※ Global Morning Briefing summarizes global news coverage from Seoul Economic Daily.
Once Dismissed as Dad Shoes, Asics Eyes 1 Trillion Yen in Annual Sales. What About Nike?
The global athletic footwear market is shifting. Nike is being removed from the Standard & Poor's 100 index for the first time in 18 years, while Japan's Asics is on the verge of topping 1 trillion yen in sales for the first time.
S&P Dow Jones Indices said Nike will be dropped from the S&P 100 before the opening bell in New York on the 21st. Nike shares have fallen more than 78% from their November 2021 peak. The main cause of the slump is seen as the company's retreat from the Chinese market. China's share of total revenue, which once reached 20%, has shrunk to 13%, a decline driven by growing consumer preference for domestic brands such as Anta and Li-Ning. A strategy weighted toward limited-edition marketing rather than performance features has also worked against the company.
Asics, by contrast, projected sales of 1.05 trillion yen for 2026, up 29% from a year earlier. It also raised its net profit forecast. Analysts credit a strategy of divesting non-core businesses and concentrating resources on running shoes. Asics took the top spot in the premium running shoe market spanning the United States, Europe and Japan for the first time, with a 17.4% share. Yasuhito Hirota, chairman and chief executive of Asics, said the results reflect a focus on technology development and profit management. The Gel-Kayano line, riding a retro boom, and the sub-brand Onitsuka Tiger also contributed to earnings.
Elliott Hill, Nike's current chief executive, has moved to rebuild the company's distribution network, but Brian Mulberry, senior market strategist at Zacks Investment Management, said a genuine rebound will take another three to four quarters.
Democrats Move Into Ground Republicans Are Losing in Rural America
Eight weeks before the U.S. midterm elections, surging diesel prices are unsettling rural voters, a core constituency for President Donald Trump, and alarm is growing within the Republican Party.
The elections on November 3 will fill 35 Senate seats and all 435 House seats. Republicans currently hold majorities in both chambers, with 53 seats to the Democrats' 47 in the Senate and 218 to 214 in the House.
The problem is public sentiment. The national average price of diesel hit a record $5.90 a gallon, and gasoline prices also climbed to an all-time high for the Labor Day period. Brent crude rose to around $98 a barrel as renewed fighting between the United States and Iran raised concerns about supply disruptions in the Strait of Hormuz.
Democrats are now all but certain to retake the House. Republicans still have a strong chance of holding the Senate, but Democratic candidates lead in polls in three of nine battleground states currently held by Republican incumbents: North Carolina, Maine and Ohio. In North Carolina, former Governor Roy Cooper leads Michael Whatley by a margin outside the poll's error range. In Maine, five-term Senator Susan Collins trails Troy Jackson by a narrow margin. In Ohio, former Senator Sherrod Brown leads incumbent Senator Jon Husted.
Yen Breaks Past 152, and This Time It Looks Different
The yen strengthened to the 152 range against the dollar, its highest level in seven months. Analysts say the yen's advance, triggered by expectations that the Bank of Japan will accelerate rate increases, has now entered a sustained uptrend.
In Tokyo trading on the 8th, the yen touched 152.89 to the dollar, its strongest level since mid-February this year. That is beyond the lows of 156 to 157 recorded when Japanese authorities intervened alone in late April and when the United States and Japan intervened jointly in late July for the first time in 15 years. Van Luu, global head of fixed income and currency strategy at Russell Investments, said the current advance formed naturally in the market rather than through official intervention, and could mark the start of a larger trend.
Several factors have combined to drive the yen higher. Kyodo News reported that the Bank of Japan plans to raise its policy rate to 1.25% from the current 1% at its September monetary policy meeting on the 17th and 18th. Expectations that Japan's public pension funds may increase investment in domestic assets have added support. Yusuke Okada, senior researcher at Mitsubishi UFJ Trust and Banking, said market momentum is turning as not only hedge funds but also medium- and long-term investors unwind short-yen, long-dollar positions. An easing of dollar demand tied to Middle East tensions also supported the yen.
Revised second-quarter real gross domestic product figures released the same day reinforced expectations of a rate increase. Quarter-on-quarter growth was revised up to 0.4% from a preliminary 0.3%, and to 1.4% on an annualized basis, above the preliminary reading. The expansionary fiscal policy pursued by the government of Sanae Takaichi is seen as a variable. The Takaichi government is considering cutting the consumption tax to 1% before restoring it to 8% by 2029, while moving up income-linked subsidy payments to April 2029.
After Lying Flat, Now Sleeping Rough: Self-Mockery Sweeps China's Internet
Content mocking job scarcity and economic anxiety is spreading on Chinese social media, and analysts say it is undermining the "positive energy" messaging that the Chinese Communist Party has long emphasized.
The New York Times reported that economic frustration and cynicism about the future have become routine content in China's online spaces. On the video platform Bilibili, a clip titled "How to Survive as a Homeless Person" drew more than 6 million views within two weeks of posting. Users satirized their circumstances by calling it a "required course for young people in 2026."
Behind the mood lie worsening youth employment and a slump in asset markets. Urban unemployment among Chinese aged 16 to 24 reached 17.9% in July this year, the highest in 11 months. The gap is also widening between these young people and peers who have made fortunes in the artificial intelligence boom. As the property downturn erodes asset values, young people are increasingly cutting spending and building cash reserves, and posts sharing money-saving tips are flooding the lifestyle platform Xiaohongshu. The so-called "lying flat," or tangping, sentiment of withdrawing from competition altogether is also regaining traction.
The Chinese government has long used state media and official accounts to project images of success and growth, but as the gap with reality widens, such messaging has itself become a target of satire. Last year the government designated pessimistic posts along the lines of "hard work is pointless" for enforcement action and conducted a special crackdown on the promotion of negative sentiment. In response, users are voicing discontent indirectly, flooding state media posts with ironic comments and emoji rather than direct political criticism.
