Category: 3. Business

MELBOURNE, Australia — An Australian domestic flight was delayed for two hours after a stowaway snake was found in the plane’s cargo hold, officials said on Wednesday.

The snake was found on Tuesday as passengers were boarding Virgin Australia Flight VA337 at Melbourne Airport bound for Brisbane, according to snake catcher Mark Pelley.

The snake turned out to be a harmless 60-centimeter (2-foot) green tree snake. But Pelly said he thought it could be venomous when he approached it in the darkened hold.

“It wasn’t until after I caught the snake that I realized that it wasn’t venomous. Until that point, it looked very dangerous to me,” Pelley said.

Most of the world’s most venomous snakes are native to Australia.

When Pelley entered the cargo hold, the snake was half hidden behind a panel and could have disappeared deeper into the plane.

Pelley said he told an aircraft engineer and airline staff that they would have to evacuate the aircraft if the snake disappeared inside the plane.

“I said to them if I don’t get this in one shot, it’s going to sneak through the panels and you’re going to have to evacuate the plane because at that stage I did not know what kind of snake it was,” Pelley said.

“But thankfully, I got it on the first try and captured it,” Pelley added. “If I didn’t get it that first time, the engineers and I would be pulling apart a (Boeing) 737 looking for a snake still right now.”

Pelley said he had taken 30 minutes to drive to the airport and was then delayed by security before he could reach the airliner.

An airline official said the flight was delayed around two hours.

Because the snake is native to the Brisbane region, Pelley suspects it came aboard inside a passenger’s luggage and escaped during the two-hour flight from Brisbane to Melbourne.

For quarantine reasons, the snake can’t be returned to the wild.

The snake, which is a protected species, has been given to a Melbourne veterinarian to find a home with a licensed snake keeper.

MANILA, Philippines — Asian shares were mixed on Wednesday following a similar drift overnight on Wall Street as losses for Tesla and other technology shares put a brake on the momentum of recent record highs.

U.S. futures edged higher and oil prices were little changed.

Shares fell in Japan, hit by jitters over a lack of progress in trade talks with the U.S., but they recovered much of their lost ground, trading 0.3% lower at 39,874.33.

Stephen Innes, managing partner at SPI Asset Management, pointed to President Donald Trump’s declaration that there will be no extension of his tariff pause, which ends on July 9.

“The message was blunt: if Tokyo won’t yield, it will pay. Tariffs of 30%, 35% or ‘whatever number we determine’ are now openly back on the table,” he said. “The negotiating table just became a pressure cooker.”

Hong Kong’s Hang Seng advanced 0.6% to 24,220.65 and the Shanghai Composite index was down just over 1 point at 3,456.51.

South Korea’s KOSPI fell 1.2% to 3,053.39 as inflation rose in June.

Australia’s S&P ASX 200 edged up 0.4% to 8,580.70.

On Tuesday, the S&P 500 dipped 0.1% to 6,198.01 for its first loss in four days. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.9% to 44,494.94, and the Nasdaq composite fell 0.8% to 20,202.89.

Tesla tugged on the market as the relationship between its CEO, Elon Musk, and President Donald Trump soured even further. Once allies, the two have clashed recently, and Trump suggested there’s potentially “BIG MONEY TO BE SAVED” by scrutinizing subsidies, contracts or other government spending going to Musk’s companies.

Tesla fell 5.3%. It has lost just over a quarter of its value so far this year, 25.5%, in large part because of Musk’s and Trump’s feud.

Drops for several darlings of the artificial-intelligence frenzy also weighed on the market. Nvidia’s decline of 3% was the heaviest weight on the S&P 500.

But more stocks within the index rose than fell, led by several casino companies. They rallied following a report showing better-than-expected growth in overall gaming revenue in Macao, China’s casino hub. Las Vegas Sands gained 8.9%, Wynn Resorts climbed 8.8% and MGM Resorts International rose 7.3%.

Automakers outside of Tesla were also strong, with General Motors up 5.7% and Ford Motor up 4.6%.

The U.S. stock market has made a stunning recovery from its springtime sell-off of roughly 20%. But challenges still lie ahead for Wall Street, with one of the largest being the continued threat of Trump’s tariffs.

Many of Trump’s stiff proposed taxes on imports are currently on pause, and they’re scheduled to kick into effect in about a week. Depending on how big they are, they could hurt the economy and worsen inflation.

Washington is also making progress on proposed cuts to tax rates and other measures that could send the U.S. government’s debt spiraling higher, which could raise inflation. That in turn could mean higher interest rates, which would hurt prices for bonds, stocks and other investments.

Despite such challenges, strategists at Barclays say they see signals of euphoria among some investors. The strategists say a measure that tries to show how much “excess optimism” is in the market is not far from the peaks seen during the “meme stock” craze that sent GameStop to market-bending heights or to the dot-com bubble at the turn of the millennium.
In other dealings early Wednesday, benchmark U.S. crude gained 1 cent to $65.46 per barrel. Brent crude, the international standard, rose 5 cents per barrel to $67.16.

The U.S. dollar rose to 143.58 Japanese yen from 143.41 yen. The euro slid to $1.1798 from $1.1808. ___

AP Business Writer Stan Choe contributed

Gold prices remained broadly unchanged in Philippines on Wednesday, according to data compiled by FXStreet.

The price for Gold stood at 6,050.44 Philippine Pesos (PHP) per gram, broadly stable compared with the PHP 6,045.77 it cost on Tuesday.

The price for Gold was broadly steady at PHP 70,571.20 per tola from PHP 70,516.70 per tola a day earlier.

Unit measure	Gold Price in PHP
1 Gram	6,050.44
10 Grams	60,504.44
Tola	70,571.20
Troy Ounce	188,190.00

FXStreet calculates Gold prices in Philippines by adapting international prices (USD/PHP)
to the local currency and measurement units. Prices are updated daily based on the market rates taken at the time of
publication. Prices are just for reference and local rates could diverge slightly.

(An automation tool was used in creating this post.)

The married couple behind the Prax Lindsey oil refinery awarded themselves at least $15.9m (£11.5m) in pay and dividends in the years leading up to its collapse, it has emerged, as the government urged the company’s boss to “put his hand in his pockets” to help workers.

Winston Soosaipillai, who goes by his middle names Sanjeev Kumar, jointly owned the refinery with his wife, Arani, until it plunged into insolvency on Monday.

The failure of the refinery, which is one of only five left in the UK, has put 625 workers at risk and raised fears about disruption to supplies of customers such as petrol retailers and Heathrow airport.

The sudden demise of the company, which Westminster sources said had assured ministers of its health just weeks ago, prompted the government to order an investigation into “the conduct of the directors”.

Sanjeev Kumar Soosaipillai is the sole director of both the refinery operation and its parent company, according to the latest available filings from Companies House.

The scale of rewards on offer to Soosaipillai and his wife, who is the group’s human resources director, are revealed in a series of annual reports and Companies House filings.

The group paid a dividend of $5.2m to its shareholders in 2024, on top of a $2.1m payment in 2022, the documents show.

The Soosaipillais own 80% of the group directly and 20% via family trusts, indicating that they have extracted $7.3m in dividends since buying the plant from French oil company Total in 2021.

Pay disclosures also reveal the sums paid to the group’s highest-paid director, understood to be Soosaipillai, given that he is the only director.

The pay deals were worth a combined $8.5m between 2022 and 2024, the only years for which accounts have been filed.

In total, the Soosaipillais appear to have handed themselves £11.5m in pay and dividends since buying the refinery in 2021.

Details of the payouts emerged after Mark Shanks, a junior minister in the energy department, called for Soosaipillai to help fund compensation for some of the 625 workers affected by the collapse.

Speaking in the House of Commons on Monday, Shanks said that the government “expect[s] the owners to put their hands in their pockets and provide the support that those workers deserve”.

The division that houses the facility, Prax Lindsey Oil Refinery Ltd, has lost £109m over the same period, although this is not uncommon in large oil and gas operations, whose trading divisions often make up the difference.

Accounts also show that Prax was forced to revise the accounting treatment of one proposed dividend payment, after discovering it did not have enough cash to fund the payout.

During 2023, the Prax Group holding company declared and paid a dividend of $4.98m to its shareholders, the Soosaipillais.

These were paid “in good faith”, according to filings at Companies House, but the company later discovered that the payout “exceeded the available level of distributable reserves”.

The sum was reclassified as an amount owed to the group by “related parties”.

After the year end, a new dividend was declared, which accounts said would be satisfied by releasing the parent company from its obligation to repay sums already transferred.

The Guardian approached representatives of Prax, including one who has previously answered questions on behalf of the Soosaipillais, for comment.

Inspired by the “Harry Potter” stories and the Disney Channel show “Wizards of Waverly Place,” 7-year-old Sabrina Corsetti emphatically declared to her parents one afternoon that she was, in fact, a wizard.

“My dad turned to me and said that, if I really wanted to be a wizard, then I should become a physicist. Physicists are the real wizards of the world,” she recalls.

That conversation stuck with Corsetti throughout her childhood, all the way up to her decision to double-major in physics and math in college, which set her on a path to MIT, where she is now a graduate student in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science.

While her work may not involve incantations or magic wands, Corsetti’s research centers on an area that often produces astonishing results: integrated photonics. A relatively young field, integrated photonics involves building computer chips that route light instead of electricity, enabling compact and scalable solutions for applications ranging from communications to sensing.

Corsetti and her collaborators in the Photonics and Electronics Research Group, led by Professor Jelena Notaros, develop chip-sized devices which enable innovative applications that push the boundaries of what is possible in optics.

For instance, Corsetti and the team developed a chip-based 3D printer, small enough to sit in the palm of one’s hand, that emits a reconfigurable beam of light into resin to create solid shapes. Such a device could someday enable a user to rapidly fabricate customized, low-cost objects on the go.

She also contributed to creating a miniature “tractor beam” that uses a beam of light to capture and manipulate biological particles using a chip. This could help biologists study DNA or investigate the mechanisms of disease without contaminating tissue samples.

More recently, Corsetti has been working on a project in collaboration with MIT Lincoln Laboratory, focused on trapped-ion quantum computing, which involves the manipulation of ions to store and process quantum information.

“Our team has a strong focus on designing devices and systems that interact with the environment. The opportunity to join a new research group, led by a supportive and engaged advisor, that works on projects with a lot of real-world impacts, is primarily what drew me to MIT,” Corsetti says.

Embracing challenges

Years before she set foot in a research lab, Corsetti was a science- and math-focused kid growing up with her parents and younger brother in the suburbs of Chicago, where her family operates a structural steelwork company.

Throughout her childhood, her teachers fostered her love of learning, from her early years in the Frankfort 157-C school district through her time at the Lincoln-Way East High School.

She enjoyed working on science experiments outside the classroom and relished the chance to tackle complex conundrums during independent study projects curated by her teachers (like calculating the math behind the Brachistochrone Curve, or the shortest path between two points, which was famously solved by Isaac Newton).

Corsetti decided to double-major in physics and math at the University of Michigan after graduating from high school a year early.

“When I went to the University of Michigan, I couldn’t wait to get started. I enrolled in the toughest math and physics track right off the bat,” she recalls.

But Corsetti soon found that she had bitten off a bit more than she could chew. A lot of her tough undergraduate courses assumed students had prior knowledge from AP physics and math classes, which Corsetti hadn’t taken because she graduated early.

She met with professors, attended office hours, and tried to pick up the lessons she had missed, but felt so discouraged she contemplated switching majors. Before she made the switch, Corsetti decided to try working in a physics lab to see if she liked a day in the life of a researcher.

After joining Professor Wolfgang Lorenzon’s lab at Michigan, Corsetti spent hours working with grad students and postdocs on a hands-on project to build cells that would hold liquid hydrogen for a particle physics experiment.

As they collaborated for hours at a time to roll material into tubes, she peppered the older students with questions about their experiences in the field.

“Being in the lab made me fall in love with physics. I really enjoyed that environment, working with my hands, and working with people as part of a bigger team,” she says.

Her affinity for hands-on lab work was amplified a few years later when she met Professor Tom Schwarz, her research advisor for the rest of her time at Michigan.

Following a chance conversation with Schwarz, she applied to a research abroad program at CERN in Switzerland, where she was mentored by Siyuan Sun. There, she had the opportunity to join thousands of physicists and engineers on the ATLAS project, writing code and optimizing circuits for new particle-detector technologies.

“That was one of the most transformative experiences of my life. After I came back to Michigan, I was ready to spend my career focusing on research,” she says.

Hooked on photonics

Corsetti began applying to graduate schools but decided to shift focus from the more theoretical particle physics to electrical engineering, with an interest in conducting hands-on chip-design and testing research.

She applied to MIT with a focus on standard electronic-chip design, so it came as a surprise when Notaros reached out to her to schedule a Zoom call. At the time, Corsetti was completely unfamiliar with integrated photonics. However, after one conversation with the new professor, she was hooked.

“Jelena has an infectious enthusiasm for integrated photonics,” she recalls. “After those initial conversations, I took a leap of faith.”

Corsetti joined Notaros’ team as it was just getting started. Closely mentored by a senior student, Milica Notaros, she and her cohort grew immersed in integrated photonics.

Over the years, she’s particularly enjoyed the collaborative and close-knit nature of the lab and how the work involves so many different aspects of the experimental process, from design to simulation to analysis to hardware testing.

“An exciting challenge that we’re always running up against is new chip-fabrication requirements. There is a lot of back-and-forth between new application areas that demand new fabrication technologies, followed by improved fabrication technologies motivating additional application areas. That cycle is constantly pushing the field forward,” she says.

Corsetti plans to stay at the cutting edge of the field after graduation as an integrated-photonics researcher in industry or at a national lab. She would like to focus on trapped-ion quantum computing, which scientists are rapidly scaling up toward commercially viable systems, or other high-performance computing applications.

“You really need accelerated computing for any modern research area. It would be exciting and rewarding to contribute to high-performance computing that can enable a lot of other interesting research areas,” she says.

Paying it forward

In addition to making an impact with research, Corsetti is focused on making a personal impact in the lives of others. Through her involvement in MIT Graduate Hillel, she joined the Jewish Big Brothers Big Sisters of Boston, where she volunteers for the friend-to-friend program.

Participating in the program, which pairs adults who have disabilities with friends in the community for fun activities like watching movies or painting has been an especially uplifting and gratifying experience for Corsetti.

She’s also enjoyed the opportunity to support, mentor, and bond with her fellow MIT EECS students, drawing on the advice she’s received throughout her own academic journey.

“Don’t trust feelings of imposter syndrome,” she advises others. “Keep moving forward, ask for feedback and help, and be confident that you will reach a point where you can make meaningful contributions to a team.”

Outside the lab, she enjoys playing classical music on the clarinet (her favorite piece is Leonard Bernstein’s famous overture to “Candide”), reading, and caring for a family of fish in her aquarium.

This is an audio transcript of the FT News Briefing podcast episode: ‘Hong Kong’s bull run leaves China in the dust’

Sonja Hutson
Good morning from the Financial Times. Today is Wednesday, July 2nd, and this is your FT News Briefing.

The UK government got its welfare bill over the line, but only after huge concessions. And Hong Kong’s stock market is leaving mainland China’s in the dust. Meanwhile, China has a chokehold on the world’s critical minerals, can France change that?

Camilla Hodgson
What’s at stake really is the kind of viability and functioning of integral supply chains from wind turbine manufacturing to car manufacturing in Europe.

Sonja Hutson
I’m Sonja Hutson, and here’s the news you need to start your day.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer gutted his welfare reform bill yesterday. And only then got it through the House of Commons. But the move leaves a multi-billion-dollar hole in the country’s public finances. Starmer faced a massive rebellion from his own Labour party over the controversial bill. It was initially supposed to save £5bn, but now experts say the government could even lose money on it.

This U-turn leaves chancellor Rachel Reeves in a tough spot. She’ll have to look at other ways to raise money, like increasing taxes.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

Hong Kong’s stock market is on a bull run. Chinese mainland equities, not so much. They’re basically flat so far this year, while the Hang Seng index is up 20 per cent, that’s the most Hong Kong has outperformed the mainland since 2008. Here to explain what this divergence tells us about the Chinese economy is the FT’s William Sandlund. Hi William.

William Sandlund
Hi. How are you?

Sonja Hutson
Doing well, thanks. So what has investors so excited about Hong Kong stocks?

William Sandlund
It does seem that most of the side performance is being driven by Chinese investors going into Hong Kong. So Hong Kong’s benefited because there are a number of Chinese technology companies like Alibaba and Tencent that are listed here that aren’t available on mainland exchanges.

In particular, since the release of DeepSeek, there’s been this huge wave of enthusiasm for Chinese technology companies, especially from investors on the mainland. And we’ve seen that show up in these record-breaking southbound flows as Chinese investors get exposure to Chinese technology names.

Sonja Hutson
OK, so a lot of money is flowing from mainland China to Hong Kong. Why aren’t investors feeling the love for Chinese equities?

William Sandlund
Well, part of it is just the lack of these large tech companies listed in mainland China, but the other significant reason is that China’s economic recovery this year hasn’t been great. There was a lot of optimism last September after the government released a stimulus package.

There has yet to be a fiscal follow-through on those measures, and so there are long-term difficulties China is facing with deflation, weak consumer sentiment, falling property prices. And on top of all of that, you have trade tensions with the US that have weighed on sentiment in China.

Sonja Hutson
Yeah. Tell me a little bit more about how the trade war with the US has influenced these two stock markets.

William Sandlund
Well, Hong Kong has actually benefited from its position as a intermediary between China and the US at this time. It has seen a huge number of IPOs this year as Chinese companies list in the city, looking to capitalise on this revival in its market. In China, it’s been much more directly affected by trade tensions with the US, and that’s weighed on business sentiment, which in turn affects retail investors.

And there’s a lot of uncertainty over the shape of a trade deal, and many investors and analysts think that China is actually waiting on more clarity on the shape of this trade deal before they roll out more forceful measures to revive the domestic economy.

Sonja Hutson
Well, do analysts and investors then expect Hong Kong to continue to outperform the mainland?

William Sandlund
Well, Hong Kong, you know, it’s more of a financial centre and it’s really been boosted by Beijing’s policies to kind of revitalise its capital markets and open the pathway for Chinese companies to IPO here, they’ve just eased restrictions on, domestic mainland Chinese investors to bring more money into Hong Kong.

So there’s been this really deliberate attempt to kind of revitalise Hong Kong at a time when markets on the mainland have been much more subdued. And Hong Kong has a fully convertible currency. It’s pegged to the US dollar. It has deep liquid financial markets. It makes it a really attractive place for Chinese companies to raise capital and for investors to feel safe buying companies.

Sonja Hutson
William Sandlund is the FT’s Asia markets correspondent. Thanks, William.

William Sandlund
Thanks so much for having me.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

Sonja Hutson
Eurozone inflation rose just a tad to 2 per cent in June. That’s a notch above May’s 1.9 per cent figure. But it’s right at the European Central Bank’s medium-term target. Economists say that means the central bank will likely hold interest rates steady at the next meeting in July. The ECB has already lowered rates eight times since last June. And President Christine Lagarde said last month that the Central Bank was likely to slow things down.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

European companies are trying to shake their reliance on China for critical minerals, and now they’re turning to France to fill the gap. This comes after Beijing upended supply chains by imposing export restrictions in April. That was in retaliation to US President Donald Trump’s so-called liberation day tariffs.

Here to talk more about this is the FT’s commodities correspondent Camilla Hodgson. Hi, Camilla.

Camilla Hodgson
Hi. Good morning.

Sonja Hutson
So give me some of the details here. Just how reliant is Europe on China’s rare earth minerals

Camilla Hodgson
Enormously, almost entirely. And that’s not just a Europe problem. China totally dominates the rare earth supply chain. But for Europe in particular, China’s supply is about 98 per cent of the EU’s rare earth magnets. And those are the magnets that go into things like defence applications and electric vehicles, all sorts of stuff.

Sonja Hutson
OK, so lots of stuff that is super important strategically to a lot of countries in the west, but why is France in particular seen as the best place for Europe to become more self-sufficient in these minerals?

Camilla Hodgson
Well, France is one option among really not very many. The thing with France is that it has a history, perhaps around the ‘90s of some earth’s processing in particular. So where you take what’s been mined and you separate it, and you process it into a material that could be used in magnets, for example. And that knowhow, that knowledge, some of the expertise, the people that worked in the sector still are in France. And so I think the country and European companies in the sector are looking to kind of revive that. Even having two or three, a handful in France creates a kind of cluster effect.

Sonja Hutson
OK. So it seems like France already has a lot of the infrastructure that’s needed to process these raw materials. How do they compare with China?

Camilla Hodgson
Well, at the moment, there is sort of no comparison. It’s really a drop in the ocean. France’s capabilities compared to China’s and efforts in France will take a while to ramp up. It takes time to build these facilities and to get them up and running. No one has huge surplus stocks of rare earths really in Europe.

And I think it’s also important to say that western companies are not necessarily looking to cut China out of their supply chains. This is more to do with diversifying their sources of supplies so that if there is a problem in future, if country X restricts exports, then they have alternative places to turn to.

Sonja Hutson
Well, Camilla, what’s at stake would you say if France can’t get up to speed quickly enough in this rare earth space? Does Europe have any other options that they’re looking into?

Camilla Hodgson
What’s at stake really is the kind of viability and functioning of supply chains, really integral supply chains from wind turbine manufacturing to car manufacturing in Europe and really elsewhere, because these are global supply chains and global companies that are relying on this Chinese rare earth production.

There are companies here and there, Brazil, for example, has deposits of rare earths and there are companies looking to develop an industry there or grow the industry there. Also, the US is very interested in becoming more self-sufficient in the space. But again, it’s all very early stage, so it’s not something that we are gonna see suddenly change next year or the year after.

Sonja Hutson
Camilla Hodgson is the FT’s commodities correspondent. Thanks, Camilla.

Camilla Hodgson
Thanks so much.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

Sonja Hutson
You can read more on all these stories for free when you click the links in our show notes. This has been your daily FT News Briefing. Check back tomorrow for the latest business news.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

KARACHI – Gold prices in Pakistan registered massive gains in line with upward trend in international markets on July 2, 2025.

According to the Saraffa Association, the price of 24-karat gold per tola surged to 356,800 after an increase of Rs6,600 while the rate for 10 grams stood at Rs305,898.

Gold prices hold significant importance in Pakistan due to cultural, economic, and investment reasons. Gold is traditionally used in weddings, festivals, and as a form of savings, especially by women. Fluctuations in gold prices directly impact jewelry demand and the overall retail market.

Economically, many Pakistanis invest in gold as a hedge against inflation and currency depreciation. In times of financial uncertainty, gold acts as a safe haven. Moreover, changes in international gold rates affect local prices, influencing import costs and trade balance. Therefore, monitoring gold prices is crucial for investors, consumers, and policymakers in Pakistan.

Today Gold Rate in Pakistan

City	Gold Price	Silver Rate
Karachi	356,800	Rs3,878
Lahore	356,800	Rs3,878
Islamabad	356,800	Rs3,878
Peshawar	356,800	Rs3,878
Quetta	356,800	Rs3,878
Sialkot	356,800	Rs3,878
Hyderabad	356,800	Rs3,878
Faisalabad	356,800	Rs3,878

Gold Price Movement This Week

• May 28: Rs349,300

• May 27: Rs347,900

• May 26: Rs351,500

• May 24: Rs354,100

• May 23: Rs351,000

• May 22: Rs347,500

• May 21: Rs349,400

Meanwhile, the silver rates remained constant  as one tola priced at Rs3,782.

Market experts attribute the ongoing volatility to uncertain trends in global bullion trading and the fluctuating value of the Pakistani rupee against the US dollar.

Gold rally breaks negative streak in Pakistan amid tweaks; Check New Prices

DOHA, July 1, 2025 — The World Bank Group (WBG) announced today the appointment of Holly Welborn Benner as the World Bank Group Country Manager for the State of Qatar, based in Doha. This underlines the World Bank Group’s commitment to strengthening the partnership with Qatar by supporting Qatar’s private and public sector development priorities in line with its National Vision 2030. A new WBG office in Doha will deepen our engagement in response to development challenges, and national priorities with speed, efficiency, and impact. 

Most recently, Ms. Benner was the Resident Representative for Jordan, overseeing a program focused on growth and jobs aligned with Jordan”s Economic Modernization Vision. With over 20 years of experience, she has worked on development solutions for countries facing complex transition and reform challenges, including leading operations in Eastern Europe and Central Asia. Her work included conflict-recovery efforts in Ukraine and programs in Tajikistan and Kyrgyz Republic that integrated energy infrastructure with community development.

“As I step into the role of Country Manager for Qatar, I am both honored and excited to contribute to the World Bank Group’s mission of fostering sustainable development and economic growth, bringing together public and private sector solutions to help Qatar implement its National Vision 2030,” said Holly W. Benner, the World Bank Group Country Manager for Qatar. “Qatar’s dynamic landscape also offers unique opportunities for the World Bank Group to promote Qatar’s knowledge, innovation and investment in the Middle East region and globally.”

The World Bank Group is assisting Qatar in achieving its “National Vision 2030” which aims to strengthen human capital, support job creation, diversify the economy, and drive sustainable growth by catalyzing cross-border investments, facilitating public-private partnerships, promoting women’s economic empowerment, and addressing sustainability challenges.

IFC, a member of the World Bank Group focused on the private sector in emerging markets, has invested and mobilized $1.84 billion of financing to help Qatari companies expand to new markets in developing countries. MIGA, the home of the World Bank Group Guarantee Platform, issued guarantees in the amount of $225 million to Kasada Hospitality Fund LP, a firm that is 69.7% owned by a subsidiary of the Qatari Investment Authority. These guarantees enabled investments in 17 hotels with 2,900 hotel rooms in seven countries across sub-Saharan Africa.

The Qatar office will operate under a single Country Manager for the World Bank Group including the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD), International Development Association (IDA), the International Finance Corporation (IFC), and the Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA).

————————————-

 

About the World Bank Group: The World Bank Group has a bold vision: to create a world free of poverty on a livable planet. In more than 100 countries, the World Bank Group provides financing, advice, and innovative solutions that improve lives by creating jobs, strengthening economic growth, and confronting the most urgent global development challenges. The World Bank Group is one of the largest sources of funding and knowledge for developing countries. It consists of the World Bank, including the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD) and the International Development Association (IDA); the International Finance Corporation (IFC); the Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA); and the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID). For more information, please visit www.worldbank.org , www.miga.org , and www.ifc.org.

• The Japanese Yen attracts some sellers as Trump raised doubts over a US-Japan deal.
• A positive risk tone also undermines the safe-haven JPY and lends support to USD/JPY.
• The divergent BoJ-Fed expectations favor the JPY bulls and might cap the currency pair.

The Japanese Yen (JPY) remains depressed through the Asian session on Wednesday, which, along with a modest US Dollar (USD) uptick, assists the USD/JPY pair to move away from a nearly one-month low touched the previous day. US President Donald Trump expressed skepticism about reaching a trade deal with Japan and suggested that potential tariffs on Japanese imports would be higher than the 24% rate announced on April 2. This, along with the bullish risk tone, is seen undermining the safe-haven status of the JPY.

Meanwhile, the Bank of Japan’s (BoJ) cautious approach to unwinding its ultra-loose policy forced investors to push back their expectations for early interest rate hikes. Investors, however, seem convinced that the BoJ will stay on the path of monetary policy normalization as inflation has persistently exceeded its target for nearly three years. This, in turn, helps limit losses for the JPY and caps the USD/JPY pair. Traders also seem reluctant to place aggressive directional bets ahead of the US Nonfarm Payrolls (NFP) report on Thursday.

Japanese Yen bulls remain on the sidelines amid trade jitters; downside potential seems limited

• US President Donald Trump had expressed frustration over stalled US-Japan trade negotiations and cast doubt about reaching an agreement with Japan. Moreover, Trump suggested that he could impose a tariff of 30% or 35% on imports from Japan, above the tariff rate of 24% announced on April 2.
• Bank of Japan Governor Kazuo Ueda said on Tuesday that although headline inflation has been above 2% for nearly three years, underlying inflation remains below target. Ueda added that any future rate hikes will depend on the overall inflation dynamic, including wage growth and expectations.
• Moreover, BoJ’s new board member Kazuyuki Masu said on Tuesday that the central bank should not rush into raising interest rates given various economic risks. However, concerns about mounting inflationary pressure in Japan keep the door open for a BoJ rate hike in 2025, especially if trade risks stabilize.
• In contrast, Federal Reserve (Fed) Chair Jerome Powell noted that the US central bank would have eased monetary policy by now if not for Trump’s tariff plan. When asked if July would be too soon for markets to expect a rate cut, Powell answered that he can’t say and that it’s going to depend on the data.
• Nevertheless, traders still see a small chance that the next rate reduction by the Fed will come in July and are pricing in over a 75% probability of a rate cut at the September policy meeting. This, in turn, dragged the US Dollar to its lowest level since February 2022 and should cap the USD/JPY pair.
• Meanwhile, the US ISM Manufacturing PMI showed on Tuesday that economic activity in the manufacturing sector contracted for the fourth consecutive month, albeit the rate of contraction slowed in June. In fact, the gauge edged up to 49 from 48.5 in May, above market expectations of 48.8.
• Separately, the US Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) reported in the Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey (JOLTS) that the number of job openings on the last business day of May stood at 7.769 million. This followed 7.395 million openings in April and was above estimates for 7.3 million.
• Traders now look forward to the release of the US ADP report on private-sector employment for some impetus later this Wednesday. The focus, however, remains on the closely-watched US monthly employment details – popularly known as the Nonfarm Payrolls (NFP) report on Thursday.

USD/JPY remains vulnerable while below the 144.40 region, or the 200-SMA on H4

From a technical perspective, negative oscillators on 4-hour/daily charts suggest that any subsequent move up towards the 144.00 mark could be seen as a selling opportunity. This, in turn, should cap the USD/JPY pair near the 200-period Simple Moving Average (SMA) on the 4-hour chart, currently pegged near the 144.35 region. Some follow-through buying, leading to a subsequent strength beyond the 144.65 horizontal hurdle, should allow spot prices to reclaim the 145.00 psychological mark.

On the flip side, the 143.40-143.35 area could offer some support ahead of the 143.00 round figure and the overnight swing low, around the 142.70-142.65 region. Failure to defend the said support levels will reaffirm the near-term negative bias and make the USD/JPY pair vulnerable to accelerate the fall toward the May monthly swing low, around the 142.15-142.10 region. The downward trajectory could extend further towards testing sub-141.00 levels in the near term.

Tokyo, July 2, 2025 – Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Ltd. (MHI) has received an order for the supply of four circulating water pumps (CWP) for Units 5 and 6 of the Sanmen Nuclear Power Plant in China, in collaboration with Dongfang Electric Machinery Co., Ltd. (Head office: Deyang, Sichuan Province, “DFEM”), a core company of the Dongfang Electric Group, one of China’s three major heavy electrical equipment manufacturers. DFEM and MHI are advancing collaboration to expand the business of nuclear power plants in China, and this order is an example of MHI Group’s partnering efforts. MHI will continue to build strategic partnerships globally to incorporate external expertise through partnering efforts and deliver its technologies, products and services to a wider range of customers.

The Sanmen Nuclear Power Plant is located in Sanmen County, Taizhou City, Zhejiang Province in southeastern China. Construction of the newly ordered Units 5 and 6 will follow Units 1 and 2 that are in operation and Units 3 and 4 that are under construction. The reactor type for these units will be the Hualong One / HPR1000, a Pressurized Water Reactor (PWR) with a capacity of 1215 MWe.

This contract marks the first order received under the collaboration between DFEM and MHI, and both parties aim to expand their business in the field of circulating water pumps for nuclear power plants in China.

Circulating water pumps are used in the condensate systems, which cool the steam discharged from the turbine in the secondary system of PWRs and returns the steam to water. To cool the steam, circulating water pumps need to draw a large volume of water from the water source and supply it to the condenser, which requires a very large-sized pump. MHI has a proven track record of supplying over 500 CWPs to the market.

MHI will continue contributing to greater energy efficiency and reducing environmental impact across a wide range of countries and regions through valuable proposals for the energy market.

For more information about DFEM, please visit https://dfem.dongfang.com/