South Korea: Economists count on 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 occasion gained massive in Could’s normal election, nonetheless faces obstacles to supplanting the military-backed authorities, together with questions on a potential breach of election guidelines.

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

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

Iger, who led Disney for 15 years in his first stint as chief govt, 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 programs, a doubtlessly vital shift as Washington alters its danger calculus in Ukraine because the conflict drags on.

Kyiv has lengthy sought the weapons to higher 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 identify for the American long-range missiles as he boarded a airplane 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 right now, tomorrow and for so long as it takes.” 

German chemical producer BASF on Wednesday reduce its full-year outlook and forecast a slowdown in international client 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 have been 1 / 4 decrease than the earlier 12 months. Adjusted earnings declined 57 per cent from a 12 months in the past.