Asia stocks slide as US and Iran threaten to intensify war

The UK economy is now predicted to grow at a slower rate than previously expected from next year, the government’s official forecaster has said. The Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR), which maps out how the economy is set to perform based on the government’s tax and spending policies, increased its growth expectations for this year,…

Natalie Sherman,Business reporterand Lily Jamali,North America Technology correspondent Bloomberg via Getty Images The US has been pushing to build up its semiconductor industry The US said it had agreed to cut the tariffs it charges on goods from Taiwan to 15%, in exchange for hundreds of billions of dollars in investment aimed at boosting domestic…

u003c/p>u003cscript type=”text/javascript”>require([‘idcta/idcta-1’], function(idcta) {new idcta.Cta({id: ‘id4-cta-a22f84f3-5e2f-43b6-b7af-4d2f6c20bc7c’, states: {}, policyname: ”});});u003c/script>”,”userSettings”:{“isPersonalisationEnabled”:false,”isPerformanceCookieOn”:false,”isUnder16″:false,”isSignedIn”:false,”isFunctionalityCookieOn”:false,”isInUk”:true},”appConfig”:{“baseUrl”:”https://rms.api.bbc.co.uk”,”clientApiKey”:”3A5LU4tQWvWW3lpgF5OT4IWUoyLaju9z”,”personalisedActivitiesUriSegment”:”/v2/my/activities”,”subscribeDelay”:1000,”dials”:{“is16x9CategoryCardEnabled”:true,”isMusicMixesEnabled”:true,”isAnalyticsEnabled”:true,”isOptimizelyEnabled”:true,”isSubscribeButtonEnabled”:true,”isPromoModalEnabled”:true,”areIdServicesEnabled”:true,”hasSurveyBanner”:false,”isWebPEnabled”:true,”msiExperimentOverride”:”text_only”,”smpSignInExperimentOverride”:”default”,”isLivePlayEventsEnabled”:true,”isSubtitlesDialEnabled”:true,”isExukBannerEnabled”:true,”isExukRoutingEnabled”:true,”isCommercialLinksEnabled”:true,”isTracksPollingEnabled”:true,”isTracklistPlayingEnabled”:true,”isLiveExperienceApiEnabled”:false,”isJwtOnLivePlaybackEnabled”:true,”isChaptersDialEnabled”:false,”isTrailersDialEnabled”:true},”pageTitle”:””,”experimentationClientUrl”:”https://static.files.bbci.co.uk/sounds/web/sounds-web/js/tvr-experimentation-client.ddac14b832″,”bumpUrl”:”https://emp.bbci.co.uk/emp/bump-4/bump-4″,”msiUrl”:”//rmp.files.bbci.co.uk/radio-msi/latest”,”bbcUserInfoUrl”:”https://www.bbc.co.uk/userinfo”,”clientSideTelemetryOptions”:{“url”:”https://telemetry.api.bbci.co.uk/tvr-telemetry/sounds-web/telemetry”,”sampleRate”:25,”service”:”sounds-web”,”pageType”:”play-aod-pid”},”isPlayout”:true,”playbackIdentifier”:”w3ct7x6p”,”pageType”:”aod”,”aodPageType”:”aod-singlePid”,”aodHeartbeatInterval”:30000,”isSelectedSegmentsEnabled”:false,”isMobile”:false,”trailersApiBaseUrl”:”https://mt.api.bbc.co.uk/fd/martech-ott”},”soundsNav”:{“contentType”:”player-episode”},”experimentation”:{“activeRetentionMetrics”:[]},”bookmark”:{“isBookmarksEnabled”:false,”isBookmarkStatusUpdating”:false,”bookmarkDelay”:1000},”subscribe”:{“isSubscribeEnabled”:false,”isSubscribeStatusUpdating”:false,”subscribeDelay”:1000},”smp”:{“isSplashScreenEnabled”:true,”isSplashScreenRunning”:true,”live”:false,”writePlaysData”:false,”jwtFetchWasRetried”:false,”chaptersSmpPluginUrl”:”https://static.files.bbci.co.uk/sounds/web/sounds-web/js/sounds-segments.4dbd15cd5f.js”},”msiModal”:{“open”:false,”shouldShowOnPlayback”:true},”locale”:”en”,”pageType”:”play”,”programmes”:{“current”:{“id”:”w4hr4094″,”type”:”playable_item”,”urn”:”urn:bbc:radio:episode:w3ct7x6p”,”network”:{“id”:”bbc_world_service”,”key”:”worldserviceradio”,”short_title”:”World Service”,”logo_url”:”https://sounds.files.bbci.co.uk/3.9.4/networks/bbc_world_service/{type}_{size}.{format}”,”network_type”:”master_brand”},”release”:{“date”:”2025-08-06T00:00:00Z”,”label”:”06 Aug 2025″},”titles”:{“primary”:”The Interview”,”secondary”:”John Denton, Secretary-General of the ICC: Uncertainty is harming business”,”tertiary”:null,”entity_title”:”John Denton, Secretary-General of the ICC: Uncertainty is harming business”},”synopses”:{“short”:”Suranjana Tewari speaks to John Denton about tariffs and the uncertainty they create”,”medium”:”Suranjana Tewari speaks to John Denton, Secretary-General of the International Chamber of…

Despite the Iran war, rising inflation and worries about rising government debt, US stock markets continue to hit all-time highs this year. That’s largely driven by the huge boom in investment in Artificial Intelligence. The apparent mismatch between sky high stock market valuations and the real economy is beginning to set off some alarm bells…