Hong Kong’s stock market is facing another speed bump from a recent spike in local funding costs.
The one-month Hong Kong Interbank Offered Rate, the city’s money market benchmark known as Hibor, has roughly tripled to above 2.8% in just five sessions. That has made margin financing for equity investors more expensive and undermined one of the few sources of hope for Hong Kong’s beleaguered property market.
Spotify and Netflix are hiking prices again, with Australians now forking out hundreds of dollars more for once budget-friendly streaming services. Another round of price rises has been enough for under-pressure subscribers to walk away from the services.
Spotify announced its latest round of price hikes to customers via email this week, noting the increase was needed so it could “continue to innovate on our product offerings and features and bring users the best experience”. Spotify Premium subscriptions will increase from $13.99 to $15.99 a month for individual plans and $23.99 to $27.99 a month for family plans from September.
As Yahoo’s Tom Flanagan wrote today, the latest Spotify hike has him asking if it’s time to pull the plug on one of his many subscriptions.
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“While the supermarkets cop the worst of the anger from Aussies, it seems just about everyone is trying to squeeze an extra dollar or two out of us at a time people are having to keep a really close eye on their budgets,” he said.
Netflix announced the cost increase of its three subscription tiers last week.
A standard plan with ads will jump from $7.99 to $9.99 per month, standard plans without ads will rise from $18.99 to $20.99 per month, and premium plans will go from $24.99 to $28.99 per month.
Kayo Sports also raised the price of its standard tier from $25 to $30 a month in June, while Stan Sport increased from $15 to $20 a month in July.
The majority of Australians have at least one streaming service and pay about $50 a month for the pleasure, according to Finder research.
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Finder personal finance expert Taylor Blackburn told Yahoo Finance the combined cost of the most popular services had increased by $17, or an 11 per cent jump, between March and August.
“It’s definitely worth giving your subscriptions a health check. If you have four subscriptions, you could easily be paying $20 more a month with these changes – or $240 more per year,” Blackburn said.
Finder analysis found you would be paying $1,087 per year if you subscribed to the top eight TV streaming services — HBO Max, Netflix, Stan, Disney+, Prime Video, Binge, Paramount Plus, Apple TV and Hayu.
The average Aussie is spending $47 a month on streaming services, Finder found.
Citigroup Inc. has named Asghar Ali as head of corporate banking real estate, as the bank looks to strengthen its presence in the sector, according to a an internal memo seen by Bloomberg.
Ali will be based in New York and reporting to the co-heads of corporate banking, Jason Rekate and John Chirico, according to the memo. He will also join the Corporate Banking Executive Committee, the memo added.
The logos of Walmart and Sam’s Club are pictured in Cuautitlan Izcalli, Mexico, January 30, 2025.
Raquel Cunha | Reuters
Walmart will report quarterly earnings on Thursday, as economists and investors try to gauge how U.S. consumers are responding to President Donald Trump’s decision to raise tariffs on dozens of countries across the globe.
Here’s what Wall Street expects for the big-box retailer, according to a survey of analysts by LSEG:
As the largest U.S. retailer, Walmart offers a unique window into the financial health of American households. As higher duties have come in fits and starts — with some getting delayed and others going into effect earlier this month — Wall Street has tried to understand how those costs will ripple through the U.S. economy.
The company has said it expects net sales to rise between 3.5% and 4.5% for the fiscal second quarter, but it did not provide earnings guidance for the period because of changing U.S. tariff policies.
Walmart said in May that it expects full-year sales to grow 3% to 4% and adjusted earnings to range from $2.50 to $2.60 per share.
The Arkansas-based discounter said in May that, even with its size and scale, it would have to to raise prices for some items because of higher duties.
Chief Financial Officer John David Rainey told CNBC at the time that tariffs were “still too high,” despite Trump agreeing at the time to lower duties on imports from China to 30% for 90 days. Earlier this month, Trump delayed China’s tariff deadline again, keeping the levies at that rate.
“We’re wired for everyday low prices, but the magnitude of these increases is more than any retailer can absorb,” Rainey told CNBC in May. “It’s more than any supplier can absorb. And so I’m concerned that consumers are going to start seeing higher prices.”
About a third of what Walmart sells in the U.S. comes from other parts of the world, with China, Mexico, Canada, Vietnam and India representing its largest markets for imports, Rainey said in May.
Walmart’s comments drew ire from Trump, who said in a social media post that Walmart should “EAT THE TARIFFS.”
According to an analysis by CNBC of about 50 items sold by the retailer, some of those price changes have already hit shelves. Items that rose in price at Walmart over the summer included a frying pan, a pair of jeans and a car seat.
Yet even with higher costs from tariffs, Walmart has fared better than its retail competitors as it has leaned into its reputation for value, competed on faster deliveries to customers’ homes and attracted more business from higher-income households.
It also marked a milestone in May — posting its first profitable quarter for its e-commerce business in the U.S. and globally. Its online business has drummed up more revenue, as it has sold more advertising and made commissions from sellers who are part of its third-party marketplace.
BANGKOK — Banks in Thailand are now required to set a daily limit of 50,000 baht ($1,537) on many online transfers to lessen financial fraud, particularly those involving customers judged vulnerable such as children and older people.
The rule announced Tuesday by the Bank of Thailand is meant to help combat the huge criminal industry of online scams, which makes billions of dollars annually and is especially active in Southeast Asia. In many countries there is increasing pressure on banks to play a more active role in safeguarding the assets of customers targeted by scammers.
The new measure aims to curb financial fraud by preventing criminals from receiving and transferring a large amount of money at one time, and enabling timely freezing of illicit funds in order to increase the chances that victims will be able to recover at least some of their money, according to Daranee Saeju, the bank’s assistant governor for Payment Systems Policy and Financial Consumer Protection.
The daily transfer limit will be applied to transfers in three different tiers: under 50,000 baht ($1,537), under 200,000 baht ($6,147) and above 200,000 baht ($6,147), depending on each customer’s risk profile and the banks’ assessment under know-your-customer, or KYC, rules.
Customers with established records of responsibility can continue transferring at their usual levels.
This measure will be implemented for new mobile banking and internet banking customers by the end of this month and for existing customers by the end of this year.
Thailand has around 12 million mobile banking users, according to a report Wednesday in the Bangkok Post newspaper. It said previous central bank safeguards capped mobile banking transfers at 50,000 baht ($1,537) per transaction — with facial recognition required — and 200,000 baht ($6,147) per day in total.
In June alone this year, 24,500 scam cases related to money transfers were reported to the authorities, causing total losses of 2.8 billion baht ($86.1 million) — an average of 114,000 baht ($3,504) per case. The largest single fraudulent transfer amounted to 4.9 million baht ($150,591), the Post reported, citing the central bank.
On average, scammers needed only three minutes to siphon off half of the stolen funds, while victims typically took 19–25 hours to report the crime, the newspaper reported.
For the first six months of this year, children under 15 were involved in 78,468 financial scam cases, while victims over 65 years of age accounted for 416,453 cases, it said.
(Bloomberg) — Baidu Inc.’s quarterly revenue fell its most in about three years, hurt by an economic downturn that’s capping its ability to fight bigger rivals in AI and make inroads in newer areas.
The Ernie chatbot creator’s sales in the June quarter fell 4% to 32.7 billion yuan ($4.6 billion), weighed down by a slowdown in its core internet search operations. Net income rose 33%, versus projections for a decline, helped by a boost from long-term investments. The company’s shares slid as much as 3% in Hong Kong Thursday.
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China’s internet search leader is betting big on generative AI to drive future growth, but it faces mounting pressure from open-sourced models like DeepSeek as well as a wave of AI-native apps encroaching on its turf. The company will continue to invest in artificial intelligence even as margins and revenue come under pressure in the near term, Chief Financial Officer Henry He said.
That’s while its mainstay search business loses ground to social-video platforms like Xiaohongshu and TikTok’s Chinese twin Douyin. Online advertising revenue declined 15%. But non-marketing revenue grew a better-than-expected 34%, aided by demand for its cloud unit.
“Since the AI search monetization is still in very early stages and has yet to scale, our revenue and margins are under considerable pressure in the near-term with Q3 expected to be especially challenging,” He said. “We see potential for margin improvement as our core advertising business recovers and stabilizes.”
Baidu’s Shares Drop After Revenue Slowdown: Street Wrap
Baidu is counting on Ernie to underpin an AI ecosystem and drive demand for its cloud division, whose sales have grown by double-digits in recent quarters.
It’s also accelerating an overseas push by its Apollo Go robotaxi service, through partnerships with Uber Technologies Inc. and Lyft Inc. Baidu’s driverless rides in the June quarter more than doubled to 2.2 million, with cumulative rides passing 14 million in August, it said.
Baidu plans to take its fleet of self-driving robotaxis — common in Beijing, Guangzhou and Wuhan — to Singapore and Malaysia as early as this year, Bloomberg reported. The company is now running trials in Hong Kong.
But in China’s increasingly crowded AI arena, Baidu faces rivals Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. and Tencent Holdings Ltd. — both with far more firepower and larger global footprints — as well as nimble upstarts. Baidu’s stock price is up around 6% this year, trailing both of the bigger internet leaders.
AI Software Engineer Qamar Zaman Explains Q ALOG. AI-Powered Algorithm So Simple “Even Grandma Can Do This” is now live for beta 2. Now playing on Coffee With Q Podcast
George Town, Cayman Islands, Aug. 20, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) —
SPX ZERO DTE ALGO – Learn to trade zero DTE S&P Options: Beta 2 Is Live. Test Drive SPY, ES & SPX
Cayman Islands-Based Innovator’s Student-Becomes-Teacher Story Features Mentor Achieving Perfect 10/10 Trading Day Using Q’s “Netflix of Trading” System
In a remarkable reversal of roles that epitomizes innovation in financial technology, Qamar “Q” Zaman, a former software engineer turned algorithmic trading pioneer, has developed a revolutionary trading system that has transformed his own mentor into his student. The Q Algo Zero DTE SPX system recently enabled G, Q’s original trading coach, to achieve a perfect 10/10 trading success rate, prompting G to declare he was “Using Jet Fuel!”
Jet Fuel
G’s recent testimonial speaks volumes: “Using Jet Fuel! That’s how I had 10/10 trades today. I finally got a 100% success rate!” The comment underscores the system’s ability to deliver consistent results even for experienced traders.
The achievement represents more than just profitable trades—it validates Q’s mission to democratize algorithmic trading through what he calls “the Netflix of trading,” a system designed to make complex market analysis as simple as following a recipe from grandma’s kitchen.
Breaking Down Barriers to Financial Success
Q’s journey began as a frustrated student who resisted traditional trading education. “I don’t want to learn anything,” he told his mentor G. “Just give me a structure, and then I will trade.” That resistance sparked an innovation that has revolutionized how retail traders approach the markets.
The Q Algo system transforms intimidating technical analysis into intuitive metaphors: blue gift boxes signal bullish opportunities, yellow boxes indicate bearish moves, and “pancakes” replace confusing candlestick charts. Support and resistance levels become “ceilings and floors,” while VWAP indicators are simplified into a “fishing river” where traders catch “green fish” or “red fish” depending on market direction.
When the Student Surpasses the Teacher
The ultimate validation came when G, who originally taught Q the fundamentals of options trading and market psychology, began using Q’s system for his own trades. “If my teacher tells me I’m his teacher, I think it’s more than money,” Q reflected during a recent Coffee with Q podcast demonstration.
