Global Markets
Asia is mixed, Europe barely moves
Japan and Australia post gains, while Hong Kong, Shanghai, and parts of Europe finish lower or flat.
Overseas markets do not move in one line. Japan’s Nikkei 225 rises 2.1%, Australia’s ASX 200 adds 0.2%, and South Korea’s Kospi gains 0.7%. At the same time, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng falls 1.1%, Shanghai slips 0.8%, and India’s Sensex declines 0.5%.
Europe ends close to unchanged overall. The DAX rises 0.3%, the CAC 40 slips 0.1%, the FTSE 100 edges down 0.1%, and the Stoxx 600 barely moves, up 0.0%. The broad picture is steady, but not especially strong, with the DAX and CAC both staying near their 52-week highs.
The macro backdrop stays busy. CNBC World points to a July CPI reading that rises 0.1% as expected, with the annual rate at 3.4%. Reuters and CNBC also highlight the U.S. budget deficit, which widens in July and pushes the 10-month total to nearly $1.8T. Those stories keep the focus on inflation and public borrowing even as the equity tape holds up.
In China-linked currencies, the yuan, peso, and several EM FX pairs move unevenly, but the day’s clearest global theme is the same one running through U.S. stocks, AI. MarketWatch and CNBC both frame chip and data-center names as a central market narrative, with CoreWeave and Cisco drawing attention after earnings.