Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida has revealed an economic stimulus plan that aims to encourage domestic investment and boost wage growth. The plan includes tax breaks for key strategic fields such as semiconductors and batteries. Kishida stated that the goal is to create a virtuous economic cycle of capital investment, wage growth, and investment in people. The stimulus package also includes measures to reduce tax and social security burdens. This plan comes as Japan’s service sector experiences its fastest wholesale inflation rate in a year, with the service producer price index climbing 2.1% year on year in August.
In other news, Bank of America has upgraded three European luxury stocks that have shown resilience amidst the negative trends affecting the broader sector. The MSCI index of European luxury goods companies has fallen 16% from its recent high in April, and evidence of slowing demand in the third quarter has emerged. However, these three stocks have managed to perform well despite the challenges. Meanwhile, Moody’s Investors Service has warned that a U.S. government shutdown would have a negative impact on the country’s credit. Moody’s currently has an AAA stable rating on the U.S. government, while Fitch downgraded its view of the U.S. to AA+ in August.
Moreover, analysts have differing opinions on whether or not tech giant Meta, which operates social media platforms Facebook, Instagram, Threads, and WhatsApp, is a top pick for investors. Some believe that the company is currently going through an “identity crisis” and is thus “uninvestable,” while others view it as their top pick across the internet sector. Lastly, Amazon’s announcement that it will invest up to $4 billion in AI startup Anthropic has caused its shares to rise by 1.2%. The investment comes as Amazon looks to capitalize on the generative AI boom, with Anthropic selecting Amazon Web Services as its primary cloud provider.