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World shares are generally higher after most stocks on Wall Street fell following a disappointing report that said inflation was worse last month at the U.S. wholesale level than economists had expected.The future for S&P 500 gained 0.2% while that for the Dow Jones Industrial Average went up 0.8%. Meanwhile, oil prices slipped.In early European trading, Germany’s Dax rose 0.4% to 24,479.85. Britain’s FTSE 100 was down less than 0.1%. In Paris, the CAC 40 added 0.7% to 7,924.10.China reported data showing its economy was feeling pressure from higher U.S. tariffs in July, while property investments fell further.Retail sales rose 3.7% year-on-year, down from 4.8% in June, while investments in factory equipment and other fixed assets rose a meager 1.6%, compared with 2.8% growth in January-June.Uncertainty over tariffs on exports to the United States is still looming over manufacturers after President Donald Trump extended a pause in sharp hikes in import duties for 90 days following a 90-day pause that began in May.The Shanghai Composite index added 0.8% to 3,696.77, but Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index fell 1.2% to 25,216.45.“Chinese economic activity slowed across the board in July, with retail sales, fixed asset investment, and value added of industry growth all reaching the lowest levels of the year. After a strong start, several months of cooling momentum suggest that the economy may need further policy support,” ING Economics said in a market commentary.In Japan, the Nikkei 225 gained 1.7% to 43,378.31 after the government reported that the economy grew at a 1% annual pace in the April-June quarter. That was better than analysts had expected.Elsewhere in Asia, Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 rose 0.7% to 8,938.60. Taiwan’s TAIEX gained 0.4% while India’s BSE Sensex edged 0.1% higher.Attention later Friday will likely focus on an update on U.S. retail sales and on a meeting between U.S. President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin.On Thursday, seven out of every 10 stocks within the S&P 500 fell, though the index edged up by less than 0.1% to set another all-time high. The Dow Jones Industrial Average dipped 11 points, or less than 0.1%, and the Nasdaq composite fell less than 0.1% from its record set the day before.The inflation report said that prices jumped 3.3% last month at the U.S. wholesale level from a year earlier. That was well above the 2.5% rate that economists had forecast, and it could hint at higher inflation ahead for U.S. shoppers as higher costs make their way through the system.The data led traders to second guess their widespread consensus that the Federal Reserve will cut interest rates at its next meeting in September. Lower rates can boost investment prices and the economy by making it cheaper for U.S. households and businesses to borrow to buy houses, cars or equipment, but they also risk worsening inflation.Higher interest rates drag on all kinds of companies by keeping the cost to borrow high. They can hurt smaller companies in particular because they often need to borrow to grow. The Russell 2000 index of smaller U.S. stocks tumbled a market-leading 1.2%.Thursday’s disappointing data followed an encouraging update earlier in the week on prices at the consumer level. A separate report on Thursday, meanwhile, said fewer U.S. workers applied for unemployment benefits last week. That’s a good sign for workers, indicating that layoffs remain relatively low at a time when job openings have become more difficult to find.But a solid job market could also give the Fed less reason to cut interest rates in the short term.Big Tech stocks helped mask Wall Street’s losses. Amazon rose 2.9% to add to its gains from the prior day when it announced same-day delivery of fresh groceries in more than 1,000 cities and towns.Because Amazon is so huge, with a market value of $2.45 trillion, the movements for its stock carry much more weight on the S&P 500 than the typical company’s.In other dealings early Friday, U.S. benchmark crude lost 8 cents to $63.88 per barrel. Brent crude, the international standard, fell 11 cents to $66.73 per barrel.The dollar edged lower to 146.86 Japanese yen from 147.20 yen. The euro rose to $1.1682 from $1.1654. AP Business Writer Stan Choe contributed. Teresa Cerojano, Associated Press
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E-Commerce
Intel might be going into business with an unlikely partner: the U.S. government. According to Bloomberg, the Trump administration is in talks to get a stake in the chip manufacturer. The size of the stake is unclear, but it will reportedly support Intels planned Ohio manufacturing plant. The news follows a meeting at the White House between President Trump and Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan on Monday, August 11. Fast Company has reached out to Intel for comment and will update this post if we hear back. Shares of Intels stock (NASDAQ: INTC) jumped 7.4% on Thursday after the news broke. It continued to trend upward through after-hours and into premarket trading on Friday. If true, Intel would follow in the steps of its fellow tech giants Nvidia and AMD in becoming bedfellows with the Trump administration. On Monday, the pair made a deal to receive export licenses for China in exchange for giving the government 15% of the sales. Nvidia and AMD had faced restrictions on chip sales to China and can only sell their H20 and MI308 chips, respectively. Intels potential agreement comes after a swift 180 in Tan and Trumps relationship. It was just last Thursday, August 7, that Trump called for Tans resignation on Truth Social. Trump claimed that the CEO is conflicted due to investments in Chinese semiconductor firms, which might have a link to the Chinese Communist Party and the Peoples Liberation Army. Tan defended himself in a letter sent to Intels employees and shared publicly, stating, I have always operated within the highest legal and ethical standards. Four days later came the White House meeting and a change in tone. In a separate Truth Social post, Trump called the meeting an interesting one and said Tans success and rise is an amazing story. He added that Tan would work with his cabinet members this week to bring suggestions to him. If the unusual deal does move forward, it could bring momentum for Intels Ohio manufacturing plant. The factory was initially meant to start chip manufacturing in 2025, but in February, Intel announced a delay until 2030 or 2031. Then, Intel noted in its July second-quarter earnings report that it would further slow the pace of construction to align with demand.
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E-Commerce
U.S. President Donald Trump is meeting face-to-face with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Alaska on Friday for a high-stakes summit that could determine not only the trajectory of the war in Ukraine but also the fate of European security.The sit-down offers Trump a chance to prove to the world that he is both a master dealmaker and a global peacemaker. He and his allies have cast him as a heavyweight negotiator who can find a way to bring the slaughter to a close, something he used to boast he could do quickly.For Putin, a summit with Trump offers a long-sought opportunity to try to negotiate a deal that would cement Russia’s gains, block Kyiv’s bid to join the NATO military alliance and eventually pull Ukraine back into Moscow’s orbit.There are significant risks for Trump. By bringing Putin onto U.S. soil, the president is giving Russia’s leader the validation he desires after his ostracization following his invasion of Ukraine 3.5 years ago. The exclusion of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy from the summit also deals a heavy blow to the West’s policy of “nothing about Ukraine without Ukraine” and invites the possibility that Trump could agree to a deal that Ukraine does not want.Any success is far from assured, especially as Russia and Ukraine remain far apart in their demands for peace. Putin has long resisted any temporary ceasefire, linking it to a halt in Western arms supplies and a freeze on Ukraine’s mobilization efforts, which were conditions rejected by Kyiv and its Western allies.Trump on Thursday said there was a 25% chance that the summit would fail, but also floated the idea that if the meeting succeeds he could bring Zelenskyy to Alaska for a subsequent, three-way meeting, a possibility that Russia hasn’t agreed to.When asked in Anchorage about Trump’s estimate of a 25% chance of failure, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told reporters that Russia “never plans ahead.”“We know that we have arguments, a clear, understandable position. We will state it,” he said in footage posted to the Russian Foreign Ministry’s Telegram channel.Trump said in a Fox News radio interview Thursday that he didn’t know if they would get “an immediate ceasefire” but he wanted a broad peace deal done quickly. That seemingly echoes Putin’s longtime argument that Russia favors a comprehensive deal to end the fighting, reflecting its demands, not a temporary halt to hostilities.The Kremlin said Trump and Putin will first sit down for a one-on-one discussion, followed by the two delegations meeting and talks continuing over “a working breakfast.” They are then expected to hold a joint press conference. Trump has offered shifting explanations for his meeting goals In the days leading up to the summit, set for a military base near Anchorage, Trump described it as “really a feel-out meeting.” But he’s also warned of “very severe consequences” for Russia if Putin doesn’t agree to end the war and said that though Putin might bully other leaders, “He’s not going to mess around with me.”Trump’s repeated suggestions that a deal would likely involve “some swapping of territories”which disappointed Ukraine and European alliesalong with his controversial history with Putin have some skeptical about what kind of agreement can be reached.Ian Kelly, a retired career foreign service officer who served as the U.S. ambassador to Georgia during the Obama and first Trump administrations, said he sees “no upside for the U.S., only an upside for Putin.”“The best that can happen is nothing, and the worst that can happen is that Putin entices Trump into putting more pressure on Zelenskyy,” Kelly said.George Beebe, the former director of the CIA’s Russia analysis team who is now affiliated with the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, said there’s a serious risk of blown expectations or misunderstandings for a high-level summit pulled together so quickly.“That said, I doubt President Trump would be going into a meeting like this unless there had been enough work done behind the scenes for him to feel that there is a decent chance that something concrete will come out of it,” Beebe said.Zelenskyy has time and again cast doubts on Putin’s willingness to negotiate in good faith. His European allies, who’ve held increasingly urgent meetings with U.S. leaders over the past week, have stressed the need for Ukraine to be involved in any peace talks.Political commentators in Moscow, meanwhile, have relished that the summit leaves Ukraine and its European allies on the sidelines.Dmitry Suslov, a pro-Kremlin voice, expressed hope that the summit will “deepen a trans-Atlantic rift and weaken Europe’s position as the toughest enemy of Russia.” The summit could have far-reaching implications On his way to Anchorage Thursday, Putin arrived in Magadan in Russia’s Far East, according to Russian state news agency Interfax.Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the visit would include meetings with the regional governor and stops at several key sites, including a stop to lay flowers at a WWII-era memorial honoring Soviet-American aviation cooperation.Foreign governments will be watching closely to see how Trump reacts to Putin, likely gauging what the interaction might mean for their own dealings with the U.S. president, who has eschewed traditional diplomacy for his own transactional approach to relationships.The meeting comes as the war has caused heavy losses on both sides and drained resources.Ukraine has held on far longer than some initially expected since the February 2022 invasion, but it is straining to hold off Russia’s much larger army, grappling with bombardments of its cities and fighting for every inch on the over 600-mile (1,000-kilometer) front line.Andrea Kendall-Taylor, a senior fellow and director of the Transatlantic Security Program at the Center for a New American Security, said U.S. antagonists like China, Iran, and North Korea will be paying attention to Trump’s posture to see “whether or not the threats that he continues to make against Putin are indeed credible.”“Or, if has been the past track record, he continues to back down and look for ways to wiggle out of the kind of threats and pressure he has promised to apply,” said Kendall-Taylor, who is also a former senior intelligence officer.While some have objected to the location of the summit, Trump has said he thought it was “very respectful” of Putin to come to the U.S. instead of a meeting in Russia.Sergei Markov, a pro-Kremlin Moscow-based analyst, observed that the choice of Alaska as the summit’s venue “underlined the distancing from Europe and Ukraine.”Being on a military base allows the leaders to avoid protests and meet more securely, but the location carries its own significance because of its history and location.Alaska, which the U.S. purchased from Russia in 1867, is separated from Russia at its closest point by just 3 miles (less than 5 kilometers) and the international date line.Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardon was crucial to countering the Soviet Union during the Cold War. It continues to play a role today, as planes from the base still intercept Russian aircraft that regularly fly into U.S. airspace. Weissert reported from Washington. Associated Press writers Matthew Lee in Washington, Elise Morton in London and Vladimir Isachenkov in Moscow contributed to this report. Michelle L. Price and Will Weissert, Associated Press
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E-Commerce
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