KOSPI opened up 77.7 points (+1.24%) at 6,335.15 on Aug. 4 (Tuesday); SK Hynix rose over 3% and Samsung Electronics gained more than 2%. Japan's Nikkei 225 opened up 193.23 points (+0.30%) at 63,948.13.

President Trump said his real polling figures, not those fabricated by the fake-news media, are at their best level ever and asked why that should be a problem.

The ECB said euro-area household consumption plunged in the initial weeks after the outbreak of the Iran war as consumer confidence collapsed, and warned a renewed escalation could again curb spending. In its economic bulletin the central bank said April consumption fell to roughly 2.5% YoY — about half the pace seen since mid-2024 when nominal consumption averaged 3–4% — and that the April drop was roughly twice the decline implied by historical-trend forecasts and comparable to the hit after the Russia‑Ukraine outbreak in early 2022. The slowdown was driven by higher-income households cutting discretionary spending; the ECB said this pattern points to households postponing purchases rather than being income-constrained.