°®¶¹´«Ã½

The security reasons given by the White House for imposing tariffs on Europe make no sense, the prime minister of Denmark said as he questioned the underlying logic of U.S. trade policy.

China will respond to any tariffs imposed by the U.S. against alleged violations of intellectual property rights with the same proportion, scale and intensity, said its U.S. ambassador Cui Tiankai.

Stock prices opened the second quarter with another sharp decline April 2 as investors grew increasingly worried about the rising U.S. trade dispute with China and a flurry of problems hammering the nation’s marquee technology firms.

Spending on U.S. construction projects ticked up a mere 0.1% in February from the prior month, a sign that a growing economy is doing little to spur a more rapid pace for building homes, hospitals and highways.

U.S. factories expanded at a slightly slower pace in March, and a measure of raw-material prices hit an almost seven-year high, as manufacturers struggled to keep up with demand, data from the Institute for Supply Management showed April 2.

Consumer sentiment in March reached the highest level since 2004 as a solid labor market and growth expectations offset concerns about tariffs and stock-market volatility, a University of Michigan survey showed March 29.

Consumer spending lagged behind income growth for a second month in February, showing American households were taking a breather after a late-2017 surge. Inflation, meanwhile, ticked up.

U.S. filings for unemployment benefits unexpectedly fell last week to the lowest level since January 1973, further evidence that the labor market remains tight, Labor Department figures showed March 29.

A gauge of signed contracts to purchase previously-owned U.S. homes increased in February for the first time in three months, highlighting uneven progress in the industry, according to data released March 28 from the National Association of Realtors in Washington.

The U.S. economy grew in the fourth quarter at a faster pace than last estimated, helped by an upward revision to household spending on services and a smaller drag from inventories, according to Commerce Department data released March 28.