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Stocks in Asia rose as traders weighed prospects for Federal Reserve interest-rate cuts after Jerome Powell cited signals that the US is back on a disinflationary path.Equity benchmarks climbed in Japan, Australia and South Korea, while futures for Hong Kong stocks pointed to a positive start. Contracts for the S&P 500 edged lower after the benchmark closed above 5,500 for the first time — the gauge’s 32nd record this year — to extend a blistering rally that has left analysts scrambling to update their targets. Tesla Inc. surged 10% to lead gains in megacaps, helping the Nasdaq 100 close above the 20,000 mark for the first time.The new all-time high close in the S&P 500 and Nasdaq “could also be taken as another win given the psychological significance that ‘round numbers’ hold,” said Chris Weston, head of research at Pepperstone Group in Melbourne. “Asia too will take some inspiration, not just from the net change in US markets, but because it wasn’t just tech that has propped up the respective indices, and we’ve seen somewhat better breadth and participation.”In other markets, oil climbed to trade near a two-month high, while the Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index was little changed. Treasury yields were steady after dropping Tuesday for the first time in three sessions.111444612In Asia, traders will be looking for signs of improvement in China’s beleaguered housing market after China Vanke Co.’s sales stalled and Country Garden Holdings Co.’s slumped further last month.Meanwhile, the central bank’s plan to borrow bonds may slow, according to analysts. The People’s Bank of China has been pushing back against the nation’s bond rally for months and hinted it may sell some of its own holdings to cool the advance in May.In the US, equities keep defying doomsayers amid solid corporate earnings, the artificial-intelligence mania and expectations that interest rates will drop, adding more than $16 trillion to the S&P 500’s value from a closing low on October 2022. A lack of any meaningful pullback has given bulls conviction that the rally is sustainable.The S&P 500 will surge to new peaks by the end of the year as economic strength outweighs market risks, according to Lori Calvasina at RBC Capital Markets. She raised her year-end target to 5,700 from 5,300 — among the highest on Wall Street — despite the fact that the market has “gotten a bit ahead of itself.”“Our suspicion is that 2024’s economy will end up being strong enough to justify a strong move in the S&P 500 for the year as a whole,” Calvasina said.On the economic front, data Tuesday showed job openings unexpectedly rose, interrupting a trend that underscored a slowdown in labor seen as key for Fed easing. Powell said there’s been a “substantial” move toward a better balance between the supply of and demand for workers. He described the job market as strong, but said it is cooling off appropriately so.Wall Street is gearing up for a slew of economic data that will hit the tape Wednesday — when the market closes early due to Thursday’s US holiday. And that’s all ahead of the all-important US payrolls reading due Friday. Economists expect the report to show employers added about 190,000 payrolls in June and the unemployment rate held at 4%.

Indian markets opened at record highs but experienced some correction due to a lack of sustained buying on Tuesday. In today's trade, shares of YES Bank, DMart, Kotak Bank, Zomato, Hindustan Zinc due to various developments.DMartAvenue Supermarts, which operates DMart stores, reported a standalone revenue of Rs 13,712 crore for the quarter ended June 30, 2024 which was up from Rs 11,584 crore reported by the company in the year ago period.HDFC BankHDFC Bank's weight in the MSCI index could go up to 7.2-7.5% in the August 2024 review from 3.8% now as the foreign institutional holding (FII) has come down below 55%, according to the shareholding data available on BSE.YES BankLeading private lender YES Bank reported 15% year-on-year growth in its loans and advances for the first quarter ended June 2024.Kotak BankKotak Bank clarified that transactions in question were executed by the fund on the advice of its investor, Kingdon.Force MotorsForce Motors total sales were down 3% at 2.553 units in the June month. Total domestic sales were up 13% to 2,465 units.RVNLRVNL emerged as the lowest bidder (L1) for a central railway project worth Rs 132.59 crore.Waaree EnergiesWaaree Energies received an order to supply 900 MW of modules for Serentica Renewables in Rajasthan.KEC InternationalKEC International received new orders worth Rs 1,017 crore in Transmission and Distribution (T&D) and renewables businesses.Hindustan ZincHindustan Zinc reported a mined metal production of 263 kt, showing a 2% rise year-on-year. Saleable metal production stood at 262 kilo tonnes, up 1% year-on-year.IEXIEX reported total electricity volume at 10,185 MU in June, which is an increase of 25% year-on-year.ZomatoZomato arm Zomato Financial Services has withdrawn applications submitted to the RBI for undertaking NBFC business.

NEW YORK/WASHINGTON: A New York judge on Tuesday delayed Donald Trump's sentencing for his conviction on criminal charges stemming from hush money paid to a porn star until Sept. 18, after the former U.S. president asked for a chance to argue he should have been immune from prosecution. The sentencing had previously been set for July 11, just days before the Republican National Convention begins in Milwaukee on July 15. Trump is expected to be his party's nominee to challenge Democratic President Joe Biden in the Nov. 5 election.Trump faces an uphill battle getting the hush money conviction overturned, since much of the conduct at issue in the case predated his time in office. Trump's lawyers on Monday asked Justice Juan Merchan to allow them to argue his conviction in New York state court in Manhattan should be overturned due to the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling on July 1 that presidents are entitled to immunity from criminal prosecution for official acts.Prosecutors with Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg's office said Trump's argument was "without merit," but agreed to delay the sentencing to give Trump the chance to make his case. A Manhattan jury on May 30 found him guilty of falsifying business records to cover up his former lawyer Michael Cohen's $130,000 payment to adult film actress Stormy Daniels to stay quiet about an alleged 2006 sexual encounter until after the 2016 election, when Trump defeated Democrat Hillary Clinton.Prosecutors said the payment was part of an illicit scheme to influence the election. Trump denies having had sex with Daniels and has vowed to appeal the conviction after his sentencing.In their letter to Merchan, defense lawyers argued that prosecutors had presented evidence involving Trump's official acts as president, including social media posts he made and conversations he had while in the White House.Under the Supreme Court's ruling, prosecutors cannot use evidence related to official actions to help prove criminal cases involving unofficial actions."This official-acts evidence should never have been put before the jury," lawyers Todd Blanche and Emil Bove wrote. Last year, Trump made a similar argument as part of an unsuccessful push to move the hush money case to federal court. In denying Trump's request in July 2023, U.S. District Judge Alvin Hellerstein wrote that the payment to Daniels "was a purely personal item.""Hush money paid to an adult film star is not related to a president's official acts," Hellerstein wrote.Trump's lawyers appealed Hellerstein's decision, but later abandoned the effort.

Vodafone Idea's financial health is set to get a much-needed boost from latest tariff increases and easing competitive intensity with analysts predicting the debt-laden telecom operator's average revenue per user (ARPU) to rise to ₹171-180 by this fiscal-end, from ₹143 in April.Brokerage Citi Research projected rising revenues, operating income, capex, and narrowing losses for the telecom joint venture between India's Aditya Birla Group and UK's Vodafone Plc. "The peak of competitive intensity is now likely behind us, evidenced not just by the latest tariff action but also the recent spectrum auction," Citi said in a report. "With Jio taking the lead in initiating the latest round of tariff hikes, a shift in stance of the market leader towards monetisation is now clearly evident, which also improves visibility of future hikes," it said, adding that last week's price increase were slightly ahead of market expectation in terms of both magnitude and timing.Consequently, Citi expects Vi's ARPU to reach ₹171 in FY25, also factoring in a decline in subscriber loss from 213 million currently to 210 million in FY25. 111440136Motilal Oswal Financial Services Ltd (MOFSL) forecast Vi's earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (Ebitda) to grow at 17% compounded annually between FY24 and FY26, up from 4% during FY20-24. Revenue would grow at 11.5% in the same period.Centrum Broking expects Vi's ARPU to touch ₹180 by March quarter.Every ₹1 increase in ARPU is expected to add about ₹1,000 crore to the telecom industry's PBILDT (profit before interest lease depreciation and tax), ratings firm CareEdge Ratings had said. However, Vi's weaker position in terms of network infra compared to its bigger rivals will continue to weigh on India's third-largest telecom operator, experts said. HSBC Global Research expects Vi's recent capital raise to help the company improve its network coverage and capacity, and "we expect the pace of its market share loss to be slower than before".Vi recently concluded a ₹24,000 crore fundraise through promoters' equity infusion, follow-on public offer as well as equity issuance to vendors. It is also in talks with lenders for external debt funding of ₹25,000 crore. Most of the funding will be deployed towards capex for 4G network expansion and rolling out 5G. "We believe the next catalysts for the telecom stocks would be subscriber gains, a reduction in churn, and an increase in data customers. VIL has laid out a capex plan of ₹500-550 billion in the next three years, which could support the network and restrict churn," MOFSL said in a report. However, currently, it appears to be a far-fetched scenario as "the company is unlikely to create a self-sustainable cash flow position due to its large debt and its EBITDA being unable to meet the annual AGR and spectrum obligations," it added.

The United States will provide a new $2.3 billion package of security assistance for Ukraine that will include key air defense and anti-tank weapons, US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said Tuesday.The announcement comes as Kyiv's weakened and outgunned forces struggle to hold back invading Russian troops, with Moscow regularly claiming the capture of new villages in the eastern Ukraine."The United States will soon announce more than $2.3 billion in new security assistance for Ukraine," Austin said at the start of a meeting with his Ukrainian counterpart Rustem Umerov.111271462"This package... will provide more air defense interceptors, anti-tank weapons, and other critical munitions" drawn from US stocks, Austin said."It will also enable the United States to procure more Patriot and NASAMS air defense interceptors that will be provided on an accelerated timeline," the US defense chief said.111390681Umerov thanked Austin for Washington's assistance, saying that "with that support, we will stop Russia and stop the aggression."The United States has been a key military backer of Ukraine, committing more than $51 billion in weapons, ammunition and other security assistance since Russia launched its full-scale invasion in February 2022.

Tesla on Tuesday reported a smaller-than-expected 5% drop in vehicle deliveries in the second quarter, as the electric-vehicle maker's price cuts and incentives helped stimulate demand. Shares of the world's most valuable automaker rose 4.5% in premarket trading. They are down 15.5% this year. The EV maker handed over 443,956 vehicles in the three months to June 30, 4.8% lower than a year earlier and up 14.8% from the preceding quarter. Wall Street on average had expected Tesla to deliver 438,019 vehicles, according to 12 analysts polled by LSEG. Tesla delivered 422,405 Model 3 and Model Y, and 21,551 units of other models, which include the Model S sedan, Cybertruck and Model X premium SUV. It produced 410,831 vehicles during the April-June period. Tesla, which ignited an EV price war more than a year earlier, has also offered discounts and incentives such as low-interest loans and cheaper leasing plans in the U.S., China and Europe, which have weighed on its margins. This marks the first time Tesla posted a year-on-year sales fall for a second consecutive quarter. Tesla CEO Elon Musk has said that he expects the company to increase its deliveries in 2024 from a year earlier. However, Wall Street largely expects a drop due to poor sentiment around electric vehicles and high interest rates. Tesla said in January that it expected "notably lower" growth in deliveries this year and dropped its goal of delivering 20 million vehicles a year by 2030 in its latest annual impact report published in May, a drastic change in tone from its long-term annual growth target of 50%.