Finance & Markets

On August 12, 2025, Asian markets witnessed another rally with renewed optimism after the extension of the U.S.-China tariff truce. This fresh extension, which sees the reimposition of tariffs deferred for another 90 days, has restored investor confidence in the region. The Nikkei 225 index in Japan reached fresh all-time highs, climbing upward by more than 2%, as technology-heavy sectors led the charge. The Topix index also gained, reflecting confidence in corporate earnings and interest in the forecast for international trade. On the other hand, mainland China saw the CSI 300 rise by half a per cent, and Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 touched new highs after the Reserve Bank slashed interest rates to a fresh two-year low of 3.6%, lending strength to the local market.  Similar pos...

Changes may be coming soon for 401(k) alternatives. President Donald Trump issued an executive order on retirement on Thursday meant to let Americans invest their savings into private equity, cryptocurrency, real estate, and several other alternative assets. This executive order on retirement is a major success for the asset management sector since it lets financial managers access a share of the amazing $12.2 trillion held in Americans’ 401(k) and related retirement accounts. Moreover, private assets frequently provide more profitable possibilities; the Trump administration claims they can give retirement savers more investment choices. Financial planning specialist Robert Brokamp from the stock market analysis company The Motley Fool observed, “The theoretical benefits of Trump’s e...

On Thursday, shares of Intel dropped following President Donald Trump’s demand for the chief executive officer of the firm to resign. According to President Trump, the Chief Executive of Intel, Lip-Bu Tan, is highly conflicted and has to resign immediately. There is no other answer to this issue. Intel later Thursday refuted charges by claiming the corporation, its directors, and Tan were deeply committed to furthering U.S. national and economic security interests. The sentence read, “We are the only company investing in top logic process node development in the U.S., continuing to put billions of dollars in home semiconductor R&D and manufacturing, including our new fab in Arizona running the most sophisticated production process technology in the nation.” Tan assumed charge...

According to a U.S. official to Reuters on Sunday, Nvidia (NVDA.O) and AMD (AMD.O) have agreed to donate 15% of their revenues from sales of sophisticated computer AI chip sales in China, such as Nvidia’s H20, to the U.S. government. While U.S. President Donald Trump’s government banned H20 AI chip sales in China in April, Nvidia said last month that the U.S. government would allow the firm to continue these sales, implying hope for an imminent delivery. Another U.S. official said on Friday that the Department of Commerce had begun licensing H20 chips for China sales. Asked about Nvidia's decision to pay 15% of its income to the United States, a representative for Nvidia said, “We follow rules the U.S. government sets for our participation in worldwide markets.” The spokesperson ...

On Tuesday, President Donald Trump informed CNBC’s ‘Squawk Box’ that the proposed tariffs on drugs/pharmaceuticals imported into the United States could reach as high as 250%, which is the highest rate he has ever mentioned. He indicated that he wanted to start out with a small tariff on pharmaceuticals, but within a period of one year or perhaps a year and a half, he would want to ramp up the level to 150% and then to 250%.  That being said, the president has a history of making threats about tariffs but then backing away from them, so whether we will see consequences of pharmaceutical tariffs being imposed at the 250% level remains uncertain. Earlier in July, Trump had even put forward the terms of a 200% tariff on pharmaceuticals. In April, the Trump administration launched a...

On Thursday, the valuation of the design tool creator Figma saw a stunning and significant rise of more than 250% to close at over $117 per share. This increase followed the successful fundraising of the company, which was more than $1.2 billion through its IPO (initial public offering), therefore exceeding the Figma’s stock predicted range of $30 to $32 given in SEC documents earlier this week. Dylan Field, the 33-year-old CEO of the firm, has thus achieved the status of a billionaire. Field, a former Thiel Fellow, started working on the project with his Brown University friend Evan Wallace in 2012 to create Figma. In 2015, the firm debuted a closed beta release of its offering. Through its web browsers, Figma intends to offer users a complete set of design tools that are accessible to...

Since late June, Jeff Bezos has deftly sold shares of Amazon stock AMZN -0.30% for a cash out of $5.7 billion. Under a 10b5-1 trading plan, which lets corporate insiders sell stock in accordance with a pre-set timetable, these transactions were carried out. With the final 4.2 million sold for $954 million just days before the company’s second-quarter earnings report on July 31, the sale covered 25 million shares. This timeline corresponds with a 38% rise in the Amazon stocks since its low in April. Investors are worried about whether the company's significant investments in artificial intelligence will eventually boost profits despite this upward trend. At 12% revenue growth and 15% average earnings growth, other leading technology companies lag behind this pace. Amazon has set a...

In pre-market cap trade as of this writing, Microsoft's MSFT +0.13% stock has risen by more than 8.5%, passing the remarkable $4 trillion market capitalization benchmark. With record results for the fourth quarter of fiscal 2025, the technology behemoth unveiled amazing revenues and profits that exceeded analysts’ estimates just yesterday. Microsoft attributed its success to the great demand for artificial intelligence (AI) and cloud services. Whether investors will sustain this upward trend when the markets cap open on July 31 remains unknown; maybe Microsoft will join chipmaker Nvidia NVDA +2. 14% in the exclusive $4 trillion market cap club. With a market capitalization of $3.81 trillion as of Wednesday’s close and the stock up 22.2% year-to-date, MSFT's valuation was registered. The...