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Nintendo, the Japanese video games giant behind the Switch consoles and franchises like Mario and Zelda, has just released its latest quarterly financial results. These results showed a large jump in profits, but much of that increase came from a one-off refund of around $300 million (£235 million), which Nintendo received after the US government reversed tariffs it had previously imposed on imported goods.

Tariffs are taxes charged on goods brought into a country, and companies like Nintendo, which manufactures consoles and games abroad for sale in the US, can be affected when these taxes change. When the US tariffs were reversed, Nintendo was refunded money it had already paid, and this one-off payment flowed through into its reported profits for the quarter, making the company's overall financial performance look stronger than it might otherwise have done.

This matters because investors and analysts use quarterly results to judge how well a company's actual business, in Nintendo's case selling consoles, games and related products, is performing. A profit boost driven by a temporary refund rather than by stronger sales can make a company look healthier than it really is, which is why the underlying trading figures, separate from the tariff windfall, are being scrutinised closely.