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interest rate cuts to keep inflation in check without allowing growth to slide below a critical level. As Trump's tariff actions spread across the world, governments will face greater fiscal imbalance as their trade surplus with the US shrinks and they spend more to insulate domestic demand. Central banks will have a more straightforward choice in monetary accommodation. This should benefit bond markets outside the US.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. It isn’t always easy to save for retirement, in part because for many people it is so far away that there’s no sense of urgency. New research suggests a solution: Make the future feel closer.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. Bulls bounded back into the reckoning on Wednesday after 10 long days of decline, shored up by comebacks from auto, IT and FMCG stocks, and a fall in the value of the US dollar to a three-month low. The recovery ended the longest losing streak witnessed by benchmark Nifty 50, its worst in more than 25 years.

Romania on Wednesday ordered two senior Russian diplomats expelled, the foreign ministry said, a day after accusing Moscow of "interference" and slamming Russian secret services' criticism of the indictment of far-right presidential candidate Calin Georgescu. «The Romanian authorities have decided to declare persona non grata on the territory of Romania the military, air and naval attache of the Russian Federation in Bucharest, as well as his deputy,» the foreign ministry said in a statement.

Railway Board has decided that all departmental promotion examinations will now be through centralised examinations. According to officials aware of the development, only Computer Based Tests (CBT) will be undertaken and all zonal railways will have to make a calendar for the examinations. The Railway Recruitment Board (RRB) will be empowered to conduct these exams as well. “A high-level meeting has taken the decision to switch to centralised exams for promotions,” a senior official told ET while adding that question papers will be in highly encrypted form (256-bit encryption). These steps have been taken after the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) unearthed a departmental examination paper leak scam under the East Central Railway (ECR) at Mughal Sarai. The agency has arrested 26 Railway officials, including 17 aspirants, in the case this week and recovered Rs. 1.17 crore in cash. These amounts were reportedly collected from candidates for leaking the question papers.

Hong Kong billionaire Li Ka-shing may have just pulled off one of his boldest transactions yet. Under pressure from the Trump administration over two ports at the Panama canal controlled by CK Hutchison Holdings Ltd., Li’s company announced a plan to sell off the bulk of its global ports business to a consortium led by BlackRock Inc. In return, the Hong Kong firm will receive cash proceeds of more than $19 billion. Investors, and even some of CK Hutchison’s closest advisers, were surprised that what began with two Panamanian ports has now evolved into a much larger deal. Under the agreement, the company will sell 43 ports in 23 countries, while keeping facilities in mainland China and Hong Kong.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. What do Rachel Reeves, Javier Milei and Elon Musk have in common? All are preaching the gospel of austerity as a necessary cure for what ails their respective economies. Hence, Reeves, the UK’s Chancellor of the Exchequer, has tightened rules for government spending and investment, despite the fact that fiscal constriction has been a major cause of the country’s problems over the past 15 years.

«What we are looking at, when we said in July 2024, the complacency was high, we were at extreme inflection. Maybe September, October when India liquidity peaked out, that was the extreme inflection end,» says Sandeep Tandon, CIO, Quant MF. So, let us come back to India since you said that the time has come to nibble in right now. Purely at an index level and since you do track technicals as well, we have hit the lowest RSI since March 2020 already, we are at an eight-month low. What is the screen telling you? Do you think we are at the end of the pain at an index level per se? Sandeep Tandon: To be candid with you, I am not a great chartist or technical technician in that sense. I am a good observer and we are predominantly a behaviour house. So, we look at more from an inflection point rather than say looking at the breakout or breakdown because that may not give you a correct perspective or we may not have that ability to read up to that extent.

«Still, it remains to be seen if that is what it is or this is actually a new world where we basically have everybody having a tariff barrier and the free trade that we have all grown up with becomes less and less,» says Rajeev Agrawal, DoorDarshi India Fund. I guess all of us are hooked on to Trump's address, waiting to hear if he is going to say anything specific on Canada and Mexico tariffs or not. But how do you think this entire tariff tirade is going to really play out because the chatter in the US as well is tariffs are not good for them either. Rajeev Agrawal: So, no, absolutely, tariffs have created a lot of uncertainty in the whole world and how they will play out. Initially, the expectation was that tariffs is a way for negotiation to ensure that US companies get their fair share when they go into other countries.

United States President Donald Trump on Wednesday expressed gratitude to the Pakistani government for assisting in the arrest of a key terrorist involved in the 2021 Kabul airport bombing. «Three and a half years ago, a [Daesh] terrorist killed 13 American service members and countless others in the Abbey Gate bombing,» Trump said during his address to a joint session of Congress. He added, «Tonight, I am pleased to announce that we have just apprehended the top terrorist responsible for that atrocity. And he is right now on his way here to face the swift sword of American justice.» The attack at Kabul airport in August 2021 claimed the lives of 13 US service members and around 170 Afghan civilians during the chaotic withdrawal of American forces from Afghanistan.

China on Wednesday increased its defense spending by 7.2% this year, the same growth rate as in the prior two years, as Beijing seeks to «firmly safeguard» its national security.

Deven Choksey, MD, DRChoksey FinServ Pvt. Ltd, says keep accumulating good quality stocks at the price at which they are currently available and adding to your portfolio. It is better to repent after buying than to regret it thereafter. When the fundamentals of business and the companies remain intact and they are not showing the signs of deterioration, as much as the global turbulence is, in such a situation, gather the confidence and conviction to buy into good quality stocks. Time to buy yet or do you think there could be some more pain in store? Deven Choksey: Yes, it is time to buy. We always tell people that in a falling market like this, you do not buy everything at one go, but you accumulate. So, keep accumulating good quality stocks at a price at which they are currently available and adding to your portfolio.

China said on Wednesday it would boost support for the application of artificial intelligence (AI) models and the development of venture capital investment, in a bid to foster more technology breakthroughs and become more self-reliant. The plans were included in a government document prepared for the annual meeting of the National People's Congress (NPC), China's rubber-stamp parliament. The country wants to foster «industries of the future» including biomanufacturing, quantum technology, embodied AI and 6G technology, the report said. To do so, China plans to explore new models for national laboratories as well as give strong support and «important responsibilities» to young scientists and engineers.

Anand Tandon, Independent Analyst, says while two lakh people are being added to the IT workforce every year, not that many will get jobs going forward, and some of them will get slowly laid off. Tandon says that the problem is not receiving enough attention and it is not a cyclical issue. It is a structural problem. India needs to find another industry which can grow in the same way. Tandon also says at the end of the day, markets are cyclical and market participants have to realise that. Give us your take on the markets. We are seeing a bit of recovery; the broader markets are also participating in this. What is looking interesting to you right now? Anand Tandon: Yes, the market is looking a little oversold and therefore it is possible that you will get a mild recovery. I would hesitate to rush in to buy though. There are structural problems in the Indian market now, primarily among them the IT sector. You have to remember that for the last two decades, the biggest driver for domestic consumption is actually the number of people who are employed in that sector. That now seems to be behind us.

«In the interim, flows can have some excesses, but we really feel that we have reached the bottom on Nifty. You can never say never, but largely we think we are done. Because even if you take earnings post downgrades, broadly next year will be 1200 rupees of earnings and 26-27 would be 1350 rupees of earnings,» says Sanjay H Parekh, Sohum Asset Managers. Give us a lowdown on where you feel the markets are headed from here. Do you think we have bottomed out enough because we had slipped below that 22,000 mark initially in the first half of the trading day? We have managed to recover only nominally from there. But do you believe that this is the worst for the market and now would be a good time for FIIs and along with them some confidence to return in the market? Sanjay H Parekh: So, essentially, our product is Nifty benchmark where we have at least 70% always in largecap. In fact, our average largecap holding has been 78%. So, I will just give you a perspective of how we think about Nifty to begin with. So, we think now the risk-return is really favourable.

Jim Walker, Chief Economist, Aletheia Capital, says if the US economy begins to slow and which is very likely, then the direction of travel is going to have to change and that really means that he is going to have to back off some of this aggression towards his partners and within his own country. Hopefully by the middle of this year, a lot more sensible decisions will be made and a lot more visibility about where we are going. The underlying fundamentals remain the same. Asia looks pretty good, India looks great, China is recovering, and the real problems lie in the advanced economies in America. Walker said to clients this week that this is the time to absolutely double down on the long in India, go much longer and although we worry about the valuations in the Indian stock market, my view is that economic growth is going to take off from here and those valuations will be quickly supported by corporate earnings. Walker, who had predicted the 2008 crisis, does not think the present situation is like 2008. It will be a pretty painful slowdown, but we can go to the other end of it without the kind of government and central bank action that took place in 2008, 2009.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. When Warren Buffett lambasted US President Donald Trump’s imposition of tariffs as “an act of war to some degree," he wasn’t wrong. Of course, there’s no conventional battle going on.

India marking the 20th anniversary of the Bengaluru office for the Wall Street bellweather, Goldman Sachs CEO David Solomon spoke with ET’s Arijit Barman, emphasizing that the global economy will remain deeply interconnected despite the rising intensity of trade tariff rhetoric. During his brief one-day visit to India where the firm has invested over $8.5 billion, Solomon will stop at the firm’s Bengaluru campus where Goldman Sachs’ technology engineers and quants are driving innovation—developing systems that span from trade execution and risk management to advancing the immersion of AI with their global colleagues throughout the firm.

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In its 2024 annual results released today (4 March), the rebound in the firm's PBT comprised higher adjusted operating profit, as well as «the gain on sale of the European-headquartered private equity business of £92m and lower restructuring and corporate transaction expenses of £100m (2023: £152m)». abrdn poaches Coutts' Siobhan Boylan for CFO role In addition, abrdn posted a profit for the year of £248m, significantly higher than the £12m recorded in 2023, while its assets under management and administration rose from £494.9bn in 2023 to £511.4bn last year. The interactive invest...

Nothing Phone 3a series launch Live updates: London-based smartphone maker Nothing is set to launch its Nothing Phone 3a series globally today. The two phones, Nothing Phone 3a and Nothing Phone 3a Pro, are likely to be priced around the ₹30,000 mark and will compete with a number of Chinese smartphone makers in this price range.The new phones will come with Nothing's iconic glyph interface, while the Phone 3a Pro will feature a new camera island that hasn't been well received on social media.When and where to watch Nothing Phone 3a launch? The Nothing Phone 3a series will be launched in India at 15:30 and the live stream will be available on the Nothing YouTube channel.