Afp Business Asia

Global stock markets largely slipped on Monday after another turbulent day of trading, with the S&P 500 briefly falling into correction territory before reversing course ahead of a wave of US tariffs this week that have fanned recession fears.On Wall Street, US stocks shook off some early gloom about President Donald Trump’s imminent tariff announcement on Wednesday — which he has dubbed “Liberation Day” — to close mixed.But despite the S&P’s revival later in the day, it wasn’t enough to save the index from posting its worst quarter since 2022, along with the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite. “I think [traders] were taking advantage of an oversold situation,” CFRA’s Sam Stovall told AFP. “They still have another day in which to sort of play around,” before Trump’s big tariff announcement, he added. Asian markets plunged, while European markets also finished lower amid the trade uncertainty.  – Tariff fears elevated -“There is an air of capitulation in financial markets ahead of the April 2 reciprocal tariff announcement from the US,” said Kathleen Brooks, research director at XTB.As it has become clear that Trump intends to go through with imposing massive tariffs on major US trading partners, concerns have grown about their inflationary impact and the possibility they may trigger a recession.Adding to investors’ fears, Trump said Sunday that tariffs would apply to “all countries”, not just those with the largest trade imbalances with the United States.His administration has still not released a detailed plan about who or what will be impacted.Underscoring the uncertainty, the CBOE Volatility Index, colloquially known as Wall Street’s “fear gauge,” spiked on Monday, before cooling down somewhat as the day progressed. – Car levy concerns -Automakers were hit particularly hard in the wake of Trump’s announcement that he would also impose 25 percent duties on imports of all vehicles and parts.In Europe, Porsche and Volkswagen both fell more than three percent. Toyota, the world’s biggest carmaker, plunged over three percent, along with Nissan and Mazda. “Within the Asia-Pacific region, the car levies will hit Japan and South Korea the hardest,” Moody’s Analytics economists wrote in a note to clients. “Such a sizeable tariff hike will undermine confidence, hit production and reduce orders,” they said. “Given the long and complex supply chains in car manufacturing, the impact will ripple through these countries’ economies,” they added. Gold, seen as a safe haven asset in times of uncertainty, hit a new record high over $3,100 an ounce.Yields fell on government bonds, including those of the United States, “reflecting ongoing safe-haven trading due to concerns about US trade policy,” said Briefing.com analyst Patrick O’Hare.Among individual companies, cloud computing company Coreweave fell 7.3 percent days after going public, closing sharply below its initial public offering price. And in Asia, CK Hutchison shed 3.1 percent in Hong Kong as a Chinese review of a multi-billion-dollar deal to offload ports operations, including those in the Panama Canal, appeared likely to lead to a delay of its Wednesday signature.- Key figures around 2100 GMT -New York – Dow: UP 1.0 percent at 42,001.76 (close)New York – S&P 500: UP 0.6 percent at 5,611.85 (close)New York – Nasdaq Composite: DOWN 0.1 percent at 17,299.29 (close)London – FTSE 100: DOWN 0.9 percent at 8,582.81 (close)Paris – CAC 40: DOWN 1.6 percent at 7,790.71 (close)Frankfurt – DAX: DOWN 1.3 percent at 22,163.49 (close)Tokyo – Nikkei 225: DOWN 4.1 percent at 35,617.56 points (close)Hong Kong – Hang Seng Index: DOWN 1.3 percent at 23,119.58 (close)Shanghai – Composite: DOWN 0.5 percent at 3,335.75 (close)Euro/dollar: DOWN at $1.0817 from $1.0838 on FridayPound/dollar: DOWN at $1.2916 from $1.2947Dollar/yen: UP at 149.94 yen from 149.72 yenEuro/pound: UP at 83.69 pence from 83.68 penceWest Texas Intermediate: UP 3.1 percent at $71.48 per barrelBrent North Sea Crude: UP 1.5 percent at $74.74 per barrelburs-da/dw

President Donald Trump again downplayed risks that TikTok is in danger of being banned in the United States, saying he remains confident of finding a buyer for the app’s US business by a Friday deadline.The hugely popular video-sharing app, which has over 170 million American users, is under threat from a law that passed overwhelmingly last year and orders TikTok to split from its Chinese owner ByteDance or face a ban in the United States.Motivated by widespread belief in Washington that TikTok is ultimately controlled by the Chinese government, the law took effect on January 19, one day before Trump’s inauguration.But the Republican president quickly announced a delay that has allowed it to continue to operate; that delay is set to expire on April 5.”We have a lot of potential buyers. There’s tremendous interest in TikTok,” Trump told reporters onboard Air Force One late Sunday.”We have a lot of people that want to buy TikTok. We’re dealing with China also on it, because they may have something to do with it,” he said, adding “I’d like to see TikTok remain alive.”Any deal to divest TikTok from ByteDance will require the approval of Beijing, and Trump has said he may offer to reduce tariffs on China as a way to get Beijing’s approval for the sale.Trump, though he supported a ban in his first term, has lately become the app’s greatest defender, seeing it as a reason more young voters supported him in November’s election.One of his major political donors, billionaire Jeff Yass, is also a major stakeholder in parent company ByteDance.- ByteDance on board? -Several proposals for TikTok’s US business have emerged since the law began to make its way through Congress last year.But according to The New York Times, citing people involved in coming up with a solution, the most likely fix would see existing US investors in ByteDance roll over their stakes into a new independent global TikTok company.Additional US investors would be brought on to reduce the proportion of Chinese investors. Trump at one point said the US government could also take a stake through a newly announced national sovereign fund.Dan Ives of Wedbush Securities told AFP that he believed cloud company Oracle would “play a major role” in such a deal and that “ByteDance will still control and own the algorithm” and have board seats.Much of TikTok’s US activity is already housed on Oracle servers, and the company’s executive chairman, Larry Ellison, is a longtime Trump ally who was also floated as a buyer of TikTok’s US activity in Trump’s first term.The arrangement would go against the spirit of the law, which is in part based on the premise that TikTok’s algorithm can be weaponized by the Chinese against US interests.But University of Richmond School of Law professor Carl Tobias said he did not expect opposition in the Republican-led Congress, or if Trump ordered another extension to the sale deadline.”Lawmakers have expressed little opposition to Trump’s actions (including ones) which federal judges have ruled violate the Constitution or congressionally-passed statutes,” he said.Other proposals include an initiative called “The People’s Bid for TikTok,” launched by real estate and sports tycoon Frank McCourt’s Project Liberty initiative.Artificial intelligence startup Perplexity recently expressed interest in buying TikTok as did a joint venture involving YouTube mega-celebrity MrBeast.When the last deadline passed, in January, TikTok temporarily shut down in the United States, to the dismay of millions of users.

Global stock markets were a sea of red Monday, with the S&P 500 falling into correction territory, ahead of a wave of US tariffs this week that have fuelled recession fears.Tokyo plunged more than four percent, leading losses across global stock markets as uncertainty over President Donald Trump’s latest tariff announcements due on his “Liberation Day” on Wednesday eroded sentiment.”There is an air of capitulation in financial markets ahead of the April 2nd reciprocal tariff announcement from the US,” said Kathleen Brooks, research director at XTB.The S&P 500 fell into correction territory — a drop of at least 10 percent from a recent peak. The S&P 500 set a record high just last month as investors still viewed Trump tariff threats as a negotiating tactic.But as it has become clear Trump intends to go through with imposing massive tariffs on major US trading partners, concerns about their inflationary impact and the possibility they may trigger a recession have mounted.Adding to fears, Trump said Sunday that tariffs would apply to “all countries”, not just those with the largest trade imbalances with the United States.His administration has still not released a detailed plan about who or what will be impacted, however, leading to uncertainty that led to a spike Monday in the CBOE Volatility Index, colloquially known as Wall Street’s “fear gauge”.”Trump continues to be the key reason why markets are having a bad day,” said AJ Bell investment director Russ Mould. “He has now threatened to target all countries importing goods into the US with tariffs, further clouding economic prospects around the world,” he added.Wall Street’s blue-chip Dow stock index bucked the trend, however, managing a small gain in midday trading in New York.- Trump car tariffs -Automakers were hit particularly hard in the wake of Trump’s announcement that he would also impose 25 percent duties on imports of all vehicles and parts.In Europe, Porsche and Volkswagen both fell more than three percent. Toyota, the world’s biggest carmaker, plunged over three percent, along with Nissan and Mazda. “Within the Asia-Pacific region, the car levies will hit Japan and South Korea the hardest,” Moody’s Analytics economists wrote.”Such a sizeable tariff hike will undermine confidence, hit production and reduce orders. Given the long and complex supply chains in car manufacturing, the impact will ripple through these countries’ economies.”Gold, seen as a safe haven asset in times of uncertainty, hit a record high over $3,100 an ounce.Yields fell on government bonds, including those of the United States, “reflecting ongoing safe-haven trading due to concerns about US trade policy,” said Briefing.com analyst Patrick O’Hare.In company news, shares in drug maker Moderna share price tumbled more than 10 percent as traders digested news that a top US Food and Drug Administration official had quit over disagreements with Trump’s new health secretary, noted vaccine sceptic Robert F. Kennedy Jr.Among individual companies, US aviation giant United Airlines fell more than four percent amid news that Canadians were pulling back on trips to the United States due to the tariffs.In Asia, shares in CK Hutchison shed 3.1 percent in Hong Kong as a Chinese review of a multi-billion-dollar deal to offload ports operations, including those in the Panama Canal, appeared likely to lead to a delay of its Wednesday signature.- Key figures around 1630 GMT -Tokyo – Nikkei 225: DOWN 4.1 percent at 35,617.56 points (close)New York – Dow: UP less than 0.1 percent at 41,618.28New York – S&P 500: DOWN 0.8 percent at 5,544.02New York – Nasdaq Composite: DOWN 1.6 percent at 17,041.08London – FTSE 100: DOWN 0.9 percent at 8,582.81 (close)Paris – CAC 40: DOWN 1.6 percent at 7,790.71 (close)Frankfurt – DAX: DOWN 1.3 percent at 22,163.49 (close)Hong Kong – Hang Seng Index: DOWN 1.3 percent at 23,119.58 (close)Shanghai – Composite: DOWN 0.5 percent at 3,335.75 (close)Euro/dollar: DOWN at $1.0814 from $1.0838 on FridayPound/dollar: DOWN at $1.2921 from $1.2947Dollar/yen: DOWN at 149.71 yen from 149.72 yenEuro/pound: UP at 83.69 pence from 83.68 penceWest Texas Intermediate: UP 2.4 percent at $71.04 per barrelBrent North Sea Crude: UP 2.1 percent at $74.27 per barrelburs-rl/rlp

Debt-laden Chinese property giant Vanke reported annual losses of 49.5 billion yuan ($6.8 billion) on Monday, citing falling sales and shrinking profit margins despite Beijing’s attempts to revive the housing market.Vanke said 2024 was an “exceptionally challenging year” in a filing to the Hong Kong stock exchange and apologised for “distress caused… due to the significant decline in sales, substantial losses and pressure on our liquidity”.Beijing has in recent years grappled with a prolonged crisis in the country’s vast real estate sector, once a key pillar of the economy but now beset with sprawling debt.Hong Kong-listed Vanke is part-owned by the government of Shenzhen and was China’s fourth-largest real estate firm by sales last year, according to research firm CRIC.Vanke said on Monday that it “failed to break free from expansion inertia of high-debt, high-turnover and high-leverage in a timely manner, which led to problems” such as aggressive investment and over-expansion.Last year marked Vanke’s first annual loss since it was listed in 1991 and the magnitude exceeded the firm’s January estimate of $6.2 billion.Revenue fell 26 percent year-on-year to $47.3 billion.Vanke partly attributed the losses to “significant decrease in the settlement scale and gross profit margin of the development business”.Company chief operating officer and executive vice president Liu Xiao resigned from his position on Monday “due to work adjustments”, the firm said.”After stepping down from these roles, (Liu) will continue to work for the Company, focusing on strategic investment business,” according to the company.Vanke has seen a shakeup of its top management, including the resignation of its CEO Zhu Jiusheng on January 27 which the company said was “due to health reasons”.That month, Chinese outlet the Economic Reporter cited sources as saying Zhu had been “taken away by public security authorities”, without specifying his alleged offences.Beijing announced support measures in November for the ailing property sector that included lowering deed tax rates for certain first and second homes in four major cities, including Beijing and Shanghai.Despite the policy package, Vanke suffered net losses of $4.35 billion in the final quarter of last year.The company said it will face a concentrated repayment of its public debts this year, “further intensifying the liquidity pressure”.Chinese authorities were mulling plans to help Vanke plug a funding gap of $6.8 billion this year, Bloomberg News reported last month. Vanke is among several major Chinese property firms mired in a debt crisis in recent years that has left developers in severe financial distress.Troubled property developers Kaisa and Country Garden — both fending off winding up petitions in Hong Kong courts — also reported losses separately.Kaisa said on Monday that its losses for the year grew 48.4 percent to $4.03 billion in 2024.Country Garden reported an annual loss attributable to company owners of $4.5 billion on Sunday, adding that its total debt amounted to $34.9 billion as of the end of last year.

Renault and Nissan said Monday they had revised their partnership to allow for a reduction in their cross-shareholdings and other measures that would help the financially troubled Japanese carmaker.The new agreement will allow the carmakers to reduce their current 15 percent cross-shareholdings to 10 percent.Renault will also acquire Nissan’s 51 percent stake in their joint factory in the Indian city of Chennai, which will produces Nissan vehicles.Nissan will no longer be required to invest in Renault’s electric vehicle development unit, Ampere, although the French company will continue to develop and manufacture an electric version of its subcompact Twingo for Nissan to sell in Europe.”Renault Group has a strong interest in seeing Nissan turnaround its performance as quickly as possible,” Renault Group chief executive Luca de Meo said in a statement.The two carmakers have been partners since 1999 when Renault rescued Nissan from bankruptcy. But numerous tensions emerged, particularly over Renault’s greater holding in Nissan, and in 2023 the carmakers worked to rebalance their alliance.But Nissan announced last year thousands of job cuts after reporting a 93 percent plunge in first-half net profit, and it expects to post a loss of over $500 million for 2024.Its CEO Makoto Uchida stepped down earlier in March after merger talks with Honda fell apart.”Nissan is committed to preserving the value and benefits of our strategic partnership within the Alliance while implementing turnaround measures to enhance efficiencies,” said incoming Nissan CEO Ivan Espinosa.The amended alliance agreement will not impact the additional 18.66 percent stake in Nissan that Renault holds in a French trust. Those shares do not give Renault voting rights in Nissan under their alliance agreement, unlike the 15 percent holding.

Global stock markets were a sea of red Monday and investors fled to gold ahead of a wave of US tariffs this week that have fuelled recession fears.Tokyo plunged more than four percent, leading losses across Asian and European markets, as markets extended uncertainty over President Donald Trump’s latest tariff announcements due on his “Liberation Day” on Wednesday. Adding to fears, Trump said Sunday that tariffs would include “all countries”, not just those with the largest trade imbalances with the United States.”Trump continues to be the key reason why markets are having a bad day,” said AJ Bell investment director Russ Mould. “He has now threatened to target all countries importing goods into the US with tariffs, further clouding economic prospects around the world,” he added.Automakers were hit particularly hard in the wake of Trump’s announcement that he would also impose 25 percent duties on imports of all vehicles and parts.In Europe, Porsche, Volkswagen and Stellantis, which owns several brands including Jeep, Peugeot and Fiat, all dropped around three percent.Toyota, the world’s biggest carmarker, plunged over three percent, along with Nissan and Mazda. “Within the Asia-Pacific region, the car levies will hit Japan and South Korea the hardest,” Moody’s Analytics economists wrote.”Such a sizeable tariff hike will undermine confidence, hit production and reduce orders. Given the long and complex supply chains in car manufacturing, the impact will ripple through these countries’ economies.”Gold, seen as a safe haven asset in times of uncertainty, hit a record high over $3,100 an ounce.Adding to the dour mood, Wall Street sank on Friday after data showed the Federal Reserve’s preferred gauge of inflation rose more than expected last month, further denting hopes for interest rate cuts. In company news, Zensho Holdings, which owns several Japanese restaurant franchises, plunged 3.9 percent after its beef bowl chain Sukiya said it would temporarily shut nearly all of its roughly 2,000 branches after a rat was found in a miso soup and a bug in another meal.Hong Kong suffered another big selloff, with conglomerate CK Hutchison shedding 3.1 percent following reports billionaire Li Ka-shing might delay signing a multi-billion-dollar deal to offload its ports operations, including those in the Panama Canal.The firm has faced criticism from China since it agreed to offload the business to a US-led consortium after pressure from Trump.Beijing confirmed on Friday antitrust regulators will review the deal, likely preventing the parties from signing it as planned on Wednesday.Bangkok dropped more than one percent as trade got back under way after being suspended on Friday following the deadly quake that hit the Thai capital. The stock market was already under pressure, having dived more than 15 percent since the turn of the year on worries about the Thai economy.- Key figures around 1030 GMT -Tokyo – Nikkei 225: DOWN 4.1 percent at 35,617.56 points (close)London – FTSE 100: DOWN 1.2 percent at 8,554.98Paris – CAC 40: DOWN 1.8 percent at 7,776.09Frankfurt – DAX: DOWN 1.9 percent at 22,040.75 Hong Kong – Hang Seng Index: DOWN 1.3 percent at 23,119.58 (close)Shanghai – Composite: DOWN 0.5 percent at 3,335.75 (close)New York – Dow: DOWN 1.7 percent at 41,583.90 (close)Euro/dollar: DOWN at $1.0818 from $1.0838 on FridayPound/dollar: DOWN at $1.2929 from $1.2947Dollar/yen: DOWN at 149.31 yen from 149.72 yenEuro/pound: DOWN at 83.65 pence from 83.68 penceWest Texas Intermediate: UP 0.2 percent at $69.49 per barrelBrent North Sea Crude: UP 0.2 percent at $72.91 per barrel

Chinese smartphone maker giant Huawei said Monday that profits fell 28 percent last year as it faced international economic uncertainty and weak consumption at home.The Shenzhen-based company has been at the centre of an intense standoff between China and the United States after Washington warned its equipment could be used for espionage by the Chinese government, an allegation Huawei denies.Sanctions since 2019 have cut the firm’s access to US-made components and technologies, forcing it to diversify its growth strategy.The company announced Monday that it made a net profit of 62.6 billion yuan ($8.6 billion) last year, down from 87 billion yuan in 2023.In a statement, a Huawei spokesperson said profits slipped last year because it “continued to increase… future-oriented investment and there were no gains from the sale of businesses”.Revenue rose 22 percent on-year — marking a third successive increase after a sharp drop in 2021 during the pandemic.Its 862.1 billion yuan in revenue was the highest since the figure surpassed 890 billion yuan in 2020.Most of that came from its ICT infrastructure business and consumer products, followed by cloud computing.The results were “in line with forecast”, the company’s rotating chairwoman Sabrina Meng said in a statement.Employees “banded together to tackle a wide range of external challenges”, Meng said, adding that the company was “firmly committed to its quality goals and will keep honing quality as a competitive edge”.US sanctions have since 2019 cut Huawei off from global supply chains for technology and US-made components, a move that initially hammered its production of smartphones.Last year, the company unveiled its first smartphone equipped with a fully homegrown operating system, a test of its ability to challenge the dominance of Western juggernauts.It also released the world’s first triple-folding phone, launched hours after its US rival Apple lifted the curtain on its newest iPhone.Apple remains popular among Chinese consumers but has ceded ground to domestic players such as Huawei in recent years.Huawei remains one of the world’s leading equipment manufacturers for 5G, the fifth generation of mobile internet, and has been involved in infrastructure projects in numerous countries.The United States has sought to convince its allies to ban Huawei from their 5G networks, arguing that Beijing could use the group’s products to monitor communications and data traffic.The firm is also facing heightened scrutiny in Europe over a new cash-for-influence probe in the EU parliament.Offices were sealed and five people were charged this month over suspicions that members of parliament were bribed to sway sensitive EU policies in favour of the tech giant.Lawmakers are to confront the Huawei allegations at a debate Monday on “transparency and anticorruption policies in the EU”, which is expected to see calls for tougher action.

President Donald Trump said Sunday he was confident of reaching a deal on TikTok ahead of the April 5 deadline for its Chinese owner ByteDance to sell the popular short video app or see it banned in the United States.”We have a lot of potential buyers. There’s tremendous interest in TikTok,” Trump told reporters onboard Air Force One.”We have a lot of people that want to buy TikTok. We’re dealing with China also on it, because they may have something to do with it,” he said, adding “I’d like to see TikTok remain alive.”China on Thursday had rebuffed a suggestion from Trump that he might offer to reduce tariffs to get Beijing’s approval for the sale of TikTok to a non-Chinese firm.Trump said this month the United States was in talks with four groups interested in acquiring the platform, which has 170 million American users.A US law has ordered TikTok to divest from ByteDance or be banned in the United States, enacted over concerns that Beijing could exploit the app to spy on Americans or covertly influence US public opinion.The law took effect on January 19, a day before Trump’s inauguration, but he quickly announced a delay that has allowed it to continue to operate.That delay is set to expire on April 5.”There’ll be a deal with TikTok, I’m pretty certain,” Trump said when asked if he would extend the deadline if there was no deal.Trump attempted to ban TikTok in the United States because of national security concerns during his first stint in the White House but has warmed up to it.”Selfishly speaking, I won the young vote by 36 points. Republicans generally don’t do very well with the young crowd, and I think a lot of it could have been TikTok,” he said.

Tokyo led another plunge across Asian and European markets on Monday while gold hit a record high as investors steel themselves for a wave of US tariffs this week that has fuelled recession fears.Equities across the planet have been hammered in recent weeks ahead of Donald Trump’s “Liberation Day” on Wednesday, when his administration will unveil a series of levies against friend and foe alike, citing what he says are unfair trading practices.His announcement last week that he would also impose 25 percent duties on imports of all vehicles and parts ramped up the fear factor on trading floors, hammering car giants including Japan’s Toyota, the world’s biggest.Governments around the world have pushed back against Trump’s tariffs, and could announce more countermeasures, while Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney told Trump on Friday that he will implement retaliatory tariffs to protect his country’s workers and economy.Adding to the dour mood was data showing the Federal Reserve’s preferred gauge of inflation rose more than expected last month over worries Trump’s tariffs will fan price rises and further dent hopes for interest rate cuts.Markets fell across the board on Monday, with firms in all sectors feeling the pain. Data showing Chinese factory activity grew at the quickest pace in a year in March provided a little optimism over the world’s number two economy. Japan’s Nikkei 225 index plunged more than four percent, extending last week’s slide, as automakers Toyota, Nissan and Mazda shed between three and four percent, while tech investment titan SoftBank tanked more than five percent. The index’s drop put it in a correction, having fallen more than 10 percent from its peak in December.Zensho Holdings, which owns several Japanese restaurant franchises, plunged 3.9 percent after its beef bowl chain Sukiya said it would temporarily shut nearly all of its roughly 2,000 branches after a rat was found in a miso soup and a bug in another meal.Seoul was also sharply lower.”Within the Asia-Pacific region, the car levies will hit Japan and South Korea the hardest. About six percent of Japan’s total exports are cars shipped to the US. In South Korea’s case, it’s four percent,” Moody’s Analytics economists wrote.”Such a sizeable tariff hike will undermine confidence, hit production and reduce orders. Given the long and complex supply chains in car manufacturing, the impact will ripple through these countries’ economies. “Back-of-the-envelope calculations suggest the action could shave 0.2 to 0.5 percentage points from growth in each.”There were also losses in Sydney, Shanghai, Wellington and Taipei.Hong Kong suffered another big selloff, with conglomerate CK Hutchison shedding 3.1 percent following reports billionaire Li Ka-shing might delay signing a multi-billion-dollar deal to offload its ports operations, including those in the Panama Canal.The firm has faced criticism from China since it agreed to offload the business to a US-led consortium after pressure from Trump. Beijing confirmed on Friday antitrust regulators will review the deal, likely preventing the parties from signing it as planned on Wednesday.Bangkok dropped more than one percent as trade got back under way after being suspended on Friday following the deadly quake that hit the Thai capital. The stock market was already under pressure, having dived more than 15 percent since the turn of the year on worries about the Thai economy.London, Paris and Frankfurt fell in early trade.Gold, a safe haven in times of uncertainty and turmoil, hit a record high of $3,127.92.”Investors have a severe case of nerves ahead of Trump’s tariff Liberation Day,” said Neil Wilson, an analyst at TipRanks. “The only thing holding up sentiment today is data showing China’s factory activity at a one-year high as stimulus measures seem to be having an impact.”The selling followed a hefty selloff on Wall Street, where the Dow tumbled 1.7 percent, the S&P 500 lost 2.0 percent and the Nasdaq dived 2.7 percent.US investors were jolted by figures showing the core personal consumption expenditures (PCE) index came in above forecasts in February.Analysts said that while the reading was not a blowout, its timing amid a period of uncertainty added to the sense of gloom when traders had been hoping for a little reassurance.”Markets will now be fully at the mercy of an impending deluge of tariff-related headlines, while highly reactive to any US economic data that accelerates the thematic of slower economic activity and higher expected inflation,” said Chris Weston at Pepperstone. – Key figures around 0810 GMT -Tokyo – Nikkei 225: DOWN 4.1 percent at 35,617.56 (close)Hong Kong – Hang Seng Index: DOWN 1.3 percent at 23,119.58 (close)Shanghai – Composite: DOWN 0.5 percent at 3,335.75 (close)London – FTSE 100: DOWN 0.9 percent at 8,579.60 Euro/dollar: DOWN at $1.0829 from $1.0838 on FridayPound/dollar: UP at $1.2955 from $1.2947Dollar/yen: DOWN at 149.10 yen from 149.72 yenEuro/pound: DOWN at 83.58 pence from 83.68 penceWest Texas Intermediate: UP 0.6 percent at $69.76 per barrelBrent North Sea Crude: UP 0.6 percent at $74.08 per barrelNew York – Dow: DOWN 1.7 percent at 41,583.90 (close)

Japan wants to become a hydrogen fuel leader to meet its net-zero goals, but one blockbuster project is hanging in the balance over questions about its climate credentials.The Hydrogen Energy Supply Chain (HESC) is billed as a billion-dollar attempt to ship liquid hydrogen from Australia to Japan.However, cold feet about the project in Australia means HESC will source hydrogen from Japan to meet a 2030 deadline for its demonstration phase.Hydrogen sounds promising on paper: while fossil fuels emit planet-warming greenhouse gases, burning hydrogen creates only water vapour.But it has not yet lived up to its promise, with several much-hyped projects globally struggling to overcome high costs and engineering challenges.Hydrogen’s climate credentials also depend on how it is produced.”Green hydrogen” uses renewable energy, while “blue hydrogen” relies on fossil fuels such as coal and gas, with carbon-capture technology to reduce emissions.”Brown hydrogen” is produced by fossil fuels without any carbon capture.The HESC project aims to produce blue hydrogen in the Australian state of Victoria, harnessing abundant local supplies of lignite coal.With the world’s first liquid hydrogen tanker and an imposing storage site near Kobe in Japan, HESC had been touted as a flagship experiment showcasing Japan’s ambitions for the fuel.HESC says it aims to eventually produce enough hydrogen to “reduce about 1.8 million tonnes per annum of CO2 from being released into the atmosphere”.Japan’s energy sector emitted 974 million tonnes of CO2 from fuel combustion in 2022, according to the International Energy Agency (IEA).- ‘Strong opposition’ -Japan’s government pledged 220 billion yen (now $1.4 billion) to HESC’s current “commercial demonstration” phase, which has a completion deadline of 2030.But to meet this deadline, the project will now source hydrogen in Japan.That has been blamed on cold feet among Australian officials concerned about the project’s environmental payoff.A spokesman for Japan’s Kawasaki Heavy Industries, one of the companies behind HESC, said the decision to shift production to Japan was taken “chiefly because of delay in procedures on the Australian side”.The Victoria government did not respond to repeated requests for comment, though Australian officials have told local media that the move was a Japanese “commercial decision”.Australia’s cooling interest in the project is due to “strong opposition” from environmental activists and energy experts opposed to carbon capture and storage, said Daisuke Akimoto of Tokyo University of Information Sciences.”The main problem the project faces is the lack of approval of the blue hydrogen project by the Victorian government,” Akimoto said.Kawasaki said it has not yet decided what type of hydrogen it will procure in Japan and downplayed the project’s challenges.”We are very positive” about HESC and “there is no change” to the goal of building a new supply chain, the spokesman said, declining to be named.- ‘Evidence gap’ -However, sourcing the hydrogen locally leaves “a critical evidence gap at the middle of the project” — proving carbon capture and storage work — explained David Cebon, an engineering professor at the University of Cambridge.That is “difficult and challenging and not being done successfully anywhere”, Cebon said.Kawasaki has said it will continue “feasibility studies” for the HESC project, but Cebon believes it will “quietly die”, partly because of the cost of shipping hydrogen to Japan.To be transported by sea as a liquid, hydrogen needs to be cooled to -253 degrees Celsius (-423.4 Fahrenheit) — an expensive, energy-intensive process.”I think wiser heads in the government just realised how crazy it is,” said Mark Ogge from the Australia Institute think-tank.Japanese energy company Kansai Electric has separately withdrawn from a different project to produce “green” hydrogen in Australia.A company spokesman declined to comment on reports that the decision was due to ballooning costs.- ‘It will take decades’ -Resource-poor Japan is the world’s fifth largest single-country emitter of carbon dioxide.It already produces some hydrogen domestically, mostly using natural gas and oil or nuclear power, although this is limited and expensive.Some experts are sanguine about HESC’s challenges. Noe van Hulst, a hydrogen advisor to the IEA, said it was important to take the long view.”Pilot projects are undertaken to test innovations in practice: learning-by-doing,” he told AFP. “Yes, it is hard to develop a low-carbon hydrogen market and it will take decades,” as with wind and solar energy, van Hulst said.Solar in particular has seen costs plummet and uptake soar far beyond initial expectations and at greater speed.And for now, “there isn’t really an alternative (to) decarbonise these hard-to-electrify sectors like steel, cement, ships and planes”, van Hulst added.