Japan's SMFG Joins Wall Street in Exiting Net Zero Banking Group
Japan's second-largest bank has decided to withdraw from the Net-Zero Banking Alliance, a spokesperson said Tuesday. Nikkei had earlier reported the lender's plan to quit the alliance.
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Business Insider
an hour ago
- Business Insider
Massive Elden Ring Sales Boost Kadokawa Stock (9468)
Kadokawa (JP:9468) stock was up on Friday alongside sales data for FromSoftware's Elden Ring series. The latest sales data included 30 million copies of Elden Ring being sold, with another 10 million sales for its Shadows of the Erdtree downloadable content (DLC). That's a strong conversion rate with roughly one-third of Elden Ring owners having bought the DLC. Elevate Your Investing Strategy: Take advantage of TipRanks Premium at 50% off! Unlock powerful investing tools, advanced data, and expert analyst insights to help you invest with confidence. On top of this, Elden Ring Nightreign has also performed well in the short time it's been on the market. The multiplayer cooperative game was released on May 30, 2025, and has already sold 5 million units. There have also been leaks of upcoming DLC for the game, which will likely translate to more sales for FromSoftware. FromSoftware is a subsidiary of Japanese publishing company Kadokawa, with Sony (SONY) also owning a 14% stake in the video game developer. Sixjoy Hong Kong is another major shareholder of FromSoftware, with a 16% stake in the company. Kadokawa Stock Movement Today Kadokawa stock was up 0.53% when the Japanese stock market closed on Friday. This jump came with heavy trading, as some 680,000 shares changed hands, compared to a three-month daily average of about 509,000 units. The shares were also up 20.84% year-to-date and 38.5% over the past 12 months. Bandai Namco (JP:7832), the publisher of Elden Ring, also saw its stock rise on Friday. It secured a slight 0.06% gain when markets closed today, extending a 29.83% year-to-date rally and a 54.66% increase over the last year. Is Kadokawa Stock a Buy, Sell, or Hold? Turning to Wall Street, the analysts' consensus rating for Kadokawa is Moderate Buy, based on one Buy and one Hold rating over the past three months. With that comes an average Kadokawa stock price target of ¥3,895, representing a potential 3.37% upside for the shares.
CNBC
2 hours ago
- CNBC
Luxury shopper recovery faces four key headwinds
High-end spenders are painting a mixed picture when it comes to the luxury market's long-awaited recovery, with softer sales still weighing on company forecasts. But better-than-feared results from bellwether fashion house LVMH moved luxury stocks higher Friday, as investors bet on the emergence of green shoots of recovery. LVMH posted a 4% year-on-year drop in second quarter sales to 19.5 billion euros after the market close Thursday, slightly below a consensus forecast for a 3% decline. "This was not a stellar quarter for LVMH," Deutsche Bank's Adam Cochrane, a luxury equity research analyst, wrote in a Friday note. "However, we see some glimmers of hope with a sequential improvement in cFX [constant currency] sales expected from 3Q onwards and most of the sales weakness related to weaker tourism." Here's a look at four key trends to look out for as earnings season rolls on, with fresh numbers due next week from Kering, Hermes and Prada. Foreign exchange fluctuations are a perennial concern for luxury firms, but that's even more the case this quarter as they face high comparable sales from last year. A sharp decline in the Japanese yen sparked a surge in tourist flows and luxury shopping in the country in 2024. But now brands are battling a rebalancing. Richemont saw sales in Japan drop 15% year-on-year in the three months to June, following a 59% jump over the same period the year prior. Burberry also cited a "challenging performance" in Japan in the second quarter, and Moncler said Japan was its only negative-performing Asia market — both without providing specific figures. Some firms noted, however, that a downturn in tourism to Japan — and to a lesser extent Europe — has resulted in an uptick in domestic spending in certain other markets. "[In China] we have seen tangible improvement locally," said LVMH's Chief Financial Officer Cécile Cabanis during an earnings call Thursday, citing a "repatriation from the big drop we've seen in tourism to Japan." Several luxury firms have also pointed to a strengthening of U.S. sales in the second quarter, even as consumers wait with bated breath for the impact of tariffs. Burberry, Richemont, Moncler and Brunello Cucinelli all reported increased sales in their American markets over the second quarter, while LVMH noted that American demand was "broadly unchanged." Still, the extent to which that uptick is driven by U.S. customers frontloading purchases ahead of the full onset of tariffs is not yet clear, according to the firms. "To tell you that this was driven by an anticipation of buying links to the tariffs? Honestly, I cannot tell you," Roberto Eggs, Moncler's chief business strategy and global market officer, said on an earnings call Wednesday. Luxury companies have also been honing in on the U.S. market in recent quarters in a bid to compensate for continued soft demand in the key Chinese market. Burberry CEO Joshua Schulman said the company's recent U.S. growth indicated the "diversity of the luxury consumer that exists in that market," from elite, high-spenders to high-traffic mall shoppers. U.S. tariffs are nonetheless weighing on the outlook for most European luxury houses, who rely heavily on localized production as part of their cache. As such, many have suggested that they will need to raise prices in the coming quarters to offset added costs. Brunello Cucinelli flagged price hikes of 3% to 4% in the U.S. while Moncler said it was implementing "mid-single-digit" percentage increases for the coming 12 months. Burberry, meanwhile, said it began adjusting prices last year as part of broader overhaul plans. LVMH, on the other hand, said Thursday that prices rises would need to come with an "improvement in the product" or modest rebalancing around inflation. However, the French luxury conglomerate then went on to cite price hikes among "several levers" at its disposal to counter the impact of tariffs. It comes as the cost of luxury goods has risen by an average of 3% so far this year — the slowest pace since 2019 — according to UBS' evidence lab, as brands have sought to reconcile consumer retention with higher input costs following a Covid-era surge in prices. Finally, category mix remains a fundamental factor in the divided luxury picture, with brand appeal playing as much of a role as the product type itself. Jewelry remains a winning play for Cartier-owner Richemont, even as high-end watches — both its own and those of other luxury watchmakers — remain a weak point. Tiffany-owner LVMH, however, continues to battle softness in its jewelry and fashion and leather goods maisons, despite leather handbags going from strength to strength for ultra-luxe brand Hermes. Carole Madjo, Barclays' head of European luxury goods research, told CNBC that she expects leather goods dominance to continue to play out when Hermes reports on Wednesday. "[Hermes] is always very good, thanks to leather goods mostly," she told "Squawk Box Europe" on Tuesday. Meanwhile, investors will be eagerly awaiting more color on Tuesday from Gucci-owner Kering on its product overhaul under artistic director Demna Gvasalia and incoming CEO Luca de Meo. "Bringing newness, something fresh which has not been seen before, is I think what could make Gucci great again," Madjo said.
New York Post
6 hours ago
- New York Post
Trump has momentum heading into Aug. 1 ‘reciprocal tariff' deadline after Asian trade deals, experts say
WASHINGTON — President Trump has 'leveraged American bargaining power' with three Asian nations this week — and given himself momentum ahead of the looming Aug. 1 deadline for most 'reciprocal tariffs,' experts predict. Trump secured Japan's agreement to pay a 15% tariff on exports to the US while making $550 billion in new investments in America in what he called a 'signing bonus' — while Indonesia and the Philippines said they would accept 19% tariffs on their goods while applying 0% tariffs on US products. 'I was a little bit surprised by the extent to which the US, at least at this stage of the game, has succeeded in striking what seems to me to be quite a hard bargain,' said Pravin Krishna, an economist at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies. 3 Experts say President Trump has 'leveraged American bargaining power' with Japan, Indonesia and the Philippines this week — and given himself momentum ahead of the looming Aug. 1 deadline for most 'reciprocal tariffs.' AFP via Getty Images Robert Lawrence, an international trade professor at the Harvard Kennedy School, agreed, saying he was also left stunned that Trump roped in a large Japanese investment in addition to the tariff terms — likening it to his successful demand for a 'golden' US stake in this year's Nippon-US Steel merger deal. 'He's a wheeler-dealer, our president, needless to say, and he's kind of cutting these deals — but he has scared these people, and he's leveraged American bargaining power,' Lawrence said. 'The next one on the block is [South] Korea… for the Koreans, the auto issue is just about as important as for the Japanese.' Wilbur Ross, who served as Trump's commerce secretary during his first term and at one point expressed concern about administration emissaries potentially over-playing their hand, hailed Trump's trio of Asian deals. 'It's very important that people realize why he yoked the three together and announced them at the same time, and I think that's largely to send a message to China that their hope that his tough trade policy would somehow drive the Asian countries to China is simply incorrect,' Ross explained. 'I think the second importance of it is it puts tremendous pressure on the EU to make a deal because they have a great danger of being relatively isolated and relatively stuck with a worse deal.' Trump traveled to Scotland Friday and will meet with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen over the weekend to discuss averting a threatened 50% tariff. 3 President Trump secured a trade agreement with Japan to pay a 15% tariff on exports, while Indonesia and the Philippines will pay 19% tariffs on their goods, with US products not being tariffed. The president previously announced deals with Vietnam, which agreed to a 20% tariff — or 40% on items sourced in China — while breaking down barriers to US imports, as well as a UK deal that features a 10% tariffs — with British steel and car exports also paying 10% rather than Trump's much higher sectoral tariffs, in exchange for promises to open UK markets to American ethanol, beef and chicken. China, meanwhile, brokered a cease-fire with Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent — with the US applying a 30% rate on Chinese goods and China applying a 10% rate on American imports. Meanwhile, the impact of Trump's tariffs — which also include 50% on foreign steel and aluminum and 25% on foreign cars — have been slighter than anticipated thus far on inflation, with the annual increase in consumer prices 2.7% in June. 'The same 'experts' that were loudly spewing doomsday predictions are now quietly looking at their portfolios and planning their early retirement or vacation home purchases,' said Arthur Schwartz, a Republican operative with close ties to the administration. Major challenges remain on the horizon for Trump, however, and academics remain divided on the merits of higher tariffs now padding federal coffers. Krishna, the Hopkins economist, said questions remain about whether the Asian nations that just agreed to steep terms are able to ratify them politically due to the fact that Trump seems to have secured such lopsided terms. He also said that India — initially expected to be one of the first nations to ink a trade deal — faces notable trade-talk road bumps due to the potentially devastating effects on poor farmers who comprise about 45% of the labor force. 'It's a very sensitive sector for India. The Modi government itself, a few years ago, tried some reasonably market-oriented reforms in the agricultural sector.. and they were unable to push that through,' he said. 'That is an extremely challenging thing for the Indian government to manage politically,' Krishna said. 'You're talking about survival-level incomes for a large number of farmers. And to mess with that would be, again, politically challenging and even morally questionable from an Indian standpoint. 3 The US is currently charging China a 30% tariff rate on Chinese goods, while they are charging a 10% rate on American imports. AP Keep up with today's most important news Stay up on the very latest with Evening Update. Thanks for signing up! Enter your email address Please provide a valid email address. By clicking above you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Never miss a story. Check out more newsletters 'It really is a question of how much of a change the US wants in terms of reduction of protectionism and so on, and how much India's willing to give up,' he added. It's also unclear how talks with China will end — with the temporary deal set to expire in mid-August, though it may be extended. 'There's a real question whether we will make a deal with [China],' Ross said. 'It's hard for me to imagine that they're going to make very big concessions, and meanwhile, we're collecting very high tariffs. So it's not so clear to me that there's a big, compelling motive for President Trump to make a deal.' China also may be politically constrained by an upcoming Communist Party congress next month and a housing crash that has sapped the nation economically, Ross noted. Lawrence, of Harvard, said that the disruption of Trump's trade wars remains worrying for certain US industries — with carmakers General Motors and Stellantis reporting quarterly income slumps this week — and that he's skeptical of an ensuing boom in US manufacturing employment. 'I personally think it's damaging our economy … We have to be competitive to make sales abroad, not to bludgeon people through threats of tariffs. That's not the way you win friends, and it's also not the way you retain customers,' he said. But Lawrence noted that Trump's delays in implementing 'reciprocal' tariffs initially announced on April 2 likely make them more palatable for the American public and less stinging on their budgets. 'By dragging out the process, it's kind of like the famous boiling of the frog who doesn't quite notice it. [If the] net effect of these tariffs would be to raise the consumer price index by one percentage point or even two, that would be a huge increase, right? But if I told you it was take place over a couple of years, it is going to work out to half a point, or less a fraction each month. Are you going to notice it itself?' he said. 'From the standpoint of, 'How do you want to distribute the shocks?' I think… whether it's negotiating strategy or it's dithering or it's intuition, it actually serves to cushion the blow.'
