Finance
Finance ministers fail to strike EU spending rules deal after hours of talks

BRUSSELS ― EU finance ministers failed to agree on a reform of the bloc’s national spending rules as a meeting in Brussels broke up at about 3 a.m. without finding a compromise.
Ministers disagreed on several technical details around the pace at which countries have to reduce spending despite months of negotiations on the overhaul of the Stability and Growth Pact, which in its current version had been considered too strict and barely enforceable.
“Tonight we have made essential progress on the reform of European budgetary rules, thanks in particular to the Spanish presidency [of the EU],” French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire said at the end of the meeting. “An agreement in the Council should be possible before the end of the year. We continue!”
Another EU diplomat was less positive, saying earlier in the night that “each of the 27 countries expressed a different opinion and different demands” and raising questions about the way in which discussions had been conducted.
Germany and other likeminded frugal countries had been insisting on stricter rules for highly-indebted countries, requiring them to cut their annual deficits ― the difference between spending and revenue ― at a faster pace. France and other southern countries called for greater flexibility.
Earlier this week, officials from Spain circulated a compromise text aimed at finding a middle ground between the two camps. The proposal, which served as a negotiation basis for the dinner talks, required highly-indebted countries to keep their annual deficits at about 1.5 percent of GDP and reduce debt by at least 1 percent of their GDP every year.
But the Spanish mediation proved to be insufficient.
“We have made a lot of progress today,” a separate EU diplomat said. “This is a challenging negotiation, and we are getting there.”
They said work would continue “in the coming days.”
Already on Thursday morning Le Maire hinted at Paris and Berlin being not yet on the same page on how fast high-indebted countries should cut spending.
As before, the rules will still require countries to bring their budget deficits to below 3 percent of GDP and limit their debt to 60 percent of GDP. Rules were suspended in 2020 to allow countries to fight the economic consequences of the COVID pandemic and remained on ice until the end of this year.
A French economy ministry official said a new compromise text by France, Germany, Italy and the Spanish EU presidency will serve as basis of new discussions.

Finance
Bel Appoints Lynn Hutkin as Chief Financial Officer
WEST ORANGE, N.J., May 20, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — The Board of Directors of Bel Fuse Inc. (Nasdaq: BELFA and BELFB) (“Bel” or the “Company”) today announced the appointment of Lynn Hutkin as Bel’s Chief Financial Officer (CFO) effective immediately following Bel’s Annual Meeting of Shareholders to be held May 27, 2025. She will be responsible for Bel’s financial strategies and will lead the global finance organization, including planning, treasury, tax, reporting and investor relations. In her new role Ms. Hutkin is succeeding Farouq Tuweiq, Bel’s current CFO, who as previously announced will vacate his CFO role immediately following Bel’s 2025 Annual Meeting of Shareholders to be held May 27, 2025, upon Mr. Tuweiq’s assumption of the President and CEO role on that same date.
Ms. Hutkin joined Bel in 2007 and has held roles with increasing responsibilities, most recently serving in the role of Vice President of Financial Reporting and Investor Relations along with her designation as Principal Accounting Officer for Bel, which she will continue in her new role (together with her newly added designation as Principal Financial Officer). In addition to her primary roles, throughout her tenure at Bel, she has also been a leader in a variety of other areas including mergers and acquisitions, bank financing, corporate insurance and employee benefit programs. Ms. Hutkin started her career at Arthur Andersen within the audit group and subsequently held roles of increasing responsibility within finance at companies ranging from an IT consulting start-up to a $250 million publicly-traded courier company prior to joining Bel. Ms. Hutkin earned her B.S. of Accountancy from Bentley University and is an active CPA in the State of New Jersey.
“I am excited to continue working with Lynn and to build upon the accomplishments we have achieved since we began working together in 2021,” said Farouq Tuweiq, Bel’s current CFO. “Bel has gone through a number of transformational steps over the past four years and Lynn has been integral in strengthening best practices at Bel and enhancing financial discipline, financial reporting and internal procedures and controls throughout the organization.”
“I’m beyond honored to step into the CFO role and very excited for the new journey ahead,” said Lynn Hutkin. “I look forward to the continued partnership with Farouq and our talented team in attaining our future goals.”
About Bel
Bel (www.belfuse.com) designs, manufactures and markets a broad array of products that power, protect and connect electronic circuits. These products are primarily used in the defense, commercial aerospace, networking, telecommunications, computing, general industrial, high-speed data transmission, transportation and eMobility industries. Bel’s portfolio of products also finds application in the automotive, medical, broadcasting and consumer electronics markets. Bel’s product groups include Power Solutions and Protection (front-end, board-mount, industrial and transportation power products, module products and circuit protection), Connectivity Solutions (expanded beam fiber optic, copper-based, RF and RJ connectors and cable assemblies), and Magnetic Solutions (integrated connector modules, power transformers, power inductors and discrete components). The Company operates facilities around the world.
Finance
Home Depot Q1 earnings: What to expect amid tariff pressures
00:00 Speaker A
Home Depot set to report its latest quarterly earnings before the bell on Tuesday. Yahoo! Finance’s Brooke Palmer here with what to expect from the home improvement retailer. So what do we got?
00:08 Brooke Palmer
Well, Wall Street expects it’s going to be a slow start to the year for Home Depot, most certainly, and that’s really as two key points really weigh on consumers. That uncertainty around tariffs, and also those elevated home prices, elevated mortgage rates have really continued to create challenges around the housing market, and that’s expected to have weighed on Home Depot’s first quarter, certainly as potential buyers were spooked off by those higher prices. If we take a closer look at what Wall Street expects here, they still do expect revenue to grow year-over-year roughly 8% to $39.29 billion. Adjusted earnings are expected to decline year-over-year to $3.59. Now, one key area here that all Wall Street has watching is that same-store sales growth number. For eight straight quarters, we saw negative sales growth for Home Depot, and in the Q4, that number turned around. Now, more bad news is expected on the same-store sales growth front. Wall Street does expect that it did fall during this quarter down 0.2%, but experts tell me that Home Depot should be a key winner in the long term here. They say that they have this pro business that makes up about half of their customer base. We know that they recently acquired SRS distribution, that’s professional business segment for roughly $18.25 billion last summer. So Wall Street optimistic that that pro business will certainly turn the tide here.
02:06 Speaker A
And what does Walmart’s recent warning, what does that mean for Home Depot, potentially?
02:12 Brooke Palmer
Right, well, two key things here is that they warned that tariffs would create higher prices. Some experts telling me that they that may have opened up the floodgates here in order for others to say, we too have to raise prices because of tariffs. In addition to that, we also know that Walmart loves to tout that they make a majority of their goods here in the U.S. Home Depot, a similar notion. They said a majority of their goods that we sell are produced in the U.S. Both Walmart and Home Depot, they both have some exposure to China here. And so really, you sort of relating those two. They might have to raise higher prices. We also know that Walmart reiterated their guidance. Could we hear similar for not just from Home Depot, but Lowe’s reporting the following day and, of course, Target after that. And so Walmart perhaps might have set a precedent here on what these next earnings will look like.
03:11 Speaker A
All right, we’ll wait and see. Brooke, thank you. Appreciate it.
Finance
Asian shares slide and US futures and dollar drop after Wall Street’s winning week
HONG KONG (AP) — Asian shares fell Monday and U.S. futures and the dollar weakened after Moody’sRatings downgraded the sovereign credit rating for the United States because of its failure to stem a rising tide of debt.
The future for the S&P 500 lost 0.9% while that for the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.6%. The U.S. dollar slipped to 145.14 Japanese yen from 145.65 yen. The euro was unchanged at $1.1183.
Chinese markets fell after the government said retail sales rose 5.1% in April from a year earlier, less than expected. Growth in industrial output slowed to 6.1% year-on-year from 7.7% in March.
That could mean rising inventories if production outpaces demand even more than it already does. But it also may reflect some of the shipping boom before some of U.S. President Donald Trump’s tariffs on Chinese goods took effect.
“After an improvement in March, China’s economy looks to have slowed again last month, with firms and households turning more cautious due to the trade war,” Julian Evans-Pritchard of Capital Economics said in a report.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng lost 0.7% to 23,184.74 and the Shanghai Composite Index edged 0.2% lower to 3,361.72.
Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 gave up 0.4% to 37,605.85 while the Kospi in Seoul dropped 1% to 2,600.57.
Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 declined 0.1% to 8,333.80.
Taiwan’s Taiex was 0.8% lower.
Wall Street cruised to a strong finish last week as U.S. stocks glided closer to the all-time high they set just a few months earlier, though it may feel like an economic era ago.
The S&P 500 rose 0.7% to 5,958.38 for a fifth straight gain. It has rallied to within 3% of its record set in February after it briefly dropped roughly 20% below it last month.
Gains have been driven by hopes that Trump will lower his tariffs against other countries after reaching trade deals with them.
The Dow industrials added 0.8% to 42,654.74, and the Nasdaq composite climbed 0.5% to 19,211.10.
Trump’s trade war sent financial markets reeling because they could slow the economy and drive it into a recession, while also pushing inflation higher.
This week featured some encouraging news on each of those fronts. The United States and China announced a 90-day stand-down in most of their punishing tariffs against each other, while a couple of reports on inflation in the United States came in better than economists expected.
That uncertainty has been hitting U.S. households and businesses, raising worries that they may freeze their spending and long-term plans. The latest reading in a survey of U.S. consumers by the University of Michigan showed sentiment soured again in May, though the pace of decline wasn’t as bad as in prior months.
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