Japan's Nikkei rallies to record high, SoftBank surges
Tired of too many ads?
Remove Ads
Tired of too many ads?
Remove Ads
Japan's Nikkei share gauge powered to an all-time high on Tuesday, swept up by sharp gains for tech stocks, as it caught up with peaks scaled earlier this year by other major global stock markets.The Nikkei 225 rose as much as 2.1% to 42,715.72 in early trade, exceeding the previous high of 42,426.77 set on July 11, 2024. In a roller-coaster ride in 2024, the Nikkei had exceeded a record that had stood since 1989 during Japan's bubble economy.Japan's broader Topix gauge has been setting successive record highs since July 24 and also scored a new all-time high on Tuesday.The U.S. Standard & Poor's 500 and MSCI's broadest gauge of global equities have been charting new peaks since June.Steep gains by tech shares helped the Nikkei finally get over the line. SoftBank Group soared 6.7% after Reuters reported the conglomerate was selecting banks for a U.S. listing of its payments app operator PayPay. Semiconductor industry heavyweights Advantest and Lasertec jumped more than 5%."The Nikkei was not able to hit a record until today because chip-related shares and auto shares dragged the index," said Takamasa Ikeda, senior portfolio manager at GCI Asset Management. "The Nikkei could soon peak as technology shares that led the Wall Street's rally have slowed down."Global equities tumbled after U.S. President Donald Trump's April 2 "Liberation Day" announcement of sweeping tariffs on imports from dozens of countries into the U.S.Shares have since more than recouped those losses as trade concerns abated and enthusiasm over artificial intelligence companies soared.Foreign money has been flooding into the Japanese market of late, but data from the Tokyo Stock Exchange last week indicated those flows may have peaked.Overseas investors turned net sellers of Japanese stocks and futures for the first time in 16 weeks in the period ending Aug. 1. They sold a net 342 billion yen ($2.31 billion) of shares and futures, a sharp reversal from net purchases of 1.26 trillion yen in the previous week.($1 = 148.3700 yen).
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
India.com
an hour ago
- India.com
'I resolved India-Pakistan conflict': Donald Trump again claims, 6-7 planes were shot down, both were ready for nuclear war
New Delhi: US President Donald Trump has once again claimed that he averted a major conflict between India and Pakistan, which could have turned into a nuclear war. Trump said, 'Fighter planes of India and Pakistan were shooting down each other. Six-seven planes were shot down. The situation was so tense that they were probably ready to use nuclear weapons, but we resolved the matter.' He made this statement in the Oval Office of the White House and claimed that he had ended 6 wars in the last 6 months. What did Trump say about tariffs on India? Trump threatened to impose a 50% reciprocal tariff on India and an extra penalty on importing oil from Russia in his statement. 'If they fuel the war machine, I will not be happy,' he said. Trump has so far imposed a 25% reciprocal tariff on India and a 25% penalty on importing oil from Russia. This has increased the total tariff on India to 50%. The reciprocal tariff has come into effect from August 7, while the penalty will come into effect from August 27. Trump is going to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin in Alaska on August 15 (August 16, according to IST), to discuss ending the Ukraine war.
The Hindu
2 hours ago
- The Hindu
A paradigm shift: on India and its trade relations
On August 11, the central government implored India's seafood industry, that provides livelihoods to about 28 million people, to 'bravely face' the U.S.'s tariffs of 25% that kicked in on August 7 and which could be raised to 50% on August 27, contingent upon the outcome of trade negotiations. On Wednesday, highly placed sources in the Commerce and Finance Ministries told The Hindu that the government is exploring 'tweaking' the Export Promotion Mission (EPM), that was announced in the 2025 Union Budget, with an outlay of ₹2,250 crore for the current fiscal year. The EPM, a multi-Ministry project to drive access to cheaper export credit, overcome non-trade barriers and insure payments from overseas buyers, focuses on India's micro, small and medium enterprises (MSME). Initially meant to be driven by the Ministries of Commerce, MSME and Finance, discussions are on to include the Textiles and Fisheries Ministries. These two industries, which collectively support about 135 million Indians, form among the largest segment of MSMEs that are likely to face the most impact due to the sanctions. The U.S. typically accounts for roughly a third of India's apparel and seafood exports annually. The government's imploration to also diversify into other markets is a tacit admission that the Bilateral Trade Agreement negotiations with the U.S. are deadlocked, and that the personal equations between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and U.S President Donald Trump have not translated into a win for either side. Bilateral relations have arguably hit a level lower than during the Cold War, as the two nations were not as enmeshed as they are now, economically, culturally and militarily. Trade and service routes and supply chains take decades to build and undoing them overnight is not possible. This has been clear from the European Union's reliance on Russian oil and the global dependence on rare earth elements from China. While consultations have been ongoing between the government and MSME sector stakeholders ever since Mr. Trump announced 'reciprocal tariffs' in April, there is a chorus now for drastic governmental intervention to safeguard the backbone of the economy — it contributes nearly half (45.79% in FY25) of goods exports and employs over 28 crore people. The fisheries sector has sought a 240-day moratorium on pre- and post-shipment credit repayment, while the textiles, apparel and gem and jewellery sectors want interest subvention. The government has, however, ruled out direct subsidies. But unprecedented challenges require novel responses. The government must include in its arsenal a drastic refashioning of near-term trade ties with neighbours, in particular, China, which it had ignored in the hope that the assiduous cultivation of ties with Washington would pay off.
&w=3840&q=100)
Business Standard
2 hours ago
- Business Standard
In split decision, court clears Trump to restart CFPB mass firings
A divided federal appeals court on Friday cleared US President Donald Trump to resume mass firings at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, ruling that a lower court had lacked jurisdiction in temporarily blocking this. However, the Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia said on Friday that its decision would not take immediate effect, allowing lawyers representing CFPB workers and pro-consumer organizations to seek reconsideration by the full court of appeals, meaning dismissal notices were likely to have to wait for now. The decision nevertheless imperiled the employment of perhaps 1,500 workers at the CFPB whose mass dismissals were blocked in April by a trial court, which found the attempted purge violated a March injunction temporarily halting the administration's efforts to shut the CFPB down. Representatives for the CFPB did not immediately respond to requests for comment. However, Jennifer Bennett, an attorney for the plaintiffs, said the decision threatened to leave the public unprotected from the misdeeds of bad actors in the market for consumer finance. “Without the full force of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau - an agency Congress created specifically to protect consumers - millions will lose critical safeguards against predatory financial practices. If this decision is allowed to stand, it will shift the balance of power toward corporations at the expense of American families’ financial security," Bennett said in a statement without addressing plans for further appeal. In their ruling, US Circuit Court Judges Gregory Katsas and Neomi Rao found that, despite factual findings that the Trump administration intended to destroy the CFPB, the lower court had acted outside its authority. "We hold that the district court lacked jurisdiction to consider the claims predicated on loss of employment, which must proceed through the specialized-review scheme" under laws governing the civil service, the majority wrote. Other objections raised by the plaintiffs did not concern final decisions made by the agency and so could not be reviewed in court, wrote Katsas and Rao, both Trump appointees. In a dissent, Circuit Judge Cornelia Pillard said the lower court had acted properly in blocking the Trump administration from eradicating the CFPB entirely as the lawsuit played out. "But it is emphatically not within the discretion of the President or his appointees to decide that the country would benefit most if there were no Bureau at all," wrote Pillard, who was appointed by former President Barack Obama. Two watchdog organizations, the Federal Reserve's inspector general and Congress's Government Accountability Office, launched investigations earlier this year into the Trump administration's actions at the CFPB. Congress created the CFPB in the wake of the 2008 financial crash to police consumer finance industries whose activities generated the toxic assets underlying that crisis. Conservatives and industrial lobbies have long reviled the agency, accusing it of weighing on free enterprise and acting outside the bounds of the law to pursue politicized enforcement. Trump officials have appeared to vacillate this year concerning their plans for the CFPB, with Trump and erstwhile adviser Elon Musk saying it should be eradicated outright, even though senior officials have said in court they plan to shrink the agency but let it live in some form as required by law. Lawyers representing workers and consumer groups, however, rejected this, saying witness testimony showed top officials did not intend to maintain a functioning CFPB. In court, they produced evidence and testimony showing the attempted mass dismissals of March and April were so widespread they completely vacated entire offices or left them so understaffed as to be incapable of performing functions required by law, lawyers for CFPB workers and consumer advocates said in court.
