with ad exchanges, the technology allows news publishers and other online content providers make money by selling advertising.

The judge also ruled that Google illegally dominates two markets for online advertising technology.

The company said on Friday that the judge had issued a mixed decision, where she ruled that the DOJ failed to show that Google’s advertiser tools or acquisitions of DoubleClick and AdMeld were anticompetitive but that Google’s publisher tools violated antitrust laws by excluding rivals.

The DOJ had said that Google should have to sell off at least its Google Ad Manager, which includes the company’s publisher ad server and ad exchange.

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(Reporting by Tanay Dhumal in BengaluruEditing by David Goodman)

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Sharpton called the meeting with Target CEO Brian Cornell “very constructive and candid,” according to an update from his National Action Network. Two other NAN representatives, National Board Chair Dr. W. Franklyn Richardson and Senior Advisor Carra Wallace, also attended the meeting at the organization’s New York headquarters.

Constructive and Candid Discussion

“I am going to inform our allies, including Rev. Dr. Jamal Bryant, of our discussion, what my feelings are, and we will go from there,” Sharpton said in a statement.

Bryant, an Atlanta area pastor, organized a website called targetfast.org to recruit Christians for a 40-day Target boycott. Other faith leaders endorsed the protest, which started with the beginning of Lent on March 5.

A National Action Network spokesperson confirmed earlier Thursday that Sharpton, the group’s founder and president, planned to meet Cornell in New York this week. The news was first reported by CNBC.

A Target spokesperson couldn’t immediately be reached for comment.

Related Story: Former Pentagon Spokesman Tied to Online DEI Purge Was Asked to Resign

DEI Initiatives Under Scrutiny

Target is among a slew of companies, including Walmart, Amazon and PepsiCo, that have eliminated policies and programs aimed at bolstering diversity among their employees and reducing discrimination against members of minority groups, women and LGBTQ+ people.

After returning to the White House in January, President Donald Trump moved to end DEI programswithin the federal government. He has warned schools to do the same or risk losing federal money.

The National Action Network said Sharpton met on Tuesday with PepsiCo CEO Ramon Laguarta and Steven Williams, the CEO of PepsiCo North America, to “get clarity on its stance on DEI, whether they were shutting down their commitments due to pressure from Trump and right-wing activists, and the path moving forward.”

Related Story: NAACP Sues US Education Department Over DEI School Funding Cuts

Next Steps and Corporate Partnerships

Earlier this month, Sharpton gave PepsiCo three weeks to meet with him — or suffer a boycott — to discuss reversing the company’s recent move to do away with its DEI initiatives.

The National Action Network said Thursday that Sharpton planned to consult the organization’s board members over the Easter holiday “to determine any next steps with Target, PepsiCo, and other companies that have scaled back their DEI programs or pledges.”

Target announced on Jan. 24 that it would conclude the DEI goals it had set to increase Black employees’ representation and advancement, improve Black shoppers’ experiences and promote Black-owned businesses. The company also said it planned to stop submitting reports for external diversity surveys.

It is also “further evaluating our corporate partnerships to ensure they are directly connected to our roadmap for growth,” according to a memo posted on its website.

A number of other boycotts were launched of retailers that have pulled back on DEI.

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The rate rose to 6.83% from 6.62% last week, mortgage buyer Freddie Mac said Thursday. A year ago, the rate averaged 7.1%.

Borrowing costs on 15-year fixed-rate mortgages, popular with homeowners refinancing their home loans, also rose. The average rate increased to 6.03% from 5.82% last week. It’s still down from 6.39% a year ago, Freddie Mac said.

Factors Influencing Mortgage Rates

Mortgage rates are influenced by several factors, including global demand for U.S. Treasurys, the Federal Reserve’s interest rate policy decisions and bond market investors’ expectations for future inflation.

The average rate on a 30-year mortgage loosely follows moves in the 10-year Treasury yield, which lenders use as a guide to pricing home loans.

The yield, which had mostly fallen this year after climbing to around 4.8% in mid-January, spiked last week to 4.5% amid a sell-off in government bonds triggered by investor anxiety over the potential fallout from the Trump administration’s escalating tariff war.

The 10-year Treasury yield was at 4.32% in midday trading Thursday.

Related Story: Average US Rate on a 30-Year Mortgage Dips to 6.64% for the Second Drop in 2 Weeks

Impact on Homebuyers

When mortgage rates rise, they reduce homebuyers’ purchasing power.

The average rate on a 30-year mortgage had mostly trended lower since reaching just over 7% in mid-January. This week’s increase is the first after three straight declines and brings the average rate to its highest level since Feb. 20, when it was 6.85%.

The increase in mortgage rates may put off some would-be homebuyers during what’s traditionally the busiest period of the year for home sales. Last week, mortgage applications fell 8.5% from a week earlier, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association.

At the same time, the share of applications for adjustable-rate mortgages, or ARMs, climbed to its highest level in 17 months. ARMs lower a borrower’s mortgage payment by reducing the interest rate on a mortgage for a preset number of years before it adjusts to a higher rate.

Related Story: High Mortgage Rates, Prices Dampen January Home Sales

Housing Market Outlook

Earlier this year, forecasts by housing economists generally called for the average rate on a 30-year mortgage to remain around 6.5% this year.

“Looking forward, competing economic forces are pulling mortgage rates in opposite directions, making it increasingly difficult to predict where they’ll land,” said Jiayi Xu, an economist at Realtor.com. “For buyers, the smartest move is to stress-test their budgets across a range of possible rate scenarios to stay prepared—no matter which way the winds shift.

The U.S. housing market has been in a sales slump since 2022, when mortgage rates began to climb from pandemic-era lows. Sales of previously occupied U.S. homes fell last year to their lowest level in nearly 30 years.

Easing mortgage rates and more homes on the market nationally helped drive sales higher in February from the previous month, though they were down year-over-year.

Home shoppers who can afford to buy at current mortgage rates may benefit from more buyer-friendly trends this spring homebuying season, including a sharp increase in home listings and lower asking prices in some metro areas.

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U.S. District Judge Leonie Brinkema in Alexandria, Virginia, found Google liable for “willfully acquiring and maintaining monopoly power” in markets for publisher ad servers and the market for ad exchanges which sit between buyers and sellers. Publisher ad servers are platforms used by websites to store and manage their ad inventory.

Antitrust enforcers failed to prove a separate claim that the company had a monopoly in advertiser ad networks, she wrote.

Lee-Anne Mulholland, vice president of Regulatory Affairs, said Google will appeal the ruling.

“We won half of this case and we will appeal the other half,” she said, adding that the company disagrees with the decision on its publisher tools. “Publishers have many options and they choose Google because our ad tech tools are simple, affordable and effective.”

Google Shares Drop 2%

Google’s shares were down around 2.1% at midday.

The decision clears the way for another hearing to determine what Google must do to restore competition in those markets, such as sell off parts of its business at another trial that has yet to be scheduled.

The DOJ has said that Google should have to sell off at least its Google Ad Manager, which includes the company’s publisher ad server and ad exchange.

Google now faces the possibility of two U.S. courts ordering it to sell assets or change its business practices. A judge in Washington will hold a trial next week on the DOJ’s request to make Google sell its Chrome browser and take other measures to end its dominance in online search.

Google has previously explored selling off its ad exchange to appease European antitrust regulators, Reuters reported in September.

Brinkema oversaw a three-week trial last year on claims brought by the DOJ and a coalition of states.

Google used classic monopoly-building tactics of eliminating competitors through acquisitions, locking customers in to using its products, and controlling how transactions occurred in the online ad market, prosecutors said at trial.

Google argued the case focused on the past, when the company was still working on making its tools able to connect to competitors’ products. Prosecutors also ignored competition from technology companies including Amazon.com and Comcast as digital ad spending shifted to apps and streaming video, Google’s lawyer said.

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(Reporting by Jody Godoy in New York; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama and Richard Chang)

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