1. Asia-Pacific markets subdued as U.S.-China tariff truce deadline looms
Asia-Pacific markets were trading subdued Monday as investors awaited official announcement on whether the Aug. 12 deadline for U.S.–China tariff truce would be extended. India’s Nifty 50 climbed 0.18% at the open. Taiwan equities rose 0.6% to its highest since July 2024, and Vietnam stocks advanced 0.5% to notch a record high. The mainland’s benchmark CSI 300 climbed 0.13%, while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index inched 0.07% higher. South Korea and Australia markets started the trading day mixed. South Korea’s Kospi as well as the small-cap Kosdaq were trading flat. Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 inched 0.43% higher. The Australian central bank is scheduled to announce its interest-rate decision on Tuesday.
2.Stocks finish lower as traders look ahead to CPI data
Stocks fell Monday as traders braced for key U.S. inflation reports due out later in the week and largely ignored a positive development in the tariff saga. The Dow Jones Industrial Average slipped 200.52 points, or 0.45%. The S&P 500 lost 16 points or 0.25%, and the Nasdaq Composite was off 64.62 points, or 0.3%. Inflation readings this week will prove a key hurdle for a broad market index near record highs. The consumer price index, which is set to be released Tuesday, and the producer price index, due out Thursday, will be critical in shaping the outlook for the direction of interest rates, especially for the Federal Reserve’s September meeting. Hotter inflation prints could hinder the market’s advance. Economists are forecasting the July CPI will show a 0.2% increase month-over-month and a 2.8% increase annually, according to estimates from Dow Jones.
3. Trump says gold will not be tariffed
President Donald Trump said Monday that gold will not face tariffs, knocking down a ruling by U.S. customs officials that bars of the precious metal imported from Switzerland would face duties. “Gold will not be Tariffed!” Trump said in a Truth Social post. Gold futures closed 2.48% lower at $3,404.70 per ounce after the announcement. The precious metal hit a record high Friday, after U.S. Customs and Border Protection ruled that 1 kilogram and 100-ounce gold cast bars from Switzerland were subject to Trump’s 39% tariffs against the country. The ruling would have applied not just to Switzerland but to any country exporting these types of gold bars to the U.S., according to the Swiss Precious Metal Association.
4. Oil steady as markets focus on U.S.-Russia talks
Oil prices were steady on Monday, after falling more than 4% last week, as investors looked ahead to talks between the U.S. and Russia later this week on the war in Ukraine. Brent crude futures were up 3 cents to $66.62 a barrel at 12:20 p.m. ET, while U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude futures rose 11 cents to $63.99. U.S. President Donald Trump said on Friday that he would meet Russian President Vladimir Putin on August 15 in Alaska to negotiate an end to the war in Ukraine. The talks follow increased U.S. pressure on Russia, raising the prospect that penalties on Moscow could be tightened if a peace deal is not reached.
5. Dollar firms ahead of inflation report, U.S.-China tariff deadline
The U.S. dollar edged higher across the board on Monday, a day before the deadline for Washington and Beijing to strike a tariff deal and the release of a U.S. inflation report that could help determine whether the Federal Reserve lowers borrowing costs next month. The dollar index was up 0.4% at 98.59 after last week’s 0.4% fall. Against the yen, the U.S. currency traded at 148.21, up 0.3%. Japanese markets were closed on Monday for the Mountain Day holiday. The euro was down 0.3% at $1.1603, while sterling was down 0.2% at $1.3432. The dollar softened last week as investors adjusted their expectations for interest rate cuts from the Fed after soft data on U.S. jobs and manufacturing. Fed officials have sounded increasingly uneasy about the labour market, signalling their openness to a rate cut as soon as September. Cooling inflation could cement bets for a cut next month, but if signs emerge that U.S. President Donald Trump’s tariffs are fuelling price rises, that might keep the Fed on hold for now.
6. Trump extends China tariff deadline by 90 days
President Donald Trump on Monday delayed high U.S. tariffs on Chinese goods from snapping back into place for another 90 days, a White House official told media sources. Those tariffs were set to resume after midnight Tuesday. But Trump signed an executive order hour beforehand that extends the deadline until mid-November, according to the official. The delay was the expected outcome from the latest round of talks between U.S. trade negotiators and their Chinese counterparts, which took place in Stockholm, Sweden, late last month. If the deadline was not extended, then U.S. duties on China would have shot back up to where they stood in April, when the tariff war between the world’s largest trading nations was at its peak. At that time, Trump had cranked up blanket tariffs on Chinese imports to 145%, and China had retaliated with 125% duties on U.S. goods.
7. US army will ‘never set foot’ in Mexican territory, vows Sheinbaum
President Claudia Sheinbaum on Monday rejected the prospect of US military intervention in her country, insisting Mexico’s independence was “not at risk”. Her comments came after reports last week that President Donald Trump had signed a secret directive ordering the US military to target Latin American cartels, including several that send drugs across the border from Mexico. “We will never put our sovereignty at risk, we will never put Mexico’s independence at risk, Mexico is a free, sovereign, independent country,” she said. The prospect of Washington taking military intervention against the cartels has hung over the bilateral relationship after Trump declared eight of them terrorist organisations in his first weeks in office.
8.Bitcoin briefly retakes $120,000, ether touches 2021 highs after breaking key $4,000 level
Bitcoin has edged closer to its all-time high after an overnight rally that also propelled ether to levels not seen since 2021. The price of bitcoin was last flat at $118,981.86, according to Coin Metrics. Ether was also flat at $4,256.90, after surging on Sunday to its highest level since December 2021. Both were trading off their highs of the day. On Friday, ether broke $4,000 for the first time since December. The moves took place alongside a rise in U.S. equity futures earlier in the morning, as investors looked ahead to a batch of key inflation reports. Stocks were trading on the cusp of all-time highs to start the day but have since cooled, pulling crypto assets back with them.
9. Ford announces $2 billion investment in Louisville assembly plant aimed at cheap EVs
Ford on Monday announced it would invest $2 billion in a Louisville, Kentucky, assembly plant aimed at rolling out more affordable electric vehicles. The investment comes on top of $3 billion already planned for a battery park in Michigan. Together the facilities will create or secure nearly 4,000 new jobs, Ford said in a news release. The Detroit automaker’s new “Universal EV Program” centered around low-cost EVs will start with a midsize, four-door electric pickup, produced at the Louisville Assembly Plant. That vehicle launch is slated for 2027. Executives had teased the announcement on the company’s latest earnings call as its next “Model T moment.” Ford said the starting price of the new EV truck, $30,000, will be roughly the same as the famed Model T, when adjusted for inflation. Ford noted that lithium iron phosphate (LFP) batteries for the new family of EVs will be assembled in the U.S. and not imported from China.
10. Paramount buys UFC rights in $7.7 billion, 7-year deal in first major move post-Skydance merger
Days after completing its merger with Skydance, Paramount has acquired the U.S. rights to TKO Group’s UFC for seven years, beginning in 2026. Paramount is paying an average of $1.1 billion per year, totalling $7.7 billion, for UFC’s full slate of 13 marquee events and 30 “Fight Nights,” the companies said in a statement. All matches and events will be streamed in the U.S. via Paramount+, and select events will be simulcast on CBS. The deal payments are weighted, with Paramount paying less than $1.1 billion in the early years of the deal and higher values later. Paramount won’t charge users any additional fees for access to the events, eliminating the pay-per-view model that ESPN+ has used for certain premium UFC events. Disney’s ESPN had been paying an average of $500 million for five years of UFC rights. That deal expires at the end of 2025.
11. Elon Musk’s Tesla launches bid to supply electricity to British households
Elon Musk’s electric vehicle manufacturer and energy company Tesla is preparing to supply electricity to British households and businesses. The Texas-based company formally submitted its request for an electricity license to the British energy regulator Ofgem at the end of last month, according to a notice on the watchdog’s website. If approved, the move could pave the way for Tesla to compete with the big firms that dominate the U.K. energy market from as soon as next year. Musk’s company already has an electricity supplier in Texas, called Tesla Electric. The service, which was launched in 2022, allows customers to optimize energy consumption and pays them for selling excess energy back to the grid.
12. Amazon tops 100 satellites after weather-delayed Kuiper launch
Amazon shipped another batch of internet-beaming satellites into orbit on Monday atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, after four previous launch attempts were interrupted by weather issues. Monday’s launch is the fourth Kuiper mission, and Amazon now has 102 satellites in orbit. The Falcon 9 rocket lifted off from Cape Canaveral, Florida, at 8:35 a.m. ET. Roughly an hour after launch, SpaceX confirmed all 24 of Amazon’s Kuiper satellites were successfully deployed. The mission was originally scheduled for last Thursday, but SpaceX was forced to scrub the launch, along with three more attempts over the past few days due to rainfall. For the second time, Amazon turned to Elon Musk’s SpaceX, its chief competitor in the low-earth orbit satellite market, for help building out its constellation.
13. Micron raises forecasts as AI boosts memory chip demand
Micron Technology on Monday raised its forecast for fourth-quarter revenue and adjusted profit, banking on surging demand for its memory chips used in artificial intelligence infrastructure, sending its shares up about 3%. Semiconductor makers such as Micron have seen a surge in orders for their high-bandwidth memory (HBM) chips due to their intensive data-processing capabilities, as large tech firms ramp up AI data centre investments. The company now expects quarterly revenue of $11.2 billion, plus or minus $100 million, compared with its previous forecast of $10.7 billion, plus or minus $300 million. Micron also nudged up its adjusted gross margin forecast to 44.5%, plus or minus 0.5%, for the fourth quarter, compared with its prior expectation of 42%, plus or minus 1%. The company said the revised forecast reflects improved pricing, particularly for dynamic random-access memory or DRAM products.
14. AST SpaceMobile Shares Gain After Satellite Deployment Confirmation
Shares of AST SpaceMobile rose after the company confirmed that it has a fully funded plan to deploy 45 to 60 satellites into orbit by 2026. The stock was up 13% at $51.92 in Monday’s postmarket trading. Shares have more than doubled since the start of the year. The Midland, Texas company, which is developing a space-based cellular network, said after the closing bell that it is preparing to deploy nationwide intermittent service in the U.S. by the end of 2025, followed by deployments in the U.K., Japan and Canada in the first quarter of 2026. “We also have planned orbital launches every one to two months on average during 2025 and 2026,” Chief Executive Abel Avellan said.
15. AMD confirms U.S. approval to export some AI chips to China
Advanced Micro Devices has received approval from the U.S. government for its initial license applications to export certain artificial intelligence processors to China, the company announced on Monday. The chipmaker confirmed that the U.S. authorities have given the green light for AMD to sell some of its AI processing units to Chinese customers, marking a development in the ongoing regulation of advanced technology exports to China.
16. Intel stock rises as CEO prepares for White House meeting amid Trump criticism
Intel stock rose 3% Monday morning, paring recent declines as CEO Lip-Bu Tan prepares for a White House meeting following President Trump’s demand for his resignation last week. According to a Wall Street Journal report, Tan is expected to meet with Trump on Monday to discuss his personal and professional background after the president called for his immediate resignation over alleged ties to Chinese businesses. The CEO reportedly hopes to win Trump’s approval by demonstrating his commitment to the United States and emphasizing Intel’s manufacturing capabilities as a national security priority. The meeting comes after Trump posted on Truth Social that “The CEO of INTEL is highly CONFLICTED and must resign, immediately,” following concerns raised by Senator Tom Cotton about Tan’s connections to China. Scrutiny intensified after Cadence Design Systems, which Tan led until 2021, agreed to plead guilty and pay over $140 million for selling chip-design products to a Chinese military university.