Cynthia Erivo reflected on the journey she and Ariana Grande have taken with Wicked and Wicked: For Good during a special Screen Actors Guild screening held at the Television Academy in Los Angeles over the weekend.
How many squid short-finned pilot whales (Globicephala macrorhynchus) living off Hawaiʻi must eat each day, and whether the surrounding waters can support their needs, are key questions for conservation. Understanding these fundamentals helps…
How many squid short-finned pilot whales (Globicephala macrorhynchus) living off Hawaiʻi must eat each day, and whether the surrounding waters can support their needs, are key questions for conservation. Understanding these fundamentals helps…
Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) chairman Mohsin Naqvi heaped praise on the Pakistan Shaheens team after their comprehensive win over India A in the Rising Stars Asia Cup on Sunday, November 16. The Pakistan side beat India by eight wickets, thanks…
Egyptian-Austrian filmmaker Abu Bakr Shawky (Yommedine, Hajjan) is back. After debuting movies at Cannes and Toronto, he world premiered his latest, The Stories, at the 29th edition of the Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival (PÖFF) in…
Japan’s tourism shares slump as diplomatic rift with China deepens
As well as news that its economy shrank in the last quarter, Japan has also been hit by an escalating dispute with China over Taiwan.
Shares in Japanese tourism and retail companies have fallen today, after China advised its citizens to avoid travelling to Japan.
This move by Beijing escalated a diplomatic feud sparked by comments from Tokyo’s new prime minister, SanaeTakaichi, on the possibility of deploying forces in the event of a hypothetical Chinese attack on Taiwan.
This triggered a wave of selling across Japanese leisure stocks.
Shares in OrientalLand, which operates Tokyo Disneyland, have fallen by 5.7% today. Department store chain IsetanMitsukoshi, which makes substantial sales to Chinese visitors, has tumbled by 11.3%.
Travel stocks were hit too, with JapanAirlines falling 3.75%.
MasahikoLoo, a senior fixed income strategist at StateStreetInvestmentManagement in Tokyo, explains:
“The China–Japan dispute over Taiwan and Beijing’s advisory discouraging travel to Japan introduces near-term headwinds for consumer-facing sectors.
“Chinese visitors account for roughly 25% of Japan’s inbound traffic, making department stores, luxury retail, and hospitality particularly vulnerable.”
Introduction: Japan’s economy contracts as exports are hit by US tariffs
Good morning, and welcome to our rolling coverage of business, the financial markets and the world economy.
Donald Trump’s trade wars continue to bruise the global economy, dampening demand and weakening trade links.
Japan is the latest country to show the effects – its economy has shrunk for the first time in six quarters.
Japanese GDP fell by 0.4% in the July-September quarter, new official data shows, as its manufacturers’ exports were hit by the tariffs imposed by the US this year.
Exports were a key driver of the contraction; they fell by 1.2% compared with the April-June quarter, and were 4.5% lower than a year ago.
Back in April, Trump threatened Japan with a new 25% tariff on its goods at the US border, which was cut to 15% in July when the two countries reached a trade deal.
Private demand also fell, by 0.3% quarter-on-quarter.
On an annualised basis, Japan’s real gross domestic product shrank by 1.8% on an annualized basis in the three months through September. Although that’s better than the 2.4% fall which economists had expected, it could bolster new prime minister Sanae Takaichi’s case to compile an ambitious stimulus programme.
YoshimasaMaruyama, chief market economist at SMBCNikkoSecurities says (via Bloomberg):
“Japan’s economy was solid in the first half of this year and today’s GDP showed that momentum is halted temporarily.
I expect Japan’s economy to be back on a moderate recovery trend going forward.”
The White House has belatedly woken up to the impact of tariffs on Americans (who pay the levies) too – late last week, Trump lowered the tariffs on food imports, including beef, tomatoes, coffee and bananas, amid growing concerns about rising costs.
