The Hang Seng Index fell 0.25% to 22,920.18, while the Shanghai Composite was up 0.54% to 3,342.55. Japan’s Nikkei 225 slipped 0.40% to 39,112.58, while South Korea’s KOSPI gained 1.78% to 2,673.69. Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 was also down 0.65% to 8,425.90.
Chinese video games firm Tencent saw its stock slip 0.97% while online services firm Meituan declined 1.68%.
The decline in Chinese technology stocks came even as U.S. stocks crept to a record as the S&P 500 nudged higher on Tuesday.
The main measure of Wall Street’s health rose 0.2% to finish just above its all-time closing high set last month.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 10 points, or less than 0.1%, while the Nasdaq composite rose 0.1%.
In energy trading, benchmark U.S. crude added seven cents to $71.90 a barrel. Brent crude, the international standard, rose seven cents to $75.91 a barrel.
In currency trading, the U.S. dollar strengthened to 152.05 Japanese yen from 152.01 yen. The euro cost $1.0452, up from $1.0446.
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Carson Block Stays Away From Chinese Stocks’ Widening Rebound
(Bloomberg) — Carson Block, a longtime China skeptic, is giving the nation’s current stock market rally a miss, citing unreliability in corporate accounting and geopolitical risks.
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“What I’ve been banging the drum about for 15 years is that the accounting of these companies, especially the ones that are public outside of China, the numbers cannot be trusted,” Block, the chief executive officer of investment research firm Muddy Waters Capital LLC, said in a Bloomberg TV interview on Tuesday in Singapore.
Block, whose firm rose to fame by uncovering fraud at some Chinese companies, had warned investors about buying local stocks in October as well. The MSCI China Index has gained about 10% since then as President Xi Jinping’s recent embrace of the private sector adds to optimism over DeepSeek’s artificial intelligence capabilities.
US President Donald Trump’s tariff threats, however, are posing risks, fueling global volatility amid geopolitical uncertainties. A risk of a potential military conflict between China and Taiwan is also making Block cautious.
If you are buying China, “you’re willing to take the risk that you wake up one day and China has gone to war to try to retake Taiwan, or has barricaded the island, and that that could lead to a kinetic war,” Block said.
Block said Chinese stocks have some momentum and as a short seller he “wouldn’t stand in front of this train at this point in time,” but doesn’t see the nation as a viable option for tactical investing. He is planning to visit India next week to explore starting a fund focused on Indian stocks.
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Mitsui to buy $5.3 billion stake in Rio Tinto iron ore project
FILE PHOTO: Man walks past the logo of Japanese trading company Mitsui & Co. in Tokyo · Reuters In This Article:
TOKYO (Reuters) – Japanese trading house Mitsui & Co said on Wednesday it would acquire a 40% stake in the Rio Tinto-operated Rhodes Ridge iron ore project in Western Australia for $5.34 billion to strengthen its long-term earnings base.
Rhodes Ridge is one of the world’s largest undeveloped iron ore deposits with 6.8 billion metric tons of mineral resources, Mitsui said in a statement.
The Japanese company is buying out two separate stakes controlled by the family of late Australian magnate Michael Wright, whose father jointly discovered the region’s iron ore lode in the 1960s.
Mitsui, with a diverse portfolio spanning metal resources, energy, machinery, and food, expects production to start by 2030. Its 40% stake in Rhodes Ridge is projected to yield 16 million tons of iron ore a year initially, rising to more than 40 million tons after further expansion.
In the financial year that ended in March 2024, Mitsui’s annual equity share of iron ore production was 61 million tons, the company said.
Mitsui expects to find cost savings by tapping existing infrastructure between Rhodes Ridge and Rio Tinto’s nearby Robe River project in which it also has a stake, it said.
Iron ore from Rhodes Ridge will be blended into the ore sold by Rio Tinto and exported to Asian countries, including Japan, Mitsui added.
Wright Prospecting’s former 50% interest in the Rhodes Ridge joint venture has been restructured and separated into two newly formed entities separately controlled by its shareholders, VOCG and AMB.
Mitsui will buy VOC Group’s entire 25% interest for $3.34 billion including stamp duty, with the deal expected to close by end-March 2026.
Mitsui also plans to purchase a 15% stake from AMB Holdings for $2 billion including stamp duty.
After these transactions, Rio Tinto will hold 50% of the project, while Mitsui will own 40% and AMB 10%.
(Reporting by Kaori Kaneko, Kantaro Komiya and Yuka Obayashi; Additional reporting by Melanie Burton in Melbourne; Editing by Chang-Ran Kim and Jamie Freed)
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Japan’s exports and imports grew in January, as tariff worries loom
FILE – A container ship is loaded and unloaded at a container terminal at a port of Kawasaki near Tokyo on March 9, 2022. (AP Photo/Koji Sasahara, File) · Associated Press Finance · ASSOCIATED PRESS TOKYO (AP) — Japan recorded a trade deficit of 2.76 trillion yen ($18 billion) in January, the Finance Ministry reported Wednesday, as worries continue to grow about looming tariffs from the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump.
Japan also had a trade deficit, which measures the value of exports minus imports, a year ago, but the amount rose 60% last month from January 2024.
Exports totaled 7.86 trillion yen ($52 billion) last month, up 7% on-year, rising in a variety of products including machinery, medical goods and ships.
Imports, totaling 10.62 trillion yen ($70 billion), rose 16.7% from the same month last year. Imports grew in machinery, computers and various foodstuffs including fruit, as demand grew while the yen weakened against foreign currencies.
Consumption in Japan is expected to remain relatively solid, partly because of recent wage growth.
Japan recorded a nearly 477 billion yen ($3 billion) trade surplus with the U.S. as exports rose 8% in items such as electrical equipment, cars and raw materials.
Japan is asking the U.S. to exclude it from Trump’s so-called “reciprocal tariffs,” as well as those on steel and aluminum. Uncertainty remains as the U.S. has long been one of Japan’s most important trading partners.
The growth in both Japanese imports and exports follows a government report earlier in the week that the economy grew faster than expected in the October-December quarter.
“Japanese trade data suggest a modest economic recovery underway in the current quarter. But the jump in exports comes with big caveats, particularly the specter of U.S. tariffs, that cloud the outlook,” said Min Joo Kang, senior economist at ING.
