KIUCHI says Japan's economy may be supported by improvements in employment and wages and by government policy measures.

TASNIM NEWS: Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said Qatar should allow an IRGC expert team to be stationed to investigate the case of a missing pilot, rather than deny that it detained the pilot.

Key market-moving items next week: China releases July retail sales, industrial output and total electricity consumption (Monday) — the closest thing to a July economic 'report card' for asset and policy watchers. The PBOC will conduct overnight reverse repos Aug 17–19, and China publishes Swift RMB global payments share and the 1-year LPR on Thursday. The Fed releases meeting minutes on Thursday. US energy inventories (API and EIA crude) are due Wednesday; NYMEX September crude contract rolls on Friday. US labor and activity data include ADP payrolls, housing starts/permits and pending home sales (Tuesday), initial jobless claims and the Philadelphia Fed index (Thursday), and S&P Global August manufacturing and services PMIs (Friday, flash). Europe and UK: German/euro-area ZEW (Tue), UK and euro-area CPI (UK on Wed; euro-area final CPI Wed), and preliminary Aug manufacturing PMIs across major European economies and UK on Friday. Other data: Canada July CPI (Mon), Japan July core CPI (Fri), Australia July unemployment (Thu), euro-area current account (Wed), and US leading indicators (Thu). Corporate calendar: major China/HK earnings include Geely (Mon); Baidu and Xiaomi (Tue); Kuaishou, ZTO, Kingsoft, HKEX and Weibo (Wed); Ping An, China Telecom, NetEase, Alibaba, AIA, Li Ning, Pop Mart and Futu (Thu); ZTE, Sinopec and Beike (Fri). Events and policy signals: ECB President Lagarde speaks at a WEF panel on global economic outlook (Wed); Seoul AI Summit runs Aug 19–21 and the World Robot Conference Aug 19–23 (sector sentiment). Geopolitical risk: market commentary flagged by Bessent warning of a possible 'unprecedented' US economic strike on Iran this week — presented as a forecast/preview, not an official action.