Inflation Report Fuels Investors' Hopes for a Rate Cut - Minute Briefing
Full Transcript
This transcript was prepared by a transcription service. This version may not be in its final form and may be updated.
Charlotte Gartenberg: Here's your Closing Bell Brief For Tuesday, August 12th. I'm Charlotte Gartenberg for The Wall Street Journal. Major US stock indexes jumped as the latest consumer price report gave investors hope that the Federal Reserve will cut interest rates. The Nasdaq and S&P both finished at all-time highs up 1.4% and 1.1% respectively. The Dow Jones Industrial Average also rose 1.1% or 484 points to end the day at 44,459. Among individual companies, Intel's shares gained more than 5 1/2%, extending a rally after its CEO met with President Trump. The Singaporean e-commerce company Sea saw its American depository receipts jump 19% after it reported better-than-expected quarterly results. Google parent Alphabet's stock rose 1.2%. We report that AI startup Perplexity is making a long-shot bid to purchase Google's Chrome browser for $34.5 billion. And Eastman Kodak's stock sank 20% after the company swung to a loss, and warned that it may have trouble paying off its debt. Heads up, an artificial intelligence tool helped us make this episode by creating summaries that were based on WSJ reporting and then reviewed and adapted by an editor. We'll have a lot more coverage of the day's news on The Wall Street Journal's What's News podcast. You can add it to your playlist on your smart speaker or listen and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
17 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Matthews China Fund's Strategic Moves: A Closer Look at BYD Co Ltd
Exploring the Fund's Investment Adjustments in Q2 2025 Matthews China Fund (Trades, Portfolio) recently submitted its N-PORT filing for the second quarter of 2025, revealing strategic investment adjustments. Established in February 1998, the fund aims to achieve its investment objectives by allocating at least 80% of its net assets in Chinese companies' common and preferred stocks. The fund focuses on companies with sustainable growth potential, evaluating factors such as balance sheet strength, cash flow stability, management quality, and corporate governance. This disciplined approach aligns with the fund's long-term value investment philosophy. Summary of New Buy Matthews China Fund (Trades, Portfolio) added a total of three stocks to its portfolio during the second quarter of 2025. The most significant addition was CMOC Group Ltd (HKSE:03993), with 4,581,000 shares, accounting for 1.24% of the portfolio and valued at HK$4.68 million. The second largest addition was Hisense Home Appliances Group Co Ltd (HKSE:00921), consisting of 1,186,000 shares, representing approximately 0.86% of the portfolio, with a total value of HK$3.24 million. The third addition was Cambricon Technologies Corp Ltd (SHSE:688256), with 28,038 shares, accounting for 0.63% of the portfolio and valued at 2.36 million. Key Position Increases Matthews China Fund (Trades, Portfolio) also increased its stakes in nine stocks. The most notable increase was in BYD Co Ltd (HKSE:01211), with an additional 303,000 shares, bringing the total to 543,000 shares. This adjustment represents a significant 126.25% increase in share count, impacting the portfolio by 1.26%, with a total value of HK$8.45 million. The second largest increase was in Suzhou TFC Optical Communications Co Ltd (SZSE:300394), with an additional 165,900 shares, bringing the total to 377,916. This adjustment represents a 78.25% increase in share count, with a total value of 4.24 million. Summary of Sold Out Matthews China Fund (Trades, Portfolio) completely exited 10 holdings in the second quarter of 2025. Notable exits include Anjoy Foods Group Co Ltd (SHSE:603345), with the sale of all 295,500 shares, resulting in a -0.84% impact on the portfolio. Another significant exit was Shenzhen Mindray Bio-Medical Electronics Co Ltd (SZSE:300760), with the liquidation of all 83,814 shares, causing a -0.7% impact on the portfolio. Key Position Reduces Matthews China Fund (Trades, Portfolio) reduced its position in 13 stocks. The most significant reduction was in Guangdong Haid Group Co Ltd (SZSE:002311), with a decrease of 338,300 shares, resulting in a -69.17% decrease in shares and a -0.6% impact on the portfolio. The stock traded at an average price of 56.49 during the quarter, returning 3.14% over the past three months and 20.49% year-to-date. Another notable reduction was in PetroChina Co Ltd (HKSE:00857), with a decrease of 2,634,000 shares, resulting in a -26.56% reduction in shares and a -0.55% impact on the portfolio. The stock traded at an average price of HK$6.32 during the quarter, returning 26.27% over the past three months and 30.81% year-to-date. Portfolio Overview As of the second quarter of 2025, Matthews China Fund (Trades, Portfolio)'s portfolio included 63 stocks. The top holdings were 10.31% in Tencent Holdings Ltd (HKSE:00700), 7.69% in Alibaba Group Holding Ltd (HKSE:09988), 4.51% in China Construction Bank Corp (HKSE:00939), 4.2% in Inc (HKSE:09618), and 3.79% in PDD Holdings Inc (NASDAQ:PDD). The holdings are mainly concentrated in 10 of the 11 industries: Consumer Cyclical, Financial Services, Communication Services, Technology, Industrials, Real Estate, Consumer Defensive, Healthcare, Basic Materials, and Energy. This article, generated by GuruFocus, is designed to provide general insights and is not tailored financial advice. Our commentary is rooted in historical data and analyst projections, utilizing an impartial methodology, and is not intended to serve as specific investment guidance. It does not formulate a recommendation to purchase or divest any stock and does not consider individual investment objectives or financial circumstances. Our objective is to deliver long-term, fundamental data-driven analysis. Be aware that our analysis might not incorporate the most recent, price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative information. GuruFocus holds no position in the stocks mentioned herein. This article first appeared on GuruFocus.
Tom's Guide
18 minutes ago
- Tom's Guide
I improved my digital security by making these 7 easy changes
It can be an easy thing to let your digital security get away from you: the endless emails in your inbox, the multiple devices, app permissions, and personal data to keep track of... It can be a lot when you look at it as a big project. But when you break it down into smaller steps, it's just a few easy changes to make at a time. In order to start improving my own digital security, I started making a list of the things I knew needed to be updated, overhauled or changed and then organized them by whether they could be done as a single task or whether they were going to take multiple stages. Some of these are going to be ongoing habits, and some took a lot of effort up front but all of them were worth it. Switching over to passkeys may seem time consuming, but as I've pointed out before it's really not – I was able to do so with a few of my main online accounts in less than 10 minutes. Whenever an app or account offers me biometric options like Face ID I'm happy to use it. Those accounts that don't offer passkey support yet can still get protected via one of the best password managers, which helps me make sure all my accounts have strong and unique passwords – and this also means I don't have to remember anything. While it may have taken a bit of an initial time investment to set up my password manager, it's still better than stumbling across an account and having to reset a password. Likewise, if an account offers two-factor (2FA) or multi-factor authentication (MFA), I'll always opt for it This security feature is absolutely vital when it comes to protecting my accounts from hackers. That's especially true when it comes to high profile accounts like banking, email, social media or cloud storage accounts. Get instant access to breaking news, the hottest reviews, great deals and helpful tips. There are even two-factor authentication apps that can be employed to broadly protect your accounts and provide you with recovery codes. That means even if someone uses a brute force attack or has a reused password for an old account, you're still protected. I liked single sign-on initially because it was convenient and there are certain accounts I didn't mind having tied together. It was easy to link my Google account for log ins because it meant everything was all tied together… but this convenience was actually putting me at risk. The reason being is that this meant if anyone were to crack into my Google account they would have access to all those other accounts. That very thought alone was enough to get me to go back and unlink those accounts and get them their own log-ins, and then I put those new credentials into my password manager, of course. An unexpected bonus is fewer companies can track me across multiple platforms as well, which I'll admit I don't hate. It wasn't convenience here but plain old laziness – old documents, resumes, scans of IDs, and notes that were in cloud accounts. When I went back in to see what was there, I realized it was a gold mine for identity thieves so into the trash bin and file shredder it all went. Documents I know I'll be needing can be kept on one of the best external hard drives, which is easier to encrypt and keep in a safely secured location. Does it take a little more planning when I need to access them? Sometimes. Do I still use the cloud? Plenty, just not for those sensitive items. I've shared before about how this is one of the bad computer habits you may not even know you have – and I'll admit, it's one I'm slowly but surely breaking myself. It can take a long time to unearth all those old accounts, find a way to delete them and unsubscribe from all that junk but it's not so bad if you do it while streaming your favorite shows in the background. There are also helpful tools like Just Delete Me that can help make it easier and when you're done, you have fewer ways for hackers to get access to your accounts and your data. And as an added bonus, your inbox won't look like mine, which trust me, is enough of a reward. This is something I do frequently, because apps aren't my friends – they're tools on my phone that are there to do a job. If I make sure to check on which apps are pulling location data, or camera/mic requests, I know which ones are asking for too many permissions. Alternatively, viewing these menus frequently also lets me know which apps I'm not using very often and can maybe delete altogether. The fewer apps on my phone, the farther my battery life goes and the more secure I feel – I know I'm not allowing apps to be intrusive, I know what they're requesting and gathering and if there is a data breach, I know which apps are accessing what information. This one became easy because, well, I'm already using a password manager so I didn't need my browser to also hold this information. Now I don't have to worry that anyone who borrows my phone or my laptop could have access to my accounts just by opening a browser window, and all my passwords are in a single location and not divided up across multiple devices, browsers or saved locations. Plus, it doesn't matter which browser I use, I can still use my password manager to get logged in. While this is by no means an exhaustive list of the ways in which you can make small changes to increase your digital security, it's a good way to start by making steps in the right direction with small, easy increments. A little work making good habits can go a long way when it comes to staying safe online, just like making sure you use one of the best antivirus software suites on all your devices and know all of its features from the VPN to the safe browser measures. It all becomes second nature once you've established security practices that help make you harder to hack and phish. Do you have any other quick and easy tricks you used to improve your own cyber hygiene. Let me know in the comments below and until next time, I'll be working to improve my online security even further. Follow Tom's Guide on Google News to get our up-to-date news, how-tos, and reviews in your feeds. Make sure to click the Follow button.
Android Authority
18 minutes ago
- Android Authority
YouTube Music gets another music discovery tool that Spotify doesn't have
Edgar Cervantes / Android Authority TL;DR Google is testing a new Daily Discover feed in YouTube Music. Like the existing weekly discover, the daily discover aims to help you find artists or music similar to what you already listen. Google only appears to be testing it at the moment, as the feature hasn't rolled out widely. Although its supremacy is contentious, YouTube Music is easily among the top five music and podcast streaming services globally. Its popularity naturally stems from the fact that it automatically sorts music (or other audio-based media) uploaded to YouTube. While the automatic sourcing already allows you to discover more tracks, including renditions, covers, audiobooks, etc., YouTube Music is adding a new Daily Discover feed to make the process much easier. We recently learned that Google is testing a new Daily Discover option to recommend new tracks every day based on your preferences. The feature, as spotted by Reddit user One_Flow_8127, is positioned somewhere on the homepage. It appears on top of the 'Trending songs for you' section, which appears after several scrolls on YouTube Music's homepage on the Android app. Based on the screenshots shared, we can see these recommendations show up in a carousel format, and people can scroll left or right to explore multiple recommendations. The feature shows recommendations for particular soundtracks instead of entire playlists, and also tells you the reason why it is being suggested. However, if you prefer, the suggestions also come with a 'Play All' button that should combine all tracks into a new playlist. The primary motive behind this feature is to learn about new artists and their music, which may be loosely based on your interests and listening habits. While its biggest competitor, Spotify, also offers discovery features, it primarily focuses on familiar artists and dispenses these recommendations in playlists instead of regular tracks. Don't want to miss the best from Android Authority? Set us as a preferred source in Google Search to support us and make sure you never miss our latest exclusive reports, expert analysis, and much more. The daily discover option itself isn't new and was previously spotted by another Reddit user, BarisberatWNR, about a month ago. However, for them, the recommendations appeared in a different location on the homepage, suggesting YouTube may be testing varied placements to see what is likely to get the most attention. Last month, another user posted in Google's Community forums about the feature appearing and then being removed from their account. From what we expect, the daily discover feature could complement or substitute YouTube's Discover mix, a playlist refreshed weekly instead of daily. To be able to access this weekly discover playlist, you must scroll down on YouTube Music's homepage and spot it under the 'Mixed for you' tab. This appears to be a limited test for certain users, as many others on the original Reddit post have commented about not receiving it. We can't access the feature either, and it isn't easy to ascertain whether this is meant to be an A/B test or a rollout. Further, it appears to have turned it on from the server-side, so updating the app to a newer version will not achieve positive results, though there is no harm in doing so. Follow
