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China has unveiled an ambitious plan to relieve public debt, aiming to turn local governments away from belt-tightening practices that have exacerbated a domestic downturn.Policymakers gathered in Beijing this past week approved a proposal to swap six trillion yuan ($840 billion) of hidden debt belonging to local governments for official loans with more favourable terms.Hidden debts are defined as borrowing for which a government is liable, but not disclosed to its citizens or to other creditors.Here are some of the key points behind China’s massive debt shakeup:- Where is the debt hiding? -Much of local governments’ hidden debt in the past two decades was accumulated through state-owned companies known as local government financing vehicles (LGFVs).While the provincial and regional authorities themselves faced restraints on their own borrowing, LGFVs were less regulated and used for taking out loans and issuing bonds in order to finance infrastructure projects.But local governments today are running out of infrastructure needs to meet, which means that newer projects, like extra bridges and conference centres, tend to make less money back as there is little demand for them.And with the national real estate market crashing and hurting government land-sale revenues, LGFVs risk defaulting.China’s local governments had an estimated 60.4 trillion yuan ($8.4 trillion) of debt hidden in LGFVs as of 2023, according to the International Monetary Fund.- Why does hidden debt matter? -Burdened by debt, local authorities have in recent years turned to cost-saving measures like cutting civil servant salaries and pensions, suspending transport services and aggressively collecting fines and fees from businesses.According to the Chinese financial publication Caixin, local governments in the Guangxi, Shaanxi and Sichuan regions saw a significant increase in fines collected in the first half of 2022.And the central government in Beijing this year warned localities not to raise revenue through fines, after a county in northern Hebei province was found in January to have forged signatures on nearly 2,000 traffic violation tickets.The penny-pinching has hurt business and consumer confidence, while local government creditors and infrastructure contractors remain unpaid.- What is China doing to fix this? -The debt swap plan announced Friday will raise the local government debt ceiling every year from 2024 to 2026, with a total of $558 billion of hidden debt that can be replaced.Meanwhile, $112 billion “will be arranged from new local government special bonds every year for five consecutive years to supplement government financial resources”, Finance Minister Lan Fo’an told reporters on Friday.The scale of the plan exceeded expectations, but analysts at Goldman Sachs warned on Friday that its impact would be small unless “the majority of the proceeds are used to pay corporate arrears and delayed civil servant salaries”.If used correctly, the new measures could “free up fiscal resources and allow local governments to function more normally”, Societe Generale analysts wrote.This is not the first time China’s central government has tried to rein in local debt.In 2015, Beijing rolled out a debt-for-bonds programme that encouraged local governments to exchange loans for lower-interest bonds.This was followed over the years by a slew of debt-tackling measures including specific bonds intended to help refinance existing projects.The new debt plan is part of a raft of policies unveiled by officials since September, all aimed at lifting the country from a prolonged downturn.Beijing has eased home purchasing restrictions and cut interest rates to boost economic activity, but analysts have called for more detailed stimulus measures.

Donald Trump’s first White House term saw a bruising trade war with China that left a lingering impact on farmers — and many are bracing for further fallout as the President-elect threatens higher levies on Beijing.Trump tariffs since 2018 hit some $300 billion of Chinese imports, sparking retaliation that targeted key farm products like soybeans and caused such exports to fall.US farmers relied on subsidies to get by at the time and say China has since reduced its reliance on American agriculture products.Trump has suggested tariffs on all imports this time — with an especially high rate on China — making many farm owners jittery of a return to trade tensions.But this comes even as Trump’s Republican party saw wide support in rural areas during this year’s election, with many farmers supporting him despite the financial hit in the trade war. The hope is for economic conditions to improve.- ‘No money’ -“There was no money to pay the bills, no money to actually have a living out of the operation,” said Ted Winter, whose farm in Minnesota grows corn and soybeans.Retaliatory tariffs on the United States caused more than $27 billion in US agricultural export losses from mid-2018 to late-2019, the Department of Agriculture (USDA) found.China accounted for around 95 percent of value lost.Soybeans in particular made up nearly 71 percent of total trade loss, with Brazil gaining most of the lost trade.Michael Slattery, who grows crops like corn, soybeans and wheat in Wisconsin, added: “I view this second term with tremendous trepidation.”Between 2017 and 2018 for example, his soybean income fell by over $25,000 — and government payouts to alleviate the pain made up for just over half the shortfall.The USDA estimates agriculture and related industries contributed a 5.6 percent share to GDP in 2023, while direct on-farm employment made up 2.6 million jobs as of recent years.- Lasting hit -“What is more frightening is the breakdown in commercial order that has taken decades to establish,” Slattery said.While US farm exports to China rebounded after Washington and Beijing reached a trade war truce in 2020, a year after the deal, American market share remained lower than levels seen before the retaliatory tariffs were enacted.”The tariffs that were imposed upon China drove them to find other sources for their food needs,” said Winter.And without foreign buyers like China to absorb excess farm production, the market becomes oversaturated, in turn driving down prices and farmer incomes, said Slattery.Federal payments may have been helpful to farmers during the trade war, but trade ramifications extended long beyond it, said Scott Gerlt, chief economist at the American Soybean Association (ASA).- ‘Prime targets’ -Soybeans and corn will again be “prime targets for tariffs” in a potential trade dispute, according to a National Corn Growers Association and ASA report last month.Both commodities account for about one-fourth of the country’s agriculture export value.The report cautioned that many tariffs China imposed on US farm products have been given a waiver but could be reinstated — triggering an average drop of 51.8 percent in US soybean exports from expected levels.Similarly, corn exports to China would also slide.Brazil and Argentina, meanwhile, are expected to gain global market share with higher exports.If the United States was not a reliable trade partner, other nations would turn to other countries, said ASA’s Gerlt.”We saw some other buyers step in to some extent, like Egypt did for a while, but there is no replacing the size of the Chinese market,” he told AFP.Among tariff proposals Trump floated on the campaign trail, he warned that the United States should be careful with trade policy, especially when it comes to countries that are major buyers of US agriculture.

On Indonesia’s beach-fringed resort island of Bali, fed-up locals want to slow the mass tourism that is their biggest money earner — hoping a plan to freeze hotel-building can restore some calm.Anxious about runaway tourism, many Balinese yearn for a more tranquil yesteryear, much like residents in European hotspots Barcelona, Palma de Mallorca or Venice.In response, Indonesian authorities recently announced plans — yet to be confirmed by the new government — for a two-year moratorium on building hotels, villas and nightclubs. Before foreign surfers discovered its waves decades ago, Canggu was a quiet, southern Balinese beachside village perched on the Indian Ocean and dotted with rice paddy fields.Now, it bristles with hotels and lodgings, its streets clogged with cars, scooters and trucks. Locals like 23-year-old Kadek Candrawati fear the environment is taking second place.”Canggu is now busier… its tranquillity and greenery are gradually disappearing,” said Kadek, who owns a motorcycle rental service that earns her seven million rupiah ($453) monthly.”The government and the community need to work together to ensure that Bali stays green, sustainable, and the local culture is preserved,” she told AFP.”I hope that Bali’s tourism can continue to grow, while maintaining a balance between development and the environment.”- ‘New Singapore’ -Bali’s lush canvas of rainforests, paddies and surf beaches that host luxury resorts and backpacker haunts has kept tourists coming back.When tourism numbers slumped during the Covid pandemic, the authorities tried to coax foreigners back into Bali with digital-nomad and golden-investor visas.No such incentives are needed now.Bali attracted nearly three million foreign visitors in just the first six months of this year — mostly from Australia, China and India, official figures show.Foreign tourists spent an average of $1,625 per visit last year, up from $1,145 in 2019 before the Covid-19 pandemic, Indonesia’s statistics agency said.It is far from certain that Indonesia’s newly inaugurated President Prabowo Subianto wants to curb that income.The previous government had promised both a tourism-related construction freeze and a light rail system to ease traffic in Bali.But Prabowo — yet to comment on the plans — has raised doubts that he wants to arrest Bali’s development.Meeting island officials recently, he pledged a second international airport to turn Bali into “the new Singapore, the new Hong Kong… an economic centre”.Indonesian environmental group Walhi says the boom in tourism accommodation has already gone too far.”Bali is now overbuilt, with green spaces turning into structures,” said executive director Made Krisna Dinata. “The proposed moratorium should become a regulation that not only pauses development but also protects lands.”The damage to Bali’s natural beauty is visible to the eye. A wave of plastic trash has swamped normally pristine beaches, while groundwater over-extraction has dried up more than half its rivers.Over-tourism has also put pressure on a UNESCO-listed irrigation system that feeds the island’s rice paddies, with greenlands that collect water increasingly built upon.- ‘Dirty seawater’ -Local concerns have been fed by viral videos showing excavations of limestone cliffs for construction in southern Bali, with chunks of land tumbling into the ocean.”Many surf coaches have lost their livelihoods because guests are unwilling to surf due to the dirty seawater,” said 42-year-old surfer Piter Panjaitan in nearby Ungasan.Misbehaving tourists have also sparked local ire, notably over foreigners posing naked at sacred sites.”There are a lot of problems with guests who come here,” said Piter.Jakarta says the building freeze plan aims to balance economic gain from tourism with preserving Bali’s natural beauty.The head of Bali’s tourism agency Tjok Bagus Pemayun said a moratorium would spread tourism development away from southern Bali, where it is now heavily focused.But not everyone is in favour of the proposed halt to construction.Bali’s hotel and restaurant association vice-chairman, I Gusti Ngurah Rai Suryawijaya, called for a deeper study before any moratorium that could hurt tourism-reliant locals. “When there’s oversupply, a moratorium is acceptable to prevent competition. But now, demand is actually increasing,” he said.”Our occupancy rates have reached 80 to 90 percent.”

Farmer Liu Bingyong used to make a tidy profit selling milk but is now leaking cash — the victim of a dairy sector crisis that embodies several of China’s economic woes.Milk is not a traditional mainstay of Chinese diets, but the government has long pushed people to drink more, citing its health benefits.The country has expanded dairy production capacity and imported vast numbers of cattle in recent years as Beijing pursues food self-sufficiency.But chronically low consumption has left the market sloshing with unwanted milk — driving down prices and pushing farmers to the brink — while a baby bust threatens to cloud its future prospects.”The current state of China’s dairy industry has been long in the making,” said Liu, a veteran farmer in the eastern province of Shandong.”We always knew things were going to get worse if the industry didn’t adjust,” he told AFP.A few years ago, Liu typically skimmed a profit of about 5,000 yuan ($700) per day from his yield.But since last year, purchase prices have plummeted so low that he has been making losses.His business has been shedding up to 10,000 yuan a day during the worst times, and even now is “still not profitable”, he said. “There’s no way out of it. It’s become normal for farmers to slaughter their cows.”- ‘Too many cows’ -Liu is not alone in feeling the pinch, with farmers across China’s northern dairy belt telling AFP they had been in the red for months.They said many had been dumping milk, converting it into powder, selling or even culling animals to balance the books.”There are just too many cows,” said a farmer surnamed Wu in the northeastern province of Liaoning.Yifan Li, the head of Asia dairy at StoneX, a commodity financial services firm, traced the issue to the mass import of calves from 2019.Those animals reached maturity by 2022, when mass Covid lockdowns in Chinese cities strangled normal supply lines.The curbs were lifted at the end of that year, but persistently listless consumption has left the dairy industry oversupplied, Li said.”Chinese consumption is coming back, but consumers prefer to spend on experiences… (and not) on premium products anymore,” he told AFP.Official figures show China’s milk production rose 6.3 percent last year from 2022.But purchase prices for raw milk have been generally declining and last year fell below the average production cost of 3.8 yuan per kilogram.Wu, the farmer in Liaoning, said farmers in his community had been selling surplus cattle for beef.But that sector, too, is oversupplied. “We’re selling them off, but everything just gets cheaper and cheaper,” he told AFP.- Forgotten luxury -Up to 300,000 animals may have to be culled to ease overcapacity, a top dairy industry association official said in July, according to domestic media reports.The agriculture ministry has urged more support for the sector, though farmers interviewed by AFP said they had received little help so far.It is a setback for an industry symbolic of China’s decades-long economic rise, bringing once-scarce dairy products into the lives of increasingly affluent, cosmopolitan and health-conscious people.The sector grew rapidly through the 1990s but a major food safety crisis in 2008 — when tainted milk powder sickened 300,000 children and was linked to the deaths of six babies — crashed consumer confidence and prompted an industry consolidation.The average Chinese person still only consumes around a third of the national recommended amount of dairy per year, official figures show.And beyond the economic slowdown, the country’s chronically low birth rate adds uncertainty to the industry’s prospects.”The birth rate definitely has some influence (on demand), but not a huge direct impact,” said Li of StoneX.But, he said, the sector’s recovery would turn on convincing consumers to return to products seen as more of a luxury compared with their status as a kitchen staple in the West.”It’s like some consumers have forgotten about it. It doesn’t (feature) on their priority list,” Li told AFP.

Wall Street stocks closed at fresh records Friday, extending a post-election rally while European equities pulled back as investors weighed the impact of Donald Trump’s presidential election win.All three major US indices pushed to records, with the S&P 500 ending up around 4.7 percent for the week.”We’re in this honeymoon period between Election Day and Inauguration Day, which we saw in previous election cycles,” said Jack Ablin, chief investment officer at Cresset Capital Management.Ablin thinks the strength in US equities could extend through the rest of 2024, but cautioned that worries about overvaluation will grow if the market keeps rising.But Europe’s main stock markets closed in the red, with Frankfurt also digesting the collapse of the German government coalition and Paris hit by falling luxury shares.”It has been an eventful week in the markets and markets are still continuing to digest what Trump’s big victory means for the dollar and other risk assets,” said City Index and Forex.com analyst Fawad Razaqzada.Analysts say US president-elect Donald Trump’s planned tax cuts and import tariffs could rekindle inflation in the United States and beyond, which could in turn see the Federal Reserve scale back on interest-rate cuts.”(Fed) news which ordinarily would have drawn a lot of the market’s focus has been pushed down the agenda as attention is turned to the implications of Donald Trump’s return to the White House,” noted Russ Mould, investment director at AJ Bell trading group.Chinese stocks ended lower ahead of fresh announcements aimed at stimulating China’s struggling economy.China unveiled some of its most ambitious plans in years to lift local government debt following a meeting of lawmakers eyeing the possibility of intensified trade tensions with Trump.Chinese media said officials in Beijing would raise the debt ceiling for local governments by $840 billion.”The market reaction shows that traders do not see these measures as boosting consumption, and instead they are designed to stop a financial crisis domestically in China,” concluded Kathleen Brooks, research director at traders XTB. It came amid uncertainty about the outlook for China after the election of Trump, who warned during his campaign that he would hit imports from the country with huge tariffs of up to 60 percent.”On balance, it is likely that Trump’s electoral victory presents additional downward pressure to China’s growth in the next few years (depending on various policy responses in both the US and China),” said National Australia Bank’s Gerard Burg.China’s economic slowdown has hit sales at luxury companies, with Cartier owner Richemont posting a big drop in profit on Friday.Its shares fell 6.6 percent on the Swiss stock exchange while Gucci owner Kering dropped almost eight percent and LVMH, the world’s biggest luxury company, shed 3.3 percent in Paris.- Key figures around 2230 GMT -New York – Dow: UP 0.6 percent at 43,988.99 (close)New York – S&P 500: UP 0.4 percent at 5,995.54 (close)New York – Nasdaq: UP 0.1 percent at 19,286.78 (close)London – FTSE 100: DOWN 0.8 percent at 8,072.39 (close)Paris – CAC 40: DOWN 1.2 percent at 7,338.67 (close)Frankfurt – DAX: DOWN 0.8 percent at 19,215.48 (close)Tokyo – Nikkei 225: UP 0.3 percent at 39,500.37 (close)Hong Kong – Hang Seng Index: DOWN 1.1 percent at 20,728.19 (close)Shanghai – Composite: DOWN 0.5 percent at 3,452.30 (close)Euro/dollar: DOWN at $1.0724 from $1.0805 on ThursdayPound/dollar: DOWN at $1.2921 from $1.2987Dollar/yen: DOWN at 152.62 yen from 152.94 yenEuro/pound: UP at 82.95 pence from 83.19 penceWest Texas Intermediate: DOWN 2.7 percent at $70.38  per barrelBrent North Sea Crude: DOWN 2.3 percent at $73.87 per barrel

Wall Street shares mostly rose but global stock markets fell on Friday following rallies this week as investors weighed the impact of Donald Trump’s presidential election win and efforts to prop up China’s economy.The Dow and S&P 500 were up in morning deals but the tech-heavy Nasdaq was flat following fresh records the previous days after the Fed trimmed US borrowing costs by 25 basis points.The dollar gained against other major currencies.But Europe’s main stock markets were in the red in afternoon deals, with Frankfurt also digesting the collapse of the German government coalition and Paris hit by falling luxury shares.There is unease that US president-elect Donald Trump’s planned tax cuts and import tariffs will rekindle inflation in the United States and beyond, which could in turn see the Federal Reserve scale back on interest-rate cuts.”(Fed) news which ordinarily would have drawn a lot of the market’s focus has been pushed down the agenda as attention is turned to the implications of Donald Trump’s return to the White House,” noted Russ Mould, investment director at AJ Bell trading group.Chinese stocks ended lower ahead of fresh announcements aimed at stimulating China’s struggling economy.China unveiled some of its most ambitious plans in years to lift local government debt following a meeting of lawmakers eyeing the possibility of intensified trade tensions with Trump.Chinese media said officials in Beijing would raise the debt ceiling for local governments by $840 billion.”The market reaction shows that traders do not see these measures as boosting consumption, and instead they are designed to stop a financial crisis domestically in China,” concluded Kathleen Brooks, research director at traders XTB. China broadcaster CCTV described the move as the country’s “most powerful debt reduction measure in recent years”, adding it would free “up space for local governments to better develop the economy and protect people’s livelihood”.It came amid uncertainty about the outlook for China after the election of Trump, who warned during his campaign that he would hit imports from the country with huge tariffs of up to 60 percent.”On balance, it is likely that Trump’s electoral victory presents additional downward pressure to China’s growth in the next few years (depending on various policy responses in both the US and China),” said National Australia Bank’s Gerard Burg.China’s economic slowdown has hit sales at luxury companies, with Cartier owner Richemont posting a big drop in profit on Friday.Its shares fell more than five percent on the Swiss stock exchange while Gucci owner Kering and LVMH, the world’s biggest luxury company, were also in the red in Paris.- Key figures around 1545 GMT -New York – Dow: UP 0.3 percent at 43.854.02 pointsNew York – S&P 500: UP 0.2 percent at 5,986.05New York – Nasdaq: FLAT at 19,276.04London – FTSE 100: DOWN 0.8 percent at 8,078.56 Paris – CAC 40: DOWN 1.1 percent at 7,341.68Frankfurt – DAX: DOWN 0.9 percent at 19,190.89Tokyo – Nikkei 225: UP 0.3 percent at 39,500.37 (close)Hong Kong – Hang Seng Index: DOWN 1.1 percent at 20,728.19 (close)Shanghai – Composite: DOWN 0.5 percent at 3,452.30 (close)Euro/dollar: DOWN at $1.0753 from $1.0801 on ThursdayPound/dollar: DOWN at $1.2937 from $1.2985Dollar/yen: DOWN at 152.71 yen from 152.92 yenEuro/pound: UP at 83.11 pence from 83.18 penceWest Texas Intermediate: DOWN 1.9 percent at $71.01 per barrelBrent North Sea Crude: DOWN 1.6 percent at $74.46 per barrel

Cartier owner Richemont posted Friday a hefty drop in net profit for the first half of the year as watch sales sank in China, where weak consumer spending has hit the luxury sector.Richemont said its profit after tax reached 457 million euros ($492 million), down from 1.5 billion euros in the same six-month period last year as it booked a 1.2-billion-euro write-down from the sale of its Yoox-Net-A-Porter online fashion business.Its net profit for continuing operations was 1.7 billion euros ($1.8 billion) in the six-month period ending in September, 20 percent lower than in 2023 and less than expected by analysts polled by Swiss news agency AWP.Global sales fell one percent to 10.1 billion euros.Sales from the Asia-Pacific region were down by almost a fifth while all other regions in the world posted “solid growth”, Richemont said in a results statement.Citing “reduced consumer spending” in China, Richemont said growth in other Asian countries was “more than offset” by a double-digit drop in sales in the world’s second biggest economy.”The global watch market is experiencing a slowdown, particularly in China, which is affecting all watchmaking brands globally, with the high-end segments showing greater resilience,” Richemont chairman Johann Rupert said in the statement.He said Chinese demand “will take longer to recover”.Last month, French group LVMH, the world’s biggest luxury company whose brands include Louis Vuitton, Dior and Bulgari, reported a 4.4 percent drop in third-quarter sales.Gucci owner Kering said its sales sank 15 percent in the same quarter due to slowing consumer spending in China.Richemont’s stock price fell more than four percent in the Swiss stock exchange.”There is a slowdown in China that we are experiencing like our competitors,” Richemont chief executive Nicolas Bos said in a conference call.”We have no clue on how long it will last and whether we’ve reached the bottom or not,” he said.

China on Friday unveiled some of its most ambitious plans in years to lift local government debt, following a meeting of lawmakers eyeing the possibility of intensified trade tensions with US president-elect Donald Trump.Local governments in China face a ballooning debt burden of $5.6 trillion, according to Beijing, raising worries about wider economic stability. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) put the figure at $8.4 trillion last year.Policymakers who gathered in Beijing this week voted to swap hidden debts — defined as borrowing for which a government is liable, but which is not disclosed to its citizens or to other creditors.The local government debt limit will be raised by six trillion yuan ($840 billion) which will be used to replace existing hidden debts, freeing up space for local governments to better develop the economy and protect people’s livelihood, state broadcaster CCTV said.The move was taken after “fully considering the international and domestic development environment, ensuring the smooth operation of the economy and finance,” finance minister Lan Fo’an told a press conference in Beijing.”Since the beginning of this year, some new situations and problems have arisen in economic operations,” he admitted.- ‘Cheaper debt ‘ -The debt ceiling will be raised every year from 2024 to 2026, with a total of $558 billion of hidden debt that can be replaced, Lan explained.And $112 billion “will be arranged from new local government special bonds every year for five consecutive years to supplement government financial resources”, he added.Lawmakers also approved a new energy law to promote carbon neutrality, as Beijing moves ahead with its pledge to decarbonise its economy by 2060.Zhiwei Zhang, the chief economist at Pinpoint Asset Management said the debt swap “is an important policy measure which helps local government to alleviate their debt burden”. But the programme was unlikely to be enough to “greatly release spending power of local governments”, Rhodium Group’s Allen Feng warned.”The debt is not gone,” he told AFP. “It’s cheaper and easier to roll over… but it’s not a gamechanger.”- Taking stock of Trump -Officials were this week keeping close tabs on the US vote as they gathered in the Chinese capital for a meeting of the country’s top lawmaking body.Trump has promised punishing tariffs on Chinese goods that threaten further grief for the world’s second-largest economy, which is already grappling with a prolonged housing crisis and sluggish consumption.Observers say Beijing could seek to cushion that blow with a long-awaited “bazooka stimulus” for the economy.This week’s meeting, originally scheduled for late October, was likely pushed back to allow “policymakers a chance to address a possible Trump win”, Lynn Song, chief economist for Greater China at ING, said.”In our view, the odds for a larger policy support package will rise somewhat with a Trump victory,” he added.Trump’s victory is “not necessarily bad for China as this may ‘pressure’ Beijing for a bigger stimulus”, Qi Wang, CIO of UOB Kay Hian Wealth Management, said on X.Beijing began to unveil a raft of measures in September aimed at boosting economic activity, including rate cuts and the easing of some home purchasing restrictions, but analysts have bemoaned the lack of detail so far.- ‘Turning point’ -Trump’s re-election provides a need for greater urgency, experts say, though caution may still prevail as officials try to avoid piling on more government debt.”Any potential stimulus size may be bigger, but so is the pressure,” Gary Ng, senior economist at Natixis, said.”The market may still not get the economic boosters it wants,” he warned.In Beijing on Friday, workers expressed cautious optimism about the future of the economy.Han Xi, a 32-year-old man from Shanxi province in northern China, began a new auditing job in Beijing this week after resigning from his previous company in April.”I have sent out resumes during this period, but you can see it takes more than half a year to get a new job,” Han told AFP, adding that “many companies are laying off employees right now”.”Even though we’re still in a downturn cycle, I think we are close to the turning point, though we haven’t quite reached it yet.”

European and Asian stock markets mostly retreated Friday as US and China policy updates cause concern about growth outlooks in the world’s two biggest economies.There is unease that US president-elect Donald Trump’s planned tax cuts and import tariffs will rekindle inflation in the United States and beyond, which could in turn see the Federal Reserve scale back on interest-rate cuts.Europe’s main stock markets lost almost one percent around midday, despite Wall Street striking fresh record highs Thursday after the Fed trimmed US borrowing costs by 25 basis points.The dollar traded mixed against main rivals Friday.”(Fed) news which ordinarily would have drawn a lot of the market’s focus has been pushed down the agenda as attention is turned to the implications of Donald Trump’s return to the White House,” noted Russ Mould, investment director at AJ Bell trading group.Chinese stocks ended lower Friday ahead of fresh announcements aimed at stimulating China’s struggling economy.China unveiled some of its most ambitious plans in years to lift local government debt following a meeting of lawmakers eyeing the possibility of intensified trade tensions with Trump.Chinese media said officials in Beijing would raise the debt ceiling for local governments by $840 billion.”The market reaction shows that traders do not see these measures as boosting consumption, and instead they are designed to stop a financial crisis domestically in China,” concluded Kathleen Brooks, research director at traders XTB. China broadcaster CCTV described the move as the country’s “most powerful debt reduction measure in recent years”, adding it would free “up space for local governments to better develop the economy and protect people’s livelihood”.It came amid uncertainty about the outlook for China after the election of Trump, who warned during his campaign that he would hit imports from the country with huge tariffs of up to 60 percent.”On balance, it is likely that Trump’s electoral victory presents additional downward pressure to China’s growth in the next few years (depending on various policy responses in both the US and China),” said National Australia Bank’s Gerard Burg.- Key figures around 1130 GMT -London – FTSE 100: DOWN 0.9 percent at 8,064.58 pointsParis – CAC 40: DOWN 0.9 percent at 7,356.75Frankfurt – DAX: DOWN 0.9 percent at 19,193.31Tokyo – Nikkei 225: UP 0.3 percent at 39,500.37 (close)Hong Kong – Hang Seng Index: DOWN 1.1 percent at 20,728.19 (close)Shanghai – Composite: DOWN 0.5 percent at 3,452.30 (close)New York – Dow: FLAT at 43,729.34 (close)Euro/dollar: DOWN at $1.0795 from $1.0801 on ThursdayPound/dollar: DOWN at $1.2973 from $1.2985Dollar/yen: DOWN at 152.31 yen from 152.92 yenEuro/pound: UP at 83.20 pence from 83.18 penceWest Texas Intermediate: DOWN 1.1 percent at $71.56 per barrelBrent North Sea Crude: DOWN 0.9 percent at $74.95 per barrel

Sony’s net profit jumped in the second quarter thanks to stronger sales in gaming, music and imaging sensors, the PlayStation maker said Friday as it left its annual profit forecasts unchanged.The yen’s weakness against the dollar and euro had a positive impact on takings in those key sectors, the Japanese conglomerate said.However, Sony Pictures suffered from “lower series deliveries” for television, “in part due to production delays related to the strikes in Hollywood”.Sony’s earnings release comes a day after its PlayStation 5 Pro console hit shelves, with a price tag that has raised eyebrows among gamers.In Europe the device costs an eye-watering 799.99 euros ($860) — 250 euros higher than the older version — and almost 120,000 yen ($780) in Sony’s home market of Japan.Sony president Hiroki Totoki told reporters that while “various people have made various comments” about the price, it has not had a negative impact on sales.For July-September, Sony logged net profit of 338.5 billion yen ($2.2 billion), up 69 percent from 200.1 billion yen in the same period a year ago.It still forecasts a full-year net profit of 980 billion yen.The company also maintained its operating profit outlook, but revised its sales forecast upwards slightly.The company said Friday that an increase in sales for imaging sensors — used in phone cameras — as well as the “positive impact of foreign exchange rates” contributed to growth in the operating profit for that segment.The yen hit a four-decade low against the dollar in July, having plunged in value since early 2022.Reforms to Sony’s gaming business, including in cost reduction and sales marketing, “brought a relatively good result for this period”, Totoki said on Friday.Music streaming is also a money-spinner for Sony, which has an impressive back catalogue and whose current roster includes top artists such as Beyonce and Lil Nas X.According to recent reports in Variety and the Financial Times, citing sources, British rockers Pink Floyd have agreed to sell their recorded music and name-and-likeness rights to Sony Music for around $400 million.Acquiring back catalogues “shows our commitment to artists” and “is expected to have a positive impact on our music business”, Totoki said without giving details.When asked about Donald Trump’s victory in this week’s US presidential election, Totoki said Sony was considering, in a broad sense, how best to deal with any new tariffs that could be imposed.”Our position is that we respect the US citizens’ choice, and as I’m not a geopolitics specialist, I’ll let those specialists give their analysis,” he said.But “the impact the US economy has on the global economy and on geopolitics is extremely big, and that in turn would have impact on our business”.”So we’ll squarely observe the facts, make forecasts, and do whatever we can.”