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Tag: China

  • Map: US ally names strategic sites for China war

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    Japan—a key ally in the United States’ strategy to counter potential Chinese aggression—has expanded the number of airports and seaports available for use in the event of a contingency.

    A total of 14 airports and 26 seaports in Japan are designated for “specified use” by the Self-Defense Forces and the coast guard, located across the country’s main and outlying islands.

    Newsweek has reached out to the Japanese Defense Ministry for further comment via email. China‘s Foreign Ministry did not immediately respond to a written request for comment.

    Why It Matters

    Under a U.S. containment strategy, Japan is part of a north-south defensive line—known as the First Island Chain—along with Taiwan and the Philippines, aimed at projecting deterrence and restricting China’s military activity in the Western Pacific in the event of war.

    China has threatened to take the self-ruled Taiwan—a U.S. security partner that Beijing considers to be a breakaway province—by force, potentially jeopardizing the security of Japan’s Ryukyu Islands, which lie between the southwest of the country’s main islands and the northeast of Taiwan. The main Ryuku island, Okinawa, hosts a key U.S. air base at Kadena.

    The designation of airports and seaports for specified use is part of Japan’s national security strategy aimed at strengthening its defense posture, allowing what Tokyo describes as the “smooth use” of these public facilities by the Self-Defense Forces and the coast guard.

    What To Know

    Citing a Japanese government official, the newspaper the Sankei Shimbun reported on August 21 that three airports—Aomori Airport, Sendai Airport and Yamaguchi Ube Airport—and Aomori Port will be designated for specified use, joining 11 other airports and 25 seaports.

    A Newsweek map shows that half of these 40 airports and seaports are located on the Ryukyu Islands and Kyushu—the southernmost of Japan’s four main islands—reflecting a focus on defense in the southwest. The rest are on Shikoku, Honshu and Hokkaido islands.

    According to the report, following the designation, airports will extend runways and build parking areas to support flight operations by fighter jets and transport aircraft. Seaports will have nearby seabed dredged and quays constructed to accommodate naval and transport vessels.

    While Tokyo has stated that the purpose of designating civilian airports and seaports is not to establish military bases, the dual use of these facilities has raised concerns that they could be targeted militarily, posing a risk to civilians living nearby.

    As part of its rapid military buildup, China possesses a large ballistic missile arsenal capable of striking U.S. military bases throughout Japan, according to a Pentagon assessment report.

    Japan has been bolstering its missile defenses amid threats from China and North Korea, acquiring two Aegis System Equipped Vessels (ASEVs) to defend against ballistic missile attacks.

    By ensuring airports and seaports can be used effectively by the military and coast guard, Japan’s deterrence and response capabilities will be enhanced, thereby reducing the likelihood of an attack and improving the safety of the Japanese people, Tokyo says.

    This file photo taken from a helicopter shows Sendai Airport in northeastern Japan on March 24, 2017.

    Kyodo via AP Images

    In addition to supporting military deployment during a contingency, the designated airports and seaports will be used by the Self-Defense Forces and the coast guard for training, transporting goods, evacuating people, and responding to disasters in peacetime.

    What People Are Saying

    Japan’s Cabinet Secretariat explained on its website: “Japan is in the most severe security environment since the end of the war. In order to effectively respond based on such a security environment, we have established a ‘framework for smooth use’ with infrastructure managers (local governments, etc.) so that the Self-Defense Forces and the Japan Coast Guard can use private airports and seaports smoothly as necessary.”

    Japan’s defense white paper 2025 said: “China’s external posture, military activities, and other activities are a matter of serious concern for Japan and the international community and present an unprecedented and the greatest strategic challenge which Japan should respond [to] with its comprehensive national power and in cooperation and collaboration with its [allies], like-minded countries, and others.”

    What Happens Next

    It remains to be seen whether Japan will expand the list of “specified-use airports and seaports” amid China’s growing military presence around the First Island Chain.

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  • The Duty-Free Loophole Is Closing. What That Means for You—and Your Packages

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    Want to buy something online and have it shipped into the US? Well, get ready to pay more for the privilege. Starting Friday, small packages imported into the country will be subjected to a duty.

    The Trump administration is levying a new tax on all packages coming into the country—regardless of value—starting August 29. This is the latest push in President Trump’s global trade war.

    The new policy is the result of an executive order issued in July that officially suspended the de minimis import exemption for all countries. Previously this exemption allowed shipments valued at less than $800 to enter the country without being subjected to a duty fee. The change means any seller shipping packages into the US will now be charged a fee even if the value is well under $800.

    The fee amount for imports varies depending on the tariff rate the Trump administration has levied on the shipment’s specific country of origin. This fee can range from 10 to 50 percent of the item’s value. For at least the next six months, shippers can also choose to pay a flat fee instead of the new value-based duty, and that fee will be anywhere between $80 and $200 per shipment.

    Lots of people are freaking out about this. Postal services in Europe, Mexico, and Japan, along with companies like DHL have said they will suspend shipments to the US. Independent sellers on platforms like Etsy are worrying that the additional costs will make it pricier to ship their bespoke goods. And, like the tariff shuffles earlier this year, the move has caused further chaos for merchants and supply chains as sellers consider how much more to charge going forward.

    “There’s obviously going to be some sort of a balancing act of not trying to raise prices quickly to avoid shocking consumers,” says Juozas Kaziukėnas, a technology analyst who focuses on global trade and services like Temu and Shein. “There’s really no way to get around it.”

    Gift It

    If you’re not selling something and just want to send a package across country lines, you can still declare the item a gift. If you’re using a service like Royal Mail in the UK, the package will avoid the new costs if you classify it as a gift and declare the value to be under $100.

    Declaring something a gift is not exactly a winning strategy for businesses or Etsy sellers, though, as it would be seen as an effort to wriggle out of the increased cost.

    “Catching tariff avoidance is probably one of the top priorities for the DOJ right now,” Kaziukėnas says. “It’s not something you want to mess around with.”

    Sellers Beware

    While there has been a lot of consternation about tariffs this year, Kaziukėnas says most of the chaos and upheaval has been felt by the sellers. The new fees are also likely to hit independent sellers harder, since their smaller sales volumes makes it more difficult for them to absorb the added costs.

    “Things you would buy on eBay, things you would buy on Etsy, random things from Japan or random things from somewhere in Portugal, those are now uniquely exposed to this change.” Kaziukėnas says.

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    Boone Ashworth

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  • Investors are looking at bargains in China, says HSBC investment boss, pushed by AI discounts and fears over Trump 2.0

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    When President Trump returned to the White House his intention was clear: Make America Great Again. But the United States’s economic partners, and some of its rivals, are also benefitting from having the unorthodox showman back in the Oval Office.

    Investors are watching the U.S. stock market with both enthusiasm and trepidation: The S&P 500 is up 15% over the past year, Treasuries have remained relatively steady, and the Fed’s monetary policy is expected to begin a downwards trajectory.

    But overlaying the strong fundamentals are questions: Is the soaring growth of the Magnificent 7 stocks overvalued on the unfulfilled promises of AI? Will Trump’s unusual foreign policy materially damage the domestic economy? And where might the true winners of the artificial intelligence race emerge from?

    Increasingly, investors are answering those questions by diversifting into a key region says Willem Sels, the global chief investment officer for HSBC’s global private bank. That region is China.

    America continues to prove to its economic resilience and earnings deliverables, Sels told Fortune in an exclusive interview, but geopolitical uncertainty is pushing investors towards balancing risk with other regions.

    Traditionally, the question of political influence over portfolios has centered on emerging markets, said Sels, but over the past few years that has moved into developed markets as well. As such, diversification has become more of a focus—particularly for business owners looking to spread risk between the economy they operate in and the assets used to protect their wealth.

    “When a client comes in the door … the first discussion is please build a global portfolio. Maybe try to have as little as possible in your home country if you already have your business here, because that’s diversification,” Sels said. “Clearly the debate over the last few months was about, will there be diversification away from the U.S.? And there are a number of elements to that.”

    Part of the question is how dominant U.S. Big Tech has become in equity markets, with the Magnificent 7 stocks (Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, Meta, Microsoft, Nvidia and Tesla) providing most of the growth. As such, if these stocks hiccup it can have major ramifications for portfolios.

    “Clearly you potentially need to do something around that … to diversify,” Sels said, “We highlight things like make sure that you don’t only have the growth stocks but have some value stocks, do some sector diversification, do some geographical diversification and so on. 

    “The other thing that triggered that diversification discussion obviously was the rapid policy changes in the U.S., and the growth of the debt pile, which led people to ask the question, is there a de-dollarization story and what does that mean in terms of my portfolio and other people’s portfolio? What we’ve seen in the data is that there have been two months or so where there were some outflows out of bonds and equity markets, but that has not lasted—to a large extent because policy has become a little bit clearer.”

    Safe haven out of Europe and into China

    “People are adding a little bit to other regions, adding a little bit to other sectors to be less concentrated in the U.S. market, but they are not fleeing away from it,” Sels continued. “There was enthusiasm for European stocks, but it was very short-lived. The Asian investors over the last 15 [to] 20 years that I’ve been going there find it very hard to get excited about Europe.”

    Part of the problem is that these investors don’t see as many new or emerging companies which could materially change the European economy, and there’s also the issue of brand recognition beyond companies like LVMH and BMW, Sels said.

    “This is the first time that we’re again seeing flows from Europe into China,” Sels added. “That is to a large extent because of the AI trade that people want to play, and then secondly this concept of anti-involution … with the supply side reforms which would address the issue of overcapacity, therefore the deflation issue and therefore the earnings growth, because what you have in China is a lot of very competitive companies … therefore they have no pressing power and therefore earnings growth has been reasonably weak.”

    China has signaled a shift in priorities to address involution, with the country’s Central Finance and Economic Affairs Commission telling President Xi Jinping in a meeting last month that Beijing must “focus on key and difficult issues, regulate enterprises’ disorderly and low-price competition” and “guide enterprises to improve product quality and promote the orderly exit of outdated production capacity.”

    Beijing is no stranger to the issue. In 2015 the government launched similar action to address overcapacity, particularly in key regions like steel and coal, in order to boost corporate profitability.

    Flash forward to 2025 and “they’re now addressing that,” Sels said, “Therefore we think that earnings expectations will go up … one of the main obstacles for our clients had been the belief that [Chinese companies are] over-competing and therefore your earnings are not there, the economic growth is potentially there, but your earnings are not there.” 

    “That’s now changing, so we’re seeing flows back and obviously also encouraged by ‘How can I diversify my big U.S. trunk of assets?’”

    AI discount

    With discussions about diversification out of U.S. remaining active, China seems to have emerged as the region to balance that risk, Sels said. And Beijing’s typically lower share prices also offer the category of the moment, AI, at a bargain.

    In a note published last week, HSBC noted that within the AI ecosystem, infrastructure stocks are outperforming enablers and adopters—at 22.2% versus 11.3% and 13.5% since July. Indeed, this week Chinese chipmaker Cambricon Technologies briefly became the country’s most expensive stock, surging 10% on Wednesday to 1,465 yuan ($204.62). At the time of writing, the share price has dropped back but is up 112% for the year to date.

    And while Cambricon exemplifies the more expensive end of the scale, Sels highlights that other equivalents to U.S. stocks can be found at a “30 to 40% discount.”

    “We’re basically saying, listen, don’t just look at the chips makers but also look at the guys that build out the infrastructure around it. The guys that build out the energy, the electricity supply around it, the robotics and automation where it is not just a matter of we move the data a little bit—this is real, big innovation. And so by diversifying throughout the AI ecosystem, I think you address a little bit the question about valuations.”

    China’s stock market is soaring: The SSE Composite Index is up 33.4% over the past year while the S&P 500 is up 14.9%. While the growth in China is marked, HSBC’s research points out U.S. AI-related capex (driven by the “Big 4” of Amazon, Alphabet, Microsoft, and Meta along with
    Stargate and other private companies) are outspending China’s “Big 4” (Alibaba, ByteDance, Tencent, and Baidu, as well as telecom services companies) by eight to 10 times.

    Moreover, HSBC’s research adds: “U.S. firms achieve higher returns on AI capex, with cloud platforms generating significantly more revenue than their Chinese counterparts – close to USD $400bn in the U.S. vs. USD $60bn in China in 2024, according to Statista.”

    So while clients may be balancing against over-reliance on American companies, Sels said, the upside fundamentals of the U.S. remain strong—enough so to take a recession off the table. Indeed, while blips in tech stocks recently led to questions over an AI bubble, the HSBC boss remained bullish: “We certainly think that that AI liftoff is structural in nature.”

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    Eleanor Pringle

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  • North Korean leader Kim Jong Un will attend a military parade in Beijing next week

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    North Korean leader Kim Jong Un will make his first visit to China in six years to attend a military parade next week, the two countries said Thursday, in an event that would bring him together with a group of world leaders for the first time since taking office in late 2011.Kim and Russian President Vladimir Putin will be among 26 foreign leaders who attend next Wednesday’s parade in Beijing to mark the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II and China’s resistance against Japan’s wartime aggressions, according to the Chinese Foreign Ministry.“We warmly welcome General Secretary Kim Jong Un to China to attend the commemorative events,” Hong Lei, China’s assistant minister of foreign affairs, told a press conference. “Upholding, consolidating and developing the traditional friendship between China and the DPRK is a firm position of the Communist Party of China and the Chinese government.”DPRK refers to the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, North Korea’s official name.North Korea’s state news agency, KCNA, said Kim will visit China at the invitation of Chinese President Xi Jinping to attend celebrations of the 80th anniversary of the war’s end. It gave no further details, including how long he will stay in China and whether he will hold an official meeting with Xi, Putin or other leaders visiting China.Others coming for the parade include the leaders of Iran, Belarus, Serbia, Cuba, Indonesia, Myanmar, Pakistan and Malaysia. No leaders from the United States or other major Western European countries are expected to attend, in part because of their differences with Putin over the war in Ukraine. The parade is expected to feature some of China’s newest weaponry and a speech by Xi.If Kim’s trip is realized, it would be his first trip to China since 2019. Since inheriting power upon his father’s death in December 2011, Kim has met Xi, Putin, U.S. President Donald Trump, former South Korean President Moon Jae-in and others, but all those summits were bilateral meetings and Kim hasn’t attended any multilateral events involving foreign leaders.In all, Kim traveled to China four times from 2018 to 2019 to meet Xi.China has long been North Korea’s biggest trading partner and main aid provider, but there have been questions about their relations in recent years. North Korea has been focusing on expanding cooperation with Russia by supplying troops and ammunition to support its war against Ukraine in exchange for economic and military assistance.But many observers say North Korea is expected to take steps to improve ties with China to revive its troubled economy, because there is a limit to what it can get from Russia and it’s also unclear if North Korea and Russia would maintain the same level of cooperation after the Ukraine war ends. In 2023, about 97% of North Korea’s external trade was with China, while 1.2% was with Russia, according to Chinese data.Kim’s visit to China could also be related to efforts to restart diplomacy with Trump, who has repeatedly highlighted his relationship with Kim and expressed his hopes to resume talks. North Korea has so far dismissed Trump’s outreach, but many analysts say North Korea would return to talks if it believes the U.S. would make greater concessions.“Pyongyang’s illicit cooperation with Moscow has strained ties with Beijing, even as China’s political and economic support remains vital for the North Korean regime,” said Leif-Eric Easley, professor of international studies at Ewha Womans University in Seoul.“To re-engage Trump from a position of strength, Kim seeks to repair relations with Xi, and attending the parade in Beijing is a highly visible way of doing that,” Easley said.During a meeting with Lee in Washington this week, Trump spoke of his past summits with Kim, including one at the Korean Demilitarized Zone. Responding to a question over whether he would return to the Demilitarized Zone, Trump told reporters, “I loved it. Remember when I walked across the line and everyone went crazy.”During Trump’s first term, he met Kim three times from 2018-19, but their high-stakes summit eventually collapsed due to wrangling over U.S.-led sanctions on North Korea. Kim has since conducted weapons tests to modernize and expand his nuclear arsenal.

    North Korean leader Kim Jong Un will make his first visit to China in six years to attend a military parade next week, the two countries said Thursday, in an event that would bring him together with a group of world leaders for the first time since taking office in late 2011.

    Kim and Russian President Vladimir Putin will be among 26 foreign leaders who attend next Wednesday’s parade in Beijing to mark the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II and China’s resistance against Japan’s wartime aggressions, according to the Chinese Foreign Ministry.

    “We warmly welcome General Secretary Kim Jong Un to China to attend the commemorative events,” Hong Lei, China’s assistant minister of foreign affairs, told a press conference. “Upholding, consolidating and developing the traditional friendship between China and the DPRK is a firm position of the Communist Party of China and the Chinese government.”

    DPRK refers to the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, North Korea’s official name.

    North Korea’s state news agency, KCNA, said Kim will visit China at the invitation of Chinese President Xi Jinping to attend celebrations of the 80th anniversary of the war’s end. It gave no further details, including how long he will stay in China and whether he will hold an official meeting with Xi, Putin or other leaders visiting China.

    Others coming for the parade include the leaders of Iran, Belarus, Serbia, Cuba, Indonesia, Myanmar, Pakistan and Malaysia. No leaders from the United States or other major Western European countries are expected to attend, in part because of their differences with Putin over the war in Ukraine. The parade is expected to feature some of China’s newest weaponry and a speech by Xi.

    If Kim’s trip is realized, it would be his first trip to China since 2019. Since inheriting power upon his father’s death in December 2011, Kim has met Xi, Putin, U.S. President Donald Trump, former South Korean President Moon Jae-in and others, but all those summits were bilateral meetings and Kim hasn’t attended any multilateral events involving foreign leaders.

    In all, Kim traveled to China four times from 2018 to 2019 to meet Xi.

    China has long been North Korea’s biggest trading partner and main aid provider, but there have been questions about their relations in recent years. North Korea has been focusing on expanding cooperation with Russia by supplying troops and ammunition to support its war against Ukraine in exchange for economic and military assistance.

    But many observers say North Korea is expected to take steps to improve ties with China to revive its troubled economy, because there is a limit to what it can get from Russia and it’s also unclear if North Korea and Russia would maintain the same level of cooperation after the Ukraine war ends. In 2023, about 97% of North Korea’s external trade was with China, while 1.2% was with Russia, according to Chinese data.

    Kim’s visit to China could also be related to efforts to restart diplomacy with Trump, who has repeatedly highlighted his relationship with Kim and expressed his hopes to resume talks. North Korea has so far dismissed Trump’s outreach, but many analysts say North Korea would return to talks if it believes the U.S. would make greater concessions.

    “Pyongyang’s illicit cooperation with Moscow has strained ties with Beijing, even as China’s political and economic support remains vital for the North Korean regime,” said Leif-Eric Easley, professor of international studies at Ewha Womans University in Seoul.

    “To re-engage Trump from a position of strength, Kim seeks to repair relations with Xi, and attending the parade in Beijing is a highly visible way of doing that,” Easley said.

    During a meeting with Lee in Washington this week, Trump spoke of his past summits with Kim, including one at the Korean Demilitarized Zone. Responding to a question over whether he would return to the Demilitarized Zone, Trump told reporters, “I loved it. Remember when I walked across the line and everyone went crazy.”

    During Trump’s first term, he met Kim three times from 2018-19, but their high-stakes summit eventually collapsed due to wrangling over U.S.-led sanctions on North Korea. Kim has since conducted weapons tests to modernize and expand his nuclear arsenal.

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  • Trading Day: Nvidia beats but shares retreat

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    By Jamie McGeever

    ORLANDO, Florida (Reuters) -TRADING DAY

    Making sense of the forces driving global markets

    By Jamie McGeever, Markets Columnist

    The S&P 500 hit a record high on Wednesday, as Wall Street rose broadly on expectations the Federal Reserve will lower interest rates next month and on investor confidence that tech giant Nvidia‘s results would deliver another resounding ‘beat’.

    More on that below. In my column today, I look at examples of where the overt politicization of monetary policy has had severe economic and market consequences. And contrary to perceived wisdom, these have not just been in emerging markets.

    If you have more time to read, here are a few articles I recommend to help you make sense of what happened in markets today.

    1. Fed’s credibility is an asset whose decline could becostly 2. The fight for the Fed reaches its decisive moment 3. India hit by U.S. doubling of tariffs, plans to cushionblow 4. Tariff-bolstered U.S. credit rating is still tarnished:Mike Dolan 5. Investors worry Trump‘s Intel deal kicks off era of U.S.industrial policy

    Today’s Key Market Moves

    * STOCKS: S&P 500 hits new high. China’s benchmark indexesslump 1.5% or more. Europe flat, Britain’s FTSE 100 falls for asecond day from Monday’s record high. * SHARES/SECTORS: Nvidia shares fall as much as 5% inextended trade after earnings, despite beating on Q2 revenue andforecasting strong Q3 revenue on robust AI chip demand. * FX: Dollar index gives back gains, ends flat. In G10space, dollar falls most vs Canadian dollar and Norwegian krone. * BONDS: French 30-year yield highest since 2011. U.S.2-year yield falls to 3.62%, lowest since May. 5-year auctiongoes reasonably well. * COMMODITIES: Oil rebounds 1% plus from Tuesday’sselloff. Brent crude futures have now swung 1% or more in nineof the last 10 trading sessions.

    Today’s Talking Points:

    * Wings of a dove

    Investors remain confident that the Fed will cut interest rates next month as the controversy around President Donald Trump’s attempts to fire Fed Governor Lisa Cook persists. Traders are putting a near-90% probability on a move next month, and the 2-year Treasury yield fell to its lowest since May.

    New York Fed President John Williams said rates are probably headed lower, but officials need to see more economic data before deciding if a cut next month is appropriate.

    * Stock rotation

    The S&P 500 clocked a new high on Wednesday, led by the energy and healthcare sectors. As August draws to a close, the rotation into small cap and value stocks from tech and growth stocks shows no sign of reversing.

    The Russell 2000 index has lagged all year but on Wednesday notched a new 2025 high, again outperforming Wall Street’s big three indices. Will this continue next month? Much will depend on the impact of Nvidia’s Q2 results, and expectations of what the Fed will do on September 17.

    * China takes stock

    Chinese stocks have been on a tear, roaring to decade highs earlier this week. But the AI-driven rally sputtered on Wednesday, and the Shanghai Composite slid nearly 2% for its biggest fall since the tariff turmoil of early April.

    It may just be natural profit-taking as month-end looms. But maybe the rally is stretched – Hong Kong’s tech index is up 10% in August and up 60% from the April low, and China’s economy is still not out of its funk: China’s economic surprises index last week fell to its lowest level this year.

    Danger ahead! Five examples of risky central bank politicization

    There is legitimate debate about the actual independence of modern-day central banks, but almost everyone agrees that overt politicization of monetary policy – as we appear to be seeing in the United States – is dangerous. Why is that?

    Central banks are essentially arms of government, and many worked in close conjunction with national Treasuries in response to the Global Financial Crisis and pandemic, so absolute independence is a bit of a myth.

    But what U.S. President Donald Trump is currently doing goes well beyond that. By threatening to fire Chair Jerome Powell, actively trying to sack Governor Lisa Cook, and attempting to fill the Board of Governors with appointees sympathetic to his calls for lower interest rates, he is shattering the Fed’s veneer of operational independence.

    Examples of the naked politicization of monetary policy down the years show that it can, to put it mildly, deliver sub-optimal results – loss of credibility, currency weakness, spiking inflation, rising debt, elevated risk premia, and, potentially, much higher borrowing costs.

    These are certainly far from guaranteed outcomes in the U.S., but they show where excessive political interference in monetary policy can lead.

    TURKEY

    “Erdoganomics”, the unorthodox economic theories and policies of Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who has been President of Turkey since 2014, are a prime example of politicized monetary policy. Erdogan, an avowed “enemy” of interest rates, is on record as saying high interest rates cause inflation and that the way to reduce inflation is therefore to lower borrowing costs.

    He fired or replaced five central bank governors between 2019 and 2024, some for hiking interest rates or refusing to cut them.

    With inflation and interest rates hovering around 20% in late 2021, the central bank succumbed to Erdogan’s pressure and slashed borrowing costs. The result? The currency collapsed and inflation soared above 85%.

    ARGENTINA

    Few central banks in the modern era have so clearly been de facto arms of government as Argentina’s Banco Central de la Republica Argentina. Successive governments have leaned heavily on the BCRA to print money to fund their spending, with predictable results. The country has been in and out of economic crises, and battling high or even hyper-inflation for decades.

    The tenure of a BCRA president tends to be short: there have been 13 BCRA heads this century. And there were seven in the first seven years of Carlos Menem’s Presidency between 1989 and 1996. President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner also notoriously fired BCRA chief Martin Redrado in 2010 because he opposed her plan to use $6.6 billion in FX reserves to pay down debt.

    INDIA

    Pressure on the Reserve Bank of India has intensified under the government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. In December 2018 RBI Governor Urjit Patel resigned abruptly after just over two years in the job following months of government pressure to ease lending conditions and allow the government more access to reserves to boost spending ahead of national elections.

    In the months before Patel’s departure, Modi also removed RBI board members and appointed his supporters in their place, unnerving investors. This helped push the rupee to a then-record low against the dollar that October, and annual inflation more than trebled over the following year to nearly 8%.

    JAPAN

    The situation here is a bit different – given that Japanese leaders have often been actively seeking a weaker currency and higher inflation – but the cozy relationship between the government and the Bank of Japan has still arguably had a negative impact on the country’s long-term economic health.

    The Japanese government and central bank have worked almost as one while completing several FX interventions over the years. The ties deepened with the roll out of “Abenomics” in 2012, the economic reforms introduced by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, that included the ‘three arrows’ of fiscal policy, monetary policy, and structural reform.

    At the heart of Abenomics was unprecedentedly loose monetary policy, even by BOJ standards. The central bank expanded its balance sheet massively – it’s still around six times larger than the Fed’s as a share of GDP – and deployed negative interest rates for years.

    Did it work? Many critics argue not, as growth remained sluggish, inequality rose, and Japan is now hamstrung by the world’s largest public debt load.

    UNITED STATES

    Last is, perhaps surprisingly, the U.S. itself. In the early 1970s, President Richard Nixon pressured then-Fed Chair Arthur Burns to keep monetary policy loose ahead of the 1972 election even though inflationary pressures were building.

    Nixon also reportedly told Burns in 1969, just after he nominated him, that previous Fed chair Bill Martin was always six months “too late” doing anything. “I’m counting on you, Arthur, to keep us out of a recession,” adding: “I know there’s the myth of the autonomous Fed…”

    Burns served as Fed chair for eight years through 1978, during which time inflation exploded and didn’t fully come down until the early 1980s. Many observers consider him to be one of the least successful chairs in the Fed’s history.

    It barely needs saying that the U.S. is unlike any other country. Its economy and capital markets dwarf all others, the dollar is the world’s reserve currency, and its rates and bond markets are the benchmarks for global borrowing costs.

    That means that the magnitude of any market or economic impact from Trump’s political interference could very well be smaller than the ructions of the past. But America’s global heft also means that the worldwide impact of these moves could be much greater.

    What could move markets tomorrow?

    * South Korea interest rate decision * Philippines interest rate decision * Bank of Japan board member Junko Nakagawa speaks * China earnings, including ICBC half-yearly results * Euro zone sentiment indicators (August) * Canada current account (Q2) * U.S. GDP (Q2, second estimate) * U.S. weekly jobless claims * U.S. Treasury auctions $44 bln of 7-year notes * Reaction to Nvidia Q2 results released late Wednesday * U.S. earnings including Dollar General, Best Buy, HP

    Want to receive Trading Day in your inbox every weekday morning? Sign up for my newsletter here.

    Opinions expressed are those of the author. They do not reflect the views of Reuters News, which, under the Trust Principles, is committed to integrity, independence, and freedom from bias.

    (By Jamie McGeever; Editing by Nia Williams)

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  • Trump changes his mind

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    A president who changes his mind: “It’s very insulting to say students can’t come here,” said President Donald Trump during a cabinet meeting at the White House yesterday. “I like that their students come here. I like that other countries’ students come here.”

    “And you know what would happen if they didn’t?” asked Trump. “Our college system would go to hell very quickly.” Full video below.

    It’s a little hilarious for Trump to say it’s insulting to deny students the ability to come here when that’s exactly what he did a few months ago. Besides, it might be a little too late for this change of heart; visa applications for international students are predicted to be down by 30 percent to 40 percent this fall, down from the roughly one million international students in the country about a year ago (with almost 300,000 of those students coming from China) in part due to the tightened vetting mandated by this administration. Chinese students have been targeted in particular as national security threats. Either we’re worried about espionage or we’re not; it’s just not clear where Trump actually stands on this one.

    “The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has long warned that foreign adversaries and competitors take advantage of easy access to American higher education to, among other things, steal technical information and products, exploit expensive research and development to advance their own ambitions, and spread false information for political or other reasons. Our adversaries, including the People’s Republic of China, try to take advantage of American higher education by exploiting the student visa program for improper purposes and by using visiting students to collect information at elite universities in the United States,” he said via proclamation in June.

    “In my judgment, it presents an unacceptable risk to our Nation’s security for an academic institution to refuse to provide sufficient information, when asked, about known instances of misconduct and criminality committed by its foreign students,” the proclamation continued. “This principle is one reason why…regulations require foreign students to obey Federal and State criminal laws and require universities to keep records about foreign students’ studies in the United States—including records relating to criminal activity by foreign students and resulting disciplinary proceedings—and furnish them to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) on request.”

    To strain a bit, it’s possible that the underlying concerns have in fact been addressed: Trump made a lot of noise about how American universities welcoming foreign students should be seen as a privilege, not a right, and it’s possible he just wanted acquiescence on that front and a shift in university administrators’ attitudes and cooperation with DHS. Or it’s possible he just changed his mind or was never that committed to the initial viewpoint. Depending on your perspective, Trump’s ability to quickly change his mind is either a feature or a bug. But for proponents of brain drain, the decision to let 600,000 new Chinese students in is undoubtedly a good thing.

    Scenes from New York: 

    QUICK HITS

    • More on this from this week’s Just Asking Questions:
    • “So, Intel has raised some money from the US government, in exchange for equity, and discovered that previous money sent to them by the government should have been reciprocated with equity all along,” writes Byrne Hobart at The Diff. “It’s actually an incredibly tempting approach to couple corporate subsidies with equity ownership. If the government is making a company better-off, it seems only fair to give the government a stake in the upside, perhaps at a valuation that still makes it an obviously good deal for the company. The problem is that the long-term incentive is for the company to arrange itself around needing constant infusions of capital. The more Intel raises this way, the more attractive further subsidies are, since they help bail out the previous investment. If the government is going to take an equity stake in a previously-private company, but not take it over completely, the only structure that aligns incentives correctly is for them to be straitjacketed into only making the investment one time, and committing to sell it down in the future.”
    • Women want one thing: To watch the financial collapse of Rent the Runway and take advantage of designer clearance sales whenever bankruptcy is declared. “Rent the Runway Inc. will hand over a controlling stake in the company as part of a plan to cut debt and grow, after residual effects of the Covid-19 pandemic pushed the firm to the brink of bankruptcy,” reports Bloomberg. “The deal, with lender Aranda Principal Strategies and other partners, will wipe more than $240 million of debt from Rent the Runway’s balance sheet, according to a statement. The company, which allows subscribers to rent clothing for the office and events, will have several more years to repay $120 million in remaining borrowings.”
    • Calling the Department of Defense the “War Department” (as the president intends to do) strikes me as a lot more honest. I appreciate bluntness and don’t understand the hand-wringing.
    • Food for thought from Katherine Dee: “The latest suite of ‘think of the children’ [age-verification and phone-banning] policies create the infrastructure for much broader censorship. The problem isn’t the phone bans themselves—it’s how they’re being used as part of a larger authoritarian project that most people can’t see coming.”
    • Cleaning up the city!

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    Liz Wolfe

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  • China AI chip leader Cambricon sees record earnings boost from DeepSeek

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    Cambricon Technologies Corp. swung to a record profit in the first half, reflecting a wave of demand for Chinese chips after Beijing encouraged the use of homegrown technology in a post-DeepSeek AI boom.

    The Chinese AI chip designer, which competes with Huawei Technologies Co. to provide accelerators for developing and hosting AI models, posted a 1.03 billion yuan profit ($144 million) versus a year-earlier loss of 533 million yuan. That’s off a roughly 44-fold surge in revenue to 2.9 billion yuan. Its shares climbed more than 8% in Shanghai.

    The results underscore how startups and big tech firms like Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. are increasingly employing domestic alternatives to Nvidia Corp. as the pace of AI development intensifies. The Chinese authorities have urged local agencies to use homegrown chips, citing security concerns as well as persistent uncertainty over the Trump administration’s export curbs. 

    That’s lifted sentiment toward chipmakers amid rising geopolitical tensions and supply chain disruptions. Cambricon—one of the largest listed AI chip designers—has doubled its market value to $80 billion this month alone. That’s after becoming China’s top performing stock of 2024, riding investor enthusiasm over government support for local tech. On Tuesday, the State Council reaffirmed support for AI adoption as well as the development of intelligent vehicles and robots—all of which require AI processors.

    “Amid U.S. restrictions on China’s AI sector, government support for leading domestic firms is essential to drive growth and replace imported chips,” said Ma Cheng, chairman of Shenzhen Juze Investment Management Co. “Such protection is necessary, and Cambricon’s growth is far from temporary.”

    Chip shares have led gains in the recent China stock market boom as investors grow more optimistic about the country’s AI prospects and DeepSeek’s latest model update, which it said was tailored to work with next-generation homegrown AI chips.

    Despite the strong results, Cambricon acknowledged intensifying competition in the AI chip sector, with only Nvidia maintaining an absolute advantage in the market. That’s as the US government allows Nvidia and Advanced Micro Devices Inc. to resume sales of certain lower-end chips to the country.

    To shore up its base, Cambricon said it’s expanded support for DeepSeek, Alibaba’s Qwen and Tencent Holdings Ltd.’s Hunyuan models. It also announced a 4 billion yuan private placement in July to fund its large-model chip platform. 

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    Rachel Yeo, Kelly Li, Bloomberg

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  • Trump says he holds ‘incredible cards’ that could ‘destroy China’ but won’t play them yet

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    NEWYou can now listen to Fox News articles!

    President Donald Trump said on Monday the U.S. and China — the world’s two largest economies — “are going to have a great relationship,” even as he warned that if he chose to, he could “destroy China” by playing the “incredible cards” at his disposal.

    “We have much bigger and better cards than they do,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office ahead of a bilateral meeting with South Korean President Lee Jae Myung. “They have some cards. We have incredible cards. But I don’t want to play those cards. If I did, that would destroy China,” Trump said, adding “I’m not going to play those cards.”

    It was not immediately clear whether Trump’s “cards” referred to economic leverage, political influence, or something else.

    TRUMP CONSIDERING MEETING WITH CHINA’S XI IN THE NEAR FUTURE AMID POSSIBLE TARIFF PAUSE EXTENSION

    President Donald Trump, left, meets with Chinese President Xi Jinping during a meeting on the sidelines of the G-20 summit in Osaka, Japan, Saturday, June 29, 2019. (Susan Walsh/AP)

    Trump also said he spoke to Chinese President Xi Jinping recently and added that he was considering a trip to meet with his counterpart as the two countries continue to negotiate trade terms. 

    “At some point, probably during this year or shortly thereafter, we’ll go to China,” Trump said. The president said last month that Xi had extended the invitation. 

    Washington and Beijing agreed on Aug. 12 to extend their trade truce for another 90 days, giving negotiators more time to reach a deal. Trump has raised tariffs on all Chinese goods several times this year, with the highest duty reaching 145% in April. The current U.S. levy on most Chinese imports stands at 30%. China has placed a 10% duty on U.S. imports.`

    CHINA’S OIL TIES WITH RUSSIA AND IRAN ARE TRADE FLASHPOINTS, US SAYS

    In July, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent identified China’s support for sanctioned oil as a central point of contention during the latest round of trade talks that occurred in Sweden. Bessent previously led trade negotiations with the Chinese in Geneva in May, and a month later in London.

    U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer, left, and U.S. Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent take part in a press conference after two days of closed-door discussions on trade between the U.S. and China, in Geneva, Switzerland, Monday, May 12, 2025. 

    U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer, left, and U.S. Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent take part in a press conference after two days of closed-door discussions on trade between the U.S. and China, in Geneva, Switzerland, Monday, May 12, 2025. 

    Washington has long complained that Iran and Russia use the funds from oil exports to finance terror and other destabilizing actions around the world. Despite U.S. sanctions, Beijing is the top importer of Iranian oil and the second-largest importer of Russian oil. 

    CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP 

    In addition to Russian and Iranian oil imports, Bessent also said the U.S. wants to curb China’s status as the world’s manufacturing powerhouse. He has previously called on China to limit its massive export economy and increase its participation as a global trade import partner.

    Amanda covers the intersection of business and geopolitics for Fox News Digital.

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  • Saipan Casino Resort in Northern Mariana Islands Has New Owner

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    Posted on: August 25, 2025, 08:35h. 

    Last updated on: August 25, 2025, 10:04h.

    • The casino resort in Saipan has a new owner
    • The failed casino destination has sat closed since the COVID-19 pandemic

    The failed, bankrupt, and incomplete casino resort in Saipan called Imperial Pacific has a new controlling owner.

    Imperial Pacific Saipan casino resort
    Imperial Pacific in Saipan has a new owner. The failed luxury casino resort in the Northern Mariana Islands is now owned by Hong Kong businessman Hiroshi Kaneko. (Image: TTG Asia Media)

    In February, a court in the Northern Mariana Islands, a territory of the United States located in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, deemed a $12.95 million offer from a newly formed entity, Team King Investment, LLC, as the winning bid for the defunct property that was envisioned as a $2 billion ultra-luxury gaming and leisure travel destination. Team King was one of only two bids, with the other coming from Ji Xiaobo, whose mother, billionaire Cui Lijie, was the controlling owner of the Imperial Pacific project before it went underwater.

    Marinas Variety reports that bankruptcy Judge Robert Faris approved the property transfer to Team King in an order dated April 29. The transaction’s terms and legal documents were finalized last week, formally giving Team King possession of the shuttered casino resort.

    The previous owner, Imperial Pacific International, operated a casino and, at times, a hotel at Imperial Pacific for about four years until it closed during the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020. At one time, the casino claimed to be handling billions of dollars in monthly revenue, though there were many suspicions about the gaming floor being used for money laundering.

    Project Backstory 

    Cui, an early investor in Heng Sheng, once among the largest VIP junket groups in Macau, sought to build an extravagant resort in the Northern Mariana Islands. The local government signed off on her plans, providing her with the exclusive privileges to operate table games and slot machines on Saipan in exchange for a minimum investment of $2 billion and an annual gaming license fee of $15.5 million.

    The first phase of the destination cost roughly $400 million. While the casino reported big numbers, visitation to the remote island never came close to warranting the $2 billion price tag. Imperial Pacific never reopened following the pandemic, defaulted on its gaming license obligations, and fell into financial ruin.

    Its assets were auctioned off last year, including two 2017 Rolls-Royce Ghosts and the resort’s “Saipan Dragons,” a crystal art piece spanning 200 feet and weighing 40 tons, designed by world-renowned artist Lasvit using more than 2.5 million Swarovski crystals. 

    Ownership Concerns

    Team King is led by Howyo Chi, a former director of Imperial Pacific International. Team King’s primary funder is Hiroshi Kaneko, the CEO and executive director of the Japan Kyosei Group in Hong Kong. Kyosei is an investment holding company primarily engaged in property development in China. It is publicly traded in Hong Kong.

    Team King has deposited its $12.95 million bid into the creditors’ escrow account. The executed auction means Team King is “free and clear of all liens, claims, and encumbrances,” Faris wrote. Imperial Pacific cited more than $165.8 million in liabilities when it filed for bankruptcy last year.

    Some creditors opposed the Team King bid because Chi was an Imperial Pacific director and Kyosei was a minor shareholder. The two now have control of the $400 million casino resort for $13 million.

    The $13 million transaction doesn’t include the gaming license, but rather, an option to acquire the gaming permit in exchange for reimbursing fees.

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    Devin O’Connor

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  • Shanghai relaxes home-buying rules as China’s property market struggles

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    Shanghai, the commercial and financial hub of mainland China, has further relaxed its home purchase policy, following Beijing’s lead to rejuvenate the nation’s sluggish property market.

    Local residents could now own an unlimited number of flats outside the city’s outer ring road, an area where two-thirds of Shanghai’s housing is located, municipality authorities said on Monday. Previously, families were restricted to a maximum of two housing units in Shanghai.

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    The mortgage rate for buyers of a second home will be reduced to an annualised 3.05 per cent, down from 3.35 per cent, aligning it with the rate for first-home purchasers.

    Do you have questions about the biggest topics and trends from around the world? Get the answers with SCMP Knowledge, our new platform of curated content with explainers, FAQs, analyses and infographics brought to you by our award-winning team.

    The policy adjustment aims to address residents’ pent-up housing needs and improve living conditions, while promoting stable and healthy growth in the local real estate market, according to a statement from the Shanghai government.

    Shanghai’s market-boosting measures come after new home prices across 70 mainland cities decreased 3.4 per cent last month from a year earlier, according to the National Bureau of Statistics. Home prices nationwide have been falling since April 2022.

    In the pre-owned home market, prices have been falling for more than two years, with July seeing a 5.9 per cent year-on-year drop, following a 6.1 per cent decline in June.

    Shanghai is the financial hub of mainland China. Photo: Xinhua alt=Shanghai is the financial hub of mainland China. Photo: Xinhua>

    Shanghai’s incentives were “in line with expectations”, said Zhu Xinhai, a sales manager at 5i5j Real Estate Brokerage, which is based in the city. However, the local policies “may not be sufficient to ignite strong buying interest because of prevailing pessimism regarding the economy and wage growth”, he said.

    On August 8, the Beijing municipal government initiated a relaxation of housing policies to stimulate homebuying, a surprise move intended to bolster the struggling property sector. Both local and non-local residents can now freely buy new and second-hand homes outside the Fifth Ring Road, a major highway encircling the suburbs.

    The property sector, along with related industries such as home appliances and construction materials, contributes about a quarter of China’s economic output.

    The real estate market, which had experienced three decades of rapid growth, began to decline in late 2020 when Beijing implemented austerity measures to curb excessive leverage among developers and prevent a financial shock to the economy.

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  • Sony ups PlayStation 5 prices in U.S., citing tariff uncertainty

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    NEW YORK CITY, New York: Sony increased the price of its PlayStation 5 consoles in the U.S. by about US$50 from August 21, citing tariff uncertainty and rising costs as the video game industry navigates a slow recovery.

    The Japanese electronics giant announced the changes in a blog post on August 20. All three PS5 models will be affected, with the top-end PS5 Pro now priced at $749.99.

    The move follows U.S. President Donald Trump’s sweeping tariffs on imports from countries including Japan and China, which have sparked fears of supply chain disruptions and higher material costs for electronics manufacturers.

    Sony raised console prices in several European markets in April. A month later, Microsoft followed suit, increasing prices for its Xbox consoles and accessories in the U.S., Europe, Australia, and the UK.

    Industry analysts had expected 2025 to be a strong year for gaming hardware sales, supported by blockbuster titles like Grand Theft Auto VI from Take-Two Interactive and Nintendo’s upcoming Switch 2. But with Sony’s latest hike and the delay of GTA VI to next year, optimism about the industry’s growth trajectory has dimmed.

    The PlayStation 5, first launched in late 2020, has been a key driver of Sony’s gaming revenue, though demand has cooled following initial pandemic-era shortages. Analysts say higher price tags could further dampen sales just as new premium games were expected to spark renewed console buying.

    Sony stressed that the changes apply only to U.S. consoles. Prices in other global markets, as well as accessories for the PS5, remain unchanged.

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  • Small businesses are scrambling as US tariff exemption comes to an end

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    (CNN) — International postal services are suspending shipments to the United States after an exemption on tariff duties for small packages is set to expire. It’s the latest example of how President Donald Trump’s sweeping trade policy is impacting US consumers and businesses.

    Beginning Friday, the “de minimis” exemption, which allowed shipments of goods worth $800 or less to enter the United States duty free, will be eliminated.

    It’s another blow to the exemption that provided a loophole for e-commerce giants: In May, the Trump administration suspended the rule on packages coming from China and Hong Kong. Those high duties, which were reduced from 120% to 54%, especially hurt low-cost sellers like Shein and Temu.

    European and Asian postal services have taken matters into their own hands by announcing plans to halt shipments as early as Monday. Singapore’s SingPost and India’s Department of Posts said they will also temporarily suspend some shipments to the United States.

    International postal service DHL said August 25 will be the last day it accepts shipments to the United States, joining European peers in halting shipments, including the Austrian Post, which will stop accepting shipments to the United States on August 26.

    “There is currently insufficient information available on the customs clearance procedures that will be required in the future. This tightening of regulations poses major challenges for all postal companies worldwide when shipping goods to the USA,” the Austrian Post said.

    The change is expected to affect discount sellers, like Amazon Haul and TikTok Shop, as well as online marketplaces Etsy and Shopify, all of which have connected US consumers to businesses worldwide.

    Reshaping business models

    US Customs and Border Protection estimated that more than 1.36 billion de minimis shipments entered the country last fiscal year. The agency processes more than 4 million de minimis shipments each day.

    According to the latest executive order, businesses may face an $80 per item charge for a country with a tariff rate less than 16%, or costs as high as $160 per item for a country with a tariff rate of between 16% and 25%, and $200 per item for a country with a tariff rate above 25%. On August 7, the US imposed new tariff rates on many trading partners, with Brazil facing the highest tariff rate, at 50%.

    Abbott Atelier Jewelry, a Vancouver, Canada-based business, warned customers in an Instagram post that it would “pause shopping for a little while as we look for a solution” and August 25 would be the “cut off date to bring orders across the border.”

    Some businesses are passing the additional tariff costs on to shoppers.

    Korean cosmetics brand Olive Young said that once the de minimis exemption ends, 15% duties will be applied to all orders, “regardless of the purchase amount,” beginning August 27. The duty and taxes will be shown at checkout, so “there will be no additional charges upon delivery.”

    Wool Warehouse, a United Kingdom-based yarn and crafting company, estimated extra charges on its exports to the United States may average 50% more. But the company doubts customers would eat the additional costs and decided to suspend shipping on August 21.

    “Clearly this is not something we want to do. The US is a significant part of our business. This decision is based on our current understanding of the rules,” the company wrote on its website.

    Britain’s Royal Mail will also halt services for US shipments beginning Tuesday. It would last roughly two days, until a system is prepared for the new shipping requirements.

    Etsy recommended sellers pay duties and other fees when purchasing shipping labels. That option allows tariff-inclusive prices to be present and calculated on Etsy for a “seamless shopping experience.”

    But some Etsy sellers plan to halt sales to US customers anyway.

    Shed Maid, a UK-based jewelry maker, said its shop would close to US customers from August 29 — a customer base that accounts for 50% of its orders, according to a post on TikTok.

    “It is going to have a huge impact on my business … I’m not sure what I’m going to do,” they said, adding, “I hope to be able to send to (American customers) again soon.”

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    Auzinea Bacon and CNN

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  • Trump teases tariffs on imported furniture

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    Trump teases tariffs on imported furniture

    President Donald Trump has announced an investigation into tariffs on foreign-made furniture, which could affect prices and manufacturing in the U.S.

    Updated: 4:31 AM PDT Aug 23, 2025

    Editorial Standards ⓘ

    President Donald Trump said on Friday that new tariffs on foreign-made furniture are coming later this year following an investigation.”Within the next 50 days, that Investigation will be completed, and Furniture coming from other Countries into the United States will be Tariffed at a Rate yet to be determined,” the president wrote on Truth Social. “This will bring the Furniture Business back to North Carolina, South Carolina, Michigan, and States all across the Union.”A White House official clarified that the president is referencing a previously announced investigation that “will assess the national security risks arising from the United States’ increasing dependence on imported timber, lumber, and derivative products like paper, furniture, and cabinetry.”Nevertheless, the president’s comments on Friday sank some furniture stocks, from Wayfair to Williams-Sonoma. An industry coalition, called “Furniture for America,” expressed concerns about steeper tariffs earlier this year in written comments to the Commerce Department.”There is no rational relationship between imports of wood products or furniture and the national security of the United States,” the coalition wrote. “Second, no amount of tariffs will bring back American furniture manufacturing back to its prior levels. Tariffs will harm manufacturing still being done in the United States.” The White House said new tariffs on this sector would not stack on top of so-called “reciprocal” tariffs that are already targeting a wide range of countries, including major furniture suppliers like China and Vietnam. Federal data suggests those tariffs may be starting to show up in some furniture prices for consumers. The latest Consumer Price Index shows that, while overall inflation held steady between June and July 2025, furniture and bedding prices increased by 0.9 percent month-to-month. Some experts have identified this as an early warning sign, while conceding that the impact of tariffs on prices has generally been less severe than anticipated, perhaps because many businesses are absorbing added costs instead of passing them on to consumers. It remains to be seen how Trump’s latest batch of tariffs on most trading partners that took effect earlier this month will impact these trends.

    WASHINGTON —

    President Donald Trump said on Friday that new tariffs on foreign-made furniture are coming later this year following an investigation.

    “Within the next 50 days, that Investigation will be completed, and Furniture coming from other Countries into the United States will be Tariffed at a Rate yet to be determined,” the president wrote on Truth Social. “This will bring the Furniture Business back to North Carolina, South Carolina, Michigan, and States all across the Union.”

    A White House official clarified that the president is referencing a previously announced investigation that “will assess the national security risks arising from the United States’ increasing dependence on imported timber, lumber, and derivative products like paper, furniture, and cabinetry.”

    Nevertheless, the president’s comments on Friday sank some furniture stocks, from Wayfair to Williams-Sonoma.

    An industry coalition, called “Furniture for America,” expressed concerns about steeper tariffs earlier this year in written comments to the Commerce Department.

    “There is no rational relationship between imports of wood products or furniture and the national security of the United States,” the coalition wrote. “Second, no amount of tariffs will bring back American furniture manufacturing back to its prior levels. Tariffs will harm manufacturing still being done in the United States.”

    The White House said new tariffs on this sector would not stack on top of so-called “reciprocal” tariffs that are already targeting a wide range of countries, including major furniture suppliers like China and Vietnam.

    Federal data suggests those tariffs may be starting to show up in some furniture prices for consumers.

    The latest Consumer Price Index shows that, while overall inflation held steady between June and July 2025, furniture and bedding prices increased by 0.9 percent month-to-month. Some experts have identified this as an early warning sign, while conceding that the impact of tariffs on prices has generally been less severe than anticipated, perhaps because many businesses are absorbing added costs instead of passing them on to consumers.

    It remains to be seen how Trump’s latest batch of tariffs on most trading partners that took effect earlier this month will impact these trends.

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  • Trump teases tariffs on imported furniture

    [ad_1]

    Trump teases tariffs on imported furniture

    President Donald Trump has announced an investigation into tariffs on foreign-made furniture, which could affect prices and manufacturing in the U.S.

    Updated: 7:31 AM EDT Aug 23, 2025

    Editorial Standards ⓘ

    President Donald Trump said on Friday that new tariffs on foreign-made furniture are coming later this year following an investigation.”Within the next 50 days, that Investigation will be completed, and Furniture coming from other Countries into the United States will be Tariffed at a Rate yet to be determined,” the president wrote on Truth Social. “This will bring the Furniture Business back to North Carolina, South Carolina, Michigan, and States all across the Union.”A White House official clarified that the president is referencing a previously announced investigation that “will assess the national security risks arising from the United States’ increasing dependence on imported timber, lumber, and derivative products like paper, furniture, and cabinetry.”Nevertheless, the president’s comments on Friday sank some furniture stocks, from Wayfair to Williams-Sonoma. An industry coalition, called “Furniture for America,” expressed concerns about steeper tariffs earlier this year in written comments to the Commerce Department.”There is no rational relationship between imports of wood products or furniture and the national security of the United States,” the coalition wrote. “Second, no amount of tariffs will bring back American furniture manufacturing back to its prior levels. Tariffs will harm manufacturing still being done in the United States.” The White House said new tariffs on this sector would not stack on top of so-called “reciprocal” tariffs that are already targeting a wide range of countries, including major furniture suppliers like China and Vietnam. Federal data suggests those tariffs may be starting to show up in some furniture prices for consumers. The latest Consumer Price Index shows that, while overall inflation held steady between June and July 2025, furniture and bedding prices increased by 0.9 percent month-to-month. Some experts have identified this as an early warning sign, while conceding that the impact of tariffs on prices has generally been less severe than anticipated, perhaps because many businesses are absorbing added costs instead of passing them on to consumers. It remains to be seen how Trump’s latest batch of tariffs on most trading partners that took effect earlier this month will impact these trends.

    WASHINGTON —

    President Donald Trump said on Friday that new tariffs on foreign-made furniture are coming later this year following an investigation.

    “Within the next 50 days, that Investigation will be completed, and Furniture coming from other Countries into the United States will be Tariffed at a Rate yet to be determined,” the president wrote on Truth Social. “This will bring the Furniture Business back to North Carolina, South Carolina, Michigan, and States all across the Union.”

    A White House official clarified that the president is referencing a previously announced investigation that “will assess the national security risks arising from the United States’ increasing dependence on imported timber, lumber, and derivative products like paper, furniture, and cabinetry.”

    Nevertheless, the president’s comments on Friday sank some furniture stocks, from Wayfair to Williams-Sonoma.

    An industry coalition, called “Furniture for America,” expressed concerns about steeper tariffs earlier this year in written comments to the Commerce Department.

    “There is no rational relationship between imports of wood products or furniture and the national security of the United States,” the coalition wrote. “Second, no amount of tariffs will bring back American furniture manufacturing back to its prior levels. Tariffs will harm manufacturing still being done in the United States.”

    The White House said new tariffs on this sector would not stack on top of so-called “reciprocal” tariffs that are already targeting a wide range of countries, including major furniture suppliers like China and Vietnam.

    Federal data suggests those tariffs may be starting to show up in some furniture prices for consumers.

    The latest Consumer Price Index shows that, while overall inflation held steady between June and July 2025, furniture and bedding prices increased by 0.9 percent month-to-month. Some experts have identified this as an early warning sign, while conceding that the impact of tariffs on prices has generally been less severe than anticipated, perhaps because many businesses are absorbing added costs instead of passing them on to consumers.

    It remains to be seen how Trump’s latest batch of tariffs on most trading partners that took effect earlier this month will impact these trends.

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  • President Trump says Intel agreed to give US a stake in its company

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    President Donald Trump on Friday announced the U.S. government has secured a 10% stake in struggling Silicon Valley pioneer Intel in a deal that was completed just a couple weeks after he was depicting the company’s CEO as a conflicted leader unfit for the job.“The United States of America now fully owns and controls 10% of INTEL, a Great American Company that has an even more incredible future,” Trump wrote in a post.The U.S. government is getting the stake through the conversion of $11.1 billion in previously issued funds and pledges. All told, the government is getting 433.3 million shares of non-voting stock priced at $20.47 apiece — a discount from Friday’s closing price at $24.80. That spread means the U.S. government already has a gain of $1.9 billion, on paper.The remarkable turn of events makes the U.S. government one of Intel’s largest shareholders at a time that the Santa Clara, California, company is i n the process of jettisoning more than 20,000 workers as part of its latest attempt to bounce back from years of missteps taken under a variety of CEOs.Intel’s current CEO, Lip-Bu Tan, has only been on the job for slightly more than five months, and earlier this month, it looked like he might be on shaky ground already after some lawmakers raised national security concerns about his past investments in Chinese companies while he was a venture capitalist. Trump latched on to those concerns in an August 7 post demanding that Tan resign.But Trump backed off after the Malaysian-born Tan professed his allegiance to the U.S. in a public letter to Intel employees and went to the White House to meet with the president, leading to a deal that now has the U.S. government betting that the company is on the comeback trail after losing more than $22 billion since the end of 2023. Trump hailed Tan as “highly respected” CEO in his Friday post.In a statement, Tan applauded Trump for “driving historic investments in a vital industry” and resolved to reward his faith in Intel. “We are grateful for the confidence the President and the Administration have placed in Intel, and we look forward to working to advance U.S. technology and manufacturing leadership,” Tan said.Intel’s current stock price is just slightly above where it was when Tan was hired in March and more than 60% below its peak of about $75 reached 25 years ago when its chips were still dominating the personal computer boom before being undercut by a shift to smartphones a few years later. The company’s market value currently stands at about $108 billion – a fraction of the current chip kingpin, Nvidia, which is valued at $4.3 trillion.The stake is coming primarily through U.S. government grants to Intel through the CHIPS and Science Act that was started under President Joe Biden’s administration as a way to foster more domestic manufacturing of computer chips to lessen the dependence on overseas factories.But the Trump administration, which has regularly pilloried the policies of the Biden administration, saw the CHIPs act as a needless giveaway and is now hoping to make a profit off the funding that had been pledged to Intel.”We think America should get the benefit of the bargain,” U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said earlier this week. “It’s obvious that it’s the right move to make.”About $7.8 billion had been been pledged to Intel under the incentives program, but only $2.2 billion had been funded so far. Another $3.2 billion of the government investment is coming through the funds from another program called “Secure Enclave.”Although U.S. government can’t vote with its shares and won’t have a seat on Intel’s board of directors, critics of the deal view it as a troubling cross-pollination between the public and private sectors that could hurt the tech industry in a variety of ways.For instance, more tech companies may feel pressured to buy potentially inferior chips from Intel to curry favor with Trump at a time that he is already waging a trade war that threatens to affect their products in a potential scenario cited by Scott Lincicome, vice president of general economics for the Cato Institute.“Overall, it’s a horrendous move that will have real harms for U.S. companies, U.S. tech leadership, and the U.S. economy overall,” Lincicome posted Friday.The 10% stake could also intensify the pressure already facing Tan, especially if Trump starts fixating on Intel’s stock price while resorting to his penchant for celebrating his past successes in business.Nancy Tengler, CEO of money manager Laffer Tengler Investments, is among the investors who abandoned Intel years ago because of all the challenges facing Intel.“I don’t see the benefit to the American taxpayer, nor do I see the benefit, necessarily to the chip industry,” Tengler said while also raising worries about Trump meddling in Intel’s business.“I don’t care how good of businessman you are, give it to the private sector and let people like me be the critic and let the government get to the business of government.,” Tengler said.Although rare, it’s not unprecedented for the U.S. government to become a significant shareholder in a prominent company. One of the most notable instances occurred during the Great Recession in 2008 when the government injected nearly $50 billion into General Motors in return for a roughly 60% stake in the automaker at a time it was on the verge of bankruptcy. The government ended up with a roughly $10 billion loss after it sold its stock in GM.The U.S. government’s stake in Intel coincides with Trump’s push to bring production to the U.S., which has been a focal point of the trade war that he has been waging throughout the world. By lessening the country’s dependence on chips manufactured overseas, the president believes the U.S. will be better positioned to maintain its technological lead on China in the race to create artificial intelligence.Even before gaining the 10% stake in Intel, Trump had been leveraging his power to reprogram the operations of major computer chip companies. The administration is requiring Nvidia and Advanced Micro Devices, two companies whose chips are powering the AI craze, to pay a 15% commission on their sales of chips in China in exchange for export licenses.

    President Donald Trump on Friday announced the U.S. government has secured a 10% stake in struggling Silicon Valley pioneer Intel in a deal that was completed just a couple weeks after he was depicting the company’s CEO as a conflicted leader unfit for the job.

    “The United States of America now fully owns and controls 10% of INTEL, a Great American Company that has an even more incredible future,” Trump wrote in a post.

    The U.S. government is getting the stake through the conversion of $11.1 billion in previously issued funds and pledges. All told, the government is getting 433.3 million shares of non-voting stock priced at $20.47 apiece — a discount from Friday’s closing price at $24.80. That spread means the U.S. government already has a gain of $1.9 billion, on paper.

    The remarkable turn of events makes the U.S. government one of Intel’s largest shareholders at a time that the Santa Clara, California, company is i n the process of jettisoning more than 20,000 workers as part of its latest attempt to bounce back from years of missteps taken under a variety of CEOs.

    Intel’s current CEO, Lip-Bu Tan, has only been on the job for slightly more than five months, and earlier this month, it looked like he might be on shaky ground already after some lawmakers raised national security concerns about his past investments in Chinese companies while he was a venture capitalist. Trump latched on to those concerns in an August 7 post demanding that Tan resign.

    But Trump backed off after the Malaysian-born Tan professed his allegiance to the U.S. in a public letter to Intel employees and went to the White House to meet with the president, leading to a deal that now has the U.S. government betting that the company is on the comeback trail after losing more than $22 billion since the end of 2023. Trump hailed Tan as “highly respected” CEO in his Friday post.

    In a statement, Tan applauded Trump for “driving historic investments in a vital industry” and resolved to reward his faith in Intel. “We are grateful for the confidence the President and the Administration have placed in Intel, and we look forward to working to advance U.S. technology and manufacturing leadership,” Tan said.

    Intel’s current stock price is just slightly above where it was when Tan was hired in March and more than 60% below its peak of about $75 reached 25 years ago when its chips were still dominating the personal computer boom before being undercut by a shift to smartphones a few years later. The company’s market value currently stands at about $108 billion – a fraction of the current chip kingpin, Nvidia, which is valued at $4.3 trillion.

    The stake is coming primarily through U.S. government grants to Intel through the CHIPS and Science Act that was started under President Joe Biden’s administration as a way to foster more domestic manufacturing of computer chips to lessen the dependence on overseas factories.

    But the Trump administration, which has regularly pilloried the policies of the Biden administration, saw the CHIPs act as a needless giveaway and is now hoping to make a profit off the funding that had been pledged to Intel.

    “We think America should get the benefit of the bargain,” U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said earlier this week. “It’s obvious that it’s the right move to make.”

    About $7.8 billion had been been pledged to Intel under the incentives program, but only $2.2 billion had been funded so far. Another $3.2 billion of the government investment is coming through the funds from another program called “Secure Enclave.”

    Although U.S. government can’t vote with its shares and won’t have a seat on Intel’s board of directors, critics of the deal view it as a troubling cross-pollination between the public and private sectors that could hurt the tech industry in a variety of ways.

    For instance, more tech companies may feel pressured to buy potentially inferior chips from Intel to curry favor with Trump at a time that he is already waging a trade war that threatens to affect their products in a potential scenario cited by Scott Lincicome, vice president of general economics for the Cato Institute.

    “Overall, it’s a horrendous move that will have real harms for U.S. companies, U.S. tech leadership, and the U.S. economy overall,” Lincicome posted Friday.

    The 10% stake could also intensify the pressure already facing Tan, especially if Trump starts fixating on Intel’s stock price while resorting to his penchant for celebrating his past successes in business.

    Nancy Tengler, CEO of money manager Laffer Tengler Investments, is among the investors who abandoned Intel years ago because of all the challenges facing Intel.

    “I don’t see the benefit to the American taxpayer, nor do I see the benefit, necessarily to the chip industry,” Tengler said while also raising worries about Trump meddling in Intel’s business.

    “I don’t care how good of businessman you are, give it to the private sector and let people like me be the critic and let the government get to the business of government.,” Tengler said.

    Although rare, it’s not unprecedented for the U.S. government to become a significant shareholder in a prominent company. One of the most notable instances occurred during the Great Recession in 2008 when the government injected nearly $50 billion into General Motors in return for a roughly 60% stake in the automaker at a time it was on the verge of bankruptcy. The government ended up with a roughly $10 billion loss after it sold its stock in GM.

    The U.S. government’s stake in Intel coincides with Trump’s push to bring production to the U.S., which has been a focal point of the trade war that he has been waging throughout the world. By lessening the country’s dependence on chips manufactured overseas, the president believes the U.S. will be better positioned to maintain its technological lead on China in the race to create artificial intelligence.

    Even before gaining the 10% stake in Intel, Trump had been leveraging his power to reprogram the operations of major computer chip companies. The administration is requiring Nvidia and Advanced Micro Devices, two companies whose chips are powering the AI craze, to pay a 15% commission on their sales of chips in China in exchange for export licenses.

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  • Nvidia’s CEO says it’s in talks with Trump administration on a new chip for China

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    BANGKOK (AP) — Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang said Friday that the company is discussing a potential new computer chip designed for China with the Trump administration.

    Huang was asked about a possible “B30A” semiconductor for artificial intelligence data centers for China while on a visit to Taiwan, where he was meeting Nvidia’s key manufacturing partner, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp., the world’s largest chip maker.

    “I’m offering a new product to China for … AI data centers, the follow-on to H20,” Huang said. But he added that “That’s not our decision to make. It’s up to, of course, the United States government. And we’re in dialogue with them, but it’s too soon to know.”

    Such chips are graphics processing units, or GPUs, a type of device used to build and update a range of AI systems. But they are less powerful than Nvidia’s top semiconductors today, which cannot be sold to China due to U.S. national security restrictions.

    The B30A, based on California-based Nvidia’s specialized Blackwell technology, is reported to operate at about half the speed of Nvidia’s main B300 chips.

    Huang praised the the Trump administration for recently approving sales of Nvidia’s H20 chips to China after such business was suspended in April, with the proviso that the company must pay a 15% tax to the U.S. government on those sales. Chip maker Advanced Micro Devices, or AMD, was told to pay the same tax on its sales of its MI380 chips to China.

    As part of broader trade talks, Beijing and Washington recently agreed to pull back some non-tariff restrictions. China approved more permits for rare earth magnets to be exported to the U.S., while Washington lifted curbs on chip design software and jet engines. After lobbying by Huang, it also allowed sales of the H20 chips to go through.

    Huang did not comment directly on the tax when asked but said Nvidia appreciated being able to sell H20s to China.

    He said such sales pose no security risk for the United States. Nvidia is also speaking with Beijing to reassure Chinese authorities that those chips do not pose a “backdoor” security risk, Huang said.

    “We have made very clear and put to rest that H20 has no security backdoors. There are no such things. There never has. And so hopefully the response that we’ve given to the Chinese government will be sufficient,” he said.

    The Cyberspace Administration of China, the country’s internet watchdog, recently posted a notice on its website referring to alleged “serious security issues” with Nvidia’s computer chips.

    It said U.S. experts on AI had said such chips have “mature tracking and location and remote shutdown technologies” and Nvidia had been asked to explain any such risks and provide documentation about the issue.

    Huang said Nvidia was surprised by the accusation and was discussing the issue with Beijing.

    “As you know, they requested and urged us to secure licenses for the H20s for some time. And I’ve worked quite hard to help them secure the licenses. And so hopefully this will be resolved,” Huang said.

    Unconfirmed reports said Chinese authorities were also unhappy over comments by U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick suggesting the U.S. was only selling outdated chips to China.

    Speaking on CNBC, Lutnick said the U.S. strategy was to keep China reliant on American chip technology.

    “We don’t sell them our best stuff,” he said. “Not our second best stuff. Not even our third best, but I think fourth best is where we’ve come out that we’re cool,” he said.

    China’s ruling Communist Party has made self-reliance in advanced technology a strategic priority, though it still relies on foreign semiconductor knowhow for much of what it produces.

    ___

    AP Videojournalist Taijing Wu in Taipei contributed to this report.

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  • What to know about China’s new regulations on rare earths

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    BANGKOK (AP) — China released new interim measures Friday tightening controls on mining and processing of rare earths that are used in many high-tech products including electric vehicles, smartphones and fighter jets.

    The rules released Friday by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology apply both to rare earths originating in China and those that are sent to China for refining.

    They require companies to comply with quotas for various minerals. Companies must have government approval to deal with rare earths and must accurately report the amount of rare earths products being handled. Violators will face legal penalties and also have their quotas for rare earths reduced.

    Here’s what to know.

    Why China has tightened controls on rare earths

    The 17 rare earth elements, including such minerals as germanium, gallium and titanium, aren’t actually rare. But they’re hard to find in a high enough concentration to make mining them worth the investment. China has been gradually tightening restrictions on exports of such materials, partly in response to U.S. controls on its access to American advanced technology.

    In April, just after U.S. President Donald Trump announced a raft of tariffs on dozens of U.S. trading partners, Beijing announced permitting requirements for seven more rare earths: samarium, gadolinium, terbium, dysprosium, lutetium, scandium and yttrium, citing the need to “better safeguard national security and interests and to fulfill global duties of non-proliferation.”

    Those limits raised worries that manufacturers in the U.S. and elsewhere would run short of vital materials needed for production, an issue in China-U.S. trade talks. In response to U.S. concessions on access to computer chip design software and jet engines, Beijing announced in June that it was speeding up approvals of rare earths exports.

    In July, China’s Ministry of State Security said it was cracking down on alleged smuggling of rare earths materials that it said threatened national security, indicating Beijing was moving to exert more control.

    China’s dominant role in the rare earths sector

    Over the past several decades, China has come to dominate rare earths processing. It now supplies nearly 90% of the world’s rare earths, even though it mines only about 70% of such materials.

    China holds nearly half of the world’s known reserves of rare earths, but it also imports significant amounts of rare earths from neighboring Myanmar for processing and export.

    Since it controls technologies used for refining rare earth elements and has banned exporting that know-how, China holds a near-monopoly on smelting and separating them.

    In 2024, the United States obtained 70% of the rare earths it used from China; 13% from Malaysia; 6% from Japan and 5% from Estonia. Some of the elements obtained from non-Chinese intermediate sources came from mineral concentrates processed in China and Australia, according to the U.S. Geologic Survey.

    The impact of the new rules on rare earths trade is unclear

    China has agreed to issue some permits for rare earth exports but not for military uses, and much uncertainty remains about their supply.

    The rules released Friday spell out tighter controls on licensing of companies dealing in rare earths and centralize controls on mining, exports and processing. They also impose more stringent environmental standards for the industry.

    Trump has made it a priority to try to reduce American reliance on China for rare earths, while pushing for Beijing to ease its controls.

    China has opted to dial up or down the approval process as needed, while tightening overall controls on the industry.

    The new regulations don’t spell out the quotas for production and export or specific rare earths elements, but strongly suggest Beijing is serious about exerting stronger control over the industry.

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  • Wall Street soars on hopes for lower interest rates as the Dow surges 846 points to a record

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    NEW YORK (AP) — Wall Street rallied to its best day in months on Friday after the head of the Federal Reserve hinted that cuts to interest rates may be on the way, along with the kick they can give the economy and investment prices.

    The S&P 500 leaped 1.5% for its first gain in six days and finished just shy of its all-time high set last week.

    The Dow Jones Industrial Average soared 846 points, or 1.9%, to its own record after topping its prior high from December. The Nasdaq composite jumped 1.9%.

    “Ka-Powell” is how Brian Jacobsen, chief economist at Annex Wealth Management, described the reaction to Jerome Powell’s highly anticipated speech in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. “The Fed isn’t going to be the party-pooper.”

    The hope among investors had been that Powell would hint that the Fed’s first cut to interest rates of the year may be imminent. Wall Street loves lower rates because they can goose the economy, even if they risk worsening inflation at the same time.

    President Donald Trump has angrily been calling for lower rates, often insulting Powell while doing so. And a surprisingly weak report on job growth this month pushed many on Wall Street to assume cuts may come as soon as the Fed’s next meeting in September.

    Powell encouraged them on Friday after saying he’s seen risks rise for the job market. The Fed’s two jobs are to keep the job market healthy and to keep a lid on inflation, and it often has to prioritize one over the other because it has just one tool to fix either.

    But Powell also would not commit to any kind of timing. He said the job market looks OK at the moment, even if “it is a curious kind of balance” where fewer new workers are chasing after fewer new jobs. Inflation, meanwhile, still has the potential to push higher because of Trump’s tariffs.

    In sum, Powell said that “the stability of the unemployment rate and other labor market measures allows us to proceed carefully as we consider changes to our policy stance.”

    Treasury yields tumbled in the bond market as bets built that the Fed would cut its main interest rate in September. Traders see an 83% chance of that, up from 75% a day earlier, according to data from CME Group.

    The yield on the 10-year Treasury fell to 4.25% from 4.33% late Thursday. The two-year Treasury yield, which more closely tracks expectations for Fed action, sank to 3.69% from 3.79% in a notable move for the bond market.

    On Wall Street, stocks of smaller companies led the way. They can benefit more from lower interest rates because of their need to borrow money to grow. The smaller stocks in the Russell 2000 index surged 3.9% for its best day since April and more than doubled the S&P 500’s rally.

    Homebuilders jumped on hopes that easier interest rates could encourage more people to buy homes. Lennar, PulteGroup and D.R. Horton all rose more than 5%.

    Travel companies, meanwhile, climbed amid hopes that easier interest rates could help U.S. households spend more. Norwegian Cruise Line rallied 7.2%, Delta Air Lines flew 6.7% higher and Caesars Entertainment rose 7%.

    Shares of Nio, a Chinese electric-vehicle maker, that trade in the United States leaped 14.4% after it began pre-sales of its flagship premium SUV model, the ES8.

    Intel climbed 5.5% after Trump said the chip company has agreed to give the U.S. government a 10% stake in its business.

    Nvidia rose 1.7% to trim its loss for the week. The company, whose chips are powering much of the world’s move in to artificial-intelligence technology, had seen its stock struggle recently amid criticism that it and other AI superstars shot too high, too fast and became too expensive.

    Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang said Friday that the company is discussing a potential new computer chip designed for China with the Trump administration. The chips are graphics processing units, or GPUs, a type of device used to build and update a range of AI systems. But they are less powerful than Nvidia’s top semiconductors today, which cannot be sold to China due to U.S. national security restrictions.

    All told, the S&P 500 jumped 96.74 points to 6,466.91. The Dow Jones Industrial Average leaped 846.24 to 45,631.74, and the Nasdaq composite rallied 396.22 to 21,496.53.

    In stock markets abroad, Germany’s DAX returned 0.3% after government data showed that its economy shrank by 0.3% in the second quarter compared with the previous three-month period.

    Indexes rose across much of Asia, with stocks climbing 1.4% in Shanghai and 0.9% in South Korea.

    ___

    AP Writers Teresa Cerojano and Matt Ott contributed.

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  • Jimmy Lai’s lawyer speaks out as national security trial nears end

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    Jimmy Lai’s lawyer speaks out as national security trial nears end – CBS News










































    Watch CBS News



    Three Beijing-approved judges in Hong Kong are hearing closing arguments in Jimmy Lai’s national security trial. CBS News’ Ramy Inocencio reports.

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  • NVIDIA reportedly stops production of H20 AI chips

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    NVIDIA has reportedly asked its suppliers to halt production related to its H20 AI chips for the Chinese market. According to The Information, the company told Arizona-based Amkor Technology and Samsung Electronics to put a pause on their work for the H20. Amkor produces advanced packaging for the H20 chips, while Samsung supplies memory for NVIDIA. Reuters has also reported that NVIDIA asked Foxconn, which is in charge of backend processing for the chip, to suspend its work. “We constantly manage our supply chain to address market condition,” the company told CNBC in a statement when asked to comment about the supposed production pause.

    The US government had blocked NVIDIA from selling the H20 in China back in April, out of concerns that the country could use it to develop AI tech for its military. It allowed the company to resume selling the chip in China by July, reportedly after closing a deal that would give it 15 percent of the sales. But China didn’t welcome the H20 with open arms. Local regulators instructed the biggest Chinese tech companies, including ByteDance and Alibaba to stop new orders for H20 chips, citing security concerns. The Cyberspace Administration of China talked to NVIDIA, claiming that AI experts had revealed that the chips could be tracked and controlled remotely. NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang had admitted that Chinese regulators asked him about the supposed “backdoor” and said that he made it clear it didn’t exist. “Hopefully the response that we’ve given to the Chinese government will be sufficient,” Huang said.

    A recent report by the Financial Times, however, claimed that Chinese authorities didn’t issue warnings against using NVIDIA chips just because of security concerns. Apparently, they found certain remarks by US commerce secretary Howard Lutnick “insulting.” When the US allowed shipments of the H20 to China again, Lutnick said during an interview: “We don’t sell them our best stuff, not our second best stuff, not even our third best. The fourth one down, we want to keep China using it… You want to sell the Chinese enough that their developers get addicted to the American technology stack.”

    The H20 is currently the most advanced AI chip NVIDIA can sell in the Chinese market, but the company is reportedly developing a more powerful product. It will be based on the company’s Blackwell architecture, Reuters previously reported, and will be capable of half the computing power of NVIDIA’s Blackwell Ultra GPUs.

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    Mariella Moon

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