• The Republican-controlled House on Thursday passed a multitrillion-dollar package of tax cuts and spending, sending the bill to President Donald Trump’s desk after a tense 24 hours of negotiations and arm-twisting.
• The mostly party-line vote of 218-214 came one day ahead of Trump’s July 4 deadline and caps an arduous process that lasted more than four months, rife with ideological clashes and acrimony between the House and Senate, where Republicans had little margin for error given their narrow majorities.
• In the end, the GOP largely unified to pack the bulk of Trump’s domestic agenda into a single measure, with just Reps. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., and Brian Fitzpatrick, R-Pa., voted against it. A bloc of Republican holdouts had initially opposed a procedural vote Wednesday to advance the bill, leading to an hours-long overnight standoff. But Trump and Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., managed to sway all but one of them, teeing up final passage in the House.
• Trump is now expected to sign the bill into law on Independence Day, marking the party’s biggest legislative accomplishment since taking full control of Washington in January.
• The 887-page package, dubbed the "one big, beautiful bill," extends the tax cuts Trump enacted in 2017, while temporarily slashing taxes on tips and overtime pay. It approves hundreds of billions of dollars in new spending on the military and to carry out Trump’s mass deportation plans. And it partially pays for all that with steep cuts to Medicaid, food aid benefits and clean energy funding. That includes an estimated US$930.0Bn in spending reductions under Medicaid, violating Trump's promise not to cut the program.
• Overall, the bill is projected to increase the national debt by US$3.3T over a decade, with the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office finding that the revenue losses of US$4.5T outstrip the spending cuts of US$1.2T. The bill also increases the debt ceiling by US$5.0T.
• Every Democrat in both chambers voted against the bill, blasting it as a tax cut for the wealthy that is paid for by cutting programs like Medicaid that benefit the working class. They plan to place a heavy focus on the bill in their message to voters ahead of the 2026 midterm elections, emboldened by polls showing that the legislation is unpopular.

(Source: Reuters)

• President Donald Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act ends long-standing federal support for solar and wind power, while creating a friendly environment for oil, gas and coal production. Trump has made his priorities on energy production clear. The U.S. will rely on oil, gas, coal and nuclear to meet its growing energy needs, the president said last weekend, bashing wind and solar power.
• The president’s embrace of fossil fuels and hostility to renewable energy is reflected in his signature domestic policy law. It delivers most of the oil and gas sector’s top priorities, according to the industry’s lobby group, while ending tax credits that have played a crucial role in the growth of solar and wind power.
• The law opens up federal lands and waters to oil and gas drilling after the Biden administration enacted curbs, mandating 30 lease sales in the Gulf of Mexico over 15 years, more than 30 every year on lands across nine states and giving the industry access to Alaska. The law also slashes the royalties that producers pay the government for pumping oil and gas on federal lands, encouraging higher output.
• The law also spurs oil companies to use a carbon capture tax credit to produce more crude. The tax credit was designed to support nascent technology that captures carbon emissions and stores them underground. Under Trump’s bill, producers would receive an increased tax benefit for injecting those emissions into wells to produce more oil¹.
• The law phases out clean electricity investment and production tax credits for wind and solar that have played a crucial role in the growth of the renewable energy industry. The investment credit has been in place since 2005 and the production credit since 1992. The Inflation Reduction Act extended the life of both until at least 2032.
• Solar and wind farms that enter service after 2027 would no longer be eligible for the credits. There is an exception, however, for projects that start construction within 12 months of the bill becoming law. The phaseout is more gradual than previous versions of the legislation, which had a hard deadline of December 31, 2027. That gave all solar and wind projects just 2.5 years to come online in order to take advantage of the credits.

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1}The law ends the hydrogen tax credit in 2028, later than previous versions of the bill. Chevron, Exxon and others are investing in projects to produce hydrogen fuel.

(Source: Reuters)

• The first week of July has seen several leadership changes or board appointments for listed companies Kintyre Holdings (formerly iCreate Limited), Access Financial Services, and Dolphin Cove.
• Kintyre’s Chairman, President & CEO Mr. Tyrone Wilson, has formally taken on the additional role of Chief Executive Officer of Visual Vibe, a wholly owned subsidiary. In this capacity, he will spearhead the expansion of the company’s digital screen network, drive investments to support new location rollouts, and diversify service offerings, including entry into new geographic markets. Additionally, Ms. Jasmin Aslan will join Kintyre Holdings as Chief Business Officer while Mr. Andrew Wildish will resign as Chief Investment Officer effective June 30, 2025. The company’s investment will transition to Tyrone Wilson, supported by the Board’s Investment Committee, chaired by Mr. Nick Rowles-Davies.
• For Access, Mr. Marcus James concluded his one-year leave of absence and will resume his position as Executive Director on the boards of Access Financial Services and Embassy Loans Inc. Meanwhile, Mr. Michael Shaw will remain Chairman of both organisations.
• Lastly, on July 30th, Dolphin Cove’s board saw the removal of Eduardo Albor Villanueva and three other Mexican directors. The leadership changes follow a shareholder request under Article 95(h) of the company’s Articles of Incorporation. Following the departures, former chairman Stafford Burrowes and Steven Robert Strom were appointed as directors effective July 1st.
• The swathe of changes in DCOVE’s board occurred amid the Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing for its parent company, World of Dolphins, which followed a similar filing by its intermediate parent, Dolphin Discovery, in Mexico. Since the filing, DCOVE’s share has declined by 37.1%, closing at $12.40 on July 2, 2025. At this price, the stock is trading at a price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio of 23.2x, which is above the Junior Market “Others” average of 20.7x

(Sources: JIS, Compiled by NCBCM Research)

• The Caribbean region was featured prominently during a Board of Directors meeting of the CAF (Spanish acronym for Andean Development Corporation) - Development Bank of Latin America and the Caribbean, held in Seville, Spain, with several landmark developments in its deepening partnership with the region. 
• A record US$5.4Bn in development financing was approved for operations across Latin America and the Caribbean. These include energy sector reforms and the green energy transition, support for Small and Medium-sized Enterprise (SME) development, railway infrastructure expansion, agriculture, and sustainable urban development. 
• In keeping with its commitment to channelling increased development financing to the Caribbean, CAF approved its first sovereign loan to The Bahamas. The loan will support key objectives outlined in the Bahamas National Energy Policy, including the modernisation and digitalisation of the electricity network, enhanced integration of renewable energy sources, improved affordability, and strengthened institutional capacity in the energy sector.
• The CAF also approved the issuance of Series C shares for the incorporation of Saint Lucia as a new shareholder country and the issuance of increased Series C shares to Antigua and Barbuda. Once the internal incorporation process is complete, Saint Lucia will be able to access CAF’s financial, technical, and knowledge services in support of its development priorities. Additionally, with the increase in Series C shares, Antigua and Barbuda will be able to access a larger envelope of development financing to advance its national development priorities.
• CAF’s Board of Directors also endorsed Barbados’ request to transition from Series “C” to Series “A” shareholder status, the highest level of membership. This will enable Barbados to appoint a Director to CAF’s Board and deepen its participation in the institution. Upon completion of the transition process, Barbados will join Trinidad and Tobago as a full member of the bank.
• The meeting was also historic in that it marked the first time a CARICOM country, Trinidad and Tobago, chaired CAF’s Board of Directors meeting. 

(Source: CAF)

• Brazil's central bank signalled a "very prolonged" pause in its interest rate-hiking cycle because policymakers need more time to assess whether data are moving in the desired direction, a senior official said on Wednesday, July 2, 2025.
• The bank's monetary policy director, Nilton David, stressed that the decision to halt the tightening cycle reflects the need to wait for signs that excess economic growth beyond potential has been absorbed, allowing inflationary pressures to ease.
• "We do believe the length of time (rates remain unchanged) has an effect," he told an event hosted by Citi. David added that the process inevitably involves a slowdown in Latin America's largest economy, which has been consistently surprising to the upside for four years. "We are absolutely convinced that monetary policy works," he said. "It's only a matter of time, and things will converge."
• The central bank raised its benchmark interest rate by 25 basis points (bps) last month to a near two-decade high of 15% and signalled it would pause tightening at its next policy meeting in July. Since September, cumulative hikes have totalled 450 basis points to tame annual inflation, which has been long running above 5%, exceeding the 3% target.
• Looking ahead, Fitch anticipates that the BCB will begin monetary policy easing before the end of 2025, with the central bank set to cut rates by 25bps to 14.75% in December and by a further 275bps to 12.00% by end-2026. However, the hawkish forward guidance that accompanied June’s rate hike means that risks to this forecast are tilted to the upside.

(Sources: Reuters & Fitch Connect)

• U.S. job openings unexpectedly increased in May, but a decline in hiring added to signs that the labour market had shifted into lower gear amid uncertainty over the Trump administration's tariffs on imports, with a 90-day pause on higher reciprocal duties ending.
• Job openings, a measure of labour demand, were up 374,000 to 7.77Mn by the last day of May, the Labour Department's Bureau of Labour Statistics said in its Job Openings and Labour Turnover Survey, or JOLTS report. Economists polled by Reuters had forecast 7.30Mn vacancies.
• Economists were mostly dismissive of the surprise rise in job openings, noting that the bulk of the increase was in the leisure and hospitality sector. Hiring, however, decreased by 112,000 to 5.50Mn, with declines concentrated in healthcare and social assistance, manufacturing, as well as professional and business services. But hiring surged by 107,000 in accommodation and food services. Ultimately, the hire rate fell to 3.4% from 3.5%.
• Economists said the JOLTS report suggested the Federal Reserve could wait until September to resume cutting interest rates. The U.S. central bank last month left its benchmark overnight interest rate in the 4.25%-4.50% range, where it has been since December.

(Source: Reuters)

• Euro zone inflation edged up last month to the European Central Bank's 2% target from 1.9% a month earlier, driven primarily by services inflation, while softer prices in energy and industrial goods helped moderate the overall increase.
• Before last month’s increase from the 1.9% low, inflation fell from as high as 2.5% in January 2025. Anticipating this fall, the ECB has lowered interest rates from record highs by two full percentage points over the last year, and debate has turned to whether it needs to ease policy further to prevent inflation from becoming too low, given weak growth.
• Last month, services inflation edged up to 3.3% from 3.2%, as prices rose 0.7% the month, supporting the argument of policy hawks that domestic inflation remains uncomfortably high, reducing the risk of undershooting.
• The development in services costs, which have been stubbornly high for years, is pivotal as it has raised fears that domestic inflation could get stuck above 2.0%.
• Financial investors expect one more ECB rate cut to 1.75% towards the end of the year, then anticipate a period of steady rates before possible increases towards the end of 2026.
• Core inflation, a closely watched measure that excludes volatile food and fuel prices, meanwhile, held steady at 2.3%, in line with expectations.
• The outlook, however, is complicated by the fact that it depends on the outcome of a trade dispute between the EU and the U.S. President Donald Trump's administration. For now, the conflict has reduced price pressures because it has sapped economic confidence, pushing up the value of the euro and lowering energy prices.

(Source: Reuters)

• Following its Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) meetings on June 25 and 26, 2025, the Bank of Jamaica (BOJ) announced that it has maintained its policy rate at 5.75%. This pause follows a previous 25bps rate cut in May 2025. The decision was made on the balance of a run of stable inflation since last September and uncertainties from global trade policies, interest rate paths in major economies, and recent geopolitical tensions that pose upside risks to inflation.
• Inflation has remained stable within the Bank’s target range of 4.0 to 6.0% since September 2024. Annual headline inflation in May 2025, as reported by the Statistical Institute of Jamaica (STATIN), was 5.2%, in line with the outturn in May 2024. Core inflation (which excludes the prices of agricultural food products and fuel from the consumer price index (CPI) was 4.6% for May 2025, remaining below the upper limit of the target since July 2023.
• The BOJ expects inflation to remain within its target range of 4.0% to 6.0% over the next eight quarters. The private sector’s expectations for future inflation, a key driver of headline inflation, have stabilised. Meanwhile, international drivers of headline inflation, such as grains, liquefied natural gas, and oil prices, have generally trended down.
• Still, risks to the inflation forecast are skewed to the upside, which means that inflation could be higher than projected. Most notably, geopolitical tensions, if prolonged or intensified, could cause upward pressures on international commodity prices. Additionally, while the direct impact of recent changes in global trade policy on domestic inflation is expected to be moderate, the second-round impact of these policies could be higher than anticipated.
• That said, the MPC communicated that it would continue to monitor the incoming data and adjust its policy accordingly at subsequent meetings.

(Source: BOJ)

• Caribbean Information and Credit Rating Services Limited (CariCRIS) has reaffirmed the regional scale ratings of GraceKennedy Limited (GK) at CariA (Local and Foreign Currency Ratings) and the Jamaica national scale ratings at jmAA (Local and Foreign Currency Ratings).
• CariCRIS has reaffirmed the Group’s regional scale rating of CariA (Local Currency Rating) for its bond issue of up to J$3Bn, as well as its Jamaica national scale rating of jmAA (Local Currency Rating). The CariA rating reflects a good level of creditworthiness for both the obligor and the debt obligation when compared to others within the Caribbean. The jmAA rating indicates a high level of creditworthiness relative to other issuers and debt obligations within Jamaica.
• CariCRIS also expects continued strong demand for the Group’s food products and services, supported by new product launches and enhanced distribution channels. The demand is expected to be bolstered by economic growth conditions in its main market, Jamaica. Notwithstanding this, the Group’s performance may be adversely affected by lingering geopolitical pressures and impending trade tensions with high levels of policy uncertainty.
• The ratings and/or outlook could improve if there is an enhancement in the Government of Jamaica’s creditworthiness. Additionally, they could also improve if the company sustained financial performance indicators such as a PAT margin of 5.5% or higher, an operating profit margin of 7.5% or higher, and a return on assets (ROA) exceeding 5%, each maintained for at least two consecutive years.
• Conversely, a downgrade could result from significant financial or operational deterioration, including sustained revenue decline, profit margin compression, rising debt levels, weakened debt service capacity, or a drop in the Government of Jamaica’s creditworthiness.

(Source: CariCRIS)

• The Dominican Republic has emerged as the Caribbean leader in proportional egg exports, dedicating 20.73% of its egg production, about 820 million units, to international trade, according to the Datos Productivos Latam 2024 report by the Latin American Egg Institute (ILH) and the Latin American Poultry Association (ALA).
• Pavel Concepción, president of the Dominican Poultry Association (ADA), emphasised that the country accounts for 45.77% of all Caribbean egg exports, outperforming larger Latin American economies.
• Additionally, the Dominican Republic boasts the lowest average egg price on the continent, just US$1.87 per dozen. This stands in stark contrast to prices in countries like the USA (US$4.95), Uruguay (US$5.55) and Chile (US$3.86). The affordability of eggs has spurred significant domestic consumption, with Dominicans consuming an average of 293 eggs per person annually, placing the country fifth in Latin America for per capita egg consumption.
• Concepción also highlighted the growth of the poultry industry, with current chicken production reaching 22.5 million birds per month, one million more than in 2024, fully meeting national demand with recognised quality standards.
• Looking ahead, the industry plans to invest more than RD$7Bn by 2025. Projects include a refrigeration plant with capacity for eight million pounds of chicken and an egg processing facility to produce liquid and powdered egg products for local and global markets. The ILH has recognised the Dominican Republic as a model in Latin America, noting its combination of high production, low prices, and strong consumption, where eggs represent just 1.76% of household spending.

(Source: Dominican Today)