World shares mixed ahead of meeting between Trump and Putin
It later fell back below 122,000 dollars.
The future for the S&P 500 was unchanged, while that for the Dow Jones Industrial Average edged 0.1% higher.
Later Thursday, a report will show how bad US inflation was at the wholesale level across the US.
Economists expect it to show inflation ticked up to 2.4% in July from 2.3% in June.
In early European trading, Germany's DAX rose 0.5% to 24,296.02.
In Paris, the CAC 40 added 0.4% to 7,832.60.
Europe is bracing for Mr Trump's encounter with Mr Putin, though the US president has said he will prioritise trying to achieve a ceasefire in Ukraine when he meets with Mr Putin on Friday in Anchorage, Alaska.
The Trump-Putin meeting could have major implications for energy markets, potentially leading to an easing of sanctions against Moscow, or an escalation if no progress is made on ending the war in Ukraine.
Early on Thursday, US benchmark crude rose 28 cents to 62.93 dollars per barrel.
Brent crude, the international standard, added 32 cents to 65.95 dollars per barrel.
During Asian trading, Tokyo's Nikkei 225 fell nearly 1.5% to 42,649.26 as investors sold to lock in recent gains that have taken the benchmark to all-time records.
The Japanese yen rose against the dollar after US treasury secretary Scott Bessent said in an interview with Bloomberg that Japan was 'behind the curve' in monetary tightening.
He was referring to the slow pace of increases in Japan's near-zero interest rates.
Low interest rates tend to make the yen weaker against the dollar, giving Japanese exporters a cost advantage in overseas sales.
The dollar fell to 146.50 Japanese yen Thursday, down from 147.39 yen.
The euro slid to 1.1681 dollars from 1.1705 dollars.
In Chinese markets, Hong Kong's Hang Seng index shed 0.4% to 25,519.32, while the Shanghai composite index slid 0.5% to 3,666.44.
South Korea's Kospi rose less than 0.1% to 3,225.66.
In Australia, the S&P ASX 200 index added 0.5% to 8,873.80.
Taiwan's Taiex fell 0.5% and India's Sensex edged 0.2% higher.
On Wednesday, US stocks ticked higher, extending a global rally fuelled by hopes the Federal Reserve will cut US interest rates.
The S&P 500 rose 0.3% and the Dow climbed 1%.
The Nasdaq composite added 0.1%.
Treasury yields eased in the bond market in anticipation that the Fed will cut its main interest rate for the first time this year at its next meeting in September.
Lower rates can boost investment prices and the economy by making it cheaper for US households and businesses to borrow to buy houses, cars or equipment, though they risk worsening inflation.
Mr Trump has angrily been calling for cuts to help the economy, often insulting the Fed chairman Jerome Powell while doing so.
But the Fed has hesitated, worried that Mr Trump's sweeping higher tariffs could make inflation much worse.
Fed officials have said they want to see more fresh data about inflation before moving.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Independent
3 hours ago
- The Independent
Fatal explosion at U.S. Steel's plant raises questions about its future, despite heavy investment
The fatal explosion last week at U.S. Steel's Pittsburgh-area coal-processing plant has revived debate about its future just as the iconic American company was emerging from a long period of uncertainty. The fortunes of steelmaking in the U.S. — along with profits, share prices and steel prices — have been buoyed by years of friendly administrations in Washington that slapped tariffs on foreign imports and bolstered the industry's anti-competitive trade cases against China. Most recently, President Donald Trump 's administration postponed new hazardous air pollution requirements for the nation's roughly dozen coke plants, like Clairton, and he approved U.S. Steel's nearly $15 billion acquisition by Japanese steelmaker Nippon Steel. Nippon Steel's promised infusion of cash has brought vows that steelmaking will continue in the Mon Valley, a river valley south of Pittsburgh long synonymous with steelmaking. 'We're investing money here. And we wouldn't have done the deal with Nippon Steel if we weren't absolutely sure that we were going to have an enduring future here in the Mon Valley," David Burritt, U.S. Steel's CEO, told a news conference the day after the explosion. 'You can count on this facility to be around for a long, long time.' Will the explosion change anything? The explosion killed two workers and hospitalized 10 with a blast so powerful that it took hours to find two missing workers beneath charred wreckage and rubble. The cause is under investigation. The plant is considered the largest coking operation in North America and, along with a blast furnace and finishing mill up the Monongahela River, is one of a handful of integrated steelmaking operations left in the U.S. The explosion now could test Nippon Steel's resolve in propping up the nearly 110-year-old Clairton plant, or at least force it to spend more than it had anticipated. Nippon Steel didn't respond to a question as to whether the explosion will change its approach to the plant. Rather, a spokesperson for the company said its 'commitment to the Mon Valley remains strong' and that it sent 'technical experts to work with the local teams in the Clairton Plant, and to provide our full support.' Meanwhile, Burritt said he had talked to top Nippon Steel officials after the explosion and that 'this facility and the Mon Valley are here to stay.' U.S. Steel officials maintain that safety is their top priority and that they spend $100 million a year on environmental compliance at Clairton alone. However, repairing Clairton could be expensive, an investigation into the explosion could turn up more problems, and an official from the United Steelworkers union said it's a constant struggle to get U.S. Steel to invest in its plants. Besides that, production at the facility could be affected for some time. The plant has six batteries of ovens and two — where the explosion occurred — were damaged. Two others are on a reduced production schedule because of the explosion. There is no timeline to get the damaged batteries running again, U.S. Steel said. Accidents are nothing new at Clairton Accidents are nothing new at Clairton, which heats coal to high temperatures to make coke, a key component in steelmaking, and produces combustible gases as byproducts. An explosion in February injured two workers. Even as Nippon Steel was closing the deal in June, a breakdown at the plant dealt three days of a rotten egg odor into the air around it from elevated hydrogen sulfide emissions, the environmental group GASP reported. The Breathe Project, a public health organization, said U.S. Steel has been forced to pay $57 million in fines and settlements since Jan. 1, 2020, for problems at the Clairton plant. A lawsuit over a Christmas Eve fire at the Clairton plant in 2018 that saturated the area's air for weeks with sulfur dioxide produced a withering assessment of conditions there. An engineer for the environmental groups that sued wrote that he 'found no indication that U.S. Steel has an effective, comprehensive maintenance program for the Clairton plant.' The Clairton plant, he wrote, is "inherently dangerous because of the combination of its deficient maintenance and its defective design." U.S. Steel settled, agreeing to spend millions on upgrades. Matthew Mehalik, executive director of the Breathe Project, said U.S. Steel has shown more willingness to spend money on fines, lobbying the government and buying back shares to reward shareholders than making its plants safe. Will Clairton be modernized? It's not clear whether Nippon Steel will change Clairton. Central to Trump's approval of the acquisition was Nippon Steel's promises to invest $11 billion into U.S. Steel's aging plants and to give the federal government a say in decisions involving domestic steel production, including plant closings. But much of the $2.2 billion that Nippon Steel has earmarked for the Mon Valley plants is expected to go toward upgrading the finishing mill, or building a new one. For years before the acquisition, U.S. Steel had signaled that the Mon Valley was on the chopping block. That left workers there uncertain whether they'd have jobs in a couple years and whispering that U.S. Steel couldn't fill openings because nobody believed the jobs would exist much longer. Relics of steelmaking's past In many ways, U.S. Steel's Mon Valley plants are relics of steelmaking's past. In the early 1970s, U.S. steel production led the world and was at an all-time high, thanks to 62 coke plants that fed 141 blast furnaces. Nobody in the U.S. has built a blast furnace since then, as foreign competition devastated the American steel industry and coal fell out of favor. Now, China is dominant in steel and heavily invested in coal-based steelmaking. In the U.S., there are barely a dozen coke plants and blast furnaces left, as the country's steelmaking has shifted to cheaper electric arc furnaces that use electricity, not coal. Blast furnaces won't entirely go away, analysts say, since they produce metals that are preferred by automakers, appliance makers and oil and gas exploration firms. Still, Christopher Briem, an economist at the University of Pittsburgh's Center for Social and Urban Research, questioned whether the Clairton plant really will survive much longer, given its age and condition. It could be particularly vulnerable if the economy slides into recession or the fundamentals of the American steel market shift, he said. 'I'm not quite sure it's all set in stone as people believe,' Briem said. 'If the market does not bode well for U.S. Steel, for American steel, is Nippon Steel really going to keep these things?' ___
Telegraph
6 hours ago
- Telegraph
North Korea accused of £17m crypto heist that killed British start-up
North Korean hackers have been accused of a £17m Bitcoin heist that brought down a UK-based cryptocurrency company. Lazarus, the hermit kingdom's notorious cyber gang, has been identified as the potential culprit behind the theft of cryptocurrency from Lykke, a trading platform incorporated in Britain. If confirmed, it would be North Korea's biggest-known cryptocurrency heist to target Britain. The pariah state has made billions in recent years stealing cryptocurrency to fund its military and nuclear programmes. Lykke was founded in 2015 and operated from Switzerland but was registered in the UK. The company said last year that it had lost $22.8m (£16.8m) in Bitcoin, Ethereum and other cryptocurrencies, forcing it to halt operations. In March a judge ordered the company to be liquidated after a legal campaign from more than 70 affected users. North Korea was named as the potential hacker in a recent report by the Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation (OFSI), a branch of the Treasury. 'The attack has been attributed to malicious Democratic People's Republic of Korea cyberactors, who stole funds on both the Bitcoin and Ethereum networks,' it said. The Treasury said the OFSI did not reveal the sources of its information but that it worked closely with law enforcement. Lazarus had been separately blamed for the attack on Lykke by Whitestream, an Israeli cryptocurrency research company. It said the attackers had laundered the stolen funds through two other cryptocurrency companies notorious for allowing users to hide their tracks, and thus avoid money-laundering controls. Other researchers have disagreed with the conclusions, saying it is not currently possible to determine who hacked the exchange. Lykke was founded by Richard Olsen, a great-grandson of the Swiss banking patriarch Julius Baer, and offered cryptocurrency trading without transaction fees. The company was run out of Zug in Switzerland's so-called 'crypto valley' but its corporate entity was registered in Britain. In 2023, the Financial Conduct Authority issued a warning about the company, saying it was not registered or authorised to offer financial services for consumers in Britain. Despite saying it would be able to return customers' funds, it froze trading after the hack and officially shut down last December. The company was liquidated in March following a winding up petition in the UK courts brought by a group of customers, who say they have lost £5.7m as a result of the company shutting down. Interpath Advisory has been appointed to distribute the remaining funds to those who lost money. Its Swiss parent was placed into liquidation last year.
Telegraph
6 hours ago
- Telegraph
Trump's strongman capitalism risks killing American enterprise
If it actually happens, no doubt the president will describe it as 'the deal of the century'. The United States government is reported to be examining buying a major stake in the microchip manufacturer Intel. It is part of a growing trend of the Trump administration becoming more and more involved in the running of the giants of American industry, with the state taking a share of Nvidia's revenues in return for export licenses to China, meddling in the management of Eli Lilly and Coca-Cola and drawing up a spreadsheet of 'pro' and 'anti' businesses in the White House. We can all understand what Donald Trump is getting at. He wants to make America more competitive and doesn't mind rolling up his sleeves to make it happen. The trouble is, state interference in business always goes horribly wrong – and in reality Trump's version of strongman capitalism will be the death of American enterprise. It was, at least, good news for Intel's long-suffering shareholders. The shares spiked by 7pc on Thursday as news leaked that the White House was looking at taking a direct stake in the business. After all, the share price has fallen by 50pc over the last five years, and after setbacks in all its major markets it was a sign that the company might soon have the full financial muscle of the US treasury behind it. We don't know yet how much it might pay for the shares, or how many it will buy, but following a meeting between Trump and Intel's chief executive Lip-Bu Tan some kind of deal looks likely. That is part of a growing trend. In his second term, Trump has not just been imposing tariffs, often haphazardly, on the rest of the world. He has been involving himself directly in the management of some of America's biggest companies. Earlier this month, the chip giants Nvidia and AMD agreed to pay 15pc of their Chinese revenues to the US government in exchange for permission to export to its main rival. Last month Coca-Cola agreed to replace corn syrup with cane sugar as a sweetener in its fizzy drink at the suggestion of the president. Eli Lilly is increasing the price of its diet injection Mounjaro after Trump complained that the 'fat drug' was cheaper in London. The White House was reported to have categorised more than 500 companies and trade associations, according to whether they were for or against his 'big, beautiful bill' that set the budget, with the clear implication there would be favours for those on the right side of the ledger, and punishments for those on the wrong side. Meanwhile, last week Scott Bessent, the US treasury secretary, argued that the 'Japanese, European and Koreans will invest in companies and industries that we direct them to, largely at the president's discretion'. The list goes on and on. At this rate, Trump will soon be on the phone to Amazon's Jeff Bezos telling him who to choose as the next James Bond, and advising McDonald's what to put on the breakfast menu (more hash browns, presumably). He is rapidly turning himself into the chief executive of USA Inc. Sure, we can see what the president is getting at. If we take microchips as an example, Trump, like his predecessor Joe Biden, wants to bring manufacturing back onshore, and he wants to protect critical supply lines in what is clearly the most strategically important industry of the 21st century. No doubt he sees Intel as the best vehicle for making that happen. Likewise, he wants to beef up the competitiveness of American industry. If that means throwing the weight and muscle of the White House behind the country's industrial champions then he doesn't mind rolling up his sleeves and getting on with it. After all, French presidents do it all the time, so there is no reason why American ones should not as well. And in fairness, if you are going to have a president who meddles in the country's corporations, Trump is probably better at it than most. At least he knows how a company works. There are two big problems, however. First, whenever the state gets too heavily involved in the management of a company it always ends up going horribly wrong. The priorities change, the management loses focus, and the other shareholders are ignored. To take just one example, look at how poorly Air France has performed since Emmanuel Macron built up a 28pc stake in the airline: its shares, despite a recent rally, are down by 25pc over the last five years, while IAG, the owner of British Airways, is up by 188pc. It is hard to believe that Intel under partial state ownership competing against fully private rivals in the micro-processor industry will fare any better, and it may well end up being completely destroyed. More seriously, it looks scarily like the version of strongman capitalism that is practised in Viktor Orban's Hungary, or which has been tried countless times in South America. It starts with some well-intentioned support for corporate champions, and it might even do some good initially. But over time it turns into a system where big money and big politics are so intertwined that markets get distorted, cosy monopolies are allowed to flourish, and innovation and competition are crushed because it doesn't suit someone who has political favours to call in with the government. It is a rotten, deformed version of capitalism, and one that always ends in failure. Trump may or may not take a stake in Intel. We will find out in the next few weeks. He may start muscling in on the management of major American companies or he may not. Either way, the blunt truth is this. The South American-style system of state-dominated crony capitalism that Trump is developing will be the death of the tradition of free enterprise – one that has made the American economy the strongest in the world.
