Live news: Howard Schultz steps down from Starbucks board

UK-China relations: The UK government is expected to make a formal response in July to a damning report by parliament’s intelligence and security committee which found the UK’s handling of China’s “increasingly sophisticated” espionage operations to be “wholly inadequate”.

Hongkong: The second day of the eighth Belt and Road Forum, commemorating the 10th anniversary of Chinese leader Xi Jinping’s global infrastructure project, included a special session on Hong Kong as a hub for raising investment in the Middle East.

market: Tokyo futures indexes were higher, while Hong Kong futures indexes were flat. U.S. stocks rose on Wednesday and Treasury yields fell as investors shrugged off higher-than-expected inflation reports. The S&P 500 rose 0.1% and the Nasdaq Composite gained 0.3%.

Argentina’s monthly inflation rate hit a 22-year high in August, the statistics office said on Wednesday, following radical liberal economist Javier Milei’s shock victory in last month’s crucial primaries. The highest point was 12.4%.

The ratio is now at its highest level since 1991, beating analysts’ expectations and taking annual price growth to 124.4%.

The data suggest Argentina’s fragile economy is accelerating as uncertainty over October’s election and Milley’s untested plans to dollarize the economy roil markets.

Government efforts to fix prices through deals with major retailers have largely failed to ease pressure.

Starbucks announced on Wednesday that Howard Schultz will resign from the Starbucks board of directors, effective immediately.

Schultz serves as chairman emeritus and has helped lead the company through a recent period of leadership changes.

He returned to the company for the third time as CEO in April 2022, following which Laxman Narasimhan was appointed as his successor.

Narasimhan succeeded Schultz in March, more than a week before the company initially said it would make the transition.

British chip designer Arm’s shares were trading at $51 a share before trading began on Thursday, giving the company a market valuation of $52.3 billion.

The price was at the upper end of the $47 to $51 per share range amid strong demand, which resulted in its shares being more than five times oversubscribed.

This listing is closely watched as a barometer of new technology IPOs. It’s the largest IPO in two years since electric truck maker Rivian debuted in 2021, raising about $12 billion.

Tech stock valuations have fallen sharply over the past 18 months from their coronavirus pandemic-era highs amid economic uncertainty and rising interest rates.

Read more about Arm here.

Goldman Sachs has fired four employees from its corporate cash management business over what the Wall Street bank said were “serious violations” of its communications policies.

The firings are another example of Wall Street cracking down on employees using unapproved messaging apps to conduct company business.

Hari Moorthy, a partner and global head of transaction banking at Goldman Sachs, was among the employees fired, according to a person familiar with the matter.

In a memo sent to Goldman Sachs employees on Wednesday, the bank told employees that “the firm has fired several leaders of its Transaction Banking (TxB) business after it lost confidence in them following serious violations of company policy.”

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has ruled out scrapping the controversial bank windfall tax, which was criticized by the European Central Bank on Wednesday.

Meloni said she would not scrap the tax but said details could be revised if revenue remains “unchanged” and the tax still generates “slightly less” than the 3 billion euros expected by Rome.

The ECB warned that banks with weaker capital levels or smaller institutions that rely on traditional lending “may find it more difficult to absorb the potential downside risks of a recession” due to the proposed tax measures.

Learn more about the windfall profits tax here.