Keep calm and carry on, investors

What a first half of the year it has been.

In the first six months, the world saw a (not so) new U.S. president in the Oval Office, said president upend the global trade landscape, and a president in South Korea removed from office. 

Conflicts also broke out between India and Pakistan, as well as Israel and Iran (along with a U.S. airstrike thrown into the mix.)

Chinese AI startup DeepSeek made its debut, stealing ChatGPT’s thunder for a while, and elections took place around the world, including in Germany, Australia, and even right here in sunny Singapore. 

We might just have to call Billy Joel and get him to write a whole new version of “We Didn’t Start the Fire.” 

Despite such a rollercoaster ride so far, market investors, in response to most developments, seem to have adopted the U.K.’s mantra as it prepared for war in 1939: Keep calm and carry on. 

If we take a longer-term view, markets have delivered a respectable performance despite a volatile first half. Just a few stats: the S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite closed at fresh all-time highs Monday and are up about 5% year to date. 

In Europe, the Stoxx 600 is up 6.7%, and in Asia, most major markets are in positive territory, with Hong Kong and South Korea posting a whopping 20% gain year to date. 

Keep calm and carry on into the second half of the year, investors. 

— Lim Hui Jie

Trump takes aim at AT&T service weeks after Trump Mobile licensing deal announced

President Donald Trump criticized AT&T in consecutive Truth Social posts Monday, writing that the country’s third-largest wireless carrier “ought to get its act together.”

The president wrote that he was trying to hold a conference call with “faith leaders,” but that “AT&T is totally unable to make their equipment work properly.”

The back-to-back posts came two weeks after the Trump Organization announced it had licensed the Trump name to a new wireless phone service, Trump Mobile, that also sells a $499 smartphone.

— Erin Doherty

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