And bond markets have edged higher.
Happy Thursday and welcome to your morning wrap of the latest business and political headlines from around the world.
First up, President Donald Trump said the US might have to “unwind” the trade deals it has reached with the European Union, Japan, and South Korea if it loses a Supreme Court case on the legality of the levies, Reuters reported.
His administration sought to have the Supreme Court reverse an appeals court ruling last week that found many of his tariffs illegal because only Congress had the power to introduce new taxes, such as levies.
Trump said losing that case would leave the US far poorer and jeopardise recent trade agreements, although he thought his administration would prevail.
“Our country has a chance to be unbelievably rich again. It could also be unbelievably poor again. If we don't win that case, our country is going to suffer so greatly, so greatly,” he said.
To China now, where Russian President Vladimir Putin and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un met for bilateral talks in Beijing after attending a military parade in the Chinese capital to celebrate the end of World War II.
Speaking to media as the talks began, Putin praised the bravery and heroism of North Korean soldiers who fought alongside Russian troops to repel a Ukrainian incursion into Kursk, Associated Press reported.
According to South Korean estimates, North Korea has sent about 15,000 troops to Russia since last year.
Kim said cooperation between the two countries has “significantly strengthened” since Pyongyang and Moscow signed a strategic pact last year.
AP reported that observers were waiting to see whether there would be a trilateral meeting between Chinese President Xi Jinping, Kim, and Putin.
US President Donald Trump referenced Xi in a post on social media, saying: “Please give my warmest regards to Vladimir Putin and Kim Jong Un, as you conspire against the United States of America.”
Putin’s foreign affairs adviser, Yuri Ushakov, commented on the post: “I want to say that no one has been plotting anything; no one was weaving any conspiracies,” he said. “None of the three leaders had even thought about such a thing.”
Kim Jong Un and Vladimir Putin.
Staying in China, a hot mic at the military parade captured Putin being interpreted to Xi as saying that advances in biotechnology could result in increasing longevity and even open the door to immortality, ABC reported.
Putin’s comments were relayed through a Russian-Mandarin interpreter on Reuters and AP’s live streams.
Xi was heard laughing at Putin’s comment that organ transplants could let “us live younger and younger, and perhaps even achieve immortality”.
Xi responded: “In this century, it's anticipated that it may be possible for people to live to 150 years old.”
In economic news, job openings in the US have ticked down to levels rarely seen since the pandemic, fuelling fears the labour market is cooling, CNBC reported.
There were about 7.18 million job listings in July, according to data from the Bureau of Labour Statistics – the second reading under 7.2 million since the end of 2020.
The reading was below market expectations for 7.4 million openings, underscoring rising concerns about a weakening labour market.
“This is yet another data point underscoring how this job market is frozen and it’s difficult for anyone to get a job right now,” Navy Federal Credit Union chief economist Heather Long said.
The labour market is being closely watched in the US for what it may mean for monetary policy.
CNBC also reported that long-dated borrowing costs are back under pressure, with analysts saying this is due to broad investor unease with the path of monetary and fiscal policy in major economies.
Bond markets have been on a bumpy ride this year, with spikes and falls stemming from White House policymaking.
Moves have been more measured this week, but several yields hit notable milestones. The US 30-year Treasury yield nudged above 5% overnight for the first time since July amid questions over the future of tariff revenue after last week’s ruling. Bond yields are inversely related to their face value, meaning that when bond prices go down, yields go up.
Meanwhile, Japan’s 30-year bond yield reached a record high, and long-dated bonds in the UK hit their highest level this week since 1998.
Peel Hunt chief economist Kallum Pickering said that while there is not a crisis in the bond market, the elevated prices paid by governments, combined with high interest rates, are a problem across advanced economies.
“[High rates] constrain policy choices, they crowd out private investment, they leave us wondering every six months whether we’re going to face a bout of financial instability. These are really, really bad for the private sector,” he told CNBC before suggesting that austerity would be stimulative for markets as it would bring down bond yields.
And finally, fast fashion giant Shein has opened an internal investigation after its website displayed a shirt listing featuring an image resembling Luigi Mangione, the man accused of killing United Healthcare chief executive Brian Thompson in New York last year, The Guardian reported.
The image appeared to show Mangione in a short-sleeved white shirt, and the top was reportedly priced at just under $10.
Shein, in a statement, said the image was provided by a third-party vendor and was removed immediately upon discovery.
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