Asia-Pacific shares mostly rose Thursday after U.S. President Donald Trump signed a funding bill into law, effectively ending the longest federal government shutdown in U.S. history. Japan’s benchmark Nikkei 225 index rose 0.13%, while the Topix added 0.62% to hit a record high. South Korea’s Kospi was flat, while the small-cap Kosdaq climbed 0.79%. Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 fell 1.01% after the seasonally adjusted October unemployment rate eased to 4.3%, government jobs data showed Thursday. The latest reading was better than the 4.4% figure expected by Reuters-polled economists and compared with 4.5% in September. The better-than-expected decline in October lowers expectations for a rate cut. The Australian dollar rose to 0.6556 against the greenback. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index fell 0.66%, while the mainland’s CSI 300 added 0.95%.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average notched its first record close above 48,000 on Wednesday, extending its gains from the previous session, as Wall Street looked ahead to a potential end to the record-breaking U.S. government shutdown. The 30-stock Dow closed up 326.86 points, or 0.68%, at 48,254.82. The index also hit a fresh all-time intraday high in the session. The S&P 500 traded around the flatline, settling up 0.06% at 6,850.92, while the Nasdaq Composite dropped 0.26% to finish at 23,406.46. Investors were keeping an eye on Washington, as the federal government appeared poised to reopen as soon as the end of this week.
Gold rose for a fifth straight session on Thursday to hit its highest in more than three weeks, buoyed by expectation that the U.S. government reopening will restart the flow of economic data and boost bets for further interest rate cuts. Spot gold was up 0.4% at $4,215.87 per ounce, as of 0407 GMT, hitting its highest since October 21. U.S. gold futures for December delivery rose 0.2% to $4,219.90 per ounce. U.S. President Donald Trump on Wednesday signed legislation ending the longest government shutdown in U.S. history. The shutdown, which began on October 1, has halted the release of critical economic data, including payroll and inflation reports. The Fed will again lower its key interest rate by 25 basis points next month to underpin a weakening labour market, according to 80% of economists.
Oil prices fell for a second day Thursday as an industry report showing rising crude inventories in the U.S., the world’s biggest crude consumer, reinforced concerns that global supply is more than ample to meet current fuel demand. Brent crude futures fell 3 cents, or 0.03%, to $62.69 a barrel by 0234 GMT, after dropping 3.8% in the previous session. U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude fell 5 cents, or 0.09%, to $58.44 a barrel, extending its 4.2% decline Wednesday. Market sources citing American Petroleum Institute figures Wednesday said U.S. crude stockpiles rose by 1.3 million barrels in the week ended Nov. 7. Gasoline and distillate stockpiles dropped, the sources said, citing the API data.
President Donald Trump late Wednesday signed into law a funding bill to end the longest federal government shutdown in U.S. history. The measure, which will fund government operations through the end of January, was passed by the House of Representatives earlier Wednesday night in a 222-209 vote. “The Democrats tried to extort our country,” Trump said before signing the bill in the Oval Office at the White House to reopen the government after 43 days. Democrats had blocked passage of a funding bill until Sunday, when a bloc of the party’s Senate caucus agreed to support a new funding measure in that chamber, despite it not including an extension of Affordable Care Act tax credits. The Office of Management and Budget told federal employees to return to their jobs on Thursday. Earlier Wednesday night, the U.S. Department of Transportation froze the level of flight cuts it imposed in light of shortages of air traffic controllers during the shutdown. As of Tuesday, 6% of scheduled flights were cancelled at U.S. airports, and that level was set to rise to 10% by Friday.
India’s consumer inflation cooled to 0.25% in October, strengthening hopes of more policy easing by the Reserve Bank of India. The headline inflation number was below estimates of a 0.48% rise, according to a Reuters poll of economists, and easing more than the 1.54% recorded in September. In October, the central bank revised its inflation forecast to 2.6% from 3.1% for the fiscal year ending March 2026, but kept its key policy rate unchanged at 5. The effects of the Reserve Bank of India’s outsized 50-basis-point rate cut in June have yet to filter through the economy, Governor Sanjay Malhotra had said then, adding that the decision to hold rates steady was unanimous.
Boston Federal Reserve President Susan Collins on Wednesday said she will be reluctant to support further interest rate cuts anytime soon with inflation still high and policymakers hampered by a lack of data due to the government shutdown. “Given my baseline outlook, it will likely be appropriate to keep policy rates at the current level for some time to balance the inflation and employment risks in this highly uncertain environment,” the central bank official said in remarks delivered in her home district. “I see several reasons to have a relatively high bar for additional easing in the near term.” Collins’s comments are notable because she is a voting member of the rate-setting Federal Open Market Committee.
The Supreme Court said Wednesday that it will hear oral arguments in the case challenging President Donald Trump’s authority to fire Federal Reserve Gov. Lisa Cook on Jan. 21. Trump said on Aug. 25 that he was firing Cook, one of seven Fed governors, citing claims that she committed mortgage fraud in connection with two residences that she owns. Cook, who denies any wrongdoing, filed a lawsuit seeking to block her removal. A federal district court judge in Washington, D.C., in early September ruled that Cook could not be fired from the board while her suit was pending. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia soon after upheld that ruling, leading Trump to ask the Supreme Court to rule on his power to fire her. The allegations against Cook relate to conduct that predates her serving on the Fed.
China for decades has sought to manipulate global critical minerals prices, using its control as an economic weapon to expand its manufacturing sector and its geopolitical influence, a U.S. House of Representatives committee said on Wednesday. The allegations, contained in a 50-page report from the bipartisan U.S. House Select Committee on China and reviewed by Reuters, adds to a series of missives from Washington criticizing Beijing’s sway in critical minerals markets. President Donald Trump and his predecessor, Joe Biden, have in recent years sought to crimp China’s dominance in the critical minerals sector. The committee’s legislative report aims to codify presidential orders into law with an array of recommendations including price controls and expanded government oversight of price reporting agencies.
Advanced Micro Devices shares surged 7% on Wednesday after the chipmaker unveiled a bold $100 billion annual data-center revenue target, with plans to claim a larger slice of the booming artificial intelligence market dominated by Nvidia. The company was set to add over $26 billion to its market value if the gains hold, a day after it laid out its three- to five-year goals such as more than tripling its earnings at its first analyst day in three years. The market for data-center chips could swell to $1 trillion by 2030, CEO Lisa Su told analysts, highlighting how the scramble for advanced AI has set off an infrastructure race and record spending by U.S. tech giants. Her prediction covers AMD’s general-purpose processors, networking chips and AI accelerators, but it contrasts with Nvidia’s far more bullish estimate of $3 trillion to $4 trillion in AI infrastructure spending by the end of the decade.
WeightWatchers’ CEO said on Wednesday it plans to sell Novo Nordisk’s much-anticipated Wegovy in pill form if it is launched next year in the United States, deepening its tie-up with the Danish obesity drugmaker. The collaboration is a potential boost for WeightWatchers as it emerges from bankruptcy and highlights its commitment to sell branded obesity drugs, unlike rivals that push cheaper copies in a highly competitive market. "We have been working with Novo Nordisk ahead of time to support the launch of oral weight-loss medication," WeightWatchers CEO Tara Comonte said in an interview. "A lot of people don’t want an injection. And the convenience of a pill is going to be huge," she said.
Microsoft plans to use access to OpenAI’s custom AI semiconductor development to bolster its own chip initiatives, according to CEO Satya Nadella. "As they innovate even at the system level, we get access to all of it," Nadella said on a podcast hosted by author Dwarkesh Patel released Wednesday, as reported by Bloomberg News. "We first want to instantiate what they build for them, but then we’ll extend it." OpenAI is working with Broadcom Inc. to custom-design chips and networking hardware. Microsoft has been developing its own chips but has achieved less success in this area compared to cloud competitors like Alphabet Inc.’s Google. Nadella confirmed on the podcast that Microsoft will work with designs from both OpenAI and its own team, noting that the company has the necessary IP rights to do so.