ISLAMABAD (AP) — Three-time world cricket umpire of the year Aleem Dar will step down in 2025 after the Pakistan domestic season.
The 56-year-old Dar served on the ICC elite panel of umpires from 2003-23. He is on the Pakistan elite panel and is among four Pakistani umpires on the ICC international panel, making him eligible to officiate in one-day internationals and Twenty20s.
“All great journeys must eventually come to an end, and the time has come for me to focus fully on my social and charity work,” Dar said on Friday. “My hospital project and other initiatives are very close to my heart and require my full devotion and attention.”
Dar played 17 first-class matches and 18 List A games from 1986-98 before he made his first-class umpiring debut in Pakistan’s premier domestic competition, the Quaid-e-Azam Trophy, in 1999.
“Umpiring has been my life for nearly 25 years and I have cherished the privilege of officiating some of the most iconic matches involving the greatest players of this generation,” Dar said. “Throughout my career, I’ve strived to uphold the highest standards of sportsmanship, and it has been an honor to work alongside some of the finest match officials in the world.”
Dar said it was the right time to step down and give opportunities to other emerging umpires from Pakistan.
“I will remain committed to mentoring and supporting the next generation of match officials and will always be available to offer guidance to those pursuing a career in this noble profession,” he said.
Dar officiated in 145 test matches, 231 ODIs, 72 T20s, and five T20 World Cups.
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FILE - Pakistani umpire Aleem Dar walks toward his standing point during the second one-day international cricket match between Pakistan and New Zealand, in Rawalpindi, Pakistan, Saturday, April 29, 2023. (AP Photo/Anjum Naveed, File)
Premarket trading on Wall Street was relatively listless Friday ahead of the government's latest inflation report.
Futures for the S&P 500 and the Dow Jones Industrial Average were essentially unchanged less than two hours before the opening bell, hovering around recent record highs.
Friday's consumer spending report, which also contains the Federal Reserve's preferred measure of inflation, may not have the impact on markets that it used to after the U.S. central bank issued its first interest rate cut in four years last week.
The Fed has acknowledged to some degree that its primary focus has shifted from fighting inflation to supporting the broader economy, in particular, a cooling labor market. While the labor market remains broadly healthy, there have been signs of softening in recent months.
Fed officials are trying to pull off the historically difficult task of suppressing inflation without tipping the economy into a recession. The first part of that has largely been accomplished. Whether they can pull off the second part of that goal remains to be seen.
It was quiet on the corporate news front early Friday with earnings season mostly wrapped up.
Costco dipped a modest 1% after the bulk grocery warehouse club reported a modest fourth-quarter profit but fell short of Wall Street's sales targets.
In other dealings early Friday, benchmark U.S. crude oil picked up 30 cents to $67.97 per barrel. Brent crude, the international standard, added 22 cents to $71.31 per barrel.
Despite Friday's modest gain, oil prices are down more than 4% for the week and are on track to finish the month the in red for the fifth time in six months.
In Asia, Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 index gained more than 2.3% to 39,829.56 as ruling party lawmakers chose former Defense Minister Shigeru Ishiba to become Japan’s next prime minister. Ishiba, who will take over from Prime Minister Fumio Kishida next week, has proposed an Asian version of the NATO military alliance and a more equal Japan-U.S. security alliance.
The change at the helm was not expected to result in any major policy shift given that the ruling Liberal Democrats have held power for most of the past eight decades since World War II.
The yen also surged, as the U.S. dollar fell to 143.03 Japanese yen from 144.80 yen.
China’s central bank cut its reserve requirement for banks as of Friday as part of measures announced this week to help the property industry and support financial markets.
The Hang Seng in Hong Kong advanced 3.6% to 20,632.30 and the Shanghai Composite index jumped 2.9% to 3,087.53.
Earlier Friday, the Shanghai Stock Exchange encountered glitches that hindered order processing and caused delays after the market opened. This led to a 6.7% increase in Shenzhen's main index, as investors flocked into that smaller market during the delay.
Trading returned to normal by noon, and the Shanghai Stock Exchange later said in a statement that it was still investigating the cause.
In the latest sign of the malaise hindering growth in the world's second-largest economy, the government reported that industrial profits fell nearly 18% year-on-year in August.
Shares of Hong Kong’s property giant New World Development surged 19.4% on Friday trading after Adrian Cheng, the third-generation scion at the helm of the conglomerate, had been replaced. The firm reported an annual loss of over $2.4 billion in a profit warning last month, its first loss in nearly 20 years.
Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 added nearly 0.1% to 8,212.20, while South Korea’s Kospi lost 0.8% to 2,649.78.
Elsewhere, in Europe at midday the CAC 40 in Paris rose 0.3% after France’s preliminary inflation rate fell sharply in September as the consumer price index rose 1.5% year-on-year in August, down from 2.2% in the previous month, according to official data.
Germany’s DAX gained 0.9% and London's FTSE 100 rose 0.4%.
The euro was trading at $1.1162 down slightly from $1.1176.
On Thursday, the S&P 500 added 0.4% to 5,745.37, setting an all-time high for the third time this week and the 42nd time this year. The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 0.6% to 42,175.11, while the Nasdaq composite rose 0.6% to 18,190.29.
FILE - The New York Stock Exchange, at rear, is shown on Sept. 24, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo/Peter Morgan, File)
FILE - People walk in front of an electronic stock board showing Japan's Nikkei index at a securities firm Thursday, Sept. 26, 2024, in Tokyo. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko, File)
FILE - A person looks at an electronic stock board showing Japan's stock prices, at a securities firm Thursday, Sept. 26, 2024, in Tokyo. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko, File)
