#Japan’s financial regulator is urging the country’s listed companies to spend more of their cash piles on long-term business investment instead of buybacks and higher #dividends.

Companies in at least nine #European countries bought carbon offsets from projects that appear not to exist or were verified by an auditor-turned-developer who treated the two jobs as a revolving door, a Bloomberg investigation found.

#Nigeria: #Stocks surge past N160trn on renewed investor confidence

If the Strait of #Hormuz doesn’t open by August, there may be a risk of a recession rivaling the great financial crisis.

Yen #traders are on alert for the risk of intervention on Monday as holidays from London to New York reduce market liquidity

#Gold was little changed as optimism over efforts to end the Middle East conflict eased bets on interest-rate hikes. #TradeNews

The yuan’s continued strength is exerting pressure on #Chinese exporters on a scale rarely seen in recent years, complicating Beijing’s efforts to manage the pace of currency gains

#Kenyan lender KCB Group said on Wednesday its pretax profit for the first quarter of this year rose 15% to 24.4 billion shillings ($188.4 million), helped by higher interest income.

SoftBank’s Masayoshi Son has bet $60 billion on Sam Altman and OpenAI. Find out what’s driving his conviction — and why some see a risky, one‑sided dynamic emerging — on the Big Take Asia Podcast.

South Africa has set higher import duties on certain steel products, ranging from 10% to 30%, to defend the struggling industry in the face of weak demand and rising imports led by China.