Daily Buzz: 30 May 2025

Top News

Trump tariffs remain, for now

A US appeals court granted the Trump's administration's request for a temporary reprieve from a lower court decision that ruled President Donald Trump had no authority under the US Constitution to impose blanket import tariffs on global trading partners. The stay effectively leaves most of the tariffs in place pending further legal arguments in the case.

The US Court of International Trade hours earlier ruled that the authority to impose tariffs rests exclusively with Congress. Trump, in announcing the tariffs in March, claimed he was invoking emergency presidential powers to safeguard the US economy from unfair trading practices. The suit against the tariffs was brought by a group of businesses and state attorneys-general.

The lower court ruling invalidating tariffs doesn't include sector-specific levies such as those Trump has placed on imported steel, aluminum and automobiles, nor would it prevent Trump from making good on his threat to slap a 25 percent tariff on smartphones made overseas.

Investor euphoria about the lower court decision invalidating the tariffs ebbed as the trading day moved from Asia to Europe. Asian markets rose, European markets fell and US markets were subdued. The S&P 500 index and tech-heavy Nasdaq in the US each gained about 0.4 percent.

The mercury rises

The Earth will reach record or near-record levels of warming in the next five years, triggering extreme weather like floods, drought and extreme storms, according to an annual report from the World Meteorological Organization and the UK Met office. Melting sea ice and glaciers could soon reach a point of no return, with dramatic implications for rising sea levels, the scientists warned. There is now a 70 percent chance that global temperatures will exceed 1.5 degrees Celsius over pre-industrial levels – a tipping point that was central to the 2015 Paris climate agreement.

China rebuke on visa revocations

China rebuked the US for politicizing education after Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the Trump administration will "aggressively" revoke the visas of Chinese students studying in the US. He said the action would include "those with connections to the Chinese Communist Party or studying in critical fields." There were an estimated 280,000 Chinese students studying in the US last year.

Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said on Thursday that the US action is unreasonable and infringes on the legitimate rights and interests of Chinese students.

Fox News reported that the State Department is reviewing all visa holders associated with Harvard University, not just students. However, A federal judge in Boston issued a preliminary injunction on Thursday against the administration's ban on Harvard enrolling foreign students until a final judgment in the case is handed down.

Good-bye, buddy!

Elon Musk formally ended his contentious involvement with the Trump administration, leaving his role as spending-cutter-in-chief. His buddy-buddy relationship with Trump has been blamed for a dive in Tesla electric-car sales around the world. Musk recently criticized Trump's signature budget proposal, saying it would increase US debt by US$600 billion in the next fiscal year. The billionaire entrepreneur said he will be returning to his core business interests, which include Tesla, X and SpaceX.

AI to monitor high-stakes exam

When some 13 million students take the make-it-or-break-it national college entrance exam in June, some testing sites will be monitored by artificial intelligence technology to ensure no cheating, fraud or other violations. Success in the difficult exam, known as gaokao in Chinese, is believed to be the passport to a lucrative career.

Top Business

Fusion reactor breakthrough

China has made a major stride in nuclear fusion research. The China National Nuclear Corporation said the new-generation fusion device, the "China Circulator-III," achieved several milestones key to sustaining a nuclear fusion reaction, such as plasma current of one million amperes, ion temperature of 100 million degrees Celsius and stable H-mode operation.

Fusion, the process powering the sun, could offer virtually limitless, clean energy. It occurs when atoms are forced to unite under conditions of extreme pressure and temperature. That's in contrast to fission, which powers existing nuclear power stations. That occurs when atoms are split into smaller particles.

DeepSeek upgrade

Chinese AI startup DeepSeek released an update of its breakthrough RI chatbot on the developer platform Hugging Face. The new RI-0528 model is expected to ratchet up competition with rivals like US-based OpenAI. DeepSeek burst into global prominence in January with the launch of a breakthrough chatbot model that was much cheaper than rival models and quickly surpassed OpenAI's ChatGPT as the most downloaded freeware app on the Apple store in the US.

US stops jet-engine sales to China

The US paused sales of jet engines to the state-owned Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China (Comac), the New York Times reported on Wednesday. Comac is developing domestic aircraft but still relies on imports for engines, the newspaper said, adding that the US decision was in response to China's recent restriction on exports of critical minerals to the US.

China has been developing its own jet engine, the CJ-1000A, to reduce reliance on foreign engine suppliers. It was originally planned to enter service in the late 2020s.

Shanghai airport honor

Shanghai Pudong International Airport ranked first as the Asia-Pacific's most connected airport, according to the 2024 list of hubs in the region and in the Middle East by Airports Council International. Baiyun Airport in Guangzhou ranked third after Icheon Airport in South Korea.

Economy & Markets

US-China trade talks

Beijing and Washington have maintained communication on trade following a temporary tariff truce reached in Geneva earlier this month, China's Ministry of Commerce said Thursday. At a press briefing, ministry spokeswoman He Yongqian said China has raised strong concerns over the US's continued use of export restrictions in the semiconductor sector, calling them "abusive." She urged the US to end its discriminatory practices.

South Korea rate cut

South Korea's central bank cut its policy interest rate by 0.25 percentage point to 2.5 percent to ease the impacts of national political turmoil in recent months and the Trump administration tariffs. The cut, the fourth in six meetings, takes the rate to the lowest in three years.

Upgraded growth forecasts

Major global investment banks raised their forecasts this month for growth this year in China. Goldman Saches lifted its forecast 0.6 percentage point to 4.6 percent, while UBS predicted growth would be as high as 4 percent, up from its previous forecast of 3.4 percent. JP Morgan, Morgan Stanley and Nomura also released more optimistic forecasts. The upgrades, in part, reflect a temporary pause in the trade war between China and the US.

Corporate

Energy storage company to open US plant

China's Hithium Energy Storage Technology said it will start production at its new US$100 million battery plant in Texas as part of an overseas expansion that includes a joint-venture with a Saudi Arabian company and plans for a new plant in Europe. The Texas facility joins sites the company already operates in the city of Chongqing and in the provinces of Shandong and Guangdong. It will have annual production of 10 gigawatt-hours, or a 10th of the company's output capacity. The world's third-largest manufacturer of energy-storage batteries, based on Fujian Province, said it plans to double capacity next year. The company has filed an application for an initial public offering in Hong Kong.

Sinopec backs hydrogen

China Petroleum and Chemical Corp (Sinopec) launched a 5-billion-yuan (US$690 million) venture capital fund focused on hydrogen technologies. The move highlights China's push to build a full hydrogen energy value chain to reduce carbon emissions. Hydrogen is seen as a promising clean fuel for heavy industry and transport, but commercial adaption has remained limited due to cost and infrastructure barriers. Managed by Sinopec's private equity arm, the fund has secured external partners that include Shandong New Growth Drivers Fund and Yantai Guofeng. Sinopec has also invested in 13 hydrogen companies and built 144 hydrogen refueling stations.

New World Development refinancing

New World Development Co., one of Hong Kong's big four developers, is aiming to complete a US$11 billion refinancing deal with more than 50 banks by the end of June, Bloomberg reported. It would be Hong Kong's biggest-ever corporate refinancing deal. The embattled company delayed the deadline for completing the deal after only 12 lenders had signed agreements. Bankers have to weigh the risks of lending to a company that has been in a four-year slump against the damage that could be inflicted on other property investments if New World defaults.

Venture capital fund closure

Cathay Innovation said it has closed Fund III, its latest venture capital fund, at US$1 billion, making the Paris-based fund the largest AI-dedicated fund in the EU, but it will continue to back AI startups in digital health, finance, mobility and energy. The firm said it has invested in 14 startups in Europe, Asia and North America since it began in mid-2022.

Driverless truck fleet

One hundred driverless mining trucks, the largest fleet of its kind in the world, have been deployed at an open pit mine in China's Inner Mongolian region. The trucks are equipped with Huawei technology. Huaneng Group, one of the five largest state-owned electricity-generating companies in China, was part of a joint venture behind the project.