Struggling Japanese auto giant Nissan issued a stark profit warning on Thursday, forecasting a huge loss of up to $5.3 billion in the 2024-25 financial year.One of the top 10 automakers by unit sales, Nissan is heavily in debt, having trouble selling vehicles in the Chinese market, and like its peers faces a potential body blow from US President Donald Trump’s vehicle tariffs.”We are taking the prudent step to revise our full-year outlook, reflecting a thorough review of our performance and the carrying value of production assets,” chief executive Ivan Espinosa said in a statement.”We now anticipate a significant net loss for the year, due primarily to a major asset impairment and restructuring costs as we continue to stabilise the company,” he said.”Despite these challenges, we have significant financial resources, a strong product pipeline and the determination to turnaround Nissan in the coming period.”Nissan — which will announce its earnings in mid-May for the 2024-25 financial year that ended on March 31 — said it expects to report a full-year net loss of 700-750 billion yen ($4.9 billion-$5.3 billion).In February, the company had projected a much smaller annual net loss of 80 billion yen ($560 million).Nissan has lurched from crisis to crisis in recent years as it was hit by the arrest of former boss Carlos Ghosn, the Covid pandemic and the Ukraine war.Last year, it announced 9,000 job cuts worldwide as it reported a 93 percent plunge in first-half net profit.Then merger talks with its rival Honda — seen as a bid to catch up with Tesla and Chinese electric vehicle firms — collapsed in February.Those discussions unravelled after Honda proposed to make its struggling competitor a subsidiary instead of a previously announced plan to integrate under a new holding company.- Junk rating -Nissan’s shares have shed more than 40 percent of their value over the past year, and in March, the company’s then-CEO Makoto Uchida said he was stepping down.Meanwhile ratings agencies have cut Nissan’s credit rating to junk, with Moody’s citing “weak profitability driven by slowing demand for its ageing model portfolio”.This financial year has not proved any easier so far — since April, the United States has imposed a 25-percent surcharge on all imported vehicles.Bloomberg Intelligence analyst Tatsuo Yoshida told AFP ahead of Thursday’s profit warning that Nissan would be the most severely impacted by the US tariffs of all major Japanese automakers, calling the impact “huge”.Last year, Nissan generated 30 percent of its revenues in the United States, selling 924,000 vehicles there, 45 percent of them imported from Japan and Mexico.The company could try to sell more cars in other regions, such as Southeast Asia, but Yoshida warned that “if this situation goes on forever, it can be a death blow for Nissan, in a sense that it will run out of cash and default”.But if this happens, he expects a financial partner to come to the rescue, either Honda or a technology firm like Apple.In February, Nissan shares briefly surged on a reported push to bring Elon Musk’s Tesla on as an investor.Reports in December said Taiwan’s Foxconn, which assembles iPhones and wants to move into cars, had approached Nissan to buy a majority stake.It then reportedly asked Renault to sell its 35 percent stake in Nissan, the legacy of a bumpy alliance with the French group dating back to 1999.

Stock markets were mostly lower on Thursday as China poured cold water on US President Donald Trump’s comments talking up the prospects of a deal to end their trade war.It follows a rally in markets the previous day as Trump signalled that tariffs on China could be substantially lowered and that United States would have a “fair deal” on trade with Beijing.But China on Thursday said any claims of ongoing trade talks with Washington were “groundless”.Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent also tempered optimism saying that the two countries are “not yet” talking when it comes to lowering tariffs.”The investing world is back to hanging onto every word out of the White House, but with such a confusing and often contradictory stance on tariffs, volatility is all we can really guarantee,” said Matt Britzman, senior equity analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown.European equities fell on Thursday, with investors also looking to a series of company results for signs of how tariffs may weigh on the outlook for the year ahead.”Comments about tariffs from business leaders are omnipresent and investors want to know how companies plan to deal with potential cost pressures,” said Russ Mould, investment director at AJ Bell.The dollar weakened as White House uncertainty boosted demand for the Swiss franc, the yen and gold, seen as safe-haven assets.In Asia, Tokyo closed 0.5 percent higher, while Shanghai ended flat and Hong Kong fell almost one percent.Bessent also said that in its talks with Japan on tariffs, Washington had “absolutely no currency targets”, after repeated comments from Trump that he wants a stronger yen.Seoul fell after official data showed South Korea’s economy unexpectedly contracted 0.1 percent in the first three months of 2025.On Wall Street, the broad-based S&P 500 finished 1.7 percent higher on Wednesday. In company news, struggling Japanese auto giant Nissan issued a stark profit warning on Thursday. Meanwhile Nintendo shares gained as much as 5.5 percent after the gaming giant boasted of higher than expected demand in Japan for pre-orders of its Switch 2 game console.  French software company Dassault Systemes dropped around seven percent in Paris after its net profit declined and it cut its 2025 annual operating margin forecast.Luxury group Kering fell around four percent in Paris after reporting a further sales slump at its flagship Gucci brand.Also in Paris, carmaker Renault gained around two percent as it announced plans to further cut costs as US tariffs shake up the global car market while reporting a slight increase in sales volumes.In Frankfurt, German sportswear giant Adidas gained around three percent as its profit almost doubled in the first quarter, beating expectations.- Key figures at 1100 GMT -London – FTSE 100: DOWN 0.1 percent at 8,399.18 pointsParis – CAC 40: DOWN 0.2 percent at 7,464.88Frankfurt – DAX: DOWN 0.3 percent at 21,907.84Tokyo – Nikkei 225: UP 0.5 percent at 35,039.15 (close)Hong Kong – Hang Seng Index: DOWN 0.7 percent 21,909.76 (close)Shanghai – Composite: FLAT at 3,297.29 (close)New York – Dow: UP 1.1 percent at 39,606.57 (close)Euro/dollar: UP at $1.1383 from $1.1317 on WednesdayPound/dollar: UP at $1.3307 from $1.3257Dollar/yen: DOWN at 142.48 from 143.49 yen  Euro/pound: UP at 85.57 from 85.34 pence West Texas Intermediate: UP 1.2 percent at $63.02 per barrelBrent North Sea Crude: UP 1.1 percent at $65.88 per barrelburs-ajb/rl