Asia-Pacific market fell across the board Tuesday, tracking Wall Street declines as investors continued to rotate out of the artificial intelligence trade in the U.S. Shares of AI plays, like Oracle and Broadcom, slipped more than 5% and 2% respectively, while Microsoft also saw some losses. Over in Asia, South Korea’s Kospi led losses in the region for a second straight day, losing 1.78%, while the small-cap Kosdaq plunged 2.12%. Japan’s Nikkei 225 fell 1.27%, dragged by basic materials and real estate stocks, while the Topix dropped 1.32%. Japan’s flash composite PMI indicated a softer expansion in December, coming in at 51.5 compared to the previous month’s 52. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index slipped 1.47%, weighed down by basic materials and energy stocks, while the mainland Chinese CSI 300 was down 0.92%. Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 lost 0.29%, reversing earlier gains.
The S&P 500 ended Monday slightly lower as key stocks in the artificial intelligence trade came under pressure. The broad market index lost 0.16% to settle at 6,816.51 after beginning the session in positive territory. The Dow Jones Industrial Average slipped 41.49 points, or 0.09%, to finish at 48,416.56, while the Nasdaq Composite fell 0.59% to 23,057.41. Certain AI stocks bogged down the broader market during Monday’s session, with shares of Broadcom and Oracle — two names that led a rotation away from AI last week — declining more than 5% and more than 2%, respectively. Others like Microsoft also also suffered some losses. Investors moved instead to areas more sensitive to the economy, such as consumer discretionary and industrials. They also loaded up on health-care shares.
Gold prices fell below $4,290 per ounce on Tuesday as investors took profits after hitting a near two-month high in previous session, while awaiting the US non-farm payroll report later in the day for further clues on the Federal Reserve’s policy direction. Retail sales figures and preliminary manufacturing indicators are also due, while November inflation data on Thursday will also be closely watched. Markets currently assign a 75.6% probability that the Fed will keep interest rates unchanged at its January meeting, although some expect two more rate cuts next year. Prospects of a Russia-Ukraine peace deal have also dampened safe-haven demand for gold. Still, the metal continues to benefit from strong central bank purchases, robust ETF inflows, and a shift by investors away from sovereign bonds and currencies.
WTI crude oil futures held at $56.6 per barrel on Tuesday, the lowest level since early 2021, weighed down by expectations of a supply glut and optimism over a potential Ukraine peace deal. US officials signalled on Monday that an agreement between Russia and Ukraine may be closer than ever, with Washington agreeing to provide security guarantees to Kyiv, although territorial issues remain unresolved. Any deal could pave the way for the lifting of US sanctions on Russian oil, potentially returning additional barrels to an already well-supplied global market.
India’s total goods exports for November rose 19% on year to $38.13 billion, with sharp improvement in the country’s trade with U.S. India’s merchandise goods trade deficit, which had touched a record high of roughly $41.7 billion in October, shrank to $24.5 billion in November, beating a Reuters poll estimate of $32 billion. India’s exports to the U.S. rose 22.6% in November to $6.98 billion, which is even higher than its exports of $6.31 billion in the prior month. India’s exports to the U.S. were down 8.6% in October and 11.9% in September. India’s exports of goods and services for November were up 15.52% at $73.99 billion. Exports of electronics, gems and jewellery, engineering goods, and even readymade textiles improved in November as compared to a year ago.
President Donald Trump filed a defamation lawsuit against the BBC in Miami federal court on Monday night, seeking $10 billion in damages. The civil complaint accuses the British Broadcasting Corporation of producing a “false, defamatory, deceptive, disparaging, inflammatory, and malicious depiction of President Trump” in a Panorama documentary aired one week before the 2024 election. Trump’s suit alleges the documentary was produced as part of “a brazen attempt to interfere in and influence the Election’s outcome to President Trump’s detriment.” The suit notes that the documentary, titled “Trump: A Second Chance,” was edited to make it appear that during his Jan. 6, 2021, speech outside the White House, Trump had explicitly urged his supporters to attack the U.S. Capitol.
European defence companies fell on Monday as talks over a potential peace agreement to end the war in Ukraine took a new turn. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said over the weekend that Ukraine was prepared to abandon the country’s longstanding aim of joining the NATO military alliance in exchange for alternative security guarantees to protect it from Russia. Joining NATO is unlikely given some members’ opposition, but the announcement marks a major policy shift by Ukraine. Rheinmetall, Germany’s largest arms manufacturer, closed 2.6% lower on Monday. The company, which also makes air defence systems, anti-tank weapons, armored vehicles, and ammunition, led the sector’s losses, as German counterparts Hensoldt and Renk slipped into negative territory.
The United States has collected more than $200 billion in tariffs this year as a result of new duties imposed by President Donald Trump since the beginning of 2025, the Customs and Border Protection agency said Monday. The tally comes as the Supreme Court considers arguments that the new tariffs are illegal. The $200 billion tally is only for the new tariffs, not for tariffs imposed during Trump’s first term in the White House. Those earlier tariffs do not face legal challenges, as the new tariffs do. Trump earlier this year unilaterally imposed, without congressional authorization, what he calls reciprocal tariffs on imports from most of the world’s nations. He also imposed “fentanyl tariffs” on products from Canada, China and Mexico, in retaliation for what he said was those countries’ failure to stem the flow of that deadly narcotic into the United States.
Nearly six months after launching a limited Robotaxi service in Austin, Texas with safety drivers in the car, the company says it’s testing driverless vehicles in the city without humans on board. “Testing is underway with no occupants in the car,” CEO Elon Musk wrote in a post on his social network X over the weekend. Shares of Tesla rose 3.6% to $475.31 at the close of trading on Monday. The stock is now up 18% for the year, and is about 1% off its record reached in December 2024. For more than a decade, Musk has been promising Tesla investors and customers that the company’s electric vehicles will soon be upgradable to self-driving cars, capable of serving as unmanned robotaxis, or of completing a cross-country trip without any human intervention.
Ford Motor said on Monday it will take a $19.5 billion write down and is killing several electric-vehicle models, in the most dramatic example yet of the auto industry’s retreat from battery-powered models in response to the Trump administration’s policies and weakening EV demand. The Dearborn, Michigan-based company said it will replace the fully electric F-150 Lightning with a new extended-range electric model that uses a gas-powered engine to recharge the battery. The company is also scrapping a next-generation electric truck, codenamed the T3, as well as planned electric commercial vans. “When the market really changed over the last couple of months, that was really the impetus for us to make the call,” Ford CEO Jim Farley told Reuters in an interview.
Payments firm PayPal said on Monday it has applied to establish a bank in the United States, as companies rush to capitalize on a friendly regulatory environment under the Trump administration. The San Jose, California-based company has filed with the Utah Department of Financial Institutions and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation to form an industrial loan company. The move reflects a broader push by fintech and crypto companies to seek bank charters to expand their business. If approved, the move will help PayPal to strengthen its lending offerings to small businesses in the U.S. as well as reduce its reliance on third parties. "Securing capital remains a significant hurdle for small businesses striving to grow and scale," said PayPal CEO Alex Chriss. "Establishing PayPal Bank will strengthen our business and improve our efficiency, enabling us to better support small business growth and economic opportunities across the U.S."
"Battlefield" maker Electronic Arts forecast fiscal 2026 net bookings below analysts’ estimates on Monday, as soft consumer spending and elevated console prices weigh on demand during a fiercely competitive holiday season. The Redwood City, California-based company expects net bookings of about $7.85 billion for the year, compared with the analysts’ average estimate of $8.06 billion, according to data compiled by LSEG. EA also projected annual adjusted EBITDA of $2.76 billion, below the $2.93 billion consensus. The forecast underscores some of the challenges the video game industry faces as players tighten entertainment budgets and stick to familiar franchises rather than splurge on new titles. High console prices and a crowded release calendar have amplified pressure on publishers during the year-end period, traditionally a peak sales window.
The Trump administration plans more "historic deals" with the U.S. mining sector to boost production of critical minerals for the national defense and high-tech sectors, a senior official said on Monday. Earlier this year, the administration took equity stakes in MP Materials, Lithium Americas and Trilogy Metals. The transactions were part of President Donald Trump’s push to increase domestic production of lithium, rare earths and other minerals used for the national defense and rely less on China, which has used its minerals prowess as leverage in trade negotiations. "What we want to see is the ability for the U.S. to not be reliant on any adversary out there or any other foreign entity, that we control our own destiny when it comes to our supply chain and our critical minerals," Jarrod Agen, executive director of the White House’s National Energy Dominance Council, said on Monday. "We’ve set a good pace so far, but this is just the first year."
Nvidia said on Monday it acquired AI software firm SchedMD, as the chip designer doubles down on open-source technology and steps up investments in the artificial intelligence ecosystem to fend off rising competition. The chip designer built its reputation on speedy chips, but it also offers a range of its own AI models, from physics simulations to self-driving vehicles, as open-source software that researchers and companies can use. Its proprietary CUDA software, a standard among most developers, is a major selling point for its chips, making software key to maintaining its dominance in the AI industry. Nvidia shares were up 1.35% after the news and an earlier announcement of new open-source AI models. SchedMD provides software that helps schedule large computing jobs that can occupy a big share of a data center’s server capacity. Its technology, called Slurm, is open source, meaning developers and firms can access it for free, while the company sells engineering and maintenance support.