Global Business Pulse: Markets Juggle Tariffs, Rate Cuts & Mega-Deals (Aug 7–8, 2025)
Equities: Global stocks seesawed amid trade and geopolitical crosswinds. On Aug 7, Wall Street’s Dow Jones and S&P 500 slipped as pharma giant Eli Lilly plunged 14% on disappointing weight-loss drug data reuters.com reuters.com. The Nasdaq Composite inched to a record high, up 0.3%, buoyed by tech gains reuters.com reuters.com. “The market rally is beginning to look a little tired… ignoring a lot of the tariff news,” observed Spartan Capital’s Peter Cardillo, as investors had bid up stocks on strong earnings despite looming U.S. import levies reuters.com. In Europe, the pan-European STOXX 600 hit a one-week peak and notched its biggest rise in over two weeks on Aug 7 reuters.com, fueled by bank stocks and hopes of a Ukraine ceasefire after news of a possible Trump-Putin peace meeting reuters.com reuters.com. By Aug 8, European shares were on track for their best week in 12 weeks, aided by a perceived dovish tilt at the Fed and easing war fears reuters.com. Asia saw an uneven rebound – Japan’s Nikkei surged 2% to a record on robust earnings and optimism that U.S. tariffs on Japanese goods would be fine-tuned reuters.com reuters.com. However, Hong Kong, Korea and Australia lagged, reflecting fragile sentiment after Wall
