Source: CNBCTV18
LVMH’s deputy chief executive officer said Chinese customers have been pulling back on travel and consumer spending, indicating that a slump in demand for luxury goods may still have some way to run.
“For the past three months, Chinese tourists have been traveling less and buying less,” when out of the country, Stephane Bianchi told French lawmakers in a hearing on Wednesday.
The comments come after Bloomberg reported last week that the luxury leader has been warning of softening demand. In the first quarter, LVMH’s revenue in the region that includes China fell 11% on an organic basis. The company recorded a similar drop for all of 2024.
Stocks are moving higher in Europe as investors react to the US Court of International Trade blocking President Donald Trump’s “reciprocal” tariffs.
The pan-European Stoxx 600 was last seen trading 0.4% higher, with most sectors in positive territory.
Tariff-sensitive tech, mining and autos stocks led gains, up 1.8%, 1.1% and 0.9%, respectively.
– Chinese foreign minister said that China and US have maintained communication since the Geneva meeing
– China has lodged a complaint with the US over student visa curbs
– China has complained multiple times on US chip controls
– China has urged the US to stop discriminative measures
Saudi Arabia aims to increase potential public offerings as it seeks to diversify its economy away from oil and develop its financial sector.
“We are doing almost 30% from last year,” said Mohammed Al-Rumaih, chief executive officer of the Saudi stock exchange in an interview with Bloomberg Television, referring to the increase in numbers.
Asked about the pipeline for initial public offerings in the kingdom, Al-Rumaih said that like last year they were from different industries.
Toyota Motor Corp.’s sales hit a record for the second month in a row as a strong showing in the US and Japan was boosted by customers making last-minute purchases before President Donald Trump’s tariffs took effect.
The automaker’s global sales, including from subsidiaries Daihatsu Motor Co. and Hino Motors Ltd., reached 936,718 units in April, a 12% increase from a year earlier year and a record for the month, the company said Thursday. Production came in at 902,425 units worldwide.
Toyota and Lexus brand sales jumped 10% in the US last month thanks to steady demand and an influx in orders as duties on imported cars and parts kicked in.
A court ruling that seeks to block President Donald Trump’s “Liberation Day” tariffs represents only a temporary setback to his trade agenda and can be offset by other taxes, according to analysts at Goldman Sachs Group Inc.
The judgment by the US Court of International Trade halts 6.7 percentage points of levies announced this year and the White House could use other tariff tools to make up for that, the bank’s economists said in a note to clients Thursday.
“This ruling represents a setback for the administration’s tariff plans and increases uncertainty but might not change the final outcome for most major US trading partners,” chief US political economist Alec Phillips wrote. “For now, we expect the Trump administration will find other ways to impose tariffs.”
The Trump administration is moving to restrict the sale of chip design software to China, people familiar with the matter said, as the US government evaluates a broader policy announcement on the issue.
The Commerce Department’s Bureau of Industry and Security sent letters to some of the leading providers of electronic design automation, or EDA, last Friday telling them to halt shipments to Chinese customers, said the people, asking not to be identified because the policy isn’t yet public. Top makers of the technology include Cadence Design Systems Inc., Synopsys Inc. and Germany’s Siemens AG.
“The Commerce Department is reviewing exports of strategic significance to China,” an agency spokesperson said. “In some cases, Commerce has suspended existing export licenses or imposed additional license requirements while the review is pending.”
Futures on Wall Street are holding on to gains after a US trade court termed the imposition of reciprocal tariffs on 60 countries by the Trump administration as ‘illegal.’
The Dow futures are currently trading with gains of 550 points, while those on the S&P 500 and Nasdaq are trading 100 and 410 points higher respectively.
DeepSeek said it has upgraded the R1 artificial intelligence model that helped propel the Chinese startup to global prominence at the start of this year.
The company completed what it described as a “minor trial upgrade” and is allowing users to start testing it, it said in an official WeChat group on Wednesday. Details of the upgrade weren’t provided and the company didn’t respond to an email seeking further comment.
The Hangzhou-based startup stunned the global tech industry in January when it unveiled the original R1, a reasoning AI model that outperformed Western players on several standardized metrics, purportedly at a cost of just several million dollars. It triggered a reconsideration of heavy investments in acquiring AI computational resources and a flurry of new model introductions from Chinese players from Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. to Zhipu AI.
“This might be considered a body blow, but it’s not the final rendering,” Timothy Moe, the chief Asia Pacific equity strategist at Goldman Sachs Group Inc. said in a Bloomberg TV interview.
“Specifically, there are number of other substitute acts that Trump administration could employ to maintain tariffs.”
(From Bloomberg.)
US health officials are terminating a contract with Moderna Inc. worth up to $766 million to develop vaccines for bird flu, a major setback for the company as it faces additional government scrutiny over immunizations.
Moderna said in a statement Wednesday that the vaccine was shown to be safe and well-tolerated in early clinical studies. It had planned to move the vaccine into later-stage trials with funding from the Department of Health and Human Services, but was notified that the agency is canceling its award.
“Today Moderna received notice that HHS will terminate the award for the late-stage development and right to purchase pre-pandemic influenza vaccines,” the company said. Chief Executive Officer Stéphane Bancel said Moderna will continue to explore other paths forward for the program.
The US plans to start “aggressively” revoking visas for Chinese students, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said, escalating the Trump administration’s push for greater scrutiny of foreigners attending American universities.
Rubio said in a statement that students affected would include “those with connections to the Chinese Communist Party or studying in critical fields.” The US will also enhance scrutiny “of all future visa applications from the People’s Republic of China and Hong Kong,” he added.
China had the second most students in the US of any country in 2024, behind India. China’s Foreign Ministry didn’t immediately reply to a request for comment made outside working hours.
Trump has said he was permitted to use the emergency law to implement tariffs because the nation’s “large and persistent” annual trade deficits across the globe constituted “an unusual and extraordinary threat” to national security and the economy.
The panel of judges concluded that Trump’s initial executive order announcing global tariffs and subsequent order dealing additional levies on countries that retaliated both exceeded the president’s authority under the emergency law. A third executive order, hitting Mexico and Canada with tariffs over concerns about drug trafficking, were deemed to be illegal by the court because those levies do not ultimately attempt address the trafficking problem.
A complaint brought by a conservative legal advocacy group on behalf of small businesses alleged Trump is misusing the law, essentially basing his tariffs on a bogus emergency. The Liberty Justice Center said the US trade deficits are “neither an emergency nor an unusual or extraordinary threat.” Even if it were, the group said, the emergency law doesn’t allow a president to impose across-the-board tariffs.
Oil advanced alongside equity markets after a US trade court blocked President Donald Trump’s global tariffs, deeming them illegal.
Brent climbed toward $66 a barrel after rising 1.3% in the previous session, while West Texas Intermediate jumped above $62 a barrel. Trump’s sweeping tariffs and retaliatory measures by targeted countries have rattled global markets and raised concerns over an economic slowdown.
The Trump administration will appeal the ruling, which suspends the vast majority of levies, including elevated rates on China.
China’s declining steel demand is sweeping through related markets, with prices of the coking coal and coke used in blast furnaces plunging to their lowest since 2016.
Steel mills are expected to curtail production this year to cope with the drop in consumption. The protracted collapse in the property sector remains the biggest drag, while exports that have helped soak up the domestic surplus are likely to recede in the face of mounting trade barriers.
The glut has hammered prices across the ferrous complex. Steel rebar traded in Shanghai and used in construction fell to near eight-year lows this week. Dalian iron ore, which is also heavily keyed to demand from steelmakers, has dropped 10% this year.
Investors are getting nervous the US government might struggle to pay its debt — and they are snapping up insurance in case it defaults.
The cost of insuring exposure to US government debt has been rising steadily and is hovering near its highest level in two years, according to LSEG data.
Spreads or premiums on US 1-year credit default swaps were up at 52 basis points as of Wednesday from 16 basis points at the start of this year, LSEG data showed.
Billionaire Elon Musk said Wednesday that his time as formal adviser to President Donald Trump is coming to a close, raising questions about the future of the Department of Government Efficiency effort he spearheaded.
“As my scheduled time as a Special Government Employee comes to an end, I would like to thank President @realDonaldTrump for the opportunity to reduce wasteful spending,” Musk posted on X, his social media platform. “The @DOGE mission will only strengthen over time as it becomes a way of life throughout the government.”
By law, Musk’s status as a temporary government official was set to run out as soon as May 30, although the exact date was subject to an accounting of his actual days worked. A White House official familiar with the move, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss a personnel matter, said Musk began the off-boarding process Wednesday night and cast the departure as a decision the technology entrepreneur made on his own with the support of the president.
The Trump administration swiftly appealed the trade court ruling that termed the reciprocal tariff imposition as ‘illegal’ on Wednesday.
“Foreign countries’ nonreciprocal treatment of the United States has fueled America’s historic and persistent trade deficits,” White House spokesperson Kush Desai said in a statement after the order.
“These deficits have created a national emergency that has decimated American communities, left our workers behind, and weakened our defense industrial base – facts that the court did not dispute.”
“It is not for unelected judges to decide how to properly address a national emergency,” Desai added.
South Korea’s central bank cut its policy interest rate by 25 basis points in a decision announced Thursday as the country faces a double-whammy of protracted political turmoil and Trump’s sweeping tariffs.
The Bank of Korea reduced rates to 2.5% from 2.75%, its lowest level since August 2022, in line with expectations among economists polled by Reuters. That marked the central bank’s fourth cut in the current easing cycle.
The quarter-percentage rate cut came as the country continued to grapple with heightened political uncertainty following the botched attempt by former leader Yoon Suk Yeol to impose martial law in December.
Gold extended declines for a fourth day, as markets absorbed news that the US trade court has blocked President Donald Trump’s global tariff agenda.
Bullion fell as much as 1.1% on Thursday, adding to a 2% loss in the previous three sessions, as the US Court of International Trade deemed the bulk of Trump’s tariffs illegal, further strengthening the dollar. A stronger greenback makes gold more expensive for most buyers.
The Trump administration filed a notice that it was appealing the ruling, which suspends most of its tariffs. The US Supreme Court may ultimately have the final say in the high-stakes case that could impact trillions of dollars in global trade.
Asia-Pacific markets rose Thursday after a US federal court ruled that President Donald Trump exceeded his authority with his “reciprocal” tariffs on more than 180 countries and territories in April.
Japan’s benchmark Nikkei 225 rose 1.18% and the Topix climbed 0.79%. South Korea’s Kospi rose 0.78% and the small-cap Kosdaq climbed 0.44%.
Hong Kong markets are poised to slip slightly with futures tied to the Hang Seng index at 23,132, compared to the benchmark’s last close of 23,258.31.
Salesforce Inc. raised its annual sales forecast, suggesting that its AI agent product is on a path to contribute significant revenue.
The software company said revenue will be $41 billion to $41.3 billion in the year ending in January 2026, compared with an earlier forecast of $40.5 billion to $40.9 billion.
Leading technology platforms such as Salesforce, Microsoft Corp. and ServiceNow Inc. are competing to offer AI agents — software that can complete tasks such as customer service without needing direction from a person. Salesforce launched its “Agentforce” product in October and is aiming for broad adoption among its customers.
– Nvidia Q1 results beat estimates on revenue, EPS front
– Nvidia Q1 revenue at $44.06 billion Vs $43.31 billion estimate
– Took $4.5 billion inventory write-down due to China export curbs
– Nvidia Q2 revenue guidance at $45 billion, in-line with expectations
– Will lose $8 billion worth of sales in Q2 due to China restrictions
President Donald Trump’s global tariffs were deemed illegal and blocked by the US trade court, dealing a major blow to a pillar of the Republican’s economic agenda.
The ruling can now be appealed by the Trump administration in federal court.
A panel of three judges at the US Court of International Trade in Manhattan issued a ruling Wednesday siding with Democratic-led states and a group of small businesses that argued Trump had wrongfully invoked an emergency law to justify the levies. More on that here.
Futures on Wall Street have seen a sharp surge in the early hours of Thursday, Indian Time, after a US trade court termed President Donald Trump’s imposition of global tariffs as ‘illegal’ and was subsequently blocked.
The Dow futures are up 470 points, while the S&P 500 and Nasdaq futures are up 85 points and 350 points respectively.
Futures also received a boost from Nvidia’s results that beat estimates.
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