The Bank of Japan's latest Summary of Opinions from meetings with market participants revealed differing views on the future pace of Japanese government bond (JGB) purchase reductions, highlighting the difficult balancing act the BoJ faces as bond yields continue to climb. Several participants argued that the need for additional tapering remains limited. One participant stated…

Prime minister failed to follow through on threat to bomb Hizbollah following pressure from US president

Washington and Tehran are still trying to formalise a ceasefire

Manufacturing PMI 51.6 vs 51.4 prelim Prior 52.2 Euro area manufacturing activity slows down in May as the stockpiling surge from April begins to fade. The headline manufacturing index is a two-month low with the output index dropping to a four-month low in May. That comes as demand conditions take a hit amid rising price…

Prior was 51.4 Key findings: Manufacturing sector stalls amid waning demand and soaring costs New orders fall for first time in 2026 so far, weighing on output growth Job cuts deepen as cost pressures reach highest since June 2022 Comment: Phil Smith, Economics Associate Director at S&P Global Market Intelligence: "The…

Manufacturing PMI 49.7 vs 48.9 prelim Prior 52.8 The April growth, as expected, was short-lived as we see an unwinding to the frontrunning of stock in May. While the revised figures are better than initial estimates, it still points to a marginal contraction in business activity. Of note, there were fresh declines in production, new…

Prior 52.1 Key findings: Renewed growth in new orders supports stronger increase in manufacturing output Stockpiling efforts support fresh pick-up in order books Delivery delays worsen and inflation intensifies Comment: Eleanor Dennison, Economist at S&P Global Market Intelligence, said: "Faced with even more disruption to supply chains and greater cost pressures brought on…

Aaron Levie said AI is creating new jobs and driving reinvestment in growth as companies use efficiency gains to expand hiring. Importance Rank:  1 read more

Shinjiro Koizumi says Tokyo is pursuing security co-operation across Asia-Pacific region

Crypto sentiment platform Santiment warned that the two biggest spikes in social media bullishness around Bitcoin have previously been followed by short-term price pullbacks.