MARKET PULSE AM AUG 6, 2025 [WATCH]
Bursa Malaysia opened slightly lower on Wednesday, tracking overnight losses on Wall Street as investors turned cautious over weak US data and renewed trade tensions.
Wall Street closed lower after a volatile session, as sentiment was hit by disappointing US jobs data and further weighed down by Trump's announcement of upcoming tariffs on semiconductors and pharmaceuticals.
Back home, the FBM KLCI closed near the 1,540 mark yesterday, supported by improved risk appetite and bargain-hunting interest in equities.
Analysts expect sentiment to stay positive, with the index likely to trade within the 1,535 to 1,550 range today.
In the crypto market, Bitcoin fell to RM484,219.
Ethereum declined to RM15,205, while Solana dropped to RM691.
That's it for Market Pulse.

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Malaysian Reserve
an hour ago
- Malaysian Reserve
Kremlin announces Putin-Trump summit as Zelenskiy pushes to join
THE Kremlin said Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump will hold a summit meeting within the next few days. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said he's ready to join the talks, too, as the US pushes to end Russia's invasion. Russia and the US have agreed on a venue for the meeting between the two presidents, which will be disclosed later, and 'we are starting to work on specific issues,' with the aim of holding the talks next week, Kremlin foreign policy aide Yuri Ushakov told reporters Thursday. The announcement came a day after Putin met with Trump's envoy Steve Witkoff for nearly three hours of talks in the Kremlin. Trump has threatened to hit purchasers of Russian oil with secondary tariffs unless Putin agrees to a truce by Friday as the US pushes for a deal to end the war that's now in its fourth year. After returning to the White House on a pledge to bring the war to a rapid end, Trump has voiced growing frustration over Putin's refusal to accept a ceasefire following six phone calls between them since February. Trump said Wednesday he didn't regard the latest developments as a 'breakthrough,' though the first summit meeting between the two leaders since 2018 would imply they've made progress on a resolution. The worry for Zelenskiy and his European allies is that Putin may persuade Trump to concede too much in reaching a settlement. They also have a multitude of doubts about how any agreement might be enforced and what security guarantees Ukraine will receive. Zelenskiy said he and European allies discussed 'various formats' of peace talks with Trump during a call on Wednesday, including 'two bilateral and one trilateral' meeting between the three presidents. 'Ukraine is not afraid of meetings and expects the same brave approach from the Russian side,' he said in a post on social media. Traders piled into assets that could benefit from a deal. Ukraine's dollar bonds were the best performers across emerging and frontier markets tracked by Bloomberg. European currencies also rallied. Putin told reporters the United Arab Emirates could be a suitable venue for the summit with Trump, during Kremlin talks with UAE President Mohammed Bin Zayed Al Nahyan on Thursday. He reiterated that he didn't object to meeting Zelenskiy under the right conditions, though he said they don't exist now. Russia didn't respond when Witkoff raised the prospect of a trilateral meeting involving Putin, Trump and Zelenskiy, according to Ushakov. The Kremlin wants to focus first on talks between Putin and Trump, he said. The White House hasn't commented on the proposed summit so far. Trump told reporters Wednesday there was a 'very good chance' he would meet with Putin and Zelenskiy soon to try to broker peace between the two countries. Zelenskiy said he and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz 'coordinated our positions' during a phone call Thursday, and national security advisers from Ukraine, the US and Europe will hold an online meeting later to align positions. 'Ukraine and Germany share the view that the war must be ended as soon as possible with a dignified peace,' Zelenskiy said. 'The parameters of ending this war will shape the security landscape of Europe for decades to come.' Trump was positive about the possibility of a ceasefire during his call with Zelenskiy and European leaders, according to several people with knowledge of the discussion. He also suggested that Putin would be open to entering into peace talks in exchange for discussing land swaps, the people said. Putin has laid claim to Ukraine's Black Sea peninsula of Crimea, which Russia illegally annexed in 2014, as well as the eastern and southern Ukrainian regions of Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson that his troops don't fully occupy. Ukraine has said it's not prepared to cede any of its territory. It's demanding that Russia withdraws its troops and pay reparations for the devastation inflicted on the country since the February 2022 invasion. The US had previously offered to recognize Crimea as Russian as part of any deal, and to effectively cede control of parts of other Ukrainian regions that Russia occupies. As part of those earlier proposals, control over areas of Zaporizhzhia and Kherson would be returned to Ukraine. Putin and Witkoff also discussed Russia-US relations at their meeting and noted that they could be developed in 'a completely different, mutually beneficial scenario,' Ushakov said. –BLOOMBERG


The Star
2 hours ago
- The Star
Trump calls on 'highly conflicted' Intel CEO to resign over China ties
US PRESIDENT Donald Trump on Thursday demanded the immediate resignation of Intel's new CEO, Lip-Bu Tan, calling him "highly conflicted" due to his ties to Chinese firms and raising doubts about the future of the American chip icon. A change in leadership could pile pressure on the company as it pushes through a major strategic reset started by Tan that aims to slash costs by shrinking its workforce and halting construction on some of its planned manufacturing plants. Trump's comments came a day after Reuters reported U.S. Republican Senator Tom Cotton had sent a letter to Intel's board chair with questions about Tan's ties to Chinese firms and a recent criminal case involving his former firm Cadence Design. Reuters reported in April that Tan - himself or through venture funds he has founded or operates - invested in hundreds of Chinese companies, some of which are linked to the Chinese military. "There is no other solution to this problem," Trump said in a post on his Truth Social platform, knocking shares of Intel down around 4% in U.S. premarket trading. Intel is a key pillar of U.S. efforts to boost domestic chipmaking and last year secured nearly $20 billion in grants and loans, the largest federal award under the 2022 CHIPS and Science Act, to subsidize leading-edge semiconductor production. Intel and Tan, who took over the CEO role in March after the ousting of his predecessor Pat Gelsinger late last year, did not immediately respond to Reuters requests for comment. An Intel spokesperson said in a statement on Wednesday that "Intel and Tan are deeply committed to the national security of the U.S. and the integrity of our role in the U.S. defense ecosystem." The company said it would address the matters in the letter with the Senator. The Intel CEO invested at least $200 million in hundreds of Chinese advanced manufacturing and chip firms between March 2012 and December 2024, Reuters reported in April. A source familiar with the matter had at the time told Reuters that Tan had divested from his positions in entities in China, without providing further details. Chinese databases reviewed by Reuters at the time had listed many of his investments as current, and Reuters was at the time unable to establish the extent of his divestitures. Once the dominant force in chip-making, Intel has in recent years lost its manufacturing edge to Taiwanese rival TSMC. It also has virtually no presence in the booming market for artificial intelligence chips dominated by Nvidia. To revive Intel's fortunes, Tan has set a goal of slashing the chipmaker's workforce to 75,000 people by year-end, a reduction of around 22%. Intel also vowed to take a more disciplined approach to manufacturing investment. (Reporting by Aditya Soni in Bengaluru, Doina Chiacu and Brendan O'Brien; Editing by Anil D'Silva)


New Straits Times
2 hours ago
- New Straits Times
Less punitive than feared, says expert on impact of US' planned tariff on Malaysia's semiconductor exports
KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia's risk exposure to the United States' proposed 100 per cent tariff on semiconductors may be lower than feared, said CGS International head of research Jeremy Goh. Goh said the bulk of the country's chip exports come from US-based companies, which could be exempted from the measure. "Roughly two-thirds of Malaysia's semiconductors come from US-based companies. "There's quite a high chance that these US-based companies will of course commit to expand in American soil to avert these semiconductor tariffs. "It's still a very developing situation, but I don't think it's as scary and as punitive as that 100 per cent tariff deadline sounds," he said during the Economic & Market Outlook panel session at the Invest Shariah Conference 2025. While the proposed tariff has raised concerns, Goh believes the actual impact could be less severe than the headline number suggests, especially given the exemption criteria outlined by US President Donald Trump. Trump planned to impose a tariff of 100 per cent on semiconductor chips imported from countries not producing in the US or planning to do so. He said the new tariff rate would apply to all chips and semiconductors coming into the US but would not apply to companies that had made a commitment to manufacture in the US or were in the process of doing so. "From Trump's statements, he did say that if the semiconductors are coming from US or US-based companies… "These companies have committed to expand in US soil, or are already in the midst of expanding in, thus they would be exempted," he said. Goh added that Malaysia's direct market exposure to the US is minimal, despite the country being a major export destination. "Thirty per cent of our exports goes to US, our second-largest export destination, but at the stock market level, that exposure is much lower. "We found that in terms of our coverage universe, only 2.4 per cent of the aggregate revenue is derived from US "As for the FBM KLCI, the 30-key stock index, only about 0.5 per cent of its revenue comes from the US. "So the direct US exposure of our local stock market is relatively much more muted compared to the overall economy. That's the second so-called saving risk that we have," he said. With ongoing efforts by the Malaysian government to seek clarification from the United States Trade Representative (USTR), Goh believes the outlook remains manageable. Meanwhile, CGS International chief economist Nazmi Idrus said the tariff, if implemented, could spell trouble for Malaysia's export-reliant economy. "Half of our products are actually being sold in the US and there will be more impact on the Malaysian economy because we are quite reliant on US products," he said. He warned that the move could further fracture the global trade landscape, accelerating shifts in supply chains and trade flows. "You're likely to see some changes in the global supply chain going forward. It's probably going to benefit the US more than other countries," he said. According to Nazmi, the US currently enjoys tariff advantages in many overseas markets due to relatively lower import duties. This could push more countries to favour American goods at the expense of regional trading partners. "So what happened now is that because we are still lower our tariff levels in the US, US products have more advantage in other countries. "So probably a lot of countries will start to import a lot more of US products and a lot less on their national trading partners," he added. Investment, Trade and Industry Minister Tengku Datuk Seri Zafrul Abdul Aziz said Malaysia had sought clarification from the US over thecproposed 100 per cent tariff on imported semiconductor chips. He cautioned that such move could adversely affect one of the country's most critical export sectors. He said the government had contacted both the US Trade Representative and the Department of Commerce this morning to obtain an official statement on the matter.