Afp Business Asia

Power-hungry data centres run hot, so one Chinese company is planning to submerge a pod of servers in the sea off Shanghai with hopes of solving computing’s energy woes.On a wharf near the city, workers were finishing off the large yellow capsule — a foray into alternative tech infrastructure that faces questions over its ecological impact and commercial viability.The world’s websites and apps rely on physical data centres to store information, with growing use of artificial intelligence contributing to skyrocketing demand for the facilities.”Underwater operations have inherent advantages,” said Yang Ye of maritime equipment firm Highlander, which is developing the Shanghai pod with state-owned construction companies.Undersea servers are kept at a low temperature by ocean currents, rather than the energy-intensive air cooling or water evaporation required by centres on land.The technology was trialled by Microsoft off the coast of Scotland in 2018, but the Chinese project, to be sunk in mid-October, is one of the world’s first commercial services of its kind.It will serve clients such as China Telecom and a state-owned AI computing company, and is part of a broader government push to lower data centres’ carbon footprint.”Underwater facilities can save approximately 90 percent of energy consumption for cooling,” Yang, vice president of Highlander, told AFP.Projects like this are currently focused on showing “technological feasibility”, said expert Shaolei Ren from the University of California, Riverside.Microsoft never built commercially on its trial, saying after retrieving its pod in 2020 that the project had been successfully completed.Significant construction challenges and environmental concerns have to be overcome before underwater data centres can be deployed on a mass scale, said Ren.In China, government subsidies are helping — Highlander received 40 million yuan ($5.62 million) for a similar 2022 project in Hainan province that is still running.- Technical challenges -“The actual completion of the underwater data centre involved greater construction challenges than initially expected,” said Zhou Jun, an engineer for Highlander’s Shanghai project.Built onshore in separate components before being installed in the sea, it will draw nearly all its power from nearby offshore wind farms.Highlander says that more than 95 percent of the energy used will come from renewable sources.The most obvious challenge in placing the structure under the waves is keeping its contents dry and safe from corrosion by salt water.The Chinese project addresses this by using a protective coating containing glass flakes on the steel capsule that holds the servers.To allow maintenance crews access, an elevator will connect the main pod structure to a segment that remains above the water.Ren from UC Riverside said laying the internet connection between an offshore data centre and the mainland was a more complex process than with traditional land servers.Researchers at the University of Florida and the University of Electro-Communications in Japan have also found that sub-marine data centres can be vulnerable to attacks using sound waves conducted through water.- Ecological unknowns -Technical hurdles aside, the warming effect of underwater data centres on the surrounding water has raised questions about the impact on marine ecosystems.Andrew Want, a marine ecologist at the University of Hull, said the heat emitted could in some cases attract certain species while driving away others.”These are unknowns at this point — there’s not sufficient research being conducted yet,” he said.Highlander told AFP a 2020 independent assessment of the company’s test project near Zhuhai, in southern China, indicated that the surrounding water stayed well below acceptable temperature thresholds.However, Ren warned that scaling up centres would also scale up the heat given off.He stressed that “for megawatt-scale data centres underwater, the thermal pollution problem needs to be studied more carefully”.Offshore facilities can complement standard data centres, Ren suggested.”They’re probably not going to replace existing traditional data centres, but can provide service to some niche segments.”

Wall Street stocks finished at fresh records again Thursday as a US government shutdown dragged into a second day.President Donald Trump signaled he plans mass layoffs of US federal workers amid the stalemate in budget talks. A Senate vote is expected Friday on a House-passed resolution to keep the government funded at current levels through November 21.Following an up day on leading bourses in Europe and Asia, US stocks dipped into negative territory during the session, but all three major US indices finished at records after ending the day in positive territory.Both the Dow and S&P 500 also finished at records on Wednesday, due in part to expectations the Federal Reserve will cut interest rates later this month.”Investors don’t really expect a shutdown to be concluded anytime soon, and as a result, the Fed will likely have to go to the more cautious approach, which means cut rates in October,” said Sam Stovall of CFRA Research.The shutdown is expected to delay the release of the September US jobs report, which was scheduled for Friday. Earlier, the trading day started off positively in Asia, with tech stocks surging as South Korea’s biggest chip firms agreed to supply chips and other equipment to OpenAI’s Stargate project for AI infrastructure. South Korea’s Kospi index climbed 2.7 percent to a record high, thanks to Samsung and SK hynix shares soaring to one-year highs after the firms signed a preliminary deal with the ChatGPT developer OpenAI. Tokyo rose, as did Hong Kong’s tech-heavy Hang Seng index. Shanghai was closed for a week-long holiday.The positive trend continued into European trading, with Europe’s tech companies also rising. Shares in ASML gained 4.5 percent, and STMicroelectronics and Schneider Electric adding more than two percent.Both Paris and Frankfurt stock markets finished the day up more than one percent, with automakers also rallying, while London dipped. Among individual companies, Tesla fell 5.1 percent despite reporting a seven percent jump in third-quarter auto deliveries, snapping a series of declines in recent quarters.Analysts attributed the uptick in sales to the September 30 expiration of a US electric vehicle tax credit, adding that they expect Tesla to struggle to maintain the sales momentum. Berkshire Hathaway fell 0.5 percent after announcing it will acquire Occidental’s chemical business, OxyChem, in an all-cash transaction for $9.7 billion. Occidental dropped 7.3 percent.- Key figures at around 2010 GMT -New York – Dow: UP 0.2 percent at 46,519.72 points (close)New York – S&P 500: UP less than 0.1 percent at 6,715.35 (close)New York – Nasdaq Composite: UP 0.4 percent at 22,844.05 (close)London – FTSE 100: DOWN 0.2 percent at 9,427.73 (close)Paris – CAC 40: UP 1.1 percent at 8,056.63 (close) Frankfurt – DAX: UP 1.3 percent at 24,422.56 (close)Tokyo – Nikkei 225: UP 0.9 percent at 44,936.73 (close)Hong Kong – Hang Seng Index: UP 1.6 percent at 27,287.12 (close)Shanghai – Composite: Closed for a holidayEuro/dollar: DOWN at $1.1720 from $1.1732 on WednesdayPound/dollar: DOWN at $1.3446 from $1.3478Dollar/yen: UP at 147.19 yen from 147.07 yenEuro/pound: UP at 87.17 pence from 87.04 penceWest Texas Intermediate: DOWN 2.1 percent at $60.48 per barrel2Brent North Sea Crude: DOWN 1.9 percent at $64.11 per barrelburs-jmb/jgc

G7 finance ministers pledged Wednesday to take aim at those who are continuing to step up purchases of Russian oil, since Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine more than three years ago.In a statement after a virtual meeting, officials from the Group of Seven advanced economies — Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the United States — agreed that it is time to “maximize pressure on Russia’s oil exports.”This would hit at revenue Moscow needs for the war.”We will target those who are continuing to increase their purchase of Russian oil since the invasion of Ukraine and those that are facilitating circumvention,” the ministers said in a joint statement.They added that they agreed on “the importance of trade measures, including tariffs” and import or export bans in efforts to cut off Russian revenues.The countries are also giving “serious consideration to trade measures and other restrictions on countries and entities that are helping finance Russia’s war efforts, including on refined products sourced from Russian oil.”The statement came after the United States indicated last month that it was ready to broaden tariffs targeting buyers of Russian oil if the European Union takes similar moves.President Donald Trump, who dialed in to talks between the United States and EU officials, had raised the possibility of tariffs between 50 percent and 100 percent targeting oil buyers like China and India, according to an official.In September, the European Commission also said that it was working on potentially imposing tariffs on imports of Russian oil into the bloc, in the face of pressure from Trump.The US leader has demanded that Europe end energy imports from Moscow before agreeing to move forward with sanctions against Russia.The G7 ministers plan to meet again on the sidelines of the annual meetings of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank in Washington this month.

Wall Street stocks rose again Wednesday, shrugging off the partial US government shutdown as major indices finished at records amid hopes for more Federal Reserve interest rate cuts.Both the Dow and S&P 500 closed at fresh records as investors focused on poor US employment data, which boosted expectations that the Fed could cut interest rates later this month.US government operations began grinding to a halt at 12:01 am (0401 GMT) Wednesday after Republicans and Democrats failed to break a budget impasse in Congress.The closure will see non-essential operations halted, leaving hundreds of thousands of civil servants temporarily unpaid, and many social safety net benefit payments potentially disrupted.But analysts note that shutdowns have not significantly weighed on markets due in part to the view that the negative impacts from closures can be reversed once the government reopens.”History reminds us that government shutdowns have typically been more headline-making than bottom-line impacting,” said CFRA Research’s Sam Stovall.Investors took note of a report from payroll firm ADP that showed the US private sector shed 32,000 jobs last month.”The market’s getting a little bit excited that this is something where the Fed can continue cutting interest rates,” said Tim Urbanowicz, chief investment strategist at Innovator Capital Management. “There’s this kind of middle ground where the data is not showing a lot of strength, but it’s not weak enough where people start getting concerned about recession.”Analysts said the weaker job market cements expectations that the Fed will cut interest rates twice more this year, after lowering borrowing costs last month for the first time since December.But investors are concerned the US government shutdown could prevent the release Friday of the key non-farm payrolls report — a crucial data point for the Fed on rate decisions.European markets were lifted by pharmaceutical shares after Pfizer was granted reprieve from Trump’s tariffs by agreeing to lower drug prices in the United States.Shares in British pharma giant AstraZeneca rose more than eight percent and GSK was up over six percent in London.Several US pharma names also rose, including Merck and Bristol-Myers Squibb, while Lithium Americas Corp. surged 23.3 percent after announcing it would grant the US government an equity stake as part of the restructuring of a loan from the Department of Energy.In Asia, Tokyo’s stock market sank, while Hong Kong and Shanghai were closed for holidays.- Key figures at around 2030 GMT -New York – Dow: UP 0.1 percent at 46,441.10 (close)New York – S&P 500: UP 0.3 percent at 6,711.20 (close)New York – Nasdaq Composite: UP 0.4 percent at 22,755.16 (close)London – FTSE 100: UP 1.0 percent at 9,446.43 (close)Paris – CAC 40: UP 0.9 percent at 7,966.95 (close)Frankfurt – DAX: UP 1.0 percent at 24,113.62 (close)Tokyo – Nikkei 225: DOWN 0.9 percent at 44,550.85 (close)Hong Kong – Hang Seng Index: Closed for a holidayShanghai – Composite: Closed for a holidayEuro/dollar: DOWN at $1.1728 from $1.1734 on TuesdayPound/dollar: UP at $1.3476 from $1.3446Dollar/yen: DOWN at 147.14 yen from 147.90 yenEuro/pound: DOWN at 87.04 pence from 87.27 penceWest Texas Intermediate: DOWN 0.9 percent at $61.78 per barrelBrent North Sea Crude: DOWN 1.0 percent at $65.35 per barrelburs-jmb/ksb

President Donald Trump signaled Wednesday that he plans to push Chinese leader Xi Jinping on US soybean purchases when they meet, as American farmers grapple with fallout from his trade wars.”The Soybean Farmers of our Country are being hurt because China is, for ‘negotiating’ reasons only, not buying,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform.”I’ll be meeting with President Xi, of China, in four weeks, and Soybeans will be a major topic of discussion,” he added.Trump said last month that he would meet Xi on the sidelines of an Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in South Korea starting at the end of October. He also said that he would travel to China next year.The talks come after Washington and Beijing engaged in a tit-for-tat tariffs war earlier this year, imposing escalating duties on each other’s exports.While both sides have since agreed to de-escalate tensions, this has been a shaky truce with lingering effects.Trump on Wednesday reiterated plans to use some US tariff revenues to aid farmers, while taking aim at his predecessor Joe Biden for not enforcing an earlier trade pact with Beijing that involved a step up in farm purchases.Trump’s aggressive trade policies and resulting fallout have weighed on US farmers, including hitting export markets like China.The American Soybean Association (ASA) has urged Trump to prioritize soybeans in trade talks with Beijing.It warned in August that Beijing’s retaliatory tariffs are “shutting American farmers out of their largest export market going into the 2025 soybean harvest.”China is a top global buyer of soybeans, with the United States once being a major source for the world’s second biggest economy.But “the US has made zero sales to China in this new crop marketing year due to 20-percent retaliatory tariffs imposed by China in response to US tariffs,” ASA President Caleb Ragland said last week.”This has allowed other exporters, Brazil and now Argentina, to capture our market at the direct expense of US farmers,” he added in a statement.”The frustration is overwhelming,” he said.The first Trump administration provided aid to farmers too as his previous trade war gutted exports to what had been a massive market for US soybeans and pork, among other products.During Trump’s first presidency, retaliatory tariffs on the United States caused more than $27 billion in US agricultural export losses from mid-2018 to late-2019.

Wall Street stocks shrugged off early losses on Wednesday as the US government started to shut down after Democrats and President Donald Trump failed to break a deadlock over spending.The prospect of services in the United States being closed pushed safe-haven gold to another record high over $3,895.While Wall Street’s indices slid at the opening bell, they recovered during the morning session, with the Dow showing a small gain.”There have been previous shutdowns, and typically these have had little effect on financial markets. But much depends on how long the shutdown lasts,” said David Morrison, analyst at Trade Nation.”Given the current intransigence on both sides, there’s a possibility that federal services could be curtailed for some time,” he said.US government operations began grinding to a halt at 12:01 am (0401 GMT) Wednesday after Republicans and Democrats failed to break an impasse in Congress.The closure will see non-essential operations halted, leaving hundreds of thousands of civil servants temporarily unpaid, and many social safety net benefit payments potentially disrupted.Analysts say negative impacts from closures can be reversed once the government reopens.”Investors have been willing to ignore a lot of inconvenient facts for the past several months or even years,” said Steve Sosnick, of Interactive Brokers. “So they might do the same again.”Investors were also digesting data from payroll firm ADP showing the US private sector lost 32,000 jobs in September, despite analysts’ expectations of employment growth.”This is another sign that the US labour market is losing steam,” said Kathleen Brooks, research director at XTB trading platform.”This one is worrying, it is the third time in four months that the private sector has shed jobs, which comes after a boom in service sector jobs growth post Covid,” she said.Analysts said the weaker jobs market cement expectations that the US Federal Reserve will cut interest rates twice more this year, after lowering borrowing costs last month for the first time since December.Investors are concerned the US government shutdown could prevent the release Friday of the key non-farm payrolls report — a crucial data point for the Fed on rate decisions.The dollar remained under pressure on concerns over the shutdown as well as the prospect of more interest-rate cuts, which make the currency less attractive to investors.European markets were lifted by pharmaceutical shares after Pfizer was granted reprieve from Trump’s tariffs by agreeing to lower drug prices in the United States.Shares in British pharma giant AstraZeneca rose more than eight percent and GSK was up over six percent in London.In Asia, Tokyo’s stock market sank, while Hong Kong and Shanghai were closed for holidays.- Key figures at around 1530 GMT -New York – Dow: UP 0.2 percent at 46,486.21 pointsNew York – S&P 500: UP less than 0.1 percent at 6,691.94New York – Nasdaq Composite: FLAT at 22,660.24London – FTSE 100: UP 1.0 percent at 9,446.43 (close)Paris – CAC 40: UP 0.9 percent at 7,966.95 (close)Frankfurt – DAX: UP 1.0 percent at 24,113.62 (close)Tokyo – Nikkei 225: DOWN 0.9 percent at 44,550.85 (close)Hong Kong – Hang Seng Index: Closed for a holidayShanghai – Composite: Closed for a holidayEuro/dollar: DOWN at $1.1730 from $1.1739 on TuesdayPound/dollar: UP at $1.3478 from $1.3448Dollar/yen: DOWN at 147.14 yen from 147.86 yenEuro/pound: DOWN at 87.03 pence from 87.29 penceWest Texas Intermediate: DOWN 0.9 percent at $61.84 per barrelBrent North Sea Crude: DOWN 0.9 percent at $65.47 per barrelburs-rl/jhb

Wall Street stocks slid on Wednesday as the US government started to shut down after Democrats and President Donald Trump failed to break a deadlock over spending.The prospect of services in the United States being closed pushed gold to another record high over $3,895.The blue-chip Dow gave up 0.2 percent in opening deals, the broader S&P 500 shed 0.4 percent and the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite declined 0.6 percent.”There have been previous shutdowns, and typically these have had little effect on financial markets. But much depends on how long the shutdown lasts,” said David Morrison, analyst at Trade Nation.”Given the current intransigence on both sides, there’s a possibility that federal services could be curtailed for some time,” he said.Government operations began grinding to a halt at 12:01 am (0401 GMT) Wednesday after Republicans and Democrats failed to break an impasse in Congress.The closure will see non-essential operations halted, leaving hundreds of thousands of civil servants temporarily unpaid, and many social safety net benefit payments potentially disrupted.Analysts say negative impacts from closures can be reversed once the government reopens.”Investors have been willing to ignore a lot of inconvenient facts for the past several months or even years,” said Steve Sosnick, of Interactive Brokers. “So they might do the same again.”Investors were also digesting data from payroll firm ADP showing the US private sector lost 32,000 jobs in September, despite analysts’ expectations of employment growth. “This is another sign that the US labour market is losing steam,” said Kathleen Brooks, research director at XTB trading platform.”This one is worrying, it is the third time in four months that the private sector has shed jobs, which comes after a boom in service sector jobs growth post Covid,” she said.Analysts said the weaker jobs market cement expectations that the US Federal Reserve will cut interest rates twice more this year after lowering borrowing costs last month for the first time since December.Investors are concerned the US government shutdown could prevent the release Friday of the key non-farm payrolls report — a crucial data point for the Fed on rate decisions.The dollar remained under pressure on concerns over the shutdown as well as the prospect of more interest rate cuts, which make the currency less attractive to investors. European markets were lifted by pharmaceutical shares after Pfizer was granted reprieve from Trump’s tariffs by agreeing to lower drug prices in the United States. Shares in British pharma giant AstraZeneca rose more than eight percent and GSK was up over four percent in London. In Asia, Tokyo’s stock market sank, while Hong Kong and Shanghai were closed for holidays.- Key figures at around 1330 GMT -New York – Dow: DOWN 0.2 percent at 46,309.42 pointsNew York – S&P 500: DOWN 0.4 percent at 6,659.34New York – Nasdaq Composite: DOWN 0.6 percent at 22,526.38London – FTSE 100: UP 0.8 percent at 9,422.24 Paris – CAC 40: UP 0.7 percent at 7,952.67Frankfurt – DAX: UP 0.6 percent at 24,029.38Tokyo – Nikkei 225: DOWN 0.9 percent at 44,550.85 (close)Hong Kong – Hang Seng Index: Closed for a holidayShanghai – Composite: Closed for a holidayEuro/dollar: UP at $1.1755 from $1.1739 on TuesdayPound/dollar: UP at $1.3518 from $1.3448Dollar/yen: DOWN at 146.67 yen from 147.86 yenEuro/pound: DOWN at 86.97 pence from 87.29 penceWest Texas Intermediate: DOWN 0.9 percent at $61.80 per barrelBrent North Sea Crude: DOWN 0.9 percent at $65.43 per barrelburs-rl/lth

European stocks and gold prices rose, while Wall Street futures fell on Wednesday as the US government shut down after lawmakers failed to reach a funding deal.The prospect of services in the United States being closed pushed gold to another record high over $3,895. In Asia, Tokyo’s stock market sank, while Hong Kong and Shanghai were closed for holidays.European markets were lifted by pharmaceutical shares after Pfizer was granted reprieve from President Donald Trump’s tariffs by agreeing to lower drug prices in the United States. Trump also announced plans to unveil a website to allow consumers to directly purchase some medications from manufacturers at discounted rates. While details remain thin, shares in British pharma giant AstraZeneca rose more than six percent and GSK was up almost three percent in London. The dollar remained under pressure on concerns caused by the US government beginning to shut down Wednesday. Democrats and Republicans failed to break a budget impasse, with talks hinging on health care funding.”Historically shutdowns have been bad for the US dollar, bad for US equities, and bad for bonds too,” said Emma Wall, chief investment strategist at Hargreaves Lansdown.”Should the shutdown remain unresolved it is likely to drive money outside of the US to markets with more certainty,” she added.While most shutdowns end after a short period, investors were concerned it could prevent the release Friday of the key non-farm payrolls report — a crucial guide for the Fed on rate decisions.The closure will see non-essential operations halted, leaving hundreds of thousands of civil servants temporarily unpaid, and many social safety net benefit payments potentially disrupted.Trump threatened to punish Democrats during any stoppage by targeting progressive priorities and forcing mass public sector job cuts.”Shutdowns have delivered bouts of volatility, but the precedent has been that weakness tends to be short-lived,” noted Joshua Mahony, chief market analyst at Scope Markets.Futures on all three main indexes in New York were in the red.India’s rupee also made small inroads as the country’s central bank decided against cutting interest rates, despite inflation remaining low, but the unit continued to hover around record lows against the greenback.The South Asian currency has been hit by concerns over stalled trade talks with Trump that will soften painful tariffs, while Washington’s strict immigration measures have added to worries.The two sides remain in talks despite sharp disagreements over agricultural trade and New Delhi’s purchases of Russian oil.In company news, Australian mining titan BHP fell 2.5 percent following reports China had told steelmakers to temporarily stop buying seagoing, dollar-denominated cargoes from the firm, as part of a pricing dispute.- Key figures at around 1100 GMT -London – FTSE 100: UP 0.7 percent at 9,413.05 pointsParis – CAC 40: UP 0.4 percent at 7,924.93Frankfurt – DAX: UP 0.5 percent at 24,003.37Tokyo – Nikkei 225: DOWN 0.9 percent at 44,550.85 (close)Hong Kong – Hang Seng Index: Closed for a holidayShanghai – Composite: Closed for a holidayNew York – Dow: UP 0.2 percent at 46,397.89 (close)Euro/dollar: DOWN at $1.1729 from $1.1739 on TuesdayPound/dollar: UP at $1.3478 from $1.3448Dollar/yen: DOWN at 147.10 yen from 147.86 yenEuro/pound: DOWN at 87.01 pence from 87.29 penceWest Texas Intermediate: DOWN 0.5 percent at $62.05 per barrelBrent North Sea Crude: DOWN 0.5 percent at $65.70 per barrel

Gold hit a record high and Wall Street futures fell with the dollar Wednesday as the US government shut down after lawmakers failed to reach a funding deal, though most Asian and European markets edged up.The prospect of services in the United States being closed overshadowed optimism the Federal Reserve will cut interest rates again.Democrats and Republicans remain at loggerheads on funding the government beyond Tuesday — the end of the fiscal year — with both sides blaming each other.Senate Republicans tried to rubber-stamp a House-passed temporary funding patch, but could not get the handful of Democratic votes required to send it to President Donald Trump to sign off.Democrats want to see hundreds of billions of dollars in healthcare spending for low-income households restored, which the Trump administration is likely to eliminate.The closure will see non-essential operations halted, leaving hundreds of thousands of civil servants temporarily unpaid, and many social safety net benefit payments potentially disrupted.Trump threatened to punish Democrats during any stoppage by targeting progressive priorities and forcing mass public sector job cuts.”So we’d be laying off a lot of people that are going to be very affected,” he said.”And they’re Democrats, they’re going to be Democrats,” the president told an event at the White House, adding that he would use the pause to “get rid of a lot of things we didn’t want, and they’d be Democrat things”.Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson wrote on X that “Democrats have officially voted to CLOSE the government”.Democratic leaders Chuck Schumer and Hakeem Jeffries said in a joint statement their party remained “ready to find a bipartisan path forward to reopen the government in a way that lowers costs and addresses the Republican healthcare crisis”.While most shutdowns end after a short period with little effect on markets, investors remain concerned, particularly as it could prevent the release Friday of the key non-farm payrolls report — a crucial guide for the Fed on rate decisions.Still, Pepperstone’s Michael Brown wrote: “I remain strongly of the view that (investors) should continue to look through the political noise as, in the grand scheme of things, the expiration of federal funding doesn’t make especially much difference.”Chiefly, this is because we all know that, sooner or later, a deal will be cut, the government will re-open, and any economic data that was delayed… will be released in due course.”Safe-haven gold hit a new peak of $3,875.53 on worries about the shutdown as well as a weaker dollar and bets on lower borrowing costs.Futures on all three main indexes in New York were in the red — with the Dow coming off a record.However, Asian equities held up, with Singapore, Seoul, Wellington, Taipei, Manila, Mumbai, Bangkok and Jakarta all in positive territory along with London.Tokyo sank with Paris and Frankfurt while Sydney was barely moved.Hong Kong and Shanghai were closed for holidays.The dollar retreated against its peers owing to concerns caused by the shutdown.India’s rupee also made small inroads as the country’s central bank decided against cutting interest rates, despite inflation remaining low, but the unit continued to hover around record lows against the greenback.The South Asian currency has been hit by concerns over stalled trade talks with Trump that will soften painful tariffs, while Washington’s strict immigration measures have added to worries.The two sides remain in talks despite sharp disagreements over agricultural trade and New Delhi’s purchases of Russian oil.In company news, Australian mining titan BHP fell 2.5 percent following reports China had told steelmakers to temporarily stop buying seagoing, dollar-denominated cargoes from the firm, as part of a pricing dispute.- Key figures at around 0715 GMT -Tokyo – Nikkei 225: DOWN 0.9 percent at 44,550.85 (close)London – FTSE 100: UP 0.2 percent at 9,366.15 Hong Kong – Hang Seng Index: Closed for a holidayShanghai – Composite: Closed for a holidayEuro/dollar: UP at $1.1768 from $1.1739 on TuesdayPound/dollar: DOWN at $1.3468 from $1.3448Dollar/yen: UP at 147.21 yen from 147.86 yenEuro/pound: UP at 87.37 pence from 87.29 penceWest Texas Intermediate: UP 0.4 percent at $62.59 per barrelBrent North Sea Crude: UP 0.4 percent at $66.28 per barrelNew York – Dow: UP 0.2 percent at 46,397.89 (close)

Taiwan “will not agree” to making 50 percent of its semiconductors in the United States, the island’s lead tariff negotiator said Wednesday, as Washington pressures Taipei to produce more chips on US soil.Vice Premier Cheng Li-chiun’s remarks came after US Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick said he had proposed to Taiwan a 50-50 split in chip production.”I want to clarify that this is the US’s idea. Our negotiation team has never made a 50-50 commitment to a chip split,” Cheng told reporters in Taipei.”Please be rest assured that we did not discuss this issue this time, and we will not agree to such a condition,” she said.Cheng spoke after returning from Washington where she said negotiations over US tariffs on Taiwanese shipments “made some progress”.Taiwan is struggling to finalise a tariff deal with Washington, after President Donald Trump’s administration imposed a temporary 20 percent levy that has alarmed the island’s manufacturers.Trump has also threatened to put a “fairly substantial tariff” on semiconductors coming into the country. Soaring demand for AI-related technology has fuelled Taiwan’s trade surplus with the United States — and put it in Trump’s crosshairs.More than 70 percent of the island’s exports to the United States are information and communications technology, which includes chips, the cabinet said in a statement Wednesday.In a bid to avoid the tariffs, Taipei has pledged to increase investment in the United States, buy more of its energy and increase its own defence spending to more than three percent of gross domestic product.Taiwan produces more than half of the world’s semiconductors and nearly all of the high-end ones.The concentration of chip manufacturing in Taiwan has long been seen as a “silicon shield” protecting it from an invasion or blockade by China, which claims it as part of its territory — and an incentive for the United States to defend it.In an interview with NewsNation broadcast over the weekend, Lutnick said having 50 percent of Taiwan’s chip production in the United States would ensure “we have the capacity to do what we need to do if we need to do it”.”That has been the conversation we’ve had with Taiwan, that you have to understand that it’s vital for you to have us produce 50 percent,” he said. “Our goal is to get to 40 percent market share, and maybe 50 percent market share, of producing the chips and the wafers, you know the semiconductors we need for American consumption, that’s our objective.”