CNBC Daily Open: Wall Street is chill, cheeky and cruising
Markets this week? Totally unbothered — like they're on a beach somewhere, sipping a cold drink and ignoring the headlines.
Geopolitical tensions flared (again), oil prices plunged, and defense stocks couldn't make up their mind — but the broader market? Barely blinked. The S&P 500 flirted with record highs, the Nasdaq kept cruising thanks to its AI darlings, and even small caps got in on the action. It's almost as if investors looked at the chaos and said, "Meh, we're good."
What's driving this chilled-out mood? Part of it is rate-cut optimism creeping back in. Oil's sudden drop took some inflation pressure off the table, and dovish murmurs from the Fed gave traders just enough hope that September could be in play for a cut. Bond yields eased, and risk appetite returned.
Sure, there are risks everywhere — from Middle East tensions to stretched valuations in some corners of the market — but right now, Wall Street seems to be in full summer mode. Cool, calm, and slightly detached.
Will it last? Hard to say. Markets have a habit of waking up just when you least expect it. But for now, they're tuning out the noise and catching rays.
Tariff pause "could be extended.'' Trump's "reciprocal" tariffs are set to resume early July, but White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters on Thursday the deadlines are "not critical" and will depend on the U.S. President's decision.
U.S. markets advanced Thursday. Buoyed by Leavitt's comments, the S&P 500 closed at 6,141.02, just a few points away from its intra-day high. The Stoxx Europe 600 ticked up 0.09%. Mining and defense stocks were among the biggest gainers.
Tesla's vice president of manufacturing and operations is out. Omead Afshar was fired by CEO Elon Musk amid declining sales in key markets. Chinese technology company Xiaomi on Thursday priced a new electric SUV lower than Tesla's Model Y.
Nike expects a $1 billion hit from tariffs. During an earnings call on Thursday, Nike's finance chief said the company will tweak its supply chains and increase prices to "mitigate" that cost. Nike beat Wall Street expectations for fiscal fourth-quarter earnings.
[PRO] Three AI stocks to play. Swiss banking giant UBS highlighted three pillars of artificial intelligence that will drive demand, and picked what it thinks will be winners in the space.How the stock market made it back to a new record — even with so much still to worry about
The S&P 500 is less than 0.1% away from closing at a new record, rebounding from a near 20% sell-off in April.
The wall of worry has been crumbling little by little over the past four months. Perhaps most importantly, as Trump backed off from the stiffest tariffs on key U.S. partners.
Corporate earnings have also held up well despite policy uncertainty. For the second quarter, the S&P 500 earnings grew by 4.9%, marking the eighth consecutive quarter of year-over-year earnings growth for the index, according to FactSet.
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Yahoo
11 minutes ago
- Yahoo
US Allies Wary of Buying American as They Plan Defense Buildup
(Bloomberg) — For European countries that just approved the biggest increase in military spending in decades, 'Buy American' is looking a lot less appealing than it once was. They may have no choice. As the allies rush to rebuild their fighting forces, leaders are confronting the reality that they'll have to rely on the US for many of the new weapons they're planning to buy, a sales pitch driven home by President Donald Trump on his visit to Europe this week. They fret that they may be put at greater risk if they deepen their dependence on a US whose president has embraced their main enemy - Russia - and rattled some with threats to annex their territory. Those deeper ties have become an increasingly hard sell at home, with electorates cautious about a closer embrace with the US. Allied leaders like French President Emmanuel Macron have pushed for relying on European companies to provide the weapons and the EU fast-tracked a €150 billion facility for just that purpose after Trump was elected. Canada is considering pulling out of the US-led F-35 fighter program and buying Swedish planes instead. 'We should no longer send three-quarters of our defense capital spending to America,' Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said earlier this month. When a group of US legislators went to Copenhagen this spring to encourage Danish officials to buy more US weapons, the message they got was clear: we like your arms, but Trump's very public threats to take over Greenland, a Danish territory, were making buying them politically difficult, according to a person familiar with the meeting. Some Danish politicians have gone further. 'Buying American weapons is a security risk that we cannot run,' Rasmus Jarlov, a conservative lawmaker who heads the defense committee in parliament, said in a post on social media platform X in March. Trump's abrupt decision to briefly suspend intelligence sharing with Ukraine earlier this year alarmed allies, according to officials, fueling fears that the US might hobble American-made weapons in a crisis. The worries got so bad that the Pentagon had to issue a public reassurance that the F-35 fighter didn't have a 'kill switch.' But the planned buildup - worth as much as €14 trillion ($16 trillion) over the next decade if related infrastructure is included, according to Carlyle - is far beyond the current capabilities of a fragmented European defense sector that's been hollowed out by decades of cuts since the end of the Cold War. And the US lead in key areas, especially missiles and other high-tech weapons, means there's often no real alternative to buying American. 'Europe and the defense industry is not, at the moment, ready to take the load by itself,' said Tuure Lehtoranta, a senior executive at Finnish defense-tech firm Insta Group Oy. 'There's not enough production, there's not enough design in some areas.' German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, whose government is planning to nearly double spending on core defense items this year, said the European industry needs an overhaul to meet the demand. 'We have far too many systems in Europe, we have far too few units, and what we produce is often far too complicated, and therefore too expensive as a result,' he said this week. At the Paris Air Show last week, executives from Airbus SE and Dassault Aviation SA sparred openly over who should take charge of their next-generation fighter jet project. European allies will have no alternative but to buy American weapons to meet alliance targets, especially with stocks depleted by supplies given to Ukraine, a senior NATO official said, asking not to be identified discussing a sensitive issue. Allies also lack key technologies. 'Who is the European Palantir? Who is the European Planet?' asked Pierre Vandier, a top NATO commander, referring to the US technology and satellite companies that the alliance recently signed contracts with. 'It's a huge stimulus for Europeans to do all they can. If they don't get started now they can't cry if there are violent power struggles later.' Europe has no rivals as advanced as Lockheed Martin Corp's F-35 fighter or RTX Corp's Patriot anti-missile, which has been critical to protecting Ukraine from Russian attacks. Allies have no competitors for key capabilities like ballistic-missile defense and air-to-air refueling. While simpler weapons like howitzers are easier for allies to produce, they still require US satellite systems for precision targeting. The UK said this week it would buy at least a dozen new F-35As, which Prime Minister Keir Starmer hopes will help curry favor with Trump. European defense companies are hopeful. They've seen share-price increases of 50% or more this year, ahead even of the big gains of their US competitors, as investors anticipate the huge boost in business. 'More urgency is there now,' Micael Johansson, chief executive officer of Saab AB, which makes Gripen fighters, said in an interview. 'I wouldn't say we have seen a dramatic shift now to buy more European, but I think that's the trend.' US defense contractors are lining up cooperation deals with European counterparts to hedge against any shift away from American weapons. 'As these European defense budgets increase, that's where we're spending our time,' Stephen O'Bryan, president of Northrop Grumman Corp's international business, said in an interview, referring to partnerships in Norway, Germany and Denmark. Lehtoranta of Insta said his company already partners with big US manufacturers like Lockheed Martin, including by providing avionics maintenance and other support for F-35 jets. But they see American companies are even hungrier to join forces now. 'I can see in the US that it might be a little bit of a fear in the air. US companies think that they might lose opportunities if they don't find the right partners,' he said. 'There will be change, there will be probably more European investments in European factories and European acquisitions, but still we cannot survive without the US industries.' —With assistance from Wojciech Moskwa, Thomas Seal, Matthew Boesler, Michael Nienaber, Sanne Wass and Alex Wickham. 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Business Upturn
25 minutes ago
- Business Upturn
Ant Group Launches AI Healthcare App AQ Amid Push into Healthcare Sector
By Business Wire India Published on June 27, 2025, 11:12 IST Hangzhou, China: Digital leader aims to capture rising cross-generational demand for public and private healthcare services amid demographic shift and urbanization trends. The launch of AQ enhances Ant Group's comprehensive suite of AI solutions for healthcare, enabling medical institutions and doctors to offer more efficient, accessible, and personalized services. Ant Group today launched its AI healthcare app, AQ, to accelerate the company's entry into the healthcare sector. The app helps users manage their daily healthcare needs with over 100 AI-powered services, including doctor recommendations, medical report analysis, and personalized medical advice. It also connects users to digital services from over 5,000 hospitals and nearly 1 million doctors across China. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: Ant Group launched the AI healthcare app AQ to accelerate its entry into the healthcare sector By around 2035, over 400 million people, or more than 30% of China's population, will be aged 60 or older, according to projections from China's National Health Commission. This demographic shift is expected to significantly increase healthcare demand in the country. 'Ant Group hopes that through AQ, it can provide everyone with a trusted healthcare manager, advancing inclusive healthcare and bringing every Chinese citizen one step closer to a healthier life,' said Cyril Han, CEO of Ant Group. The AQ app is powered by Ant Group's Healthcare Large Model, which draws on over a decade of expertise in the healthcare sector. Since 2014, when Ant Group launched its first online hospital appointment-making service on the flagship Alipay digital platform, the company has been supporting the digital and intelligent transformation of China's healthcare industry. The Healthcare Large Model, equipped with advanced medical reasoning and multimodal interaction capabilities, has consistently ranked in first place in the HealthBench and MedBench evaluations. Furthermore, it leverages Ant Group's leading privacy and security technologies to ensure a safe and reliable experience. Through this model, Ant Group is empowering medical institutions and doctors to offer more efficient, accessible, and personalized services to users with AI-enabled solutions. Empowering Medical Institutions with Secure and Efficient AI Integration Healthcare Large Model Integration In March 2025, Ant Group collaborated with IT industry leaders to integrate its advanced healthcare large model into various types of All-in-One Large Model Machine for Healthcare. This solution allows hospitals to deploy AI models on-premises, ensuring efficient and secure use of AI to optimize daily operations and improve patient services. AI Assistant for Hospital Services Ant Group is also helping hospitals develop user-facing applications. Angel, an AI agent developed in collaboration with public medical institutions in China's Zhejiang Province, has served over 1,000 medical facilities, handling more than 50 million user interactions. AI Medical Insurance Assistant Additionally, Ant Group has supported local basic medical insurance institutions across China in developing Yibaoer, an AI agent designed to assist users with medical insurance-related inquiries. AI-Assisted Diagnosis and Patient Education: Extending Doctor Capabilities Beyond Time and Place Constraints AI Doctor Assistant In January 2025, Ant Group completed the acquisition of Haodf, a leading healthcare platform specializing in online doctor consultations. Together, the two sides launched the AI Doctor Assistant, which supports doctors with AI-assisted diagnosis, medical record management, and patient education. AI Doctor Agents Ant Group is also collaborating with nearly 200 prominent doctors in China to develop AI Doctor Agents that provide patients with credible, authoritative healthcare advice and medical guidance. This initiative not only empowers individuals to maintain better health but also supports those with limited access to medical resources, ensuring timely, expert care when it's needed most. Through these ongoing initiatives, Ant Group is contributing to the more efficient use of limited medical resources, with the aim of supporting greater medical inclusion. About Alipay As the world becomes increasingly digital, Alipay has evolved from a trusted e-wallet into an all-in-one digital platform for daily services, connecting more than one billion consumers to over 80 million merchants across China. Alipay offers users a secure, seamless mobile payment experience and integrates over 10,000 services across sectors like travel, healthcare, tourism, and entertainment. With digital tools like Alipay Tap!, mini-programs, lifestyle accounts, Alipay enables merchants, institutions, and independent software vendors (ISVs) to enhance operational efficiency and effectiveness. In addition, Alipay is developing a new AI-driven open platform by integrating AI agents to deliver smarter, more personalized services to its users as well as facilitating the digital transformation of the service sector. About Ant Group Ant Group is a global digital technology provider and the operator of Alipay, a leading internet services platform in China, connecting over one billion users to more than 10,000 types of consumer services from partners. Through innovative products and solutions powered by AI, blockchain and other technologies, Ant Group supports partners across industries to thrive through digital transformation in an ecosystem for inclusive and sustainable development. For more information, visit View source version on Disclaimer: The above press release comes to you under an arrangement with Business Wire. Business Upturn takes no editorial responsibility for the same. Ahmedabad Plane Crash Business Wire India, established in 2002, India's premier media distribution company ensures guaranteed media coverage through its network of 30+ cities and top news agencies.
Time Magazine
28 minutes ago
- Time Magazine
China's Relationship With the World After the Israel-Iran War
Donald Trump's leadership style, at once volatile and commanding, could be both an obstacle and an opportunity for Beijing. There might be no better example than the recent events involving the Middle East: After nearly two weeks of traded attacks between Israel and Iran, the President made the controversial decision to authorize U.S. strikes on three Iranian nuclear facilities, risking prolonged American involvement in yet another unpopular war in the Middle East. Then just two days later, Trump announced that he had brokered a ceasefire between Israel and Iran—one that almost collapsed but then appeared to hold as Trump let off an expletive-filled rant against both countries, warning Israel not to drop more bombs. Trump even boasted of the benefits his truce would bring to other countries. 'China can now continue to purchase Oil from Iran,' Trump posted on Truth Social on Tuesday. 'Hopefully, they will be purchasing plenty from the U.S., also. It was my Great Honor to make this happen!' Trump's comments came after Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Fox News on Sunday that he had encouraged China to advise Iran not to close the Strait of Hormuz—the narrow waterway through which much of the world's oil trade flows through and which Iran had threatened to close in response to U.S. intervention. China relies on crude oil imports from the Middle East, particularly Saudi Arabia, which pass through the strait, but is also the largest importer of Iranian oil, which is under economic sanctions by the U.S. Reports suggested that Trump's post indicated possible sanctions relief, but the White House later clarified to media outlets: 'The president was simply calling attention to the fact that, because of his decisive actions to obliterate Iran's nuclear facilities and broker a ceasefire between Israel and Iran, the Strait of Hormuz will not be impacted, which would have been devastating for China.' China, unlike the U.S. with Israel, made no indication that it would step in to militarily assist its longtime friend Iran. Instead, the Asian nation, which has in recent years tried to position itself as a global peacebroker, made fervent calls for deescalation, verbal condemnations of Israel's attacks, and urged the U.S. not to get involved. Ultimately, though, China's offers to mediate were not taken up, and instead it was—at least according to himself—Trump's strongman stance that managed to bring an end for now to the hostilities between Israel and Iran. But experts tell TIME it was no surprise to anyone, including China, that only the U.S. could have brought an end to the war. 'It is not surprising that Israel signs a cease-fire when the United States applies real pressure, because they could not pursue any conflict, in Iran or in Gaza, without the continual supply of weapons, ammunition, and military tech from the United States,' says William Figueroa, an assistant professor of international relations at the University of Groningen. 'When the person signing the checks says they really mean it, you listen.' While China has deepened its investment in the Middle East over the years and developed close economic ties with Iran while maintaining ties with Israel, it does not hold the same level of either economic or political leverage over either country as the U.S. 'Iran sees China more as an economic partner than a security ally,' Lin Jing, a research fellow at the Middle East Institute at the National University of Singapore, tells TIME. China has also offered sharp criticisms of Israel's bombardment of Gaza, and of its attacks on Iran, which would have made it unlikely for Israel to accept it as a mediator. China seemed to know this, Figueroa says, and was instead pushing the U.S. to exert its influence over Israel to end the war. Still, experts say, China will learn from how the war and its ceasefire played out, if only to reinforce its view of the U.S. as an unpredictable power. And Rubio will meet next week with foreign ministers from Australia, India, and Japan to build on 'momentum to advance a free, open, and secure Indo-Pacific'—language that suggests the U.S. wants to return focus to countering the regional threat from China. Strikes reinforce Chinese view of U.S. instability China already saw the U.S. under the Trump Administration as an unstable partner, particularly after Trump slammed the world with staggering tariff rates before abruptly reversing course. Trump's tariffs 'were accelerating a trend of Chinese businesses looking more and more overseas,' Figueroa says. China exports heavily to U.S. markets, and Trump's tariffs on China—which rose to a prohibitive 145% before being temporarily lowered to 30%—left many Chinese and American businesses in a state of uncertainty. Chinese President Xi Jinping has made attempts to strengthen trade relations with other countries in recent months, assuring the world of its stability as a trading partner in contrast with the U.S. In a meeting with Singaporean Prime Minister Lawrence Wong this week, Xi pointed to 'the current complex and turbulent international situation' to emphasize the need for closer ties. The Middle East too has become an important market and site of diplomacy for China. Figueroa says U.S. backing of Israel 'will only intensify the trend of China leaning towards the Arab states and linking regional instability to the United States and Israel.' That the U.S. intervened to strike Iranian nuclear facilities, potentially upending decades of global nuclear diplomacy, 'reinforces [China's] view of the U.S. as a disruptive power, intent on setting rules, but not following them when inconvenient,' Lin says. Isaac Kardon, a senior fellow for China studies at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, told the South China Morning Post that the U.S. strikes on Iran might ring alarm bells for China. American escalation showed China that 'massive use of force actually is 'on the table' and may be employed very quickly and even impulsively by a leader who is showing himself to be less gun-shy and more risk-acceptant than his first term,' Kardon said. China's approach to the Israel-Iran war showed that it wanted to 'avoid direct confrontation with the U.S.,' Lin, the Singapore-based researcher, adds. While China urged 'countries with special influence on Israel' not to fan the flames of the war, it did not explicitly name the U.S. But having seen that the U.S. is willing to engage militarily, China may recalculate its own foreign policy approach, including over Taiwan, Lin says. 'China may also look a bit more skeptically at Trump's efforts to negotiate, having seen where negotiations got Iran,' Figueroa says. At the same time, Lin says protracted U.S. involvement in the Middle East, which may result as the U.S. aims to enforce the ceasefire between Tehran and Tel Aviv while reentering diplomatic talks with Iran and pushing Israel to end its war in Gaza, could advantage China 'by drawing its attention away from Asia.' 'U.S. power is finite—political bandwidth and strategic bandwidth is also limited,' Mohammed Alsudairi, an international relations lecturer at the Australian National University, told the Washington Post. 'The U.S. could be dragged into a quagmire, not of its own making.' And Beijing would support such a quagmire, Kardon told SCMP, as it would 'keep U.S. naval and air forces tied up in Western Asia instead of in the Western Pacific where China's strategic attention is concentrated.' Uncertainty around Taiwan Tensions around Taiwan have been on the rise in recent years. Beijing views Taiwan as part of China and has stepped up political and military pressure towards its reunification with mainland China. A majority of countries do not recognize Taiwan as an independent country, including the U.S., although the U.S. opposes the use of force by Beijing to claim Taiwan and provides Taiwan with defensive military capabilities. Taiwan's Defense Minister Wellington Koo said Thursday that the island is determined to defend itself, after outlining annual military exercises for July. The defense ministry reported earlier that day another Chinese 'joint combat readiness patrol' around Taiwan, involving warships and warplanes. China previously sent 46 military aircraft over the Taiwan Strait in the 24 hours before last Friday morning, according to Taiwan's defense ministry, after U.S. lawmakers met with Koo in a rare publicly disclosed meeting. On the morning of June 20, Taiwan detected a spike in Chinese movements near the island, after China criticized a British navy vessel patrolling the Taiwan Strait for the first time since 2021. 'No matter what they say or do, they cannot change the fact that Taiwan is part of China,' Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Guo Jiakun said. China's defense ministry said on Thursday that its military drills are 'necessary to defend national sovereignty and territorial integrity, and a stern warning to 'Taiwan independence' separatists and external interference.' The ministry added that U.S. support of Taiwan could 'mislead Taiwan into the flames of war.' Qi Dongtao, a senior research fellow at the East Asian Institute at the National University of Singapore, tells TIME that Trump's approach to China makes it difficult to know whether the U.S. would militarily intervene to defend Taiwan. Former President Joe Biden moved the U.S. from 'strategic ambiguity'—the policy of deliberately not clarifying whether the U.S. would militarily defend Taiwan—to 'strategic clarity,' Qi says. On multiple occasions, including in an interview with TIME last year, Biden said he wouldn't rule out 'using military force' to defend Taiwan in the case of an invasion. But Trump has moved the U.S. position back towards uncertainty. Trump is, by and large, 'not ideologically driven,' Qi says. Rather, his approach is 'transactional.' Trump Administration officials have also demanded that Taiwan increase its defense spending to as much as 10% of its gross domestic product, as part of an overall push for the U.S.' partners to spend more on their own defenses. Alexander Gray, a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council and former chief of staff of the National Security Council during Trump's first term, told Nikkei Asia that Israel's aerial campaign was 'the ultimate example of America First regional burden sharing'—signalling that the Trump Administration expects its regional partners to do a bulk of the fighting. 'For Trump, China is mainly an economic threat,' Qi adds. For the most part, 'Trump doesn't want to fight a war with China.' World still views China as a security concern NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte said Monday that NATO's Indo-Pacific partners—which includes Japan and South Korea—were 'very, very aware' of China's 'massive' military expansion, pointing to several Chinese defense companies that rank among the top arms makers globally. He warned that Chinese military expansion could also impact European security. 'They don't do this only because they want to have nice parades in Beijing. I guess it's there for a reason,' Rutte said. He pointed to 'the situation in Taiwan' and cautioned that should China 'try anything with Taiwan,' Beijing could rely on Russia to 'keep us busy here' in Europe. Rutte's comments signal that the West still views China mainly as a geopolitical security threat, even as Beijing tries to warm ties with Europe. 'We firmly oppose NATO using China as an excuse to expand eastward into the Asia-Pacific and urge NATO to reflect on its own behaviors, change course, and contribute more to global security and stability,' Chinese defense spokesperson Senior Colonel Zhang Xiaogang said at a regular press conference on Thursday. 'China wants to be seen as a neutral player,' Lin says. But the U.S. is still 'the dominant power in the region' and by most counts the world, whereas China is a 'relatively recent entry' diplomatically and economically to the Middle East. Even with some upgraded diplomatic ties in the Middle East, China is viewed mainly as an economic player, Lin adds. That informs China's need to balance its interests in and ties to several countries at once. If China were seen as 'too passive or too close to Iran,' for example, 'it could limit China's Belt and Road ambitions in the region.' With other nations too, China is seen as a major economic player, but taken with a grain of salt with regards to diplomacy. 'It is clear that China is one of the largest trading partners, and we have a few issues like climate change where we cooperate, but every relationship requires a dose of realism,' European Union foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas told reporters Monday after a meeting between E.U. foreign ministers. 'China is the key enabler of Russia's war against Ukraine. It carries out cyberattacks. It interferes in our democracies. It uses coercive trade practices. These aspects strain our relationship and make it increasingly hard to continue as before.' Even in the economic arena, China's relations have faltered. The E.U. earlier this month cancelled a flagship economic meeting with China over ongoing trade disputes. U.S. sanctions have spurred collaboration between China, Russia, Iran, and North Korea, including through setting up international collaborative organizations like BRICS as alternatives to a U.S.-led international order. But the global influence of these organizations is hampered by a lack of 'sufficient critical mass,' Stephen Olson, a visiting senior fellow at the ISEAS Yusof Ishak Institute, told Nikkei Asia. In another blow to China's push to become a regional leader, India on Thursday rejected signing a joint statement facilitated by the Shanghai Cooperation Organization—one such grouping set up by China and Russia to counter U.S. influence. Israel-Iran conflict was 'a stage' for U.S. and China's contrasting approaches China's continued policy of non-involvement contrasts sharply with what the world has seen from the U.S. in the past week—not to mention decades of its interventionist approach before Trump—which has allowed China to make 'great strides particularly in the Global South,' Lin tells TIME. That's intentional, Lin says, lest China lets itself become 'indistinguishable from the hegemonic powers it criticizes.' 'This conflict between Iran and Israel has somehow become a stage for China and the U.S. to showcase contrasting visions of global leadership,' Lin says. 'The U.S. has demonstrated its military capabilities, its commitment to allies, and its influence in crisis management. But these are not the metrics by which China measures its global role.' Where the U.S. wielded threats and weapons, China offered words. 'China's main stake is stability,' Lin says. 'History shows that great power involvement often worsens long-term instability. China does not aspire to become a world policeman, nor does it believe any single country should assume that role.'
