Top Stories This Morning: Trump Bought Stocks on the Dip; Riyadh Boosts Oil Exports

U.S. President Donald Trump’s financial disclosure statement revealed that on April 8, 2025, during a market crash triggered by tariffs, he was buying up shares of major technology companies. Bloomberg has learned that the White House has stepped up its efforts to reshuffle the Federal Reserve’s leadership following the Supreme Court’s decision to uphold Lisa Cook’s seat on the Board of Governors. Read about these and other topics in our roundup of key events as of the morning of July 3.

The Donald Trump administration has stepped up its efforts to reshuffle the leadership of the Federal Reserve following a Supreme Court ruling that temporarily upheld Lisa Cook’s seat on the Board of Governors, Bloomberg reports, citing sources. The White House intends to re-initiate the process to remove her and is also considering options for removing former Fed Chair Jerome Powell, who remains on the board and could serve in that position until 2028.

At the same time, the administration hopes to increase its influence over the regulator by appointing a new president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta. According to Bloomberg, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent is already vetting candidates, as the head of the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta will gain a vote on interest rate decisions in 2027.

According to Donald Trump’s 2025 financial disclosure form, which CNBC reviewed , the president made 327 stock purchases on April 8 of last year—more than five times his average daily volume. The bulk of the purchases were in shares of Apple, Alphabet, Amazon, Microsoft, and Nvidia, which had plummeted in price following the announcement of large-scale import tariffs.

The very next day, Trump urged investors to “buy,” and later announced a partial rollback of tariffs, after which the S&P 500 index rose by nearly 9.5% in a single trading session. The White House told CNBC that the U.S. president’s assets are managed by independent financial institutions and that there is no conflict of interest.

Shares of Kuaishou, a Chinese short-video platform, jumped nearly 7% in Hong Kong trading following the announcement that its subsidiary, Kling AI, had raised 19 billion yuan ($2.8 billion), according to CNBC. Tencent participated in the funding round, investing $200 million, and the AI video generator developer’s total valuation reached approximately $15 billion.

Following the transaction, Kuaishou’s stake in Kling AI will be reduced to 68%. In addition to Tencent, 21 other independent investors participated in the funding round. According to the company, the Kling AI platform, launched in June 2024, already has more than 60 million users worldwide.

Following the agreement between the U.S. and Iran to resume shipping through the Strait of Hormuz, Saudi Arabia has sharply increased its oil shipments via this route, according to CNBC. According to Kpler, since June 17, the kingdom has shipped about 34 million barrels this way—more than double the amount shipped from March 9 to June 17, when exports were limited due to the conflict.

A significant portion of these shipments consisted of oil loaded before the war, but Riyadh is also gradually restoring normal export logistics through terminals in the Persian Gulf. Despite the recent escalation between the U.S. and Iran, tanker traffic through the Strait of Hormuz continues: according to Windward, approximately 8.5 million barrels of oil passed through the strait on July 2 alone.

— Japan's broad-based Topix index rose 1%, while the Nikkei 225 rose 1.2%.

— Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index rose 1.3%, while mainland China's CSI 300 Index rose 1.6%.

— In South Korea, the KOSPI index jumped 4.8%, while the KOSDAQ fell 0.5%.

— Australia's S&P/ASX 200 rose 1.4%.

— U.S. markets are closed ahead of Independence Day celebrations.

This article was AI-translated and verified by a human editor