{"id":63921,"date":"2026-06-29T03:38:27","date_gmt":"2026-06-29T07:38:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www2.stockmarketwatch.com\/stock-market-news\/global-markets-update-bat-trims-workforce-as-china-japan-trade-tensions-escalate\/63921\/"},"modified":"2026-06-29T03:38:27","modified_gmt":"2026-06-29T07:38:27","slug":"global-markets-update-bat-trims-workforce-as-china-japan-trade-tensions-escalate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www2.stockmarketwatch.com\/stock-market-news\/global-markets-update-bat-trims-workforce-as-china-japan-trade-tensions-escalate\/63921\/","title":{"rendered":"Global Markets Update: BAT Trims Workforce as China-Japan Trade Tensions Escalate"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2>Key Takeaways<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>British American Tobacco (<a href=\"\/stock\/BATS\">BATS<\/a>)<\/strong> is slashing <strong>9,000 roles<\/strong>, roughly <strong>20% of its global workforce<\/strong>, as it accelerates a turnaround plan focused on AI and digital transformation.<\/li>\n<li><strong>China<\/strong> has doubled its export control list for Japan, adding <strong>20 new entities<\/strong> including subsidiaries of <strong>Mitsubishi Electric (<a href=\"\/stock\/6503\">6503<\/a>)<\/strong>, citing national security concerns and &quot;neo-militarism.&quot;<\/li>\n<li><strong>STMicroelectronics (<a href=\"\/stock\/STMPA\">STMPA<\/a>)<\/strong> received a rating upgrade to <strong>Equal Weight<\/strong> from <strong>Barclays<\/strong>, with a new price target of <strong>65 Euros<\/strong> following a recent <strong>$1.5 billion<\/strong> bond offering.<\/li>\n<li><strong>CXMT<\/strong> secured a massive multi-year contract worth over <strong>20 billion yuan ($2.75 billion)<\/strong> with <strong>Tencent (<a href=\"\/stock\/700\">700<\/a>)<\/strong>, signaling a major win for China&#39;s domestic DRAM industry.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Spain&#39;s<\/strong> preliminary June inflation held steady at <strong>3.2%<\/strong>, while core inflation eased slightly to <strong>2.9%<\/strong>, reflecting persistent but stabilizing price pressures in the Eurozone.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Corporate Restructuring and Tech Partnerships<\/h2>\n<p>British American Tobacco (<a href=\"\/stock\/BATS\">BATS<\/a>) announced a significant intensification of its &quot;Fit2Win&quot; turnaround strategy, confirming plans to cut <strong>9,000 jobs<\/strong>. The tobacco giant aims to simplify its global operations by reducing its regional structure from four divisions to three and shifting focus toward <strong>AI-driven productivity<\/strong> and smokeless products. This move comes as the company faces declining traditional cigarette volumes and seeks to bolster its &quot;New Category&quot; revenue, which includes vapes and nicotine pouches.<\/p>\n<p>In the semiconductor sector, China&#39;s leading DRAM manufacturer, <strong>ChangXin Memory Technologies (CXMT)<\/strong>, has signed a landmark contract with <strong>Tencent (<a href=\"\/stock\/TCEHY\">TCEHY<\/a>)<\/strong> valued at more than <strong>20 billion yuan<\/strong>. The deal underscores the rapid expansion of China&#39;s domestic chip capacity as CXMT prepares for a highly anticipated <strong>IPO on the STAR Market<\/strong> later this year. Meanwhile, <strong>STMicroelectronics (<a href=\"\/stock\/STMPA\">STMPA<\/a>)<\/strong> saw its outlook improve at <strong>Barclays<\/strong>, with analysts raising the price target to <strong>65 Euros<\/strong> as the company successfully refinances debt through a <strong>$1.5 billion<\/strong> dual-tranche convertible bond issuance.<\/p>\n<h2>Geopolitical Friction and Trade Controls<\/h2>\n<p>Trade relations between Tokyo and Beijing reached a new low as <strong>China&#39;s Ministry of Commerce<\/strong> added <strong>20 Japanese entities<\/strong> to its export control list. The list now includes <strong>Mitsubishi Electric Software Corp.<\/strong> and the <strong>National Institute for Defense Studies<\/strong>, effectively barring them from receiving Chinese dual-use exports, including critical <strong>rare earth minerals<\/strong>. Japan\u2019s Chief Cabinet Secretary <strong>Minoru Kihara<\/strong> called the move &quot;regrettable,&quot; as the restrictions appear to target Japan&#39;s defense and high-tech manufacturing sectors.<\/p>\n<p>Amidst these tensions, diplomatic efforts continue elsewhere as <strong>Saudi Arabia\u2019s Foreign Minister<\/strong>, Prince Faisal bin Farhan, prepares for an official visit to <strong>China<\/strong> from June 30 to July 1. The visit follows a period of increased bilateral communication, including a written message from Chinese Foreign Minister <strong>Wang Yi<\/strong> regarding the improvement of strategic ties. The talks are expected to cover regional security and energy cooperation, further cementing China&#39;s role as a key mediator in the Middle East.<\/p>\n<h2>European Economic Indicators<\/h2>\n<p>Economic data from <strong>Spain<\/strong> provided a mixed outlook for the Eurozone&#39;s recovery. The <strong>Consumer Price Index (CPI)<\/strong> for June remained unchanged at <strong>3.2%<\/strong> year-over-year, missing analyst estimates of a slight cooling to 3.0%. However, <strong>core inflation<\/strong>\u2014which excludes volatile food and energy prices\u2014offered a <a href=\"https:\/\/stockmarketwatch.com\/metal\/silver\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"5\" title=\"silver price today\">silver<\/a> lining by easing to <strong>2.9%<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>Retail sector performance also showed volatility; while <strong>May retail sales<\/strong> grew <strong>1.3%<\/strong> on a seasonally adjusted basis (beating the 0.8% forecast), the unadjusted year-over-year figure dipped to <strong>-0.4%<\/strong>. These figures suggest that while consumer spending remains resilient in certain segments, the broader retail environment is still grappling with the tail-end of inflationary pressures and shifting consumer habits.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Key Takeaways British American Tobacco (BATS) is slashing 9,000 roles, roughly 20% of its global workforce, as it accelerates a [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":50383,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"rank_math_schema_Article":[],"rank_math_focus_keyword":[],"rank_math_description":[],"financial_data_references":[],"stock_symbols_mentioned":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[5012],"tags":[10769,1327,18127,3712,19802,4085,19803,4223,19804,19805,5127,5437,6473,7859,10247],"class_list":["post-63921","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-breaking-news","tag-stmicroelectronics","tag-china","tag-stmpa","tag-cpi","tag-bats","tag-tcehy","tag-19803","tag-inflation","tag-19804","tag-bat","tag-japan","tag-spain","tag-tencent","tag-cxmt","tag-10247"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www2.stockmarketwatch.com\/stock-market-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63921","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www2.stockmarketwatch.com\/stock-market-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www2.stockmarketwatch.com\/stock-market-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www2.stockmarketwatch.com\/stock-market-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www2.stockmarketwatch.com\/stock-market-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=63921"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www2.stockmarketwatch.com\/stock-market-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63921\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www2.stockmarketwatch.com\/stock-market-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/50383"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www2.stockmarketwatch.com\/stock-market-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=63921"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www2.stockmarketwatch.com\/stock-market-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=63921"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www2.stockmarketwatch.com\/stock-market-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=63921"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}