1. Japan’s benchmark Nikkei 225 was higher after hitting a fresh record high on Friday.
Shares of SK Hynix jumped Friday after announcing that it had finished developing HBM4, the latest generation of high-bandwidth memory seen as vital for artificial-intelligence applications. Its shares rose over 7% to hit the highest since 2000 as of 9.40 p.m. ET Thursday, marking its ninth day of rally. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index rose 1.64%, while mainland’s CSI 300 inched 0.19% higher. Shares of Alibaba and Baidu listed in Hong Kong also jumped over 6% and 10% respectively, after both companies began deploying their own in-house chips to train artificial intelligence models, The Information reported Thursday, citing people familiar with the matter.
2. Nasdaq notches record high close; traders look to Fed meeting
The Nasdaq notched a record high close on Friday in a mixed trading session, lifted by Microsoft as investors looked ahead to the Federal Reserve’s policy meeting next week, when it is widely expected to cut interest rates to counter a slowdown in the jobs market. Fuelled by Tesla and other technology-related stocks, the Nasdaq added to a rally in the previous session that saw all three indexes hit all-time highs. Investors are laser-focused on the Fed’s meeting on Tuesday and Wednesday. Traders expect the central bank to cut interest rates by 25 basis points after recent data showed longstanding weakness in hiring and easing inflation concerns. Microsoft gained 1.8% after the technology giant avoided a possible hefty EU antitrust fine by offering customers reduced prices for Office products excluding Teams.
3. Markets eye Fed rate cut as gold stays near all-time high
Gold prices rose on Friday, holding close to record highs hit earlier this week, as signs of a weakening U.S. labour market reinforced expectations the Federal Reserve will deliver its first rate cut of the year next week. Spot gold was up 0.4% at $3,648.55 per ounce, close to Tuesday’s all-time high of $3,673.95. The metal has gained 1.7% so far this week and is poised for a fourth consecutive weekly advance. Recent data showing a jump in jobless claims, alongside soft nonfarm payrolls and revisions that cut 911,000 jobs from the past year, point to cooling momentum in the economy. At the same time, consumer prices posted their sharpest monthly gain in seven months in August, but investors are giving more weight to labour market weakness than to sticky inflation in shaping rate expectations.
4. Oil gains weighed down by US demand worries
Oil prices rose on Friday after a Ukrainian drone attack suspended loadings from the largest port in western Russia, but gains were capped by concerns about U.S. demand. Brent crude futures settled at $66.99 a barrel, up 62 cents, or 0.93%. U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude finished at $62.69, a gain of 32 cents, or 0.51%. Early in the day, crude reacted to the drone attack on Russia’s northwestern port of Primorsk, which led to a suspension of oil loading operations overnight, an official from Ukraine’s SBU security service said. But later in the day, gains shrank as traders continued to focus on a revised U.S. jobs report issued earlier in the week along with higher inflation figures.
5. China’s economy slowdown deepens in August with retail sales, industrial output missing expectations
China’s economic slowdown deepened in August with a raft of key indicators missing expectations, as weak domestic demand persisted and Beijing’s campaign against industrial overcapacity curbed output. Retail sales last month rose 3.4% from a year earlier, data from the National Bureau of Statistics showed Monday, missing analysts’ estimates for a 3.9% growth in a Reuters poll and slowing from July’s 3.7% growth. Industrial output growth slowed to 5.2% in August, compared to the 5.7% jump in July, marking its weakest level since August 2024, according to LSEG data. Economists had expected the data to be unchanged from the previous month. China’s survey-based urban unemployment rate in August came in at 5.3%, edging higher from 5.2% in the prior month. The statistics bureau attributed the rise in the jobless rate to the graduation season.
6. Drone breaches Romanian airspace during Russian attack on neighbouring Ukraine
Romania scrambled fighter jets on Saturday when a drone breached the country’s airspace during a Russian attack on Ukrainian infrastructure near the border, the defence ministry said. Defence Minister Ionut Mosteanu said the F-16 pilots came close to taking down the drone as it was flying very low before it left national airspace toward Ukraine. A threat of drone strikes also prompted Poland to deploy aircraft and close an airport in the eastern city of Lublin on Saturday, three days after it shot down Russian drones in its airspace with the backing of aircraft from its NATO allies.
7. U.S. and Chinese officials hold talks in Spain on trade irritants
U.S. and Chinese officials began talks in Madrid on Sunday on their strained trade ties, a looming divestiture deadline for Chinese short video app TikTok and Washington’s demands that its allies place tariffs on China over its purchases of Russian oil. U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer arrived shortly before Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng and China’s top trade negotiator, Li Chenggang, at the Baroque Palacio de Santa Cruz which houses Spain’s foreign ministry in the Spanish capital. The talks mark the fourth time in four months that the delegations have met in European cities to try to keep a fractured U.S.-China trade relationship from collapsing under President Donald Trump’s tariffs. The most likely result of the Madrid talks is seen as another extension of a deadline for the popular TikTok app’s Chinese owner, ByteDance, to divest its U.S. operations by Sept. 17 or face a U.S. shutdown.
8. Trump says he’s ready to put ‘major sanctions’ on Russia if NATO nations do the same
President Donald Trump said Saturday he is “ready to do major Sanctions on Russia” once all NATO countries have started “to do the same thing” and pause their purchases of oil from Moscow. He also urged NATO countries to impose “50% to 100% TARIFFS ON CHINA,” which he said should be withdrawn after the Russia-Ukraine war has concluded. “China has a strong control, and even grip, over Russia, and these powerful Tariffs will break that grip,” Trump wrote in a Truth Social post, which he said was the text of a letter sent to all NATO nations and “the world.” Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent lauded Trump’s move to urge NATO nations to impose strict sanctions on China. “Only with a unified effort that cuts off the revenues funding Putin’s war machine at the source will we be able to apply sufficient economic pressure to end the senseless killing,” Bessent wrote on X. Trump has repeatedly threatened to impose sanctions on Russia over its invasion of Ukraine, but has so far held off from doing so.
9. Britain and US to sign nuclear power pact during Trump’s visit
Britain and the United States will sign a deal to work together on boosting nuclear power during U.S. President Donald Trump’s state visit this week, the British government said, helping secure investment to fund new plants. Britain’s government has launched a major push to expand nuclear power in recent months, pledging to invest 14 billion pounds ($19 billion) in a new plant at Sizewell C and advancing plans for a Rolls-Royce unit to build the country’s first small modular reactors (SMR). Trump arrives in Britain for a two-day visit on Tuesday, during which he and Prime Minister Keir Starmer will announce the nuclear power tie-up. The collaboration aims to speed up new projects and investments, including plans expected to be announced by U.S. nuclear reactor company X-Energy and Britain’s Centrica to build up to 12 advanced modular reactors in northeast England.
10. Striking defence workers reject Boeing contract offer
Striking Boeing defense workers in Missouri voted Friday against the company’s latest offer of a modified contract deal, according to the union representing the workers. More than 3,000 workers in the St. Louis area will remain on strike, the first walkout in almost three decades. The union had said it reached a tentative five-year agreement with Boeing on Wednesday, with better wages and a signing bonus, and set a vote on the deal for Friday. Boeing has said it is hiring more workers to replace those who are on strike to meet rising demand. Boeing Air Dominance Vice President Dan Gillian said in a statement that no further talks are scheduled between Boeing and the striking workers, and that the company is “disappointed.”
11. OpenAI to share 8% of its revenue with Microsoft, partners; reports
Commerce OpenAI has projected that by the end of the decade it will be sharing about 8% of its revenue with commercial partners, namely Microsoft, down from the current 20%, The Information reported on Friday. The difference between those figures adds up to more than $50 billion in additional revenue OpenAI would keep for itself, the report said. The report was not clear if that was an accumulative or annual figure. OpenAI and Microsoft did not immediately respond to Reuters requests for comment. The two companies are also negotiating how much OpenAI will have to pay to rent servers from Microsoft, the report said, citing a person briefed on the discussions. Microsoft and OpenAI said on Thursday they have signed a non-binding deal for new relationship terms that would allow OpenAI to restructure itself into a for-profit company.
12. Rivian recalls over 24,000 US vehicles over highway assist software defect, NHTSA says
Rivian is recalling 24,214 R1S and R1T electric vehicles due to a software defect that may cause its hands-free Highway Assist system to misidentify lead vehicles, the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said on Friday. The issue affects certain 2025 Rivian vehicles running an older software version in the United States, the NHTSA said. More than 99% of the vehicles were fixed through a software update issued in June, Rivian said in a statement. The defect was identified after an incident involving a 2025 R1S model vehicle, where the system misclassified a low-speed vehicle and the driver failed to maintain control. “Rivian is not aware of any injuries related to this issue,” the company said.