Reuters

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. trade deficit narrowed slightly in March as a decline in imports was tempered somewhat by a plunge in exports.

The trade deficit contracted 0.1% to $69.4 billion, the Commerce Department's Bureau of Economic Analysis said on Thursday. Data for February was revised to show the trade gap widening to $69.5 billion instead of $68.9 billion as previously reported. Economists polled by Reuters had forecast the deficit... (continue reading...)

By Candelaria Grimberg and Horacio Soria

BUENOS AIRES (Reuters) - Argentina's nuclear energy ambitions are coming under pressure from a tough austerity package and cost-cutting drive by libertarian President Javier Milei, the head of the National Atomic Energy Commission (CNEA) told Reuters.

The squeeze on the budget of CNEA, which oversees research and development of nuclear energy in Argentina, has stalled construction work on the... (continue reading...)

(Reuters) - Construction supplies maker Vulcan Materials reported first-quarter profit above Wall Street estimates on Thursday, as price hikes helped offset the impact of bad weather on demand for aggregates such as gravel, sand and crushed stone.

Demand for construction supplies has risen since the Biden administration's $1 trillion infrastructure package was rolled out in 2021 in a bid to improve roads, railways, and other transportation... (continue reading...)

By Laurie Chen and Michel Rose

BEIJING/PARIS (Reuters) - Chinese President Xi Jinping heads to Europe for the first time in five years next week in a visit that may lay bare European divisions over trade with Beijing and how the continent positions itself as a pole between the United States and China.

Xi travels to France, Serbia and Hungary at a time when the European Union is threatening to hammer China's electric vehicle and green... (continue reading...)

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. worker productivity growth slowed sharply in the first quarter, resulting in a surge in labor costs, but the trend in productivity remained solid.

Nonfarm productivity, which measures hourly output per worker, increased at a 0.3% annualized rate last quarter after rising at a 3.5% pace in the October-December period, the Labor Department's Bureau of Labor Statistics said on Thursday.

The government on Friday... (continue reading...)