Japan Financial News

Ratings agency Moody’s has announced it will be involved in the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) backed project Guardian by providing risk management services for tokenized fixed income products.

NASA and Elon Musk’s company on Wednesday outlined the plan to burn the space station up on reentry and plunge what’s left into the ocean, ideally at the beginning of 2031 when it hits the 32-year mark. The space agency rejected other options, like taking the station apart and bringing everything home or handing the keys to someone else.NASA gave SpaceX a $843 million contract to bring down the station — the biggest structure ever built off the planet.The space station is already is showing signs of age. Russia and the U.S.

Asian fund managers by brokerage BofA shows that the triad of Japan, India, and Taiwan continue to be at the top of investor mindshare, while China and Thailand lag at the bottom from an allocation perspective. Asia Pacific fund managers are 51% overweight Japan, 32% overweight India and 24% overweight Taiwan while China (net 43% underweight) is at the bottom of the table.

Mint, a spokesperson for Aegis Logistics, said, “Aegis Vopak Terminals Ltd (AVTL) is exploring options to fund future growth for AVTL. These options may include, among others, a potential fund raise by way of public issue, preferential issue, or a combination thereof, of the equity shares and debt for the JV company and as may be decided by the AVTL board in absolute discretion and permitted under applicable laws and regulations." The spokesperson added that the company has not yet made a final decision regarding the IPO, and it is still exploring its future funding options.

Wall Street’s record-breaking rally ran into a wall, as worries about potentially worsening trade tensions with China hit stocks of chip companies

Benchmark U.S. crude oil for August delivery rose $2.09 to $82.85 per barrel Wednesday

SpaceX will use a powerful, souped-up capsule to shove the International Space Station out of orbit once time is up for the sprawling lab

Siddaramaiah on Wednesday said his government's priority is to look after the welfare of Kannadigas as they are not getting jobs in their own land, responding to the criticism over the state's proposed law mandating quotas in jobs for locals in private industries. «We are a pro-Kannada government. We want to help Kannadigas lead a peaceful life with a job in their own land,» he said in a post on microblogging platform X. Within hours after his post, he announced he was putting the bill on hold after the proposed law came under widespread attack. The CM, in a post on X, said the government would revisit the bill after elaborate discussion at the next cabinet meeting. He had called the proposed law a historic effort towards protecting the interests of local Kannadigas and reversing the deprivation of jobs for them.

Piyush Goyal has called for enhancing collaborations among trusted partner countries for smooth supply of critical minerals, semiconductors, pharmaceuticals, and green energy, an official statement said on Wednesday. The minister proposed this collaboration during the G7 Trade Ministers' meeting at Reggio Calabria, Italy. He also highlighted the importance of analyzing global supply chains' robustness in times of crisis like pandemic, Ukraine-Russia conflict, and Red Sea crisis. Goyal said that efforts are on in various countries to build resilient supply chains under platforms like the G20 Generic Framework for Mapping GVCs (global value chains), the 14 Member IPEF (Indo-Pacific Economic Framework for Prosperity) association, Trilateral Supply Chain Resilience Initiative (SCRI), and India-EU TTC (trade and technology council).

A 24-year Japanese model and four of her young compatriots, who want to undergo sterilization surgeries, recently filed a lawsuit at a Tokyo court to challenge Japan’s Maternal Protection Act of 1996, which deprives them of the opportunity to do so and thus violates their constitutional right to equality and self-determination. The petitioners’ lawyer argued that the Act smacks of “excessive paternalism" in assuming that “a woman’s body is destined to become a mother," denying them the right to “live a life of their choice." This Japanese law, a revised version of its earlier Eugenics Protection Law of 1948, has stringent pre-conditions for a woman to undergo a sterilization surgery.

The world’s biggest source of renewable energy has been going through a dry patch. Generation from solar farms roughly tripled between 2018 and 2023, while the output of wind turbines almost doubled. That provided enough extra clean energy to power Japan and Russia put together.

The International Monetary Fund has upgraded its economic outlook this year for China, India and Europe while modestly lowering expectations for the United States and Japan

Benchmark U.S. crude oil for August delivery fell $1.15 to $80.76 per barrel Tuesday

Asian stocks are mostly lower even as investors wager that the Federal Reserve will come ahead with a cut to interest rates, while Australia's benchmark hit a new record

Suzuki Motor said on Wednesday it plans to cut the weight of its small Alto hatchback by 15% over the next decade, aiming to reduce the vehicle's energy usage and employ those technology gains in other models. The Alto currently weighs 680 kg and the company hopes to lower that by 100 kg. «If a vehicle is heavy, we also have to make the battery and motor larger to get a long range and good performance,» Tatsuya Matsushita, an executive in charge of Suzuki's automotive technology said.

Gold hit a record and bonds rallied on Wednesday as markets prepared for global interest rates to fall, while stocks in Taiwan slipped after U.S. presidential candidate Donald Trump sounded lukewarm in his commitment to the island's defence. The S&P 500 scaled record highs overnight and futures were steady in Asia. MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was flat and Japan's Nikkei rose 0.1%.

retail sales proved to be firmer than expected, but was still soft enough to keep expectations intact for a rate cut from the Federal Reserve this year. U.S. retail sales were unchanged in June, topping expectations of economists polled by Reuters for a decline of 0.3%, as a drop in receipts at auto dealerships was offset by strength elsewhere, a show of consumer resilience that boosts economic growth prospects for the second quarter.

dollar, prompting more warnings from Japanese officials after last week's suspected intervention. Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said at an event on Monday that recent inflation data bolstered policymakers' confidence that price pressures are on a sustainable path lower.

nutraceuticals to the drug regulatory authority from the oversight of the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) has come under fire from pharma lobby groups and industry experts, who have raised apprehensions over the move and said the proposal should be kept in abeyance until it is discussed in detail. Nutraceuticals refers to food products with extra health benefits and includes supplements, functional foods and beverages. According to industry data, the segment is projected to grow to $18 billion in India by the end of 2025 from $4 billion in 2020. Experts said the regulations for nutraceuticals in the country are aligned with Codex Alimentarius, a global body functioning under the auspices of the World Health Organisation (WHO) to ensure safety of consumers.

European stocks fell and US equity futures pared earlier gains as disappointing corporate earnings weighed on sentiment.

Japan's Nikkei share average rose on Tuesday, tracking gains in Wall Street, as investors assessed whether an assassination attempt on U.S. presidential candidate Donald Trump increased his chances of winning the November elections. The Nikkei closed 0.2% higher at 41,275.08, and the broader Topix finished up 0.34% at 2,904.5.