European leaders on Monday sought to defend their trade deal with President Donald Trump, an accord that will see the European Union accepting a 15% tariff on most of its exports to the US while reducing levies on some American products to zero.

Industry officials in Germany have warned that the deal leaves the auto industry exposed and will make companies in Europe less competitive. “The agreement is an inadequate compromise and sends a disastrous signal to the closely intertwined economies on both sides of the Atlantic,” said Wolfgang Niedermark, a member of the executive board of Germany’s BDI industry federation.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen hailed the agreement, arguing it will offer stability and predictability to businesses and consumers. Von der Leyen urged critics to “not forget where we came from,” referencing tariff rates Trump threatened that were as high as 50%. 

Wall Street appeared to be aware of the dodged bullet argument, kicking off a pivotal week with record highs and a dollar that climbed the most since May. The euro meanwhile slid the most in more than two months. The S&P 500 briefly topped 6,400 and Treasuries barely budged amid mixed results from US debt sales. Here’s your markets wrap. —Natasha Solo-Lyons

What You Need to Know Today

Wall Street is seizing control of Bitcoin’s center of gravity. Once ruled by offshore venues and retail-driven fervor, the world’s largest cryptocurrency is now increasingly priced and steered from within the US financial system. Through a fast-growing market in exchange-listed options tied to exchange-traded funds and indexes, retail and increasingly institutional players are redefining how Bitcoin trades—from tactical hedges to volatility strategies—all without touching the underlying asset. What began as a subversive experiment for crypto natives is being retooled for the playbooks of traditional finance.

Auto tariffs are stoking mass-termination angst in Canada’s once-proud motor city. Unemployment has surged in Oshawa and now tops 9%, one of the highest rates of any Canadian city. In May, shortly after Trump imposed tariffs on automobiles, General Motors said it planned to reduce output at the only Canadian assembly plant it owns that builds pickup trucks. The move affects some 700 jobs at the factory. Many more people will feel the ripple effects. As the Trump administration tries to pull more automotive jobs into the US, Oshawa’s reckoning is a warning to other manufacturing cities.

The US housing market just logged its slowest spring season in more than a dozen years, leaving Glennda Baker, a veteran real estate agent in Atlanta, struggling to sell 21 listings. She’s been slashing prices as months of chatter about artificial intelligence taking jobs and tariffs tanking the economy is feeding into buyer indecision. “People say price solves everything,” Baker said. “But price doesn’t solve uncertainty.”

Spring is traditionally the busiest season in real estate, not unlike Christmas for retailers. And while the most unaffordable housing market in decades has sidelined all but the most determined buyers, there were signs earlier this year that conditions were right for a rebound.

PayPal will soon allow businesses to accept more than 100 cryptocurrencies at checkout. The option is going live in the coming weeks and will allow merchants to accept crypto such as Bitcoin, Ethereum, Tether’s USDT and Circle’s USDC, from wallets including Coinbase, OKX, Phantom, MetaMask and Exodus. When a consumer pays with crypto, the funds are automatically converted into fiat or PayPal’s PYUSD stablecoin for deposit in the merchant’s account.

Brown University took out another private loan, securing a $500 million agreement after the Ivy League school warned of “deep financial challenges.” The five-year loan with an unidentified lender carries a 4.44% interest rate which will be paid monthly, according to a securities filing on Friday.

The deal comes after Brown entered into a lending agreement for $300 million in April. A number of universities have utilized the capital markets for financing as Trump targets federal funding for academic institutions as part of a broader campaign to increase government control over American higher education.

There’s good news for older Americans at high-risk of developing dementia. Simple steps to stay mentally and physically active improved thinking and helped keep Alzheimer’s disease at bay. Lifestyle changes including exercise, a better diet and more mental and social activity yielded significant protection within two years, according to a large clinical trial published Monday.

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