Wednesday, September 16, 2026, at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, DC.
Daniel Heuer | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Hello, my name is Anique Bao from Singapore. Welcome to another edition of CNBC’s Daily Open.
Canadian Prime Minister Mike Carney said in Brussels that Canada would choose its own partners, ignoring warnings from US President Donald Trump.
President Trump appears to be bracing for a fight with the European Union and Canada, but expressed optimism that the Iran war is nearing an end even as tensions between Saudi Arabia and the Houthi front rise, reminding him that a single ceasefire will not calm the entire region.
Where Washington’s influence is clear is in tariffs, where Congress just gave President Trump another weapon to take aim at Beijing and New Delhi.
What you need to know today
On Wednesday, MEPs gave Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney a standing ovation as European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen touted the Alliance for the Future, which would make Canada its first associate member state.
President Trump dismissed the idea as “ridiculous,” calling Canada a “terrible” trading partner and warning that the move could impose higher tariffs on Europe if it was malicious. “If it’s a good intention, that’s fine,” he said.
Mr Carney welcomed the EU’s proposal, saying: “We are not seeking power to control other countries…We are seeking resilience so that no one can control our open markets.”
Trump to raise tariffs
Days after BRICS leaders, including China and India, publicly rejected unilateral secondary sanctions, the House of Representatives passed a Russia sanctions bill that gives President Trump legal authority to impose tariffs of up to 100% on countries that buy Russian oil.
New Delhi and Beijing are among the top five buyers of Russian oil, making them a direct target of President Trump. Deborah Elms, a trade policy expert, said the law would allow Trump to “attack hard and fast at any time, for any reason.”
Experts said that while neither China nor India was likely to cut back on Russian oil, the tariffs would give the United States more leverage in dealing with New Delhi and China.
Iran war “hopefully” coming to an end
President Trump said the United States is “hopefully” close to ending the nearly seven-month war with Iran, even as fighting continues to rage on separate fronts between Saudi Arabia and Yemen’s Iranian-backed Houthis.
“I hope the war is coming to an end. They want a deal, but let’s see how that goes,” Trump told reporters in North Carolina on Wednesday night, adding that he had spoken “directly” with Tehran, without providing details.
U.S. stock futures were little changed Thursday night, a day after the Federal Reserve’s first rate hike in three years sent major stock averages higher, but Asian markets opened higher as oil prices continued to fall for the third day in a row.
Federal Reserve Board Member Michelle Bowman, a permanent vote on the rate-setting committee, and Kansas City Fed President Jeffrey Schmidt, a non-voting member, are scheduled to share remarks on Friday, and investors will hear more on Wednesday’s unanimous rate hike.
The Bank of Japan concluded its two-day policy meeting on Friday and is widely expected to raise the rate by 0.5 percentage point to 1.25%, the highest level in 31 years, although it remains within the bank’s estimated neutral range of 1.1% to 2.5%.
AI guardrails
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang said the company expects to sell twice as many chips in 2027 as it did this year, while also calling for formal AI safety testing.
Palantir CEO Alex Karp called for “reasonable guidelines” on AI, but said the technology’s “infinite risks” may ultimately require nationalization.
“The view they have is that these companies have to be nationalized, because if they don’t nationalize, all of my clients are going to be sued,” Karp said Thursday on CNBC’s “Squawk on the Streets.”
Amid the debate over whether to slow down frontier AI development, Anthropic has released three metrics it says are worth seeing for the public: AI-driven research and development, AI agent monitoring, and compute allocation within Anthropic.
Meanwhile, a report by US-based research firm Rhodium Group highlighted that while China’s AI models are rapidly gaining traction, their popularity is yet to translate into revenue.
— Anique Bao
And finally…
Japan’s business leaders are sounding the alarm over the weak yen, and even dollar earners are voicing concerns.
Japanese business executives, including those that have benefited from a weaker yen, are seeking a stronger currency, and Kawasaki Heavy Industries has said it will bring manufacturing back home if the yen strengthens.
If the yen fluctuates, “you can’t make a strategy,” Yoshinori Kanehana, chairman of Kawasaki Heavy Industries, told CNBC on the sidelines of the Gastech conference on Tuesday. That’s the company’s “biggest problem,” he said.
Mr. Kaneka said that if the price reaches 150 yen, he may consider moving manufacturing from the United States to Japan. According to a company report issued last year, the company has 27 production bases overseas, including the United States, and 17 domestic production bases.
— Lisa Kim
