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Stocks climbed Friday as investors digested a new tariffs blitz by US President Donald Trump and data showing a key US inflation metric rose in line with expectations.Wall Street pushed higher after slumping for three straight sessions, with relief about inflation data offsetting the tariff developments and rising concerns about a US government shutdown due to failed budget talks.Official data showed that the Fed’s preferred gauge of inflation, the personal consumption expenditures (PCE) price index, reached 2.7 percent in August, up from 2.6 percent in July.The figure is above the central bank’s two-percent inflation target.But it was in line with analyst forecasts, giving investors “some relief that the Fed will remain on track to cut rates two more times this year”, said Bret Kenwell, US investment analyst at eToro trading platform.The Fed must weigh between fighting inflation and propping up a weakening US jobs market, Kenwell said.Investors were also digesting Trump’s latest tariff moves.The US president announced Thursday steep new tariffs on pharmaceutical products, big-rig trucks, home renovation fixtures and furniture.He said a 100-percent tariff would be imposed on “any branded or patented” pharmaceutical product from October 1, unless a company is building a manufacturing plant in the United States.Investors have rethought their view of the tariffs compared with earlier in the year when the market was caught off guard by the breadth of Trump’s aggressive trade policy.While the levies are still on investors’ radar, “the market has started to look through tariffs,” said Steve Sosnick of Interactive Brokers. “The new market mentality is ‘let’s not worry about them until we actually see them creating a problem.'”But share prices of Asian pharma firms faced selling. Shanghai Fosun shed around six percent and South Korea’s Daewoong was off more than three percent. Japan’s Daiichi Sankyo and Astellas Pharma were also well in the red. In contrast, share prices of British pharma giants GSK and AstraZeneca climbed, with both companies having recently announced major investment plans in the United States.US rivals Pfizer and Merck and France’s Sanofi also closed higher.The European Union was quick to point out that its trade deal with Trump had capped tariffs on EU pharmaceutical goods at 15 percent.Among other sectors affected by the newest tariffs, US-based truck manufacturing company Paccar jumped more than five percent, while furniture retailer Restoration Hardware fell 4.2 percent.In non-tariff news, Boeing advanced 3.6 percent after federal air safety regulators restored the company’s authority to certify the airworthiness of some new planes, in a sign of officials’ increased confidence in the aviation giant’s operations.Electronic Arts surged 14.9 percent following a Wall Street Journal report that the videogame maker is nearing a deal to go private.Oil prices rose, with Brent climbing above $70 per barrel for the first time since August, as tensions mount between NATO countries and Russia, boosting the chances of further sanctions being adopted on Russian energy exports. – Key figures at around 2015 GMT -New York – Dow: UP 0.7 percent at 46,247.29 (close)New York – S&P 500: UP 0.6 percent at 6,643.70 (close) New York – Nasdaq Composite: UP 0.4 percent at 22,484.07 (close)London – FTSE 100: UP 0.8 percent at 9,284.83 (close) Paris – CAC 40: UP 1.0 percent at 7,870.68 (close)Frankfurt – DAX: UP 0.9 percent at 23,739.47 (close)Tokyo – Nikkei 225: DOWN 0.9 percent at 45,354.99 (close)Hong Kong – Hang Seng Index: DOWN 1.4 percent at 26,128.20 (close)Shanghai – Composite: DOWN 0.7 percent at 3,828.11 (close)Euro/dollar: UP at $1.1701 from $1.1666 on ThursdayPound/dollar: UP at $1.3405 from $1.3345Dollar/yen: UP at 149.51 yen from 149.80 yenEuro/pound: DOWN at 87.30 pence from 87.42 penceBrent North Sea Crude: UP 1.0 percent at $70.13 per barrelWest Texas Intermediate: UP 1.1 percent at $65.72 per barrelburs-jmb/ksb

President Donald Trump insists he has found a solution to keep TikTok alive in the United States through a group of investors who will buy the short-video app from its Chinese owners in accordance with US law.But questions remain unresolved about how this will play out and what it means for American users.- Is there actually a deal? -Any sale of TikTok’s US operations would require Chinese owner ByteDance to divest. That would need approval from China’s government, which is reluctant to see a national champion forced out of its largest market as a trade war rages with an increasingly protectionist Trump.While the Trump administration has insisted that China has accepted a deal for the sale, there has been no confirmation from Beijing. Queries to TikTok and ByteDance have gone unanswered.”This deal is still very confusing in terms of what is exactly going on,” University of Florida media professor Andrew Selepak told AFP.- Is Trump taking over TikTok? -In an executive order signed on Thursday, the White House outlined a deal centered on key investors with close ties to the president.Trump has specifically named Oracle CEO Larry Ellison, a longtime ally and the world’s second-richest man, as a major player in the arrangement. For decades, Ellison has been one of Silicon Valley’s few high-profile Republicans in a tech sector dominated by liberal politics.Ellison is returning to the spotlight through his dealings with Trump, who has brought his old friend into major AI partnerships with OpenAI, for example. The 81-year-old has also backed his son David’s acquisition of Hollywood studio Paramount and is reportedly eyeing Warner Brothers.The investor group also includes 94-year-old media mogul Rupert Murdoch and his son Lachlan, who control Fox News.Whether this signals a conservative rebranding of TikTok — a platform Trump credits with helping him reach young voters — remains unclear. Trump denied this possibility on Thursday.The prospect of a right-wing shift, or increased government intervention in media, has raised concerns that key platforms are falling under conservative control, potentially limiting diverse viewpoints in a bitterly divided America.The fate of TikTok will be decided amid major shifts across social media platforms. Elon Musk has transformed X (formerly Twitter) into a vehicle for far-right politics, driving away many establishment media outlets and liberal users.Meanwhile, Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg has aligned with Trump and overhauled content moderation on Facebook and Instagram to address Republican claims of anti-conservative bias.- Why so cheap? – At Thursday’s White House ceremony, Vice President JD Vance pegged the deal at $14 billion. That’s a surprisingly low figure given Twitter’s $44 billion valuation when it sold and TikTok’s unique reach among young consumers in the world’s largest economy.Bloomberg reporting helped shed light on the modest price tag: unnamed sources indicated that ByteDance would retain significant value through an expensive licensing arrangement, potentially receiving about half of the new company’s profits even if the company would hold just a 20 percent stake, according to Trump’s plan.Such terms could trigger alarm in Washington, where some lawmakers could scrutinize whether any sale meets the requirements of the divest-or-ban law that should have taken effect in January but has been repeatedly delayed since Trump took office.And confusingly, the executive order announced Thursday extended the deadline to ban TikTok until mid-January to finalize a deal that the Trump administration simultaneously claimed was already complete.John Moolenaar, the Republican chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, reiterated this point on Friday and warned that he would be “conducting full oversight over this agreement.””ByteDance has shown time and again that it is a bad actor,” he said.The Trump plan “offers vague assurances about protecting US national security but provides virtually no specifics,” said Carl Tobias of the University of Richmond School of Law.Adding to skepticism: Ellison’s Oracle already manages TikTok’s data servers from an earlier attempt to address US security concerns. Critics question whether this deal changes anything substantive.

Moored off a Manhattan pier for New York’s annual Climate Week is one of the world’s first ammonia-powered vessels — a green flagship for an Australian tycoon’s drive to decarbonize his mining empire.Even as President Donald Trump’s second term has triggered environmental backtracking among many corporations, iron ore giant Fortescue — founded by Andrew “Twiggy” Forrest — is investing billions to clean up its dirty operations.”We’re a huge polluter right now,” he told AFP in an interview aboard the Green Pioneer, a 75-meter former oil-rig supply ship given a swish makeover. “But we’re changing so fast, and within five years, we’ll stop burning fossil fuels.”The Green Pioneer is meant to be the first in a fleet of ammonia-powered ships. Ammonia contains what Forrest calls the “miracle molecule” — hydrogen. Ammonia burns to produce harmless nitrogen and water, though incomplete combustion of can still generate greenhouse gases.- ‘Real Zero,’ not offsets -The 63-year-old Forrest has become a fixture at global summits, rubbing shoulders with leaders such as European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen as he evangelizes his climate vision.Where other companies tout green credentials by buying carbon credits — generated through nature protection or carbon-removal projects for example — to claim “net zero,” Forrest dismisses the practice as a scam.”Carbon credits have already been proved by science to be next to worthless,” said Forrest, whose net worth Forbes pegs at more than $16 billion. “That’s why we go ‘Real Zero.'”Achieving genuine decarbonization by 2030 is no small feat, particularly in one of the world’s dirtiest industries. Fortescue’s plan involves replacing diesel-powered mining equipment with electric excavators and drills; building vast wind, solar and battery farms to power operations; and running battery-powered haul trucks.Further along the value chain, the company wants to process its own iron ore — the stage responsible for the lion’s share of emissions — using “green hydrogen” produced by splitting water molecules with renewable electricity, instead of coke or thermal coal.”Fortescue’s climate commitments are certainly different to most other corporations, including its peers in the iron ore mining sector” such as Rio Tinto and BHP, Simon Nicholas, the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis’ lead analyst for global steel told AFP. “It has a ‘green iron’ pilot plant under construction in Australia which will use green hydrogen. The company is aiming to eventually process all of its iron ore into iron for export — about 100 million tonnes a year” — and even getting close to those targets would be transformative, said Nicholas.- Technical challenges -But he cautioned that the technological hurdles remain immense: green hydrogen is still expensive, and the pilot plant must prove it can handle lower-grade ore.Then there’s the inherent ecological cost of mining. “If you destroy parts of a forest, including its soils, for your mining operation, even if you don’t use fossil fuels for your operations, you will not be ‘true zero,'” Oscar Soria, co-director of The Common Initiative think tank told AFP.Forrest’s outlook is grounded in his personal journey.Raised in the Australian Outback, where he earned the nickname “Twiggy” for his skinny childhood frame, he got his start in finance before taking over a company and renaming it Fortescue Metals Group in 2003.Forrest said his environmental commitment deepened after a hiking accident in 2014 left him temporarily wheelchair-bound. Encouraged by his children, he returned to university and completed a PhD in marine ecology.”That convinced me I’ve got to put every fiber of my being into arresting this threat so much bigger than any geostrategic issues, so much bigger than politics, so much bigger than anything,” he said.Climate now sits at the heart of his philanthropic Minderoo Foundation.And while the Trump administration derides the “green scam” as economically catastrophic, Forrest insists the opposite is true, pointing to Fortescue’s financial record.”Don’t accuse us of being unbusiness-like. We’re the most business-like in the world.”

The United Nations on Friday released a long-awaited update of its database of companies with activities in Israeli settlements in Palestinian territories, listing 158 firms from 11 countries.UN rights chief Volker Turk has condemned as a war crime Israel’s policy of settlements on Palestinian territory in the occupied West Bank.While several companies including Alstom and Opodo had been removed from the non-exhaustive database, major firms such as Airbnb, Booking.com, Motorola Solutions and TripAdvisor remained on the list. Contacted by AFP for their reaction, the companies have not so far responded.While most of the companies were based in Israel, others were based in Canada, China, France, Germany, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, Britain and the United States.The report, from the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), urged companies to “take appropriate action to address the adverse human rights impacts” of their activities.Turk said in a statement: “This report underscores the due diligence responsibility of businesses working in contexts of conflict to ensure their activities do not contribute to human rights abuses.”Israel denounced the report as “a document with no legal ground and far beyond the scope of the OHCHR”.The country’s UN office in Geneva added: “The OHCHR continues to misuse UN resources to tarnish Israel, proving that it is not able to execute its mandate in any adequate way.”We call on friends not to yield to this ugly attempt to blacklist Israeli firms.”- Mostly Israeli firms -The list was first produced in 2020 after a UN Human Rights Council resolution called for a database of firms that profited from business in illegally occupied Palestinian territory. The UN rights office was asked to list companies found to be taking part in any of 10 activities, including construction, surveillance, demolitions and destruction of agricultural land in Israeli settlements in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem.Listing companies in the database was “not, and does not purport to be, a judicial or quasi-judicial process”, it stressed.Despite a requirement for the database to be updated annually, it has been revised just once before, in 2023, when some companies named in the original list were removed.Friday’s release marks the first update that includes fresh names.”A total of 68 new companies were added to the list published in 2023, while seven of those… were removed as they were no longer involved in any of the activities concerned,” the rights office said.- Contentious -The list is not exhaustive, the rights office said, acknowledging that it had only had time to review 215 of the 596 companies about which it received submissions.For this latest update it said it had prioritised companies with a direct physical link in the settlements, in the fields of construction, real estate, mining and quarries.The remainder will be assessed in future updates, it said.The exercise has been contentious from the start.In 2020, Israel and the United States  condemned the creation of the database.The then Israeli foreign minister Israel Katz slammed it as “a shameful surrender to pressure from countries and organisations who want to harm Israel”.Today, nearly two years into the war raging in Gaza, where Israel faces growing accusations of committing genocide, the issue has become even more contentious.Israel has controlled the West Bank since 1967 in an occupation considered illegal under international law.Violence in the West Bank has also soared since the October 7, 2023, Hamas attack on Israel at the start of the Gaza war, even as Israeli government ministers have ramped up their calls to annex the West Bank.

Donald Trump has shocked the global drug industry by announcing 100-percent tariffs on all branded, imported pharmaceutical products — unless companies are building manufacturing plants in the United States.With just five days left until the US president is set to impose the harshest measures yet in his global trade war, analysts have been racing to figure out which nations, firms and drugs could be affected.While plenty of uncertainty remains, there do appear to be some exemptions. Major exporter the European Union says a previous trade deal shields the bloc from the tariffs.- Which products will be hit? -Trump announced late Thursday he would impose a 100-percent tariff on “any branded or patented Pharmaceutical Product” unless the company has started construction on a manufacturing plant by October 1.The statement indicates that generic medicines — cheaper versions of drugs produced once patents expire — are exempt.Neil Shearing, an economist at Capital Economics, said this exemption would have limited impact because while “90 percent of US drugs consumption volumes go toward generic drugs”, they account for “just 10 percent or so of spending values”.Kathleen Brooks, research director at XTB, said that “most of the big pharma producers already produce their drugs for the American market in the US”.However there are many popular exceptions — such as the blockbuster weight-loss drugs Wegovy and Mounjaro — as well as some cancer treatments that are all made in Europe, she added.Last year, the US imported nearly $252-billion worth of drugs and other pharma products, making it the second-largest import in value after vehicles, according to the Department of Commerce.- Which countries could be spared? -The EU said Friday that a trade deal sealed with the US in July shielded the bloc.”This clear all-inclusive 15 percent tariff ceiling for EU exports represents an insurance policy that no higher tariffs will emerge for European economic operators,” EU trade spokesman Olof Gill said.Tariffs on medicine “would create the worst of all worlds” by increasing costs, disrupting supply chains and preventing patients from getting life-saving treatment, Nathalie Moll of the European Federation of Pharmaceutical Industries and Associations said in a statement to AFP.Macro Angel Talavera from Oxford Economics said the July trade deal should in principle protect EU companies– but it remains “far from clear”.Switzerland — which is home to pharma giants Roche, Novartis and AstraZeneca — was likely most at risk because the country is not a member of the EU, he said. Denmark, where Ozempic and Wegovy producer Novo Nordisk has a major impact on the national economy, was also under threat, he added.The pharma sector in Ireland — whose exports to the US represent roughly 12 percent of GDP, according to Shearing — was among the European groups calling for urgent talks to avert the looming tariffs. A British government spokesperson said the UK was “actively engaging with the US and will continue to do so over the coming days”.In Asia, Japan and South Korea are thought to be shielded by trade deals, while India mostly exports generic drugs, according to Louise Loo at Oxford Economics.”Singapore, focused on high-value patented drugs, faces the greatest risk,” she added.- What are pharma firms doing? -Trump had previously threatened even steeper tariffs of 200 percent on pharmaceuticals in July.Aiming to protect themselves from Trump’s protectionist policies, pharma giants have announced around $300 million in investments in the US in recent months. “Although many pharma companies have pledged to build plants in the US, construction may not have started yet, as these plants are complex to build,” Brooks said.However Trump was clear that he defined building as “breaking ground” on construction sites.Swiss pharma giant Novartis said on Friday that “we have ongoing construction and expect to announce five new sites to be under construction before end of year”.A spokesperson for Bayer said the German company was “assessing the situation”. Other major firms contacted by AFP have yet to respond.

European stocks rose Friday after losses in Asia, as traders awaited key US inflation data and digested President Donald Trump’s fresh tariffs set to impact pharmaceuticals and other sectors.The dollar dropped ahead of the Federal Reserve’s preferred gauge of inflation — the personal consumption expenditure (PCE) index — with traders keenly seeking clues on how much further the US central bank could cut interest rates this year.Official data Thursday showing faster-than-expected US economic growth in the second quarter dampened slightly expectations of a Fed cut next month, which would follow on from its September reduction, the first this year. “On the surface, strong GDP should be good news but the problem is, such strong growth doesn’t support further Federal Reserve rate cuts, and it could even boost inflation expectations on top of potential tariff-led pressures,” noted Swissquote Bank senior analyst Ipek Ozkardeskaya.Trump’s announcement Thursday of steep new tariffs on medicines and other goods drew pushback from some allies, with the European Union claiming immunity for its pharmaceutical industry under a bilateral trade deal.A 100-percent levy on pharmaceuticals, starting October 1, is the harshest trade policy by the president since April’s shock unveiling of “reciprocal” tariffs on virtually every US trading partner across the globe.In reaction, share prices of Asian pharma firms largely fared worse compared with European peers.Shanghai Fosun shed around six percent and South Korea’s Daewoong was off more than three percent. Japan’s Daiichi Sankyo and Astellas Pharma were also well in the red. Sydney-listed CSL shed nearly two percent, while Sun Pharmaceutical Industries was a major loser in India.Key industry player India “could be spared” from the levies for now, however, according to MUFG bank analyst Michael Wan.”It is still unclear how branded or patented pharmaceutical products will be defined, but our working assumption is that this will not incorporate generic drugs and pharmaceuticals shipped by the likes of India to the US,” he wrote in a client note.Shares prices of British pharma giants GSK and AstraZeneca were both rising in London midday deals, with both companies having recently announced major investment plans in the United States.- Key figures at around 1045 GMT -London – FTSE 100: UP 0.3 percent at 9,243.75 pointsParis – CAC 40: UP 0.4 percent at 7,821.61Frankfurt – DAX: UP 0.3 percent at 23,596.41Tokyo – Nikkei 225: DOWN 0.9 percent at 45,354.99 (close)Hong Kong – Hang Seng Index: DOWN 1.4 percent at 26,128.20 (close)Shanghai – Composite: DOWN 0.7 percent at 3,828.11 (close)New York – Dow: DOWN 0.4 percent at 45,947.32 (close)Euro/dollar: UP at $1.1669 from $1.1658 on ThursdayPound/dollar: UP at $1.3347 from $1.3335Dollar/yen: UP at 149.89 yen from 149.81 yenEuro/pound: DOWN at 87.41 pence from 87.42 penceBrent North Sea Crude: DOWN 0.1 percent at $68.52 per barrelWest Texas Intermediate: DOWN 0.1 percent at $64.90 per barrelburs-bcp/ajb/lth

US President Donald Trump’s announcement of steep new tariffs on medicines and other goods drew pushback from some allies on Friday, with the EU claiming immunity for its pharmaceutical industry under an earlier trade deal.The announcement late on Thursday evening, which included a 100 percent levy on pharmaceuticals, is the harshest trade policy by the president since last April’s shock unveiling of “reciprocal” tariffs on virtually every US trading partner across the globe.Starting October 1, “we will be imposing a 100% Tariff on any branded or patented Pharmaceutical Product, unless a Company IS BUILDING their Pharmaceutical Manufacturing Plant in America,” the Republican wrote on his Truth Social platform.The European Union said on Friday a July deal with Washington shielded the bloc from tariffs higher than 15 percent on its drug exports.”This clear all-inclusive 15 percent tariff ceiling for EU exports represents an insurance policy that no higher tariffs will emerge for European economic operators,” EU trade spokesman Olof Gill said.A European pharmaceutical industry group also warned that tariffs on medicines would “create the worst of all worlds.””Tariffs increase costs, disrupt supply chains and prevent patients from getting life-saving treatments,” Nathalie Moll, director general of the European Federation of Pharmaceutical Industries and Associations, said on Friday.Trump’s latest move was also criticized by US ally Australia, which exported pharmaceutical products worth an estimated $1.35 billion to the United States in 2024, according to the UN’s Comtrade Database.Australian Health Minister Mark Butler said on Friday that the higher rates were “not in the American consumers’ interest… particularly given the degree to which their exporters to Australia benefit from that free trade as well.”- Big rigs -In a separate post, Trump wrote of a 25 percent tariff on “all ‘Heavy (Big) Trucks’ made in other parts of the world” to support US manufacturers such as “Peterbilt, Kenworth, Freightliner, Mack Trucks and others.”Foreign companies that compete with these manufacturers in the US market include Sweden’s Volvo and Germany’s Daimler, which includes the Freightliner and Western Star brands.Shares in both companies were sharply lower in after-hours trading in Europe, although Volvo recovered when trading resumed.Trump said the truck tariffs were “for many reasons, but above all else, for National Security purposes!”The Trump administration launched a so-called Section 232 probe this year into imports of trucks to “determine the effects of national security,” setting the stage for Thursday’s announcement.Section 232 is a trade law provision that gives the president broad authority to impose tariffs or other restrictions on imports when they’re deemed a threat to national security.Trump has made extensive use of Section 232 to initiate investigations and impose tariffs on imported goods as part of his efforts to bolster US manufacturing and punish countries that he says are taking advantage of the US.The real-estate tycoon also targeted home renovation materials, writing “We will be imposing a 50% Tariff on all Kitchen Cabinets, Bathroom Vanities and associated products,” from October 1.”Additionally, we will be charging a 30% Tariff on Upholstered Furniture,” he added.According to the United States International Trade Commission, imports in 2022, mainly from Asia, represented 60 percent of all furniture sold, including 86 percent of all wood furniture and 42 percent of all upholstered furniture.Shares in home furniture retailers Wayfair and Williams Sonoma, which depend on these imported goods, tumbled in after-hours trading following the announcement.- Protectionist policies -The tariff onslaught will rekindle fears over inflation in the US economy, the world’s biggest.Trump is on a mission to rebuild manufacturing through protectionist policies that mark a complete reversal of modern US policy to maintain an open and import-dependent economy.His administration has imposed a baseline 10 percent tariff on all countries, with higher individualized rates on nations where exports to the US far exceed imports.Trump has also used emergency powers to impose extra tariffs on trade deal partners Canada and Mexico, as well as on China, citing concerns over fentanyl trafficking and illegal immigration.It was not yet clear how these new tariffs that kick in next week would factor into the existing measures.

Markets retreated on Friday as nagging uncertainty about the US interest rate outlook was compounded by data showing the world’s biggest economy faring much better than expected and fresh tariff warnings from President Donald Trump.Asian investors looked set to end a largely disappointing week on a negative note following the third loss in a row for Wall Street, with concerns that stocks are overvalued after a lengthy rally adding to the mix. Traders are also keeping a wary eye on Washington as lawmakers bicker over a funding package to keep the government running as a deadline approaches next week. Equity markets are seeing a pullback in buying after a months-long advance from April’s lows. The Federal Reserve cut rates last week, citing a weakening labour market but warning that more reductions were not nailed on.On top of that, the past week has seen top decision-makers at the bank offer varying views on the way forward, in light of stubbornly high inflation and soft jobs data, as well as concerns about the impact of Trump’s tariffs.Data on Thursday showed second-quarter US economic growth hit 3.8 percent — instead of the 3.3 percent first thought — as consumers spent more than expected. The reading marks the fastest quarterly expansion for nearly two years.The figures came ahead of Friday’s release of the Fed’s preferred gauge of inflation — the personal consumption expenditure (PCE) index — and next week’s nonfarm payrolls report.All three main indexes on Wall Street ended in the red, falling each day since hitting record highs on Monday.Tokyo, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Seoul, Wellington, Taipei, Mumbai, Singapore, Bangkok and Manila retreated, with Sydney and Jakarta edging up.The dollar held gains after surging on the growth figures.- Pharma takes a hit -Sentiment was also weighed by Trump’s new tariffs on pharmaceuticals, big-rig trucks, home renovation fixtures and furniture. From next Wednesday, “we will be imposing a 100% Tariff on any branded or patented Pharmaceutical Product, unless a Company IS BUILDING their Pharmaceutical Manufacturing Plant in America”, Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform. He also threatened 25 percent levies on “all ‘Heavy (Big) Trucks’ made in other parts of the world”, for reasons including “National Security”.Asian pharma firms retreated, with Shanghai Fosun shedding around six percent and South Korea’s Daewoong off more than three percent. Japan’s Daiichi Sankyo and Astellas Pharma were also well in the red. Sydney-listed CSL shed nearly two percent.Sun Pharmaceutical Industries was a major loser in India’s Nifty 50 index and was down three percent, with other pharmaceutical stocks Cipla, Dr Reddy’s Laboratories, Lupin and Biocon all lower.Key industry player India “could be spared” from the levies for now, according to MUFG analyst Michael Wan.”It is still unclear how branded or patented pharmaceutical products will be defined, but our working assumption is that this will not incorporate generic drugs and pharmaceuticals shipped by the likes of India to the US,” he wrote in a note.A lack of agreement in Washington on a bill to avert a government shutdown was also on traders’ radar, with Democrats and Trump’s Republicans at loggerheads over the spending plans.”Republicans are seeking short-term extensions to funding at current levels, while Democrats have demanded more healthcare spending,” National Australia Bank’s Taylor Nugent said.”There remains no obvious exit ramp as the 1 October deadline to avoid a US government shutdown approaches,” he said.London, Paris and Frankfurt all rose.- Key figures at around 0810 GMT -Tokyo – Nikkei 225: DOWN 0.9 percent at 45,354.99 (close)Hong Kong – Hang Seng Index: DOWN 1.4 percent at 26,128.20 (close)Shanghai – Composite: DOWN 0.7 percent at 3,828.11 (close)London – FTSE 100: UP 0.3 percent at 9,240.93 Euro/dollar: UP at $1.1671 from $1.1658 on ThursdayPound/dollar: UP at $1.3350 from $1.3335Dollar/yen: UP at 149.87 yen from 149.81 yenEuro/pound: UP at 87.43 pence from 87.42 penceWest Texas Intermediate: UP 0.4 percent at $65.23 per barrelBrent North Sea Crude: UP 0.2 percent at $69.56 per barrelNew York – Dow: DOWN 0.4 percent at 45,947.32 (close)

Canada has signed a bilateral free trade agreement with Indonesia, which aims to eliminate or reduce tariffs on over 95 percent of Ottawa’s exports to its largest market in Southeast Asia.Several experts told AFP the strategic agreement is being made in the context of global economic turmoil, exacerbated by the protectionist policies of the United States.”This is the right deal at the right time with the right partner,” Canada’s Prime Minister Mark Carney said, adding Indonesia is “Canada’s largest export market in Southeast Asia.”Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto called it a “historic moment” during a visit to Ottawa, as the agreement is the first of its kind with an Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) member country. “I’m very lucky to be the Indonesian president who brings this back to Indonesia,” Prabowo said Wednesday. Canada’s exports include wheat, potash, timber and soybeans. The Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA) allows Canada to strengthen its presence in the Pacific region, in line with the strategy that was unveiled by the previous administration under Justin Trudeau.The deal also provides for the elimination of more than 90 percent of tariffs on Indonesian imports, a boon to the export of garments and leather goods to the North American market.Simultaneously, a defense cooperation accord was signed aimed at strengthening collaboration in military training, maritime security, cyber defense and peacekeeping.The signing came just a few days after Jakarta and the European Union finalised a trade agreement after nearly a decade of talks.An analyst told AFP that signing two trade deals within a week would make Indonesia more resilient to volatility under tariffs imposed by US President Donald Trump.The agreements “signalled a partner diversification strategy to minimise the risk of global tariff volatility, but it doesn’t mean that Indonesia is abandoning the US market,” said Syafruddin Karimi, an economist from Andalas University.

US President Donald Trump announced Thursday punishing tariffs on pharmaceuticals, big-rig trucks, home renovation fixtures and furniture, reviving his global trade war.The late-evening announcement is the harshest trade policy by the president since last April’s shock unveiling of reciprocal tariffs on virtually every US trading partner across the globe.Starting October 1, “we will be imposing a 100% Tariff on any branded or patented Pharmaceutical Product, unless a Company IS BUILDING their Pharmaceutical Manufacturing Plant in America,” the Republican wrote on his Truth Social platform.That move was criticised by American ally Australia, which exported pharmaceutical products worth an estimated $1.35 billion to the United States in 2024, according to the UN’s Comtrade Database.Australian health minister Mark Butler said Friday that the higher rates were “not in the American consumers’ interest… particularly given the degree to which their exporters to Australia benefit from that free trade as well.”In a separate post, Trump wrote of a 25 percent tariff on “all ‘Heavy (Big) Trucks’ made in other parts of the world” to support US manufacturers such as “Peterbilt, Kenworth, Freightliner, Mack Trucks and others.”Foreign companies that compete with these manufacturers in the US market include Sweden’s Volvo and Germany’s Daimler, which includes the Freightliner and Western Star brands.Shares in both companies were sharply lower in after-hours trading in Europe.Trump said the truck tariffs were “for many reasons, but above all else, for National Security purposes!”Earlier this year, the Trump administration launched a so-called Section 232 probe into imports of trucks to “determine the effects of national security,” setting the stage for Thursday’s announcement.Section 232 is a trade law provision that gives the president broad authority to impose tariffs or other restrictions on imports when they’re deemed a threat to national security.Trump has made extensive use of Section 232 to initiate investigations and impose tariffs on imported goods as part of his efforts to bolster US manufacturing and punish countries that he says are taking advantage of the US.The real-estate tycoon also targeted home renovation materials, writing “We will be imposing a 50% Tariff on all Kitchen Cabinets, Bathroom Vanities and associated products,” as of October 1.”Additionally, we will be charging a 30% Tariff on Upholstered Furniture,” he added.According to the United States International Trade Commission, in 2022 imports, mainly from Asia, represented 60 percent of all furniture sold, including 86 percent of all wood furniture and 42 percent of all upholstered furniture.Shares in home furniture retailers Wayfair and Williams Sonoma, which depend on these imported goods, tumbled in after-hours trading following the announcement.- Protectionist policies -The tariff onslaught will rekindle fears over inflation in the US economy, the world’s biggest.Trump is on a mission to rebuild manufacturing through protectionist policies that mark a complete reversal of modern US policy to maintain an open and import-dependent economy.His administration has imposed a baseline 10 percent tariff on all countries, with higher individualized rates on nations where exports to the US far exceed imports.Trump has also used emergency powers to impose extra tariffs on trade deal partners Canada and Mexico, as well as on China, citing concerns over fentanyl trafficking and illegal immigration.It was not yet clear how these new tariffs that kick in next week would factor into the existing measures.