The Economy Markets

Samsung Secures Tesla, Anthropic and Broadcom in Succession End-to-End Integration from Memory to Foundry New Global Customer Wins Signal Foundry Rebound Taiwan’s TSMC is raising foundry prices as capacity at leading-edge nodes tightens, creating

U.S. imposes 10–12.5% tariffs on 60 economies under forced-labor rationale China maintains existing countermeasures against U.S. while signaling further retaliation Escalating reprisals could blunt tariff impact by weighing on U.S.

France and Spain Evacuate Hundreds of Thousands as Heatwave-Fuelled Wildfires Spread Europe’s Inadequate Heatwave Response Strains Infrastructure and Drives Rising Death Toll Strict Regulations and Political Divisions Hold Back Air-Conditioner Adoption

Louis Vuitton Wins Trademark Infringement Case Against China’s Molly Tea Legal Disputes Mount Between Western and Chinese Brands Over Alleged Trademark Theft China Shifts Its Response as Investment Concerns Meet the Rise of Domestic Industry Lou

U.S.

Domestic sales plunge as subsidies are scaled back and curbs on loss-leading discounts tighten Surging Chinese auto exports intensify restructuring pressure on European carmakers Expansion into new businesses still faces obstacles to securing monopoly pricing power

AI Server Memory Concentration Deepens Amid Uncertainty Over Support for Samsung, SK Bottlenecks Worsened by Downcycle Investment Cuts and Apple’s Supplier Squeeze China-Made Memory Sourcing Push Draws Sharper Scrutiny of Apple

Property downturn weakens both land-finance revenues and household wealth foundations State capital and policy finance deployed to build equity-market-centred capital circulation Stock-market boom coexists with real-economy stagnation, exposing limits of the growth transition

Trump administration invokes Section 301 to impose another round of tariffs on 60 countries Washington seeks tariff revenue to offset mounting deficits and debt Inflation, higher interest rates, and slower growth could ultimately worsen fiscal risks

Kimi K3 demonstrates weak cyberattack capabilities in a joint US-UK assessment Distillation-based training fails to produce advanced offensive hacking competence China faces growing pressure to prove original capabilities after repeated disputes with the US over model distillation

Honda and Nissan strengthen cooperation to improve competitiveness in software-defined vehicles Global automakers compete to establish de facto standards around SDV platforms Toyota proposes unified component standards and joint procurement across Japanese automakers

Dollar privilege can erode before formal displacement Higher borrowing costs outweigh the exchange-rate effect War accelerates shifts that markets have already begun One number should stop any reader cold.

U.S. productivity rose as firms removed pandemic-era excess Higher utilisation may explain more than AI The durability of the gains remains uncertain Since 2022, productivity growth in the U.S.

Credit Suisse weakened bail-in credibility Switzerland also protected its banking brand The precedent applies mainly to small financial centres Switzerland once made up to CHF 109 billion available over a single weekend

Musk warns that major SpaceX short positions have a low probability of survival Starship, a central pillar of SpaceX’s future growth, struggles to prove its technical capabilities Test flight scheduled for this month postponed twice in succession

Google maintains aggressive investment strategy despite negative free cash flow Big Tech AI spending intensifies amid fears that delayed investment means falling behind Shadow liabilities continue to expand while the path to AI monetization remains uncertain

Google launches lightweight AI models focused on reducing operating costs OpenAI and Anthropic also prioritize cost efficiency as the token-maxxing era fades AI tokenomics reshapes the market while low-cost Chinese models gain ground

Oracle required to provide substantial collateral for Wisconsin data center power infrastructure Heavy upfront cloud investment placing growing pressure on cash flow and creditworthiness Rising US opposition to data centers threatening to delay Oracle’s path to profitability

Yen pressured by the Honebuto policy framework and expectations of persistently high US interest rates Markets positioned for further depreciation as the impact of official intervention proves temporary Takaichi government’s tax-cut agenda risks generating additional foreign-exchange instability

The RRF delivered strong early gains in fiscally constrained economies Greece led broad catch-up, Spain employment and Italy capital formation Lasting convergence still requires reform, productivity and private investment