![MARKET PULSE AM AUG 11, 2025 [WATCH]](/_next/image?url=https%3A%2F%2Fassets.nst.com.my%2Fimages%2Farticles%2FHQ050525HR017_1754881210.jpg&w=3840&q=100)
MARKET PULSE AM AUG 11, 2025 [WATCH]
Bursa Malaysia opened higher today, supported by Wall Street's rally last Friday, fuelled by a jump in Apple shares after the tech giant unveiled new US investment plans.
The index is expected to move within the 1,550 to 1,560 range.
Meanwhile, cryptocurrencies surged on news that US President Donald Trump may allow pension funds to invest in "alternative assets," potentially unlocking vast new capital for crypto.
Bitcoin jumped to RM501,154, while Ethereum and Solana climbed to RM17,997 and RM765, respectively.
That's it for Market Pulse.
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New Straits Times
3 hours ago
- New Straits Times
Calls to boycott American goods grow in India
FROM McDonald's and Coca-Cola to Amazon and Apple, United States-based multinationals are facing calls for a boycott in India as business executives and Prime Minister Narendra Modi's supporters stoke anti-American sentiment to protest against US tariff. India, the world's most populous nation, is a key market for American brands that have rapidly expanded to target a growing base of affluent consumers, many of whom remain infatuated with international labels seen as symbols of moving up in life. India, for example, is the biggest market by users for Meta's WhatsApp and Domino's has more restaurants than any other brand in the country. Beverages like Pepsi and Coca-Cola often dominate store shelves, and people still queue up when a new Apple store opens or a Starbucks cafe doles out discounts. Although there was no immediate indication of sales being hit, there's a growing chorus both on social media and offline to buy local and ditch American products after President Donald Trump imposed a 50 per cent tariff on goods from India, rattling exporters and damaging ties between New Delhi and Washington. McDonald's, Coca-Cola, Amazon and Apple did not immediately respond to Reuters queries. Manish Chowdhary, cofounder of India's Wow Skin Science, took to LinkedIn with a video message urging support for farmers and startups to make "Made in India" a "global obsession", and to learn from South Korea whose food and beauty products are famous worldwide. "We have lined up for products from thousands of miles away. We have proudly spent on brands that we don't own, while our own makers fight for attention in their own country," he said. Rahm Shastry, chief executive officer of India's DriveU, which provides a car driver on call service, wrote on LinkedIn: "India should have its own home-grown Twitter/Google/YouTube/WhatsApp/FB — like China has." To be fair, Indian retail companies give foreign brands like Starbucks stiff competition in the domestic market, but going global has been a challenge. Indian IT services firms, however, have become deeply entrenched in the global economy, with the likes of TCS and Infosys providing software solutions to clients world over. On Sunday, Modi made a "special appeal" for becoming self-reliant, telling a gathering in Bengaluru that Indian technology companies made products for the world but "now is the time for us to give more priority to India's needs". He did not name any company. Even as anti-American protests simmer, Tesla launched its second showroom in India, with Monday's opening attended by Indian commerce ministry officials and US embassy officials. The Swadeshi Jagran Manch group, which is linked to Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party, took out small public rallies across India on Sunday, urging people to boycott American brands. "People are now looking at Indian products. It will take some time to fructify," said Ashwani Mahajan, the group's co-convenor. "This is a call for nationalism, patriotism." He also shared with Reuters a table his group is circulating on WhatsApp, listing Indian brands of bath soaps, toothpaste and cold drinks that people could choose over foreign ones. On social media, one of the group's campaigns is a graphic titled "Boycott foreign food chains", with logos of McDonald's and many other restaurant brands. In Uttar Pradesh, Rajat Gupta, 37, who was dining at a McDonald's in Lucknow on Monday, said he wasn't concerned about the tariff protests and simply enjoyed the 49-rupee coffee he considered good value for money.
The Star
3 hours ago
- The Star
US tariffs could hit Samsung phones, exempt China-made iPhones
Visitors at the Galaxy Unpacked 2025 event experience the Galaxy Z Fold7 smartphone at the Duggal Greenhouse in New York on July 9. - Photo: Samsung Electronics SEOUL: Samsung Electronics could face higher US tariffs on its smartphones and other finished electronics as early as this week, even as Apple's iPhones made primarily in China may be granted exemptions, industry sources said Tuesday (Aug 12). This would highlight a notable divergence in how major smartphone makers are treated under Washington's trade measures aimed at protecting US manufacturing and reducing reliance on Chinese supply chains. Industry officials said the US President Donald Trump's administration is considering tariffs of up to 25 percent on smartphones, laptops, monitors and other semiconductor-related finished goods. If applied at that rate, the base model of Samsung's Galaxy S25, currently priced at US$799.99, could rise by nearly US$200, while next year's Galaxy S26 series could see a 30-40 percent increase. Such a move could weaken Samsung's recent gains in the US market. The Korean tech giant held a 31 percent share in the second quarter, narrowing the gap with Apple to 18 percentage points from 33 percentage points a year earlier, according to Canalys. Apple, however, appears better positioned to secure tariff exemptions despite manufacturing about 90 percent of its iPhones in China, with the remaining 10 percent shared equally between Vietnam and India. The company recently pledged to invest $600 billion in new US production facilities over the next four years, creating 20,000 jobs and strengthening domestic supply chains — a plan developed in coordination with Washington. President Trump has signaled support for Apple's expansion, raising expectations that the company could be spared from the proposed tariffs. 'Apple's preemptive investment announcement appears to have been made with potential smartphone tariffs in mind,' said Kim Rok-ho, an analyst at Hana Securities. 'Even if semiconductors are exempted from tariffs, if devices like smartphones and PCs are included, Korean products will inevitably be at a disadvantage against Apple in the US market.' Samsung manufactures about 50-60 percent of its smartphones in Vietnam, with the rest produced in India, Korea and South America. It stopped handset production in China in 2019 after losing market share there. '(The US Department of Commerce) investigation is wide ranging from semiconductors to finished goods such as smartphones, tablets, PCs and monitors,' Samsung CFO Park Soon-cheol said in July. 'We expect the impact on our business to be significant.' A Samsung official said the company is 'closely monitoring' developments, noting that while price increases after product launches are unprecedented, they may be considered in 'special cases like tariffs.' According to an industry source familiar with Samsung's operations, "The firm is exploring options such as large-scale US investments or relocating some production to America," but "high labour costs and operational challenges remain a major concern," he added. - The Korea Herald/ANN
The Star
5 hours ago
- The Star
US consumer prices increase moderately in July; data quality concerns rising
WASHINGTON: U.S. consumer prices increased moderately in July, though rising costs for goods because of import tariffs led to a measure of underlying inflation posting its largest gain in six months. The consumer price index rose 0.2% last month after gaining 0.3% in June, the Labor Department's Bureau of Labor Statistics said on Tuesday. In the 12 months through July, the CPI advanced 2.7% after rising 2.7% in June. Economists polled by Reuters had forecast the CPI rising 0.2% and increasing 2.8% year-on-year. Excluding the volatile food and energy components, the CPI rose 0.3%, the biggest gain since January, after climbing 0.2% in June. The so-called core CPI increased 3.1% year-on-year in July after advancing 2.9% in June. The Federal Reserve tracks different inflation measures for its 2% target. Prior to the CPI data, financial markets expected the U.S. central bank would resume cutting interest rates in September after July's weak employment report and sharp downward revisions to the nonfarm payrolls counts for May and June. The Fed left its benchmark overnight interest rate in the 4.25%-4.50% range last month for the fifth straight time since December. The CPI report was published amid mounting concerns over the quality of inflation and employment reports following cuts in budget and staffing that have led to the suspension of data collection for portions of the CPI basket in some areas across the country. Those worries were amplified by President Donald Trump firing Erika McEntarfer, the head of the BLS, early this month after stall-speed job growth in July, reinforced by sharp downward revisions to the May and June nonfarm payrolls counts. DATA COLLECTION SUSPENSION The suspension of data collection followed years of what economists described as the underfunding of the BLS under both Republican and Democratic administrations. The situation has been exacerbated by the Trump White House's unprecedented campaign to reshape the government through deep spending cuts and mass layoffs of public workers. Citing the need to "align survey workload with resource levels," the BLS suspended CPI data collection completely in one city in Nebraska, Utah and New York. It has also suspended collection on 15% of the sample in the other 72 areas, on average. This affected both the commodity and services pricing survey as well as the housing survey, which the BLS said resulted in the number of collected prices and the number of collected rents used to calculate the CPI temporarily reduced. That has led to the BLS using imputations to fill in the missing information. The share of different cell imputation in the CPI data jumped to 35% in June from 30% in May. Different cell imputation, which the BLS uses when all prices are unavailable in the home cell, maintains the item category but expands geography. The home cell method, considered by economists as higher quality, uses the average price of the same item in the same location as the missing product's price. The use of different cell imputation has grown from a share of only 8% in June 2024. Economists said while these measures adopted by the BLS will not introduce bias in the CPI data, the volatility was a cause for concern. - Reuters
