Economy
Renewed Trade Deal Uncertainty Weigh on Wall Street
By Investors Hub
The major U.S. index futures are pointing to a pointing to a lower opening on Thursday, with stocks likely to move back to the downside after ending the previous session moderately higher.
Renewed uncertainty about the potential for a long-term U.S.-China trade deal may contribute to initial weakness on Wall Street.
Optimism about phase one of a trade deal has contribute to recent strength on Wall Street, but a new report from Bloomberg said Chinese officials are casting doubts about reaching a comprehensive long-term trade agreement.
People familiar with the matter told Bloomberg that Chinese officials have warned in private conversations that they are unwilling to budge on the thorniest issues.
Early selling pressure may be somewhat subdued, however, with better than expected earnings news from tech giant Apple (AAPL) likely to help limit the downside.
With traders reacting positively to the Federal Reserve’s monetary policy decision, stocks moved moderately higher over the course of the trading session on Wednesday. With the upward move, the S&P 500 reached a new record closing high.
The major averages pulled back off their highs going into the close but remained in positive territory. The Dow climbed 115.27 points or 0.4 percent to 27,186.69, the Nasdaq rose 27.12 points or 0.3 percent to 8,303.98 and the S&P 500 ended the day up 9.88 points or 0.3 percent at 3,046.77.
Stocks showed a lack of direction for most of the day until the Fed announced its decision to lower interest rates for the third straight meeting.
The Fed announced its widely expected decision to lower the target range for the federal funds rate by 25 basis points to 1-1/2 to 1-3/4 percent.
The quarter point rate cut follows two matching moves at the Fed’s meetings in September and July, which marked the first rate cuts in over a decade.
Traders seemed unfazed by a change to the accompanying statement suggesting the central bank may put further monetary policy easing on hold.
The Fed’s accompanying statement removed a key line indicating the central bank would continue to “act as appropriate to sustain the expansion.”
The line was included in each of the Fed’s three previous statements and was seen as pointing toward a near-term rate cut.
The Fed said it would continue to monitor the implications of incoming information for the economic outlook as it assesses the appropriate path of the target range for the federal funds rate.
“It’s a small change, but suggests less willingness to continue cutting rates in future,” FHN Financial Chief Economist Chris Low said about removing the line.
Low added, “In other words, while the FOMC was previously in the midst of a mid-cycle series of rate cuts and assessing whether to end it, the new language suggests they are ready to end it, but alert for evidence it should continue.”
The Fed is scheduled to hold its next monetary policy meeting on December 10-11, with CME Group’s FedWatch tool currently indicating a 79.1 percent chance the central bank will leave rates unchanged.
In his post-meeting press conference, Fed Chairman Jerome Powell said the current stance of monetary policy is “likely to remain appropriate” as long as “the outlook remains broadly in keeping with our expectations.”
Powell also told reporters the Fed would need to see a “really significant move up in inflation that’s persistent” before the central bank would consider raising interest rates.
With the focus on the Fed, traders largely shrugged off the release of some upbeat U.S. economic data, including the Commerce Department’s first reading on third quarter GDP.
The Commerce Department report showed U.S. economic growth slowed much less than expected in the third quarter.
The report said real gross domestic product increased by 1.9 percent in the third quarter after climbing by 2.0 percent in the second quarter. Economists had expected GDP growth to slow to 1.7 percent.
Payroll processor ADP released a separate report showing U.S. private sector employment increased by slightly more than anticipated in the month of October.
ADP said private sector employment climbed by 125,000 jobs in October compared to economist estimates for an increase of about 120,000 jobs.
However, the report also showed private sector job growth in September was downwardly revised to 93,000 from the previously reported addition of 135,000 jobs.
“Job growth has throttled way back over the past year,” said Mark Zandi, chief economist of Moody’s Analytics. “If hiring weakens any further, unemployment will begin to rise.”
Gold stocks showed a strong move to the upside over the course of the session, driving the NYSE Arca Gold Bugs Index up by 1.5 percent. The strength among gold stocks came amid an increase by the price of the precious metal.
Notable strength also emerged among software and pharmaceutical stocks, with the Dow Jones U.S. Software Index and the NYSE Arca Pharmaceutical Index both rising by 1.4 percent.
On the other hand, energy stocks moved sharply lower as the price of crude oil fell following the release of a report showing a much bigger than expected weekly jump in crude oil inventories.
Reflecting the weakness in the sector, the Philadelphia Oil Service Index plummeted by 4.4 percent, the NYSE Arca Natural Gas Index plunged by 3.7 percent and the NYSE Arca Oil Index tumbled by 2.2 percent.
Considerable weakness also remained visible among transportation stocks, as reflected by the 1.8 percent slump by the Dow Jones Transportation Average.
C.H. Robinson Worldwide (CHRW) led the sector lower after the trucking company reported third quarter results that missed analyst estimates.
By Adedapo Adesanya
Nigeria’s crude oil production slipped slightly to 1.422 million barrels per day in December 2025 from 1.436 million barrels per day in November, according to data from the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC).
OPEC in its Monthly Oil Market Report (MOMR), quoting primary sources, noted that the oil output was below the 1.5 million barrels per day quota for the nation.
The OPEC data indicate that Nigeria last met its production quota in July 2025, with output remaining below target from August through December.
Quarterly figures reveal a consistent decline across 2025; Q1: 1.468 million barrels per day, Q2: 1.481 million barrels per day, Q3: 1.444 million barrels per day, and 1.42 million barrels per day in Q4.
However, the cartel acknowledged that despite the gradual decrease in oil production, Nigeria’s non-oil sector grew in the second half of last year.
The organisation noted that “Nigeria’s economy showed resilience in 2H25, posting sound growth despite global challenges, as strength in the non-oil economy partly offset slower growth in the oil sector.”
According to the report, cooling inflation, a stronger Naira, lower refined fuel imports, and stronger remittance inflows are improving domestic and external conditions.
“A stronger naira, easing food prices due to the harvest, and a cooling in core inflation also point to gradually fading underlying pressures”, the report noted.
It forecast inflation to decelerate further on the back of past monetary tightening, currency strength, and seasonal harvest effects, though it noted that monetary policy remains restrictive.
“Seasonally adjusted real GDP growth at market prices moderated to stand at 3.9%, y-o-y, in 3Q25, down from 4.2% in 2Q25. Nonetheless, this is still a healthy and robust growth level, supported by strengthening non-oil activity, with growth in that segment rising by 0.3 percentage points to 3.9%, y-o-y. Inflation continued to decelerate in November, with headline CPI falling for an eighth straight month to 14.5%, y-o-y, following 16.1%, y-o-y, in October”.
OPEC, however, stated that while preserving recent disinflation gains is important, the persistently high policy rate – implying real interest rates of around 12% – risks weighing on aggregate demand in the near term.
By Aduragbemi Omiyale
The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) on Thursday revealed that inflation rate for December 2025 stood at 15.15 per cent compared with the 14.45 per cent it put the previous month.
However, it recalculated the November 2025 inflation rate at 17.33 per cent after using a 12-month index reference period where the average consumer price index (CPI) for the 12 months of 2024 is equated to 100. This is a departure from the single-month index reference period, in which December 2024 was set to 100, which would have produced an artificial spike in the December 2025 year-on-year inflation rate.
The NBS had earlier informed stakeholders a few days ago that it was changing its methodology for inflation to reflect the economic reality. This is coming after the organisation changed the base year from 2009 to 2024 earlier in 2025.
In its report released today, the stats agency explained that this process was in line with international best practice as contained in the Consumer Price Index Inter-national Monetary Fund (IMF) Manual, specifically in Section 9.125 and the ECOWAS Harmonised CPI Manual, which address index reference period maximisation, following a rebasing exercise.
On a month-on-month basis, the headline inflation rate in December 2025 was 0.54 per cent, lower than the 1.22 per cent recorded in November 2025.
The NBS also revealed that on a year-on-year basis, the urban inflation rate for last month stood at 14.85 per cent versus 37.29 per cent in December 2024, while on a month-on-month basis, it jumped to 0.99 per cent from 0.95 per cent in the preceding month.
As for the rural inflation rate in December 2025, it stood at 14.56 per cent on a year-on-year basis from 32.47 per cent in December 2024, and on a month-on-month basis, it declined to -0.55 per cent from 1.88 per cent in November 2025.
It was also disclosed that food inflation rate in December 2025 was 10.84 per cent on a year-on-year basis from 39.84 per cent in December 2024, while on a month-on-month basis, it declined to -0.36 per cent from 1.13 per cent in November 2025 (1.13%).
This was attributed to the rate of decrease in the average prices of tomatoes, garri, eggs, potatoes, carrots, millet, vegetables, plantain, beans, wheat grain, grounded pepper, fresh onions and others.
By Modupe Gbadeyanka
Companies operating in Lagos State have been reminded of their obligations to file their annual tax returns for the 2025 financial year on or before January 31, 2026.
This reminder was given by the Lagos State Internal Revenue Service (LIRS) in a statement made available to Business Post on Thursday.
In the notice signed by the chairman of the tax agency, Mr Ayodele Subair, it was stressed that filing the tax returns is an obligation as stipulated in the Nigeria Tax Administration Act (NTAA) 2025.
He explained that employers are required to file detailed returns on emoluments and compensation paid to their employees, as well as payments made to their service providers, vendors and consultants, and to ensure that all applicable taxes due for the year 2025 are fully remitted.
Mr Subair emphasised that filing of annual returns is a mandatory legal obligation, and warned that failure to comply will result in statutory sanctions, including administrative penalties, as prescribed under the new tax law.
According to Section 14 of the NTAA, employers are required to file detailed annual returns of all emoluments paid to employees, including taxes deducted and remitted to relevant tax authorities. Such returns must be filed and submitted not later than January 31 each year.
“Employers must prioritise the timely filing of their annual income tax returns. Compliance should be part of our everyday business practice.
“Early and accurate filing not only ensures adherence to the law as required by the Nigerian Constitution, but also supports effective revenue tracking, which is important to Lagos State’s fiscal planning and sustainability,” he noted.
The LIRS chief disclosed that electronic filing via the organisation’s eTax platform remains the only approved and acceptable mode of filing, as manual submissions have been completely phased out. This measure, he said, is aimed at simplifying and standardising tax administration processes in the state.
Employers are therefore required to submit their annual tax returns exclusively through the LIRS eTax portal: https://etax.lirs.net.
Dr Subair described the channel as secure, user-friendly, accessible 24/7, and designed to provide employers with a convenient and efficient means of fulfilling their tax obligations, advising firms to ensure that the tax identification number (Tax ID) of all employees is correctly captured in their filings, noting that employees without a Tax ID must generate one promptly to avoid disruptions during the filing process.
-
Feature/OPED6 years agoDavos was Different this year
-
Travel/Tourism9 years ago
Lagos Seals Western Lodge Hotel In Ikorodu
-
Showbiz3 years agoEstranged Lover Releases Videos of Empress Njamah Bathing
-
Banking8 years agoSort Codes of GTBank Branches in Nigeria
-
Economy3 years agoSubsidy Removal: CNG at N130 Per Litre Cheaper Than Petrol—IPMAN
-
Banking3 years agoFirst Bank Announces Planned Downtime
-
Banking3 years agoSort Codes of UBA Branches in Nigeria
-
Sports3 years agoHighest Paid Nigerian Footballer – How Much Do Nigerian Footballers Earn