Asia-Pacific markets were mixed on Wednesday, after Wall Street saw a tech-fuelled recovery and a cryptocurrency rally. Bitcoin climbed over 7% to cross the $90,000 mark in overnight trading after a sharp sell-off a day earlier, and was last trading at $92,980.01. Japan’s Nikkei 225 climbed 1.13%, powered by tech and real estate stocks. Shares of tech giant SoftBank were up more than 5%, Tokyo Electron rose 4.44%, Lasertec was 6.21% higher, and Renesas Electronics advanced more than 7%. Advantest also gained as much as 5%. Meanwhile, the broad-based Topix was down marginally. South Korea’s Kospi was up 1.06%, while the small-cap Kosdaq reversed gains to fall 0.14%.
Stocks rose on Tuesday, boosted by gains in bitcoin and technology names, as traders recovered some of the ground lost in the previous session. The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 185.13 points, or 0.39%, to end the day at 47,474.46. The S&P 500 climbed 0.25% to settle at 6,829.37, while the Nasdaq Composite advanced 0.59% to finish at 23,413.67. Bitcoin rose around 7% Tuesday, recouping some of its losses from the prior day. Tech players linked to the artificial intelligence trade supported the broader market as well. AI chip darling Nvidia increased almost 1%, while AI infrastructure play Credo Technology soared 10% and hit an all-time high on the back of better-than-expected earnings.
Gold rose to around $4,220 per ounce on Wednesday, moving back toward a six-week high, supported by ongoing expectations of further monetary easing from the Federal Reserve. Recent US data indicated a modest slowdown in economic activity, bolstering expectations that the Fed may cut interest rates at its meeting next week, with markets currently pricing in nearly a 90% probability. At the same time, expectations that White House economic adviser Kevin Hassett could be nominated to succeed Jerome Powell as Fed chair further reinforced the dovish outlook. Investor attention now turns to the November ADP employment report on Wednesday and the delayed September PCE data on Friday for additional clues on the central bank’s interest rate trajectory.
Oil prices fell for a second day on Wednesday as investors waited to see if peace talks in the Russia-Ukraine war could open up more supply amid wider concerns about a surplus, highlighted by rising inventories. Brent crude futures were down 13 cents, or 0.21%, at $62.32 a barrel at 0221 GMT, after falling 1.1% in the previous session. U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude lost 12 cents, or 0.20%, to trade at $58.52 a barrel, after dropping 1.2% on Tuesday. Traders are now eyeing Sunday’s virtual OPEC+ meeting, where the group is expected to maintain its plan to pause output increases in early 2026. Oil markets are awaiting the outcome of the talks to see if a deal could lead to the removal of sanctions on Russian companies, including major oil companies Rosneft and Lukoil, that would free up restricted oil supply.
Australia’s third-quarter economic growth missed analysts’ expectations, but clocked its fastest expansion in about two years, driven by strong investment and consumer demand. The country’s GDP rose 2.1% year on year, marking its strongest expansion since the third quarter of 2023 when the economy grew at the same rate, data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics showed on Wednesday. Economists were expected GDP growth of 2.2%. On a quarter-on-quarter basis, Australia’s GDP grew 0.4% compared with 0.7% forecast in a Reuters poll. Before the GDP data was released, Reserve Bank of Australia Governor Michele Bullock cautioned that the economy had likely hit its potential growth limit at a time when inflation has been staying above the bank’s target. The board will act on renewed price pressures, Bullock added.
U.S. President Donald Trump and Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva discussed trade, the economy and fighting organized crime in a phone call on Tuesday, both sides said. Speaking to reporters at the White House, Trump said the two men also discussed sanctions - an apparent reference to his administration’s targeting of Brazil’s judiciary over the criminal case of right-wing former President Jair Bolsonaro. Trump said he and Lula "had a great talk. We talked about trade. We talked about sanctions, because, as you know, I sanctioned them having to do with certain things that took place." In a later social media post, Trump said he looked forward to seeing and speaking with Lula soon, adding that "much good will come out of this newly formed partnership!"
The administration of U.S. President Donald Trump will halt federal payments that help administer the food stamp program to Democratic-led states next week if they do not turn over aid recipient data, according to Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins. Democratic state and federal officials have resisted an effort by the U.S. Department of Agriculture to collect data like immigration status and social security numbers of recipients of Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits, also known as food stamps, calling it an unlawful privacy violation. The USDA has said it will use the data to root out fraud. "As of next week, we have begun and will begin to stop moving federal funds into those states until they comply," Rollins said at a Tuesday Cabinet meeting at the White House. "If a state won’t share data on criminal use of SNAP benefits, it won’t get a dollar of federal SNAP administrative funding," Rollins later posted on X.
Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Tuesday that a fall in output in some sectors of the economy was not acceptable, and a transition to balanced growth remained a goal for the government and the central bank. Speaking at an annual "Russia Calling" investment event, Putin said economic growth was now expected to slow to between 0.5% and 1%, which was an expected consequence of the central bank policy to fight inflation. "At the same time, some imbalances have emerged. In several sectors, production output not only failed to increase this year but actually decreased. Are we satisfied with such trends? No," Putin said. Recent data showed that growth in industrial output was driven mainly by defence-related sectors, while output in sectors producing goods for civilian use was either stagnating or falling.
Most Asian currencies remained range-bound on Tuesday despite rising expectations for a Federal Reserve rate cut next week, while the Indian rupee fell to fresh record lows amid sustained foreign outflow pressures. The US Dollar Index, which measures the greenback against a basket of major currencies, was largely steady in Asia hours. US Dollar Index Futures also traded flat as of 05:54 GMT. The Rupee weakened past the psychologically crucial level of 90 per U.S dollar mark on Wednesday, extending it’s rough patch as weakness in trade and portfolio flows alongside worries over a missing trade deal with Washington kept the currency under pressure.
MongoDB shares ripped 22% higher on Tuesday after the company blew past Wall Street’s third-quarter expectations and lifted its forecast as its cloud database platform gained traction with customers. The database software provider posted adjusted earnings of $1.32 per share on $628 million in revenue. That topped the 80 cents adjusted per share and $592 million in revenue expected by analysts polled by LSEG. Revenues grew 19% from last year. MongoDB said its Atlas platform grew 30% from a year ago and accounted for 75% of total revenues for the quarter. The company said it ended the period with more than 60,800 Atlas customers, with revenues expected to grow 27% for the platform in the current period.
Marvell Technology on Tuesday reported upbeat guidance for the current-quarter following better-than-expected third-quarter results just as the chipmaker looks to accelerate its AI datacentre growth with acquisition of chip startup Celestial AI. Marvell Technology Inc rose more than 9% in afterhours trading following the report. The chipmaker reported Q3 adjusted earnings per share of $0.76 cents on revenue of $2.08 billion, compared with estimates for $0.74 on revenue of $2.07 billion. Looking ahead the company sees data centre revenue growth for next year now higher than prior expectations and said it expects full-year revenue growth to exceed 40%. The company also said it had acquired Celestial AI, which further "strengthens Marvell’s position at the forefront of one of the fastest-growing opportunities in AI datacentre infrastructure.”
The Estée Lauder Companies Inc. (EL) and Jo Malone London launched an AI-powered fragrance recommendation tool called the Jo Malone London Scent Advisor. The digital experience helps customers discover fragrances through conversational interactions. The tool is available on JoMalone.com in the United States and United Kingdom. It uses Google’s Gemini and Google Cloud’s Vertex AI platform to interpret customer descriptions and match them to Jo Malone London’s fragrance data to generate personalized recommendations. The system allows customers to describe desired scents in natural language, whether for themselves or as gifts. The AI then maps these descriptions to the brand’s olfactory data attributes to suggest specific fragrances.
Boeing expects higher deliveries for its 737 and 787 jets next year, its finance chief said on Tuesday, sending shares of the plane maker up about 10% to end Tuesday. The U.S. plane maker has been trying to change its image and win a narrow-body race for orders with Airbus after a more than five-year corporate crisis disrupted production and sent it deeply into debt. "When you now fast forward to 2026, we’re going to be increasing our deliveries," Boeing CFO Jay Malave said while speaking at a UBS conference. The higher plane deliveries, coupled with improvements from its defence and space unit, are expected to be Boeing’s primary drivers for better margins in 2026, Malave added. He also expects Boeing’s 737-10 narrow-body jet to be certified later in the year, adding that he was confident the plane maker would deliver on its annual $10 billion free cash flow target.
Intel's stock price rose more than 8% on Tuesday after TF International analyst Ming-Chi Kuo posted on X Friday that the company is expected to begin building Apple's M series chips for its MacBook Air and iPad Pro as soon as early 2027. If Kuo's report holds true, the move would represent an enormous vote of confidence for Intel, which has struggled to secure customers for its third-party chip manufacturing business. The segment, which generated $4.2 billion in revenue in its latest quarter, compared to the $12.7 billion the company's product business pulled in, primarily relies on revenue from manufacturing Intel's own chips. While Kuo notes that the team-up won't quite yet allow Intel to compete with TSMC, it would show that the company has the ability to build and provide chips to high-profile customers.