Category: 3. Business

The People’s Bank of China (PBOC) set the USD/CNY central rate for the trading session ahead on Wednesday at 7.1546 as compared to the previous day’s fix of 7.1534 and 7.1623 Reuters estimate.

(Bloomberg) — Asian shares edged lower at the open after President Donald Trump said he won’t delay the July 9 deadline for imposing higher levies on trading partners. 

A regional stocks gauge fell 0.2%. Japanese stocks declined 1% after Trump threatened to hike tariffs on the country and deepened his criticism of Japan for not accepting US rice exports. A gauge of the dollar slipped in early Asian trading after touching its lowest since 2022 in the prior session. Treasuries were steady Wednesday after yields rose on Tuesday.

Investors are closely watching how Trump decides to handle the current pause on his April tariffs, which he put on hold for 90 days to allow time for talks. Stock markets – which once swung wildly on trade headlines – appear to see little risk, as equity indexes sit near all-time highs. The calm is being fueled by expectations that Trump will extend his tariff deadline based on his pattern of threatening first and backing down later.

“While US stocks are probably overly optimistic, international stocks have been prone to an overly pessimistic knee-jerk response each time Trump escalates,” said Phillip Wool, head of portfolio management at Rayliant Global Advisors Ltd. “It’s not surprising at all to see Trump holding the prospect of a July 9th impasse and a painfully high tariff out as a threat to push for better deals. There’s also an element of political theater here.”

Trump for weeks has sought to exert leverage over trading partners with threats to set high levies on governments he sees as being difficult. His top economic adviser, Kevin Hassett, earlier signaled agreements would be announced after the July 4 holiday and the signing of the tax and spending bill the US Senate approved.

Trump’s latest tariff comments don’t pose a major threat to Japanese stocks, said Neil Newman, head strategist at Astris Advisory Japan.

“I read from his rhetoric President Trump has run out of things to complain about,” he said. “I believe there is too much on the Japanese negotiation table for the Americans to walk away from, but we know Trump will push to the limits to get more. This is just noise.”

Meanwhile, US job openings hit the highest since November, largely fueled by leisure and hospitality, and layoffs declined. Fed policymakers have consistently characterized labor-market conditions as strong in recent weeks. Fed Chair Jerome Powell repeated that the US central bank probably would have cut rates further this year absent Trump’s expanded use of tariffs, although he didn’t rule out easing at its meeting later this month.

The government’s June employment report, due Thursday, is expected to show a slowdown in nonfarm payroll growth and an uptick in the unemployment rate.

Separate data Tuesday showed US factory activity contracted in June for a fourth consecutive month as orders and employment shrank at a faster pace, extending the malaise in manufacturing.

Trump’s $3.3 trillion tax and spending cut bill passed the Senate after Vice President JD Vance’s tie-breaking vote. House lawmakers are returning to Washington from a holiday week to vote Wednesday on the Senate version of the bill but face Republican resistance from moderate and ultra-conservative GOP lawmakers.

In commodities, gold held an advance, after rallying 2% over the previous two sessions while oil steadied in early Wednesday trading.

Some of the main moves in markets:

Stocks

• S&P 500 futures were little changed as of 9:30 a.m. Tokyo time
• Nikkei 225 futures (OSE) fell 0.7%
• Japan’s Topix fell 0.3%
• Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 rose 0.4%
• Euro Stoxx 50 futures were little changed

Currencies

• The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index was little changed
• The euro was little changed at $1.1801
• The Japanese yen fell 0.1% to 143.58 per dollar
• The offshore yuan was little changed at 7.1619 per dollar
• The Australian dollar was little changed at $0.6581

Cryptocurrencies

• Bitcoin fell 0.3% to $105,659.61
• Ether fell 0.3% to $2,408.72

Bonds

• The yield on 10-year Treasuries was little changed at 4.24%
• Australia’s 10-year yield advanced three basis points to 4.14%

Commodities

• West Texas Intermediate crude was little changed
• Spot gold was little changed

This story was produced with the assistance of Bloomberg Automation.

–With assistance from Alice French, Rob Verdonck and Aya Wagatsuma.

©2025 Bloomberg L.P.

Qantas has suffered a major cyber-attack, potentially exposing the records of up to 6 million customers.

The airline said on Wednesday that the affected system had now been contained and its systems were secured. The system in question was a third-party platform used by the airline’s contact centre, which contains the records of 6 million customers.

The data includes customer names, email addresses, phone numbers, birth dates and frequent flyer numbers. It did not contain credit card details, financial information or passport details.

Frequent flyer accounts were not compromised, neither were passwords, Pins or login details.

Qantas said it first detected the unusual activity on Monday and immediately took steps to contain the system.

Qantas is assessing the portion of data stolen but said it was expected to be “significant”.

Qantas said it has informed the Australian Cyber Security Centre, the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner, as well as the Australian federal police.

The airline’s chief executive, Vanessa Hudson, said the company had recruited independent specialised cybersecurity experts to investigate the matter.

A dedicated customer support line and a dedicated page on the company’s website will update customers as the investigation progresses.

“We sincerely apologise to our customers and we recognise the uncertainty this will cause,” Hudson said. “Our customers trust us with their personal information and we take that responsibility seriously.

“We are contacting our customers today and our focus is on providing them with the necessary support.”

Cyber-attacks remain on the increase in Australia, after superannuation funds in April suffered hacks on a small handful of customers that resulted in more than $500,000 being taken from their accounts.

In May, the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner said the number of data breaches reported under the mandatory notification scheme had increased by 25% in 2024, compared with 2023.

According to the report covering 1 July to 31 December 2024, there were 595 data breaches in the latter half of the year, taking the total number of breaches reported that year to 1,113, up 25% from 893 in 2023.

In the half year, the highest number of reports came from health providers (121) followed by government (100), finance (54), legal and accounting (36), and retail (34).

The report found 69% of the data breaches occurred due to malicious or criminal attack, with phishing – that is, using compromised credentials to access data – being the most common at 34% of such incidents. It was followed by ransomware at 24%.

The majority of reported breaches affected fewer than 5,000 people each but two were reported to affect between 500,000 and 1 million people. Most personal information in the breaches comprised contact information, ID information or financial or health information.

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Growing a company can be difficult at the best of times. But with the threat of US tariffs, rising geopolitical tension and a slowing economy, now is a particularly tough time for entrepreneurs and managers.

And yet despite those challenges, many companies are still managing to prove that rapid growth is possible.

For the past seven years, the Financial Times and its research partner Statista have ranked high growth companies in the Asia-Pacific region. From Singapore-based energy companies to Indian scooter rental businesses, we have highlighted those organisations that have pressed ahead with their business plans regardless of the external environment, and made them work.

Last year, Lendbox, an Indian peer-to-peer lending platform, had the highest ranking, followed by south-east Asian ecommerce groups Borong and Etaily.

Enter your company

This year, for the eighth time, we are asking for nominations for our list. We will aim to identify those Asia-Pacific businesses with the strongest revenue growth between 2021 and 2024, as the region was emerging from the worst of the Covid-19 pandemic while also dealing with rising oil prices and inflation.

All you need to do is fill in this simple form.

We will publish the list of companies in March next year, followed in April by a report highlighting some of the most interesting businesses.

Eligibility

To be eligible for entry, companies must:

• Have generated revenue of at least $100,000 in 2021*

• Have generated revenue of at least $1mn in 2024*

• Revenue growth between 2021 and 2024 should have been primarily organic

• Be independent (ie, not a subsidiary or branch office of another company)

• Be headquartered in one of the following Asia-Pacific locations: Australia, China, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Japan, Macau, Malaysia, New Zealand, Philippines, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand or Vietnam

*Or average currency value equivalent over course of the relevant fiscal year

The survey will run from July 2, 2025 to October 31, 2025. More information can be found here.

A jury in San Jose, California, said on Tuesday that Google misused customers’ cellphone data and must pay more than $314.6m to Android smartphone users in the state, according to an attorney for the plaintiffs.

The jury agreed with the plaintiffs that Alphabet’s Google was liable for sending and receiving information from the devices without permission while they were idle, causing what the lawsuit had called “mandatory and unavoidable burdens shouldered by Android device users for Google’s benefit”.

Google spokesperson Jose Castaneda said in a statement that the company would appeal, and that the verdict “misunderstands services that are critical to the security, performance, and reliability of Android devices”.

The plaintiffs’ attorney Glen Summers said the verdict “forcefully vindicates the merits of this case and reflects the seriousness of Google’s misconduct”.

The plaintiffs filed the class action in state court in 2019 on behalf of an estimated 14 million Californians. They argued that Google collected information from idle phones running its Android operating system for company uses like targeted advertising, consuming Android users’ cellular data at their expense.

Google told the court that no Android users were harmed by the data transfers and that users consented to them in the company’s terms of service and privacy policies.

Another group filed a separate lawsuit in federal court in San Jose, bringing the same claims against Google on behalf of Android users in the other 49 states. That case is scheduled for trial in April 2026.

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