Business live: Asian markets rise as Trump leaves time for tariff talks
The dollar, one of the biggest casualties from the tariff turmoil, was weaker this morning after rising yesterday. The pound is up 0.2 per cent against the dollar at $1.3627.
For the noise about tariffs, Trump so far has just two trade agreements, with Britain and Vietnam, and a trade truce with China. The EU is hopeful of reaching a trade deal by Wednesday after European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen and Trump had a 'good exchange'.
Asian markets rose this morning after President Trump left time for negotiations on tariffs, saying his new August 1 deadline was 'firm, but not 100 per cent firm'.
Despite Trump announcing 25 per cent tariffs on imports from Japan and South Korea, Tokyo's Nikkei 225 was up 0.27 per cent and Seoul's Kospi gained 1.7 per cent.
The countries are America's second and third-largest trade partners in Asia. Japan said it would seek a deal as soon as possible, calling the higher tariff 'extremely regrettable'. South Korea said would press ahead with talks.
Stock markets in China, which has reached a trade framework with the US, rose. The SSE Composite gained 0.6 per cent and Hong Kong's Hang Seng added 0.7 per cent.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Guardian
26 minutes ago
- The Guardian
Trump news at a glance: president complains about Putin's ‘bullshit'
Donald Trump has voiced his irritation with Vladimir Putin, telling a cabinet meeting he was getting increasingly frustrated with the Russian leader. The US president told the televised meeting of top officials: 'We get a lot of bullshit thrown at us by Putin, if you want to know the truth. He's very nice all the time, but it turns out to be meaningless.' Asked if he wanted to see further sanctions against Russia, Trump replied: 'I'm looking at it.' He refused to give further details but said any action would come as 'a little surprise'. Here's more on that and other key US politics stories of the day: As well as voicing his frustration with Putin, Trump promised to send 10 Patriot missiles to Ukraine, according to an official familiar with the matter. Trump had announced on Monday that US weapons deliveries would resume, just a few days after they were halted by the Pentagon. On Monday, the president said he was 'disappointed' with Russia's president and would send 'more weapons' to Ukraine. 'We're gonna send some more weapons we have to them. They have to be able to defend themselves. They're getting hit very hard now,' Trump said, alongside a US and Israeli delegation. Read the full story The United States only has about 25% of the Patriot missile interceptors it needs for all of the Pentagon's military plans after burning through stockpiles in the Middle East in recent months, an alarming depletion that led to the Trump administration freezing the latest transfer of munitions to Ukraine, according to sources in the government. Read the full story Trump vowed to further escalate his trade wars on Tuesday, threatening US tariffs of up to 200% on foreign drugs and 50% on copper, amid widespread confusion around his shifting plans. Hours after saying his latest deadline for a new wave of steep duties was 'not 100% firm', the US president declared that 'no extensions will be granted' beyond 1 August. 'There has been no change to this date, and there will be no change,' Trump wrote on social media, a day after signing an executive order that changed the date from 9 July. Read the full story The US supreme court has cleared the way for Trump's administration to resume plans for mass firings of federal workers that critics warn could threaten crucial government services. Extending a winning streak for the US president, the justices on Tuesday lifted a lower court order that had frozen sweeping federal layoffs known as 'reductions in force' while litigation in the case proceeds. The decision could result in hundreds of thousands of job losses at the departments of agriculture, commerce, health and human services, state, treasury, veterans affairs and other agencies. Read the full story A new study of defense department spending previewed exclusively to the Guardian shows that most of the Pentagon's discretionary spending from 2020 to 2024 has gone to outside military contractors, providing a $2.4tn boon in public funds to private firms in what was described as a 'continuing and massive transfer of wealth from taxpayers to fund war and weapons manufacturing'. The report, from the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft and Costs of War, said that the Trump administration's new Pentagon budget will push annual US military spending past the $1tn mark. Read the full story The deadly Texas floods could signal a new norm in the US, as Trump and his allies dismantle critical federal agencies that help states prepare and respond to extreme weather and other hazards, experts warn. Read the full story An unknown fraudster has used artificial intelligence to impersonate the US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, contacting at least five senior officials. According to a state department cable first seen by the Washington Post and confirmed by the Guardian, the impostor sent fake voice messages and texts that mimicked Rubio's voice and writing style to those targets, including three foreign ministers, a US governor and a member of Congress. Read the full story A Houston pediatrician is 'no longer employed' after a posting on social media that the 'Maga' voters in Texas 'get what they voted for' amid deadly flash flooding. A federal judge has ruled against five non-profit organizations that sued the Trump administration over the rescinding of hundreds of millions of dollars meant to prevent and respond to issues such as gun violence, substance abuse and hate crimes. Fifa's relationship with Trump now has a physically tangible marker, with soccer's world governing body announcing it has opened an office in Trump Tower in New York City. Catching up? Here's what happened on 7 July 2025.
Reuters
31 minutes ago
- Reuters
US could collect $300 billion in tariff revenue this year, Treasury chief says
WASHINGTON, July 8 (Reuters) - Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent on Tuesday said the U.S. has taken in about $100 billion in tariff income so far this year, and this could grow to $300 billion by the end of 2025 as collections accelerate from President Donald Trump's trade campaign. Bessent, speaking to a White House cabinet meeting, said the major collections from Trump's new tariffs only started during the second quarter, when Trump implemented a near universal 10% duty on U.S. imports and boosted duties on steel, aluminum and autos. "So we could expect that that could be well over $300 billion by the end of the year," Bessent said. A Treasury spokesperson said the $300 billion target corresponds to the December 31 end of calendar 2025, not the end of the government's fiscal year on September 30. Reaching $300 billion in tariff collections this year would imply an exponential increase in collections in coming months and steep and broad tariff increases from current levels. Bessent added that the Congressional Budget Office has estimated tariff income will total about $2.8 trillion over 10 years, "which we think is probably low." The Treasury reported record gross customs duties of $22.8 billion in May, a nearly fourfold increase from the $6.2 billion total a year earlier. That brought customs duty collections for the first eight months of fiscal 2025 to $86.1 billion. Collections for the first five months of calendar 2025 totaled $63.4 billion. The Treasury is due to report June budget results on Friday, which are expected to show another substantial increase in tariff collections. As of June 30, combined customs and excise tax collections topped $122 billion for the fiscal year to date, according to the Daily Treasury Statement, opens new tab of accounts. Trump has set a new August 1 deadline for higher "reciprocal" tariff rates set to kick in on nearly all trading partners, with room for negotiations with some countries in the next three weeks for deals to bring them lower. "The big money will start coming in on August 1. I think it was made clear today by the letters that were sent out yesterday and today," Trump said. Trump also announced during the same cabinet meeting that he would impose a 50% tariff on copper imports, a metal used in everything from housing to consumer electronics, vehicles, the power grid and military hardware. He also said further tariffs were coming on semiconductors and pharmaceuticals.
Reuters
an hour ago
- Reuters
- Singapore must develop deeper relationships with China, US, Europe: home affairs minister
SINGAPORE, July 9 (Reuters) - In a multipolar world, small countries like Singapore have to develop even deeper relationships with other nations, Singapore's Home Affairs Minister K Shanmugam said on Wednesday. "There are more powers playing the game as it were, as opposed to the time when the Americans held the peace across the world. So that's changing, and in such a context, small countries like us have to develop even deeper relationships," said Shanmugam, pointing to China, the United States and Europe. Shanmugam, who is also coordinating minister for national security, was speaking in an interview at the Reuters NEXT Asia summit in Singapore that covered trade issues as well as domestic concerns such as a fake news law. On trade, Shanmugam said the U.S. was an indispensable nation and its policies impact "every country, allies and non-allies alike", especially for a trade-reliant country like Singapore where external trade is 3 to 4 times its GDP. On Monday, U.S. President Donald Trump sent letters to 14 countries, including allies Japan and South Korea, notifying them of tariffs of 25% to 40% that will kick in from August 1. In the letters, Trump warned that reprisals from countries would draw a like-for-like response. Meanwhile, China threatened to retaliate against nations that strike deals with the U.S. to cut China out of supply chains. Singapore has not received a letter from the Trump administration this round. In April on what Trump called "Liberation Day", Singapore was hit with a 10% baseline tariff, lower than its Southeast Asian neighbours, but high enough to harm the economy said the Singapore government. The trade ministry in April downgraded the nation's GDP forecast for 2025 to 0%-2% growth from 1%-3% after the U.S. announced tariffs. The U.S. had a goods trade surplus of $2.8 billion with Singapore last year, an 84.8% increase over 2023, according to the United States Trade Representative website. The city-state's data, which includes services, showed the U.S. trade surplus with Singapore amounted to $30 billion in 2024. The U.S. accounted for 11% of Singapore's exports in 2024 and about 55% of shipments would be hit with the baseline 10% tariff, estimated the central bank. To view the live broadcast of the World Stage go to the Reuters LIVE page:
