1. Asia-Pacific markets trade mixed as investors assess China industrial profits data: Markets Wrap
Asia-Pacific markets traded mixed on Wednesday, breaking ranks with Wall Street, as investors assessed China industrial profits data. China’s industrial profits slipped 1.5% from a year earlier in July, marking a notable recovery following months of steeper declines. Separately, steep U.S. tariffs on India are set to take effect. Additional tariffs of 25% are set to take effect Wednesday, pushing overall duties on exports to the U.S. to 50%. Indian markets are closed for a holiday. South Korea’s Kospi declined 0.17%, falling for a second straight session. The small-cap Kosdaq lost 0.16%. Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 added 0.15%.
2. S&P 500 closes higher as Nvidia gains, traders shake off Trump’s latest Fed salvo
The S&P 500 closed higher on Tuesday as Wall Street looked beyond President Donald Trump’s removal of Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook from the central bank’s board and awaited quarterly figures from chip giant Nvidia. The broad market S&P 500 settled up 0.41% at 6,465.94. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite also added 0.44% to end the day at 21,544.27. The blue-chip Dow Jones Industrial Average added 135.60 points, or 0.30%, to finish at 45,418.07. Long-term Treasury yields rose after the Trump move, while short-term yields declined as investors steepened the yield curve on the notion rates may go lower in the short-term, but eventually go higher as a politicized Fed becomes less attentive to inflation.
3. Gold hits two-week peak after Trump says he is firing Fed governor
Gold prices climbed to an over two-week peak on Tuesday, lifted by safe-haven demand, as investor confidence in the U.S. central bank wavered following President Donald Trump’s dismissal of a Federal Reserve governor. Spot gold gained 0.5% to $3,382.19 an ounce at 01:50 p.m. ET (1750 GMT), its highest level since August 11. U.S. gold futures for December delivery settled 0.5% higher at $3,433. Last week, Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell signaled a possible interest rate cut at the U.S. central bank’s meeting next month, saying that risks to the job market were rising. Markets are currently pricing in over 87% probability of a quarter-point rate cut in September, according to the CME FedWatch tool. Data showed that the U.S. July durable goods orders data showed a decline of 2.8%, compared with a 4% expected decrease and a decline of 9.4% in June.
4. Oil falls more than 2% driven by Russian supply risks
Oil prices fell more than 2% on Tuesday after rallying in the previous session as investors reassessed developments surrounding the war in Ukraine and potential disruption to Russian fuel supplies. Brent crude lost $1.58, or 2.3%, to close at $67.22 a barrel, having hit its highest since early August in the previous session. West Texas Intermediate crude lost $1.55, or about 2.39%, to settle at $63.25. Oil’s rally on Monday was primarily driven by supply risks after Ukraine strikes on Russian energy infrastructure and the possibility of further U.S. sanctions on Russian oil. Ukraine’s attacks in response to Russia’s advances in the conflict and its pounding of Ukrainian gas and power facilities have disrupted Moscow’s oil processing and exports and created gasoline shortages in some parts of Russia.
5. Lisa Cook will sue over Trump firing from Fed board, her lawyer says
Federal Reserve Board Governor Lisa Cook will file a lawsuit challenging her removal by President Donald Trump, her attorney said Tuesday. “President Trump has no authority to remove Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook,” the lawyer, Abbe Lowell, said in a statement, a day after Trump cited allegations of mortgage fraud by Cook in firing her. “His attempt to fire her, based solely on a referral letter, lacks any factual or legal basis,” Lowell said. “We will be filing a lawsuit challenging this illegal action.” The Federal Reserve’s media office, in a statement later Tuesday, said, “Congress, through the Federal Reserve Act, directs that governors serve in long, fixed terms and may be removed by the president only ‘for cause.’ “As always, the Federal Reserve will abide by any court decision,” the statement said.
6. German autos sector slashes jobs as economic woes bite
A perfect storm of industry and economic challenges have weighed on Germany’s autos sector, which has shed tens of thousands of jobs over a one-year stretch to the end of June. Over that period, Germany’s autos industry, one of the European country’s largest sectors, has seen job cuts of close to 7% of the workforce, or around 51,500 positions, according to new analysis’ based on data from the German statistics office Destatis. Overall job losses across the German industry amounted to around 114,000 in the 12 months to June 30 this year, the study noted. The figures suggest almost half the cuts were incurred by the autos sector. The decline in the auto sector is notably a smaller drop than the 2.1% loss in revenues that the overall German industry is facing.
7. China’s industrial profits slip 1.5% in July, slowest pace of decline in five months
China’s industrial profits slipped 1.5% from a year earlier in July, marking a notable recovery following months of steeper declines as Beijing’s campaign against price wars helped improve companies’ margins. Profits at major industrial firms fell 1.7% in the first seven months this year, according to data from the National Bureau of Statistics on Wednesday. State-backed industrial firms saw their bottom line drop 7.5% in the January to July period from a year earlier, while businesses with foreign investments saw profits increase by 1.8%. Profits in the mining industry plunged 31.6% from a year earlier, while the manufacturing sector and utilities industry — for electricity, heat, gas and water supply —saw their profits improve by 4.8% and 3.9% from a year ago, respectively.
8. Trump says he’ll have a Fed ‘majority’ soon to push rates lower after firing Cook
President Donald Trump said Tuesday he will soon have a “majority” of his own nominees on the Federal Reserve board of governors who will back his desire to slash interest rates. Trump’s comment at a Cabinet meeting came hours after he took the unprecedented step of moving to fire central bank Governor Lisa Cook, an appointee of former President Joe Biden, from the board. Trump has already appointed two of the Fed board’s seven governors, and he is poised to pick another to replace Adriana Kugler, who announced her retirement earlier this summer. Trump has selected Stephen Miran, one of his top economic advisors, to serve out the rest of Kugler’s term, which ends Jan. 31, 2026. “We’ll have a majority very shortly,” Trump said Tuesday afternoon. “So that’ll be great.”
9. India’s exports to the U.S. face a steep 50% tariff as Trump’s additional 25% levy on shipments come into effect.
India’s exports to the U.S. will invite a steep 50% tariff from Wednesday, as U.S. President Donald Trump’s additional 25% levies on New Delhi over its Russian oil purchases take effect. India counts the U.S. as its single largest export partner. Its total goods’ exports reached about $434 billion in the year ended March 2025, and nearly 20%, or $86.51 billion worth of goods were shipped to the U.S., according to the latest official data. India’s major exports to the U.S. are engineering and electronic goods, drugs and pharmaceuticals, gems and jewellery, according to the government data. Engineering goods, including products like auto parts, power equipment and industrial machinery, have been India’s biggest exports to the U.S. and globally, hitting nearly $117 billion in the year ended March. India’s total exports jumped 1.92% in June, in part driven by the rise in engineering goods, which rose 1.35% to $9.5 billion.
10. Trump Pentagon weighing equity stakes in defence contractors like Lockheed, says Lutnick
Top officials at the Pentagon are “thinking about” whether the U.S. should acquire equity stakes in leading defence contractors such as Lockheed Martin, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said Tuesday. Lutnick was asked if the Trump administration would repeat that move with other companies that do business with the government. “Oh, there’s a monstrous discussion about defence,” Lutnick replied. Lockheed, which makes most of its revenue from federal contracts, is “basically an arm of the U.S. government,” he said. “But what’s the economics of that? I’m going to leave that to my secretary of Defence and the deputy secretary of Defence.” “These guys are on it and they’re thinking about it,” he said. Lutnick added that President Donald Trump is rethinking how the U.S. ought to finance its munitions and other defence capabilities. “I tell you, the way it has been done has been a giveaway,” Lutnick claimed.
11. MongoDB jumps over 30% after Q2 and guidance beat
MongoDB shares jumped more than 30% in extended trading after the company beat Wall Street expectations for second-quarter results and issued third-quarter and full-year guidance above analyst estimates as well. “MongoDB delivered strong second quarter results across the board, highlighted by Atlas revenue growth accelerating to 29%,” said Dev Ittycheria CEO. “We also delivered meaningful margin outperformance as we executed on our plan to drive profitable growth. Reflecting this strength, we are raising our guidance on the top and bottom line for the rest of the year”. It posted revenue of $591.4 million comfortably beating expectations of $553.94 million.
12. Apple to hold fall event on September 9, new iPhones expected
Apple will host its annual fall event on September 9, according to an invite on Tuesday, where the company is expected to unveil new iPhones, watches and other devices. The event will be held at the Steve Jobs Theatre at Apple’s headquarters in Cupertino, California and serve as a showcase of the company’s efforts to integrate artificial intelligence into its devices. It will be closely watched by investors worried about the company ceding ground to faster-moving rivals in the race to deploy AI technology. Media reports have said Apple will also unveil a slimmer version of its latest iPhone, possibly branded as the iPhone Air, echoing its iPad Air and MacBook Air lines.
13. Broadcom stock rises as VMware Cloud Foundation becomes AI-native
Broadcom Inc stock ticked up 1.3% Tuesday after the company announced that VMware Private AI Services will become a standard component of VMware Cloud Foundation 9.0, making the platform AI-native. The company revealed that nine of the top 10 Fortune 500 companies have committed to VCF, with customers worldwide licensing more than 100 million cores. VCF 9.0 is now generally available, with VMware Private AI Services entitlement expected to be available in Broadcom’s first quarter of fiscal year 2026. The AI services include GPU Monitoring, Model Store, Model Runtime, Agent Builder, Vector Database, and Data Indexing/Retrieval capabilities. Broadcom is also developing additional AI innovations, including Intelligent Assist for VCF, an AI-driven support assistant currently in technical preview.
14. AT&T stock rises as company acquires EchoStar spectrum for $23 billion
AT&T stock rose after announcing plans to acquire spectrum licenses from EchoStar for approximately $23 billion in cash, while EchoStar shares soared 80% Tuesday morning on the news. The deal will add an average of approximately 50 MHz of low-band and mid-band spectrum to AT&T’s holdings, covering over 400 markets across the U.S. Specifically, AT&T will acquire about 30 MHz of nationwide 3.45 GHz mid-band spectrum and 20 MHz of nationwide 600 MHz low-band spectrum. AT&T intends to begin deploying the mid-band licenses as soon as possible to enhance its 5G network capabilities. The transaction is expected to close in mid-2026, subject to regulatory approvals. As part of the agreement, AT&T and EchoStar will enhance their long-term wholesale network services agreement, allowing EchoStar to operate as a hybrid mobile network operator providing wireless service under the Boost Mobile brand, with AT&T serving as the primary network partner.
15. Boeing Defence puts talks with striking machinists on hold, union says
Boeing Defence has put contract negotiations with the striking machinist’s union on hold and has no plans to return to the table until after the Labor Day holiday, union officials said. Roughly 3,200 members of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers’ District 837 went on strike at Boeing Defense’s St. Louis-area facilities after rejecting the company’s four-year contract offer. They assemble Boeing’s F-15 and F/A-18 fighters, the T-7 trainer jet, munitions, and wing sections for the company’s commercial 777X jet. The congressional Labor Caucus urged Boeing to resume talks, adding that “Boeing workers are the backbone of the company, and it’s time for them to receive the strong contract that they deserve.”
