Reside information: BASF cuts full-year outlook on slowdown in demand

South Korea: Economists anticipate the Financial institution of Korea to carry charges at 3.5 per cent for the fourth straight assembly.

Conferences: The EU-Japan summit begins in Brussels, attended by European Council president Charles Michel, European Fee president Ursula von der Leyen and Japan’s prime minister Fumio Kishida.

Thailand: Parliament will vote for a brand new prime minister. Pita Limjaroenrat, whose progressive Transfer Ahead celebration gained large in Might’s normal election, nonetheless faces obstacles to supplanting the military-backed authorities, together with questions on a attainable breach of election guidelines.

Markets: Futures in Hong Kong pointed larger on Thursday morning. US shares and Treasuries rallied on Wednesday whereas the greenback tumbled after inflation fell greater than anticipated in June, easing strain on the Federal Reserve to maintain elevating rates of interest. The S&P 500 inventory index closed 0.7 per cent larger, whereas the Nasdaq Composite gained 1.2 per cent.

Disney has prolonged the contract of its chief government Bob Iger till the tip of 2026, prolonging what was meant to be a short-term keep for the manager who returned to the leisure big final November.

Iger, who led Disney for 15 years in his first stint as chief government, changed his handpicked successor Bob Chapek, who lasted solely 33 months in a rocky tenure.

He had been tasked with discovering a brand new successor earlier than leaving on the finish of 2024, however Disney mentioned on Wednesday its board voted unanimously to increase Iger’s time period by two years.

President Joe Biden mentioned on Wednesday that the US was contemplating sending long-range missiles to Ukraine after France and the UK despatched related methods, a doubtlessly vital shift as Washington alters its threat calculus in Ukraine because the battle drags on.

Kyiv has lengthy sought the weapons to raised penetrate Russian defences, however Washington has held off out of fears of Russian escalation. France introduced this week it will ship such weapons and the UK has already despatched its Storm Shadow missiles.

“They have already got the equal of ATACMS now. What we’d like most of all is artillery shells,” Biden mentioned, utilizing the title for the American long-range missiles as he boarded a aircraft from Vilnius, the place he was attending a Nato summit, for Helsinki.

President Joe Biden repeated assurances that the US was dedicated to supporting Ukraine for the long run on the finish of a sweeping speech that capped his go to to Lithuania for a Nato summit. 

“We is not going to waver, we is not going to waver,” he mentioned. “I imply that. Our dedication to Ukraine is not going to weaken. We are going to stand for liberty and freedom in the present day, tomorrow and for so long as it takes.” 

German chemical producer BASF on Wednesday lower its full-year outlook and forecast a slowdown in international shopper demand that’s anticipated to weaken gross sales and earnings greater than beforehand anticipated. 

The world’s largest chemical producer now expects gross sales of between €73bn and €76bn, down from beforehand estimated vary of €84bn-€87bn. Adjusted earnings are forecast at €4bn-€4.4bn in comparison with earlier estimates of €4.8bn-€5.4bn. 

BASF mentioned its preliminary second-quarter gross sales had been 1 / 4 decrease than the earlier yr. Adjusted earnings declined 57 per cent from a yr in the past.