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BYD’s shares rose in Hong Kong after the Chinese electric-vehicle company unveiled its new fast-charging technology and announced an employee share incentive plan.

Shares rose as much as 6.0% to a record 408.80 Hong Kong dollars, equivalent to US$52.61, early Tuesday before paring gains to 3.2%. BYD’s Shenzhen-listed shares rose 0.5%.

BYD unveiled its new charging technology, which it said is capable of providing 400 kilometers of range in five minutes of charging time. That means users can charge their EVs as quickly as it takes conventional cars to refuel, BYD said.
Chinese leader Xi Jinping is angry about a Hong Kong company’s plan to sell Panama Canal ports to a U.S.-led group, in part because the company didn’t seek Beijing’s approval in advance, people familiar with the matter said.

The Xi leadership had originally planned to use the Panama port issue as a bargaining chip in negotiations with the Trump administration, according to people close to Beijing’s decision-making, only to see the rug pulled out from under it.
Spanish banking giant Santander SAN 0.63%increase; green up pointing triangle is pushing to expand its U.S. operations through a partnership that taps into Verizon’s VZ 0.55%increase; green up pointing triangle vast customer base.

The two companies have struck a deal that will let some of Verizon’s millions of customers earn bill credits if they open a high-yield savings account with Santander’s new digital bank platform and meet certain balance thresholds.

Santander will also consider other partnerships as it moves to become a full-service digital bank in the U.S., said Ana Botín, the bank’s executive chair, in an interview. A broader deposit base would allow the bank to lend more in the U.S., where it is already a major auto lender.
China has halted imports of liquefied natural gas from the U.S. for the past 40 days amid an escalating global trade war since President Donald Trump took office, reported Bloomberg.

The purchase freeze was the result of Trump’s imposing an additional 10% tariff on all Chinese imports on Feb. 2. In response, China imposed 15% tariffs on U.S. LNG imports and a lower tariff on crude oil imports.

China is the world’s largest buyer of LNG. The U.S. is the top global LNG shipper but was the No. 4 supplier to China in 2024.

USA

Trump will announce widespread reciprocal tariffs on nations or blocs but is set to exclude some, and — as of now — the administration is not planning separate, sectoral-specific tariffs to be unveiled at the same event, as Trump had once teased, officials said.

Still, Trump is looking for immediate impact with his tariffs, planning announced rates that would take effect right away, one of the officials said. And the measures are likely to further strain ties with allied nations and provoke at least some retaliation, threatening a spiraling escalation. Only countries that don’t have tariffs on the US, and with whom the US has a trade surplus, will not be tariffed under the reciprocal plan, an official said.
In remarks in the Oval Office, Trump said he was not interested in making exceptions to the broad “fair and reciprocal” duties he’d foreshadowed in February that he now says will be imposed April 2.

The president singled out China, saying there would be room for “talk” on trade issues with the country while adding he hoped to meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping in the near term.

Despite that bit of give, it has become clear that the Trump administration is not backing down on its plan to establish sweeping trade levies, even as those efforts have sharply curbed near-term U.S. growth expectations while putting pressure on global GDP.
A new group aims to bolster U.S. manufacturing via policies that ensure markets reward goods made more cleanly than competitors abroad.

Why it matters: The Cleaner Economy Coalition sees an opening in the Trump era even as it preps for much longer-term work.

  • Its first outside lobbyists are Trump-world and Capitol Hill GOP leadership vets.


  • Driving the news: It's a new affiliate of the Climate Leadership Council (CLC), a group that GOP elder statesmen launched in 2017.
    Not long ago, it looked like Jerome Powell’s final test as Federal Reserve chair would be to stick the soft landing. Now, with about one year left in his term, he faces a serious complication: navigating a trade war that threatens to push prices up while weakening the economy.

    During a seven-year tenure that included Donald Trump’s first trade war, a pandemic, historic inflation and high-profile bank failures, Powell’s final act also unfolds with an imperative to preserve the institution’s apolitical DNA that protects its autonomy in setting interest rates.

    Texas

    The Texas Senate has given initial passage to a bill that would ban residents of and organizations based in China, Iran, North Korea and Russia from owning property in Texas.

    The bill’s passage comes as many Asian community groups have decried the proposal from Sen. Lois Kolkhorst, R-Brenham, as discriminatory. The bill now heads to the House, where a similar proposal has also been filed.

    The nations targeted in the ban are derived from annual threat assessment reports by the Director of National Intelligence. China, Iran, North Korea and Russia are the only countries listed as hostile nations in the most recent federal threat assessment reports.
    OCI Holdings Co. plans to spend $265 million building a solar-cell production facility in Texas, despite shifting priorities around clean energy in the US following the election of Donald Trump as president.

    The plant is expected to have production capacity of around 2 gigawatts of solar cells, with commercial operations slated to start by 2026, according to a statement from the South Korean company on Thursday. The project will be developed by OCI’s US subsidiary, Mission Solar Energy.
    The Metroplex is still a top destination for people looking to move but its appeal may be softening just a tad.

    Dallas-Fort Worth experienced the third largest population gain among metropolitan areas last year, according to new estimates from the U.S. Census Bureau. That was down from first overall a year prior.

    DFW added an estimated 177,922 residents from July 1, 2023 to July 1, 2024, to reach an estimated 8.3 million people, according to the federal data released March 12. That is a huge number — it equates to growing by roughly 487 people a day, including both migration and natural increases — and was even higher than the 2022-23 estimate, but other places are adding even more.

    Austin

    The Live Music Capital of the World is closer to getting a major new venue in Southeast Austin.

    Los Angeles-based AEG Presents, a global operator of music venues and festivals, has announced it will open the planned 65,000-square-foot, 4,000-person-capacity facility as soon as the first quarter of 2027 in Southeast Austin's River Park mixed-use development.
    A supplier of building materials is expanding its manufacturing capabilities in the Austin metro by signing the first lease at Georgetown’s Blue Springs Business Park.

    Pennsylvania-based 84 Lumber signed an 84,633-square-foot lease at the business park on Feb. 13, with the intent of using the space for its door manufacturing division, according to an announcement.

    The lease is the first signed at the 604,064-square-foot Blue Springs Business Park, located at 610 Blue Springs Blvd. and owned by Chicago-based Molto Properties.
    The South by Southwest Conference and Festival is undergoing a dramatic transformation. With dwindling band numbers and a surge in Film interest, the event will present a trimmed-down schedule that is two days shorter. SXSW is also offering a lifeline to cash-strapped, would-be attendees with unprecedented early bird discounts slashing badge prices in half for a limited time.

    While the change eliminates what was traditionally a music-centric second weekend, festival organizers say the music festival is not getting shorter.
    Fresh off moving its headquarters to Austin, T1 Energy Inc. — formerly known as Freyr Battery Inc. — has announced it's opening a $850 million solar cell manufacturing facility in Milam County that will create up to 1,800 jobs.

    T1 (NYSE: TE) on March 17 said it has executed a lease-and-purchase option for 100 acres at the 3,300-acre Advanced Manufacturing Logistix Campus, which is the site of the former Alcoa aluminum smelter plant that's being redeveloped by Dallas-based Xebec Holdings LLC.

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