Economy

Foreign exchange market
Japanese currency at 40-year low

The Japanese currency, the yen, has not been as weak against the dollar as it is now since 1986, Bloomberg reports.

The weak currency benefits exporters while making imports more expensive, which hits consumers and thus risks making Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi unpopular.

The recent weakening of the currency has been driven by concerns that Japan's central bank is at greater risk than its global counterparts of falling behind in curbing inflation, which was triggered by the sharp rise in oil prices following the war in Iran.

Japan's Chief Cabinet Secretary Minoru Kihara reiterated during a press conference on Tuesday that the authorities "stand ready to take action whenever necessary," according to the Financial Times. 

EU-China Relations
EU and China Set New Deadline for Trade Talks

Following the recent escalation, the EU and China have now set a deadline of October to make progress in the trade conflict, reports Bloomberg.

– Not everything will be resolved, not everything will be addressed, but we believe that our teams have enough time until October to deliver concrete results, says EU Trade Commissioner Maros Sefcovic.

Above all, the parties should work to resolve the growing trade deficit, where subsidized Chinese goods are flooding into the European market, says Sefcovic after meeting Chinese Commerce Minister Wang Wentao in Brussels on Monday.

The Gold Price
Gold on track for its worst quarter in over 10 years

After hitting a record high of $5,595 an ounce in January, the gold price is now on track for its worst quarter in over a decade, the FT reports.

On Tuesday, the precious metal fell to $3,943 an ounce, its lowest level since November, before recovering later in the day. Over the past three months, gold has fallen nearly 14 percent.

“The biggest headwind is that the market has realized that the Fed’s new head is concerned about inflation and will fight it with interest rate hikes,” says Tom Price, an analyst at Panmure Liberum.

A cooling interest among small savers is also behind it. According to analysts, some investors have dumped gold to instead jump on the AI ​​bandwagon and Space X's record-breaking listing.

Gold-based exchange-traded funds are now heading for a second consecutive month of outflows, according to the industry organization World Gold Council.

Space X stock market trip
Stock exchange blunder – was left without allocation after miss

South Korea's largest brokerage house Mirae Asset Securities was left without allocation after an internal misunderstanding in the space company SpaceX's record-breaking stock market listing, writes Bloomberg.

The brokerage misinterpreted an email in the listing process, which meant that customer orders worth about $1.1 billion were never registered.

“We lie flat and apologize,” management wrote to clients on June 15.

Epstein affair  Investigation
Sources: Buffett pauses donation to Gates Foundation

Investor legend Warren Buffett is pausing his annual donation to Bill Gates' charitable foundation, which he has paid every year for two decades, sources tell the Wall Street Journal. Buffett reportedly wants to wait for a review of Microsoft founder Gates' connections to sex offender Jeffrey Epstein before making a final decision.

Warren Buffett has donated shares in his investment company Berkshire Hathaway for billions of dollars in June or July each year, as part of a lifelong commitment to the Gates Foundation, the newspaper writes.